FREE today and full of fun stories and recipes!
It's Tell A Fairy Tale Day! What better than The Mall Fairies Sweet Tooth Cookbook, full of tales of my Mall Fairies? And to give you a taste, here's a story and a recipe from the cookbook, with our heroine, Swoop. Enjoy!
SWOOP SAVES THE COOKIE LADY
Now, I don’t like humans. Overall, they’re not a good
thing for fairies. Overall, they’re dangerous for fairies. Overall, they’re
fatal for fairies. Yeah, sure, we fairies live in the attic of a shopping mall
that is full of humans, but they don’t know we’re here. If they manage to spot
us, they think we’re birds or, ugh, bats. And that includes the Cookie Lady. We
sure know the Cookie Lady exists, though. Her store in the mall’s Food Court is
our favorite. Or it was. A couple of weeks ago, a sign showed up in her window
saying the Cookie Lady would close soon.
We fairies panicked. No more snickerdoodles (my
favorite), chocolate toffee squares or even the chocolate peanut butter no-bake
oatmeal cookies? Unthinkable. So I snuck into the air conditioning vent to spy.
And while almost freezing to death, I discovered that the Cookie Lady’s sales
had fallen way off. The stupid humans had gotten bored with her selection. Who
could get bored with snickerdoodles?
At first, I believed we were doomed to be cookie-less
forever more, but then when I spotted the Cookie Lady working on the her
computer and leaving it up and running, I got a great idea. It took three hours
of me surfing the Internet by jumping up and down on the keys (I’m only five
and a half inches tall) but I found a great new recipe for the Cookie Lady to
try. I added directions for a “cookie launch” and left the printout where she’d
be sure to find it. She took the idea and added more new cookie selections
including mine, and now all the fairies and humans are gaining weight from
eating all her cookies. And the Cookie Lady’s store is saved!
Here’s the recipe I found:
WALNUT SHORTBREAD
Ingredients:
1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup white flour
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, or baking margarine, room
temperature, plus more for pan
1/2 cup chocolate bits (mini baking choc. bits work best,
but any chocolate is great)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 325. Pulse walnuts in grinder until finely
ground. Transfer to bowl, add flour & stir thoroughly. Beat butter, sugar
and vanilla until light and fluffy, add flour mix and beat until combined. Stir
in chocolate bits. Butter 8 inch round cake pan, place dough in pan, cover with
plastic wrap and press until dough is spread evenly in pan. Cut with sharp
knife into eight wedges, prick all over with fork. Bake until golden and firm
in center, 30-35 minutes. Re-cut into wedges and prick again. Done!
VARIATIONS:
This works well with other nuts, especially pecans. But cashews, Brazil nuts
and macadamia nuts may be used. Be sure the nuts are unsalted and not roasted
and check the shortbread often to make sure it's not getting overdone. May also substitute coconut oil for the butter.
If you've enjoyed this story, check out my 3 in 1 book bundle, The Mall Fairies and save a bundle on these two novels and stand alone short story!
If you've enjoyed this story, check out my 3 in 1 book bundle, The Mall Fairies and save a bundle on these two novels and stand alone short story!
And to my readers, what's your favorite shortbread recipe? Mine is the one above, as it's simple and easy, two of my favorites!
