Did you forget to finish your glass of wine yesterday and it has lost its sparkle overnight? Before washing it down the sink, consider using it in cooking, or even baking. You’ll be surprised how much goodness it can still create.

I remembered this old recipe a couple of days ago when I found an unfinished bottle of honey-wine in the fridge that my family seemed to have lost interest in. It’s good to dust off these long-forgotten recipes from time to time, especially if they’re so uncomplicated, and fun to do. This particular one has another plus side – it only uses 4 very basic ingredients, including the leftover wine.

Wine Cookies

• 250 g unsalted butter or margarine
• 250 g fine pastry flour
• 5 tablespoons leftover wine
• vanilla and/or confectionery sugar for coating

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, work the margarine, the flour and the wine together until smooth. Cover and let stand in a cold place for an hour.
   

   
2. Line a baking tray with a piece of baking parchment. In a small bowl, mix the confectionery and vanilla sugar.
3. Dust a rolling board and your hands with flour. Transfer the dough onto the board and divide into halves. Form two balls and roll each one out until it is about ½ cm thick. Remember to dust the board and your hands with more flour whenever the dough starts sticking.
4. Cut out cookies of different shapes and lay them on the baking tray. Don’t discard the cut-offs, as they can be kneaded together and rolled out again to make more cookies. You can get creative here and invent your own shapes or figures. I was happy to just use my cutters.
5. Bake in the oven at 180ºC for 7 – 10 minutes or until golden brown. Take the baking tray out of the oven and transfer on a cooling mat. While still warm, coat the cookies one by one in the sugar.I was amazed at how the cookies had grown during the baking process, and what a complex, puff texture they got. No doubt, the wine acts as a powerful raising agent. Not to mention the taste and smell of the end product. 😉