Korok Cookies

Entering into the Lost Woods is a dangerous choice. It's convenient when the Koroks simply kick you out back to your point of entry, but what happens if you really get lost?! Have some of these fruit and nut packed Korok Cookies on hand to keep those hearts filled and spirit buoyed!

Yes, it's another non-canonical recipe I've made up. I think it should exist in game (but they don't, to my knowledge anyway!). It also comes with another edition of Craft Hyrule DIY fun: The Korok Pot Cookie Jar!

Truth be told, I have adapted this cookie recipe from a family favourite* which was clipped out of the local newspaper in the early 1980s (or earlier - that's a guess. Predates me, anyway!). It's not quite as the original was, but it's close enough. So due credit goes to Zazu Pitts, or probably more accurately, the memory of the late Zazu Pitts. Yes, that really was the author's name! Memorable.
Ed.: a Google search tells me that it was probably silent film actress Zasu Pitts (who also published a cookbook!), and that the newspaper fumbled the spelling of her first name. Funny things you learn...!
*we got a lot of bullshit "good for you!" desserts growing up. This was one of the very few recipes from my childhood that had any merit at all, in my mind! It was 'good for you' because of the fruit and nut content, and so managed to squeak past into the category of 'healthy snacks/desserts'.... I mean, what is the point?! Either make something tasty or don't. If you want healthy, stick to eating apples. They're very nice. And if you want cookies, they must have butter and sugar, and probably lots of both. Boo sucks to every evil mother out there that made something nice into something 'healthy' that tasted like dirt. Again - fruit OR dessert! Don't mess up dessert! <end of rant>

First things first: you'll need a POT to put your cookies in!

The Korok Pot Cookie Jar

I made a cardboard frame with tape and scissors. First, I rolled the (recycled and now reused) cardboard into a cylinder. Then I decided where the 'curves' in the cylinder should be, and I cut many long and narrow triangles from the ends to that imaginary line. Then I bent the projecting bits of cardboard and taped them together until I liked the look of the overall shape. The lid was similar: I started with a circle much larger than the lid I would need, and then cut away narrow triangles of cardboard, and kept bending and taping to get the shape I wanted.

Then I liberated more stuff from the recycling bin. This time, newspaper. I mixed flour and water into a paste, dipped strips of torn newspaper into it, wrung off the excess paste, and plastered several dozen layers over the cardboard frame over the space of a few days. After it dried, I filled the gaps of the papier-mache'd form with some household filler (putty) that the previous tenant had left behind, presumably to hide his crimes against the walls. I sanded that smooth after it had dried, and then painted with cheap acrylic paints. I used a dry brushing technique to make the edges of the design look soft. It was really difficult to get the colours right - if you use cheap paints, they tend not to be 'true' colours. So, for example, blue + yellow should = a nice medium green, not a rotten olivey-brownish green. It turns out my 'raw umber' becomes purpley when I mix it with 'white'. Hmm. I added 'gold' to try to correct that, hence why the colour came out as it did. I was really going for a cafe latte / coffee / taupe colour scheme, but ended up with... well, whatever you want to call it.

For the leaves, I thought about using felt (good old trusty felt!), but I didn't have the right colour green. So I ordered some of this heinously ugly crinkled green fabric of icky synthetic fibres and cut it on the bias (diagonal). I flipped that over (lucky that it's reversible fabric!), and then sewed it together (with much difficultly - horrible, stretchy, wriggly stuff to sew!). And then I simply cut out leaf-like triangles of various lengths.

An absolute B to sew...!

I used pinking shears, but with this crinkly fabric I probably could have used regular scissors and had the same result.

For the inside, urgh. I used more of that hateful fabric to make a sock-like insert. I want to be able to remove it to shake out all the crumbs that are going to accumulate, so it was hard to figure out how to do that. With felt (which I find myself recommending!), it would be super easy to sew a nice cylindrical insert and simply tack the leaves onto that. With this slouchy fabric, I ended up having to recycle more paper from the bin, and opted for a stiff card that I taped into a cylinder shape. I used that as an insert into the pot and folded the edges of my sock-like liner over that, then shoved the whole thing in. Then I simply glued the leaves to the liner (not the pot!). We'll see if I can ever get it to come out again...! It smells terribly of rubber cement at the moment. Gotta buy a hot glue gun...!

Right, now that my pot is airing out and drying, I need to make some cookies!

Korok Cookies

Ya Ha Ha!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (230g) of butter, softened (keep the wrapper for greasing the cookie sheet)
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar (300g)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of rolled oats (180g)
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 290g?)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla... I always substitute rum for vanilla!
• 1 cup of mixed nuts (you can use up all those leftover bits in the back of the fridge! Almonds, walnuts, anything you want/have!)
• 3 cups of dried cranberries and various raisins (again, use up the leftover bits and bobs of dried fruit!)

Just 'eyeball' those last two quantities - I wouldn't want to guess at the weight. ;)

Cranberries are totally what those little Koroks have on their jingly sticks, eh?!

Directions:

Cream the butter and sugar together (it helps if you leave them together in a bowl to let the butter warm up first!). Add the rolled oats and mix. Add vanilla (or rum). Sift the flour, baking soda and cinnamon together separately, then stir that mixture into the oats and butter mixture. Add the nuts and raisins/cranberries.

Before...

Continent-dependent instructions: EUROPE: Roll into meatball-sized balls and squash down a little onto a greased cookie sheet (use the now empty butter wrapper to grease it). Note: the original recipe says, "Drop by spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet." - THIS ONLY WORKS IN NORTH AMERICA. I tried that here, and this is what happened with the first batch:

After. The fun part was watching them fall apart while baking. Like a landslide... Also, these are are bit over-done.

Ha ha ha - NOPE! (Bloody things are as cheeky as Koroks, too!)

I'm sorry, but I have (as of yet) no idea what sort of flour occurs supermarkets in the rest of the Americas or Asia or the Middle East or Australasia. If it's good and sticky, you'll be fine with the 'drop by the spoonful'. Otherwise, mechanical force is required!

Batch 2 (with shaping, for Euro-flour): Before

After (8 minutes precisely). Better colour, still with some structural failings. Tasty, though!

Bake at 180 C / 350 F for just 8 to 10 minutes... and watch them carefully, because this recipe comes from a time before convection ovens. :) Mine (batch 2) took exactly 8 minutes with convection at 180 C in a brand new oven. Don't let them burn! Let cool before eating, and certainly before transferring to your awesome Korok cookie jar! :)

Ya Tsieh! 

(or however you want to spell "See Ya!" in Korok!)

(BTW - deku nuts are totally walnuts in our reality!)