Rock Cakes

Hagrid’s rock cakes were always so hard they were nearly inedible. It turns out that his two mistakes were over mixing his dough and cooking his cakes for too long. If you are careful to keep both of these things in mind, you will create a cookie that is very soft and delicious. Keep in mind though that these are best served the day they are made, preferably within hours of baking. They do lose some of their soft and chewy texture the longer they sit. The original recipe called for raisins but I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins in my batch.

Rock Cakes

Adapted very slightly from The Unofficial Harry PotterCookbook

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted cold butter, cut into chunks

1 large egg

½ cup whole milk

1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a large cookie sheet (or use a silicone mat). Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl. With your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture reaches the consistency of wet sand.

Beat the egg together with the milk and pour it into the flour-butter mixture. Fold it together using a spatula to form a stiff dough. Fold in the dried cranberries. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the bottom are golden, rotating the pan midway through baking.