Morning Glory

This morning at 7:30am, I left work, stepped outside and was met by what I can only describe as a torrential downpour. The street was flooded with water and the mesh awning above the front entrance was caving in under the weight of all the water it had collected. As I made a swift bee line for the car, I noticed how incredibly beautiful it actually was. I raced back up the front step to get a better view.

The striking thing about this portrait was that despite all the rain, the sun was still shining incredibly brightly. The scene was nothing short of surreal. It was the most glorious display of nature I could only imagine and was the perfect reception back into the land-of-the-living after another round of night shifts. The sky was lit with brilliant hues of yellow and orange and the deafening sound of pattering rain was strangely exhilarating. Like witnessing a violent thunderstorm I was awed by this exquisite act of nature. There were no words to describe it other than breathtaking.

Every time these nightly shift rotations come around I always dread stepping out and seeing what a beautiful day I am missing because I’ll be asleep for most of it. But after witnessing this natural display, all the cares, the fatigue and the hunger suddenly dissipated. It was dreamy. I only wish I had my camera at the time as it really doesn’t seem like my words are adequately capturing the moment, but luckily the image will be forever etched into my memory.

To top off this natural exhibition; on my way home whilst driving down the motorway, I literally drove through the end of a rainbow! It was extraordinary; I have never seen the end of a rainbow before, but I actually saw the point where the arc reaches its end. The highway runs through a patch of national park and this was the exact spot where the rainbow ended. Okay, so I’ve just pulled an overnighter but I wasn’t delusional, I wasn’t on crack and this isn’t some sort of fanciful pretence. I saw the end of the rainbow. No pot of gold though.

And so it was that this glorious morning motivated me to bake these cookies. Funnily enough the cookies turned out in the same shade as that of the morning sky, so I thought it appropriate to name them after this morning.

These cookies have everything. A spot of morning cleaning uncovered a whole bunch of ingredients I had forgotten about in my pantry, so I decided to use them. I bought some dried fruits not long ago and somehow they were pushed to the back of the cupboard and were left there to almost deteriorate; happens all the time in this house*. I still have a jar of expired Vegemite, and even though I bought a new jar, I still cannot bring myself to throw out the old jar. The silly things I do. All this gratuitous wastage was really getting to me so I decided to use as many of the dried fruits as possible.

The cookies turned out like muesli cookies; sweet enough to be a cookie but had enough fibre to make it a muesli. There's nothing like a cookie for breakfast, and after the cookies, well I slept snugly for 10 hours straight.

Morning Glory
(makes 15 large cookies)

¾ cup unsalted butter
1 cup soft brown sugar
¼ cup dark muscovado sugar
¼ cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup plain all-purpose flour
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon ground
1 tsp all spice
½ tsp ground ginger
1 cup rolled oats
¼ cup chopped almonds
¼ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup sultanas
¼ cup dried apricots, chopped
½ cup dried figs, chopped

Preheat oven to 180˚C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, all spice and ground ginger in a bowl and set aside.
Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg and beat until well blended.
Gently incorporate flour mixture to the batter.
Add the rolled oats, almonds, walnuts, sultanas, apricots and figs and mix until all ingredients are well combined.
Scoop out the batter using an ice cream scoop onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 5cm apart.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, less if cookies are smaller. When cookies are done, remove baking sheet from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool further.

Glorious