Cookies in a Bottle

Actually, not the cookies came in a bottle, but the dry ingredients needed for baking them.
A few years ago, someone came up with the idea of offering all the dry ingredients needed for a specific recipe neatly layered in jars and bottles, with the recipe attached. This can make an unusual and appreciated gift for those people who (like me) do not want more things to clutter their shelves and lives, but rather like presents that can be worn, eaten, drunk or put on one's skin (such as lotions, perfumes and so on). 

Some time ago, RJ's mother received one such bottle as a birthday present. She already knew she would never bother to make them, and passed it on to me.

I've had it for so long I kept thinking I really should use it - or throw it away. But with dry ingredients such as sugar, flour and chocolate chips, all vacuum-sealed, there is not much risk in keeping them for rather long, and so I waited for an occasion to make the chocolate cookies that were described on the label attached to the bottle.

A few weeks ago, I was coming home from work as usual. To reach my front door, I have to walk past my neighbour's door. Sometimes, Mr. R. is outside, sweeping the pavement, doing a spot of gardening or cleaning something. He does not speak German very well, but that does not stop him from enjoying a little chat nearly every time we meet. He is a very gentle character, always friendly and polite. 
That day, he stopped me not just for a chat, but even asked me to come in for a moment - it was his wife's birthday, and I was welcome to have a cup of coffee with them. So I went in, but really only very briefly, having my coffee and then going home. Mrs. R. was in the middle of preparing her own birthday dinner, and I think she wasn't too keen on having unexpected guests turning up in her kitchen ;-) Still, she was as friendly and kind as her husband, and I really kept my visit very short.

Later the same evening, she rang my doorbell and gave me a plate of leftover cake, something I thought very nice of her.
Ever since, I've had the plate sitting in my kitchen, waiting for an occasion to go back.

But as is sometimes the case with such things, although you live next door to someone and usually see them all the time, the time is never right - you are either on your way out, catching a train, or in, tired and hungry.

Today, the weather is not nice enough for me to want a walk, and I am spending the day on my own. It has gone cold enough to enjoy the warmth from the kitchen stove when baking, and so I finally made those cookies and put them on my neighbour's plate, in order to take it next door later, and not return it empty. 

To make the dough, I had to add butter, an egg and a splash of milk:

It was all so simple and easy, and ready to go in the oven within a few minutes: 

15 minutes later, the cookies were done: 

They aren't burnt - the black bits are only on the baking sheet. In fact, the cookies are  just right, golden brown with the dark brown chocolate chips in them. 

(I know they are just right, because I kept three or four myself - had to try them, didn't I, before giving them to my neighbours! And sorry for the blurred picture.)

Now the plate is finally ready to go back to its rightful home!