hildegard of bingen's intelligence cookies

hildegard suggests three to five of these be eaten every day and apparently, nerve cookies are particularly helpful for children who find fascination in thought outside of their school curriculum a bit too frequently. it is recommended you don't feed them too many though as it would be embarrassing for teachers worldwide to be outsmarted. on second thought i'd actually be very proud to precipitate a cookie conspiracy...

hildegard's nerve/intelligence cookies

1 3/4 cups butter

3 cups brown sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

6 cups flour

2 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon

2 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.add eggs.combine and sift dry ingredients.add to the creamed mixture.knead in the last of the flour.shape into rolls, wrap in waxed paper and chill thoroughly.when firm, slice thinly and bake at 180C.

this makes a rather large number of cookies, thank goodness. life would be dire were one to bake too little, go into withdrawal and rampage down the main street in a lack-of-cookie induced haze. if feeling feverish and unable to access a kenwood, we always have a jar of intelligence at the ready in little brown house.