Replacing half the all-purpose flour with wholemeal spelt flour gives these cookies a rich, nutty taste.

I bought a few different kinds of flour to try recently, then got home and looked them up on Google Translate because I can never keep the French names of all those grains straight in my head. I want to try making bread with different flours, but as soon as I opened the bags I particularly like the smell of the spelt flour – it’s nutty and almost sweet, so I thought a cookie would be a good place to start with it.

Thick, full of flavour and delightfully chewy but so easy to throw together – they’re great! And they keep really well in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients

160g (1 1/4 cups) all-purpose (plain) flour
160g (1 1/3 cups) wholemeal spelt flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
225g (1 cup or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
300g (1 1/2 cups) granulated (white) sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

extra sugar for rolling

Directions

Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F) and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat in well, then add the vanilla and beat in.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the butter mixture and fold in with a spatula until just combined. The dough should be very soft and light.

Take ping pong ball sized scoops of dough and gently form them into balls, roll in sugar then place well spaced on the parchment lined baking sheets. They’ll spread quite a bit, so leave at least 5cm (2”) between them. You will need to bake in batches.

Bake in centre of oven, one sheet at a time, for 12 – 13 minutes, until starting to brown at the edges.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes on sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.