When I received this month’s secret recipe club, I was super excited to see whose blog I was going to enjoy exploring for the month of September. I was not prepared to see the name of the blog of one of the most amazing people I have ever known.

I met Rachael through the daring kitchen, she stood out as one of the most talented and nicest members on the forum. On a number of occasions, she reached out to me and sent me emails offering her support and her heart felt concern. I was always deeply touched by her kindness.

A year ago the daring kitchen came to a cross roads. Someone needed to step in and take charge of things as the wonderful bloggers who were running it after Lis died needed to step down. Rachael volunteered to do the job and I offered to help and together we started on the wonderful journey that is running the daring kitchen. To be honest, it has been a true pleasure working with Rachael. She is passionate, wonderfully talented, organized, enthusiastic and understanding but what I truly enjoyed the most was working on a  project with a like minded person. You don’t need to go to extreme lengths explaining ideas or suggestions! Instead your energy can be focused on getting the job done

On her blog Rachael shares delicious, healthy and sometimes wickedly indulgent food . She has been a vegetarian since she was 18 and shares irresistible vegetarian recipes.  Rachael has a burning passion for Italian food. She also dabbles in Middle Eastern, French and Asian cooking, as well as being a talented baker. Her blog has a mouthwatering collection of cakes, desserts and breads.

Picking something from Rachael’s blog was truly mission impossible!
I already had so many recipes bookmarked but going through her archives made the list so much longer!!

There was the chickpea & roasted vegetable salad with tangy za’atar yoghurt dressing, magic cake, condensed milk thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam,and  Pineapple drops only to name a few!

As with every secret recipe club assignment, I delegated the job of choosing the recipe to the kids.They picked her breakfast cookies and oh my! They were amazing!
First off, the smell as they were baking was heavenly! The kids were magnetically drawn to the kitchen asking what smelled so good . We all could not wait to try them and they did not disappoint.
The cornflakes add a delightful crunch while the coconut and almonds add a rich nuttiness. The oatmeal makes the cookies more interesting while the raisins add pleasant bursts of sweetness and flavor. These cookies are not overly sweet and the recipe makes enough to last you for weeks. What are you waiting for? March to the kitchen 🙂

Breakfast cookies

Makes 48 cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups corn flakes
1 cup porridge oats
1 cup almonds
1 tsp baking (bicarb) soda
1/2 tsp salt
225g butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup raisins
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time  and beat until combined then add the vanilla.

Mix in flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until only just combined.

Fold in coconut, corn flakes, oats and almonds.Don’t over mix, just fold until they are combined.

Take walnut size pieces of dough and roll them balls. You can also use 2 tablespoons to drop the dough into little mounds

Place dough balls/mounds several centimeters apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake in the center of the oven for 13-15 minutes, until bottoms are golden.If the tops need some color, turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes

Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Notes:

The original recipe called for 1 cup of white sugar and one cup raw sugar, I replaced the raw sugar with raisins and will try them again with cranberry or perhaps chopped dates

I also used whole almonds instead of ground almonds, I love the color and texture of whole almonds