š¾ The Dog Who Ate Crumbs and Found a Voice
The Witch of the Mirrors
Recipe: Honey & Lavender Cookies
Extract
Brina, the Witch of the Mirrors, tried to curse beauty itself ā but her spell of bitterness turned into sweetness when she baked honey and lavender cookies. A tale about kindness, transformation, and the scent of warm pastries at dusk.
In a forest perfumed with resin and rain lived Brina, a young witch who couldnāt bear the beauty of others. One afternoon, as she gazed into her obsidian mirror, she saw the reflection of Clara, a woman from the nearby village whose smile could make roses bloom just by walking past them.
āIāll make her ugly,ā āBrina muttered, stirring her cauldronā āso sheāll learn what shadows taste like.ā
The spell had to be baked inside something sweet: a recipe mixing golden honey, dried lavender blossoms, and a drop of bitterness, her secret touch. But as she kneaded the dough, a strange thought whispered through her mind: āWhat if beauty isnāt something you steal, but something you bake with kindness?ā
Brina baked the cookies anyway, yet when she tasted one, the spell turned against her. Her heartāonce sharp as frostāmelted into warmth. And her mirror, which had always shown a twisted face, reflected her smiling for the very first time.
Since that night, the Witch of the Mirrors walks down to the village every full moon, gifting cookies to the children and leaving behind a trail of lavender scent and laughter in the air.
Honey & Lavender Cookies
Total time: Ā | Ā Yields: 20 cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g soft butter
- 80 g brown sugar
- 2 tbsp wildflower honey
- 1 egg
- 200 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp dried edible lavender flowers
- Zest of half a lemon
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add honey and egg, mixing until smooth.
- Stir in flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and lavender.
- Shape small balls; flatten gently with the back of a spoon.
- Bake at 180Ā°C (350Ā°F) for 10ā12 minutes, until golden at the edges.
- Let cool. Dust with powdered sugar and a few lavender petals if desired.
Sweet Moral
True beauty isnāt cast as a spell ā itās shared warm from the oven, one cookie at a time.