March 10: Basler Läckerli

I know what you're thinking...Basler-who in the what, now?

Basler Läckerli (or Leckerli) is a dry cookie containing spices, candied peel, honey, nuts and sometimes Kirsch (a cherry liqueur). Even without knowing that this cookie was created by spice merchants over 700 years ago in Basel, Swizerland, upon first bite you're whisked back to Old World Europe. Just close your eyes with a bite of Basler Läckerli on your tongue and you're there.

How to describe the flavour? Think about gingerbread and hot cross buns having a love child, and you've got it. Bow-chicka-bow-bow!

Even the preparation method seems rustic; you simply gather the dough, roll it out and cut it into squares. It's actually one of the easiest things I've ever made. However, I have a few tips to make it even easier, and some corrections to the instructions that will result in a nicer looking product.

One could argue that cutting the dough with a knife or round (pizza) cutter and eyeballing the size results in a more "rustic" look that would be expected of an old recipe such as this. Personally, I would use a square cookie cutter next time to get perfect, non-warped squares.

The recipe says to brush the flat icing on top of the dough directly out of the oven while it's still hot, but does not specify whether you should cut the dough before or after you ice it. I took the recipe literally and iced it before making the second cut, and I found that the icing cracked and flaked off when I tried to cut it later. Next time I would make my cuts first, and frost second for a perfectly smooth finish.

I brushed a second coating of flat icing on top to neaten up the cracked and flakey tops, but it ended up looking like when you paint over an paint-chipped window sill. However, I'm totally in love with the look of the flat icing running down the sides, so again: cut first, frost second.

I sacrificed a lop-sided one to bust open and show how packed full of candied peel and nuts it is.

Serve these babies with tea and you've got one lovely afternoon.

Final Grade: A. Find the recipe for Besler Läckerli on my Recipes Page.

To order these "Cookies for a Cause" please click this link to donate at my Daily Bread Food Bank fundraising page. They're in the freezer right now just waiting for you to give them a home...in your belly.

March 9: Cheddar Hazelnut...Cookies?

Now before any of you come after me with pitchforks and torches ("Cookies are supposed to be sweet, not savoury, rabble-rabble-rabble"!) let me just go on record as saying that I agree. To me, cookies are small, dry sweet courses that contain flour, eggs, sugar and some kind of fat. When you replace the sugar with something else, say nuts or cheese (or both), I would call the resulting product a "biscuit". However in many countries these terms are interchangable, and therein lies the debate.

Whether they're cookies, or biscuits, or savoury cookies or whatever, when I came across a recipe for Cheddar Hazelnut Cookies in "The Ultimate Cookie Book" (published by the Canadian publisher Talonbooks, NOT the Better Homes and Gardens One"), I was agog and needed to try this recipe.

You can make these round or square.

Hazelnutty Goodness!

I love this process for two reasons:

1. I'm being exposed to exotic and unusual recipes and trying new things.
2. I'm learning not only new skills, but things about myself...good and bad.
   

I learned last night that I just can't help trying to make a recipe my own, and that this can--depending on the situation--be both good and bad. I think my artistic creative side is rebelling against the logic and science of baking; sometimes it knows better than the recipe, sometimes it doesn't.

Case in point: This recipe called for 1/2 cup of chopped hazelnuts in which to roll the dough (not to go into the dough). However, I thought that the cookie would have a better texture if the nuts were inluded in the dough, so I added them. I still liked the way the cookies looked when rolled in nuts, so I did that too (read: used more than 1/2 cup of hazelnuts). The recipe also called for 1/4 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper, and given the amount of other ingredients, I thought the Cayenne would be lost, so I doubled it and used 1/2 a teaspoon.

Now don't get me wrong, I LIKE these biscuits, but in hindsight I should have just stuck to the recipe. Having little to no experience baking with hazelnuts, I didn't realize how strong their flavour actually is, and these came out more like "Hazelnut Cheddar Cookies" when I would have enjoyed a more distinct cheddar flavour. HOWEVER, I did like the spiciness of the doubled Cayenne pepper.

Texture!

One other thing: I used old white cheddar because they were out of yellow at the grocery store, but I would try to get yellow next time simply because the biscuits would have enjoyed a nicer colour.

Final Grade: B-. If you follow this Cheddar Hazelnut Cookies recipe the way it's written, however, I'm sure you'd get an A+.

To order these "Cookies for a Cause" please click this link to donate at my Daily Bread Food Bank fundraising page.

Daily Bread Food Bank

My fundraising page is finally up!

Cookies for a Cause

When I was growing up, there were times when we needed to rely on the Food Bank. I'm sure it saddened my mother to have to ask an outside organization for help, but she checked her pride and refused to let us go without. The Food Bank was there for my family when we needed it the most, and now that I am grown I am able to give back.

As you know, I'm baking one cookie recipe every day in March. You can purchase these cookies for

• $5.00 for a half dozen (or more, depending on the cookie)
• $10.00 for 1 dozen
• $15.00 for 2 dozen

...or simply donate to a wonderful organization that helps many individuals and families in the GTA every day.

Cookies that have already been baked are in the freezer waiting for purchase.

A special note for those with allergies: Please note that I cannot guarantee 100% nut-free preparation. Please err on the side of caution when ordering.

TO ORDER: When you make your donation, I will be alerted by email. Please email your order (type of cookie and amount) to ygettins (at) gmail (dot) com. We can arrange pick-up and dropoff of the cookies at a mutually convenient time/place.

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." - Aesop

Oops!

I just realize I forgot to include photos of the meringues. Oops. Good thing I didn't delete them off my memory card.

Anyway, I've updated the post, and you can check the photos out HERE.

Welcome to my kitchen!

I made an exciting-to-me-boring-to-you purchase yesterday that I couldn't help but show off in pictures, because it's one step further in my quest for the perfect kitchen.

Stackable bulk bins for my flour and sugar! I know, right?

Well, I'm excited anyway.

Check it out, along with the rest of my kitchen. This is where the magic happens, darlings.

There are still many more goodies to come, including the Daring Baker's Challenge (which remains a secret until the end of the month...shh!) and my next project, which involves liquor! Wee!

March 8: Peanut Butter Cookies

AAAAaaaaaaand we're back to the classics!

I love love LOVE peanut butter, and get very strong cravings for it on a regular basis). In fact, I can really relate to this guy:

NOM!

However, I tend not to go for peanut butter cookies when I'm out and about. Most often I find them to be cloyingly sweet and barely tolerable without an accompanying glass of milk. Commercial peanut butter cookies also tend to be imbalanced in that they are overwhelmingly peanut buttery; if I wanted that much peanut butter, I'd eat it by the spoonful straight from the jar. And I do. A LOT. But that's not what I want in my cookies.

These peanut butter cookies, however, are exactly what I like in my peanut butter cookies: a lighter shortbread texture with a hint of softness in the middle, and a more understated (but not subtle) peanut butter flavour.

Peanut Butter Pyramid!

The criss-cross pattern we all know and love.

Dip the fork in granulated sugar so that it doesn't stick. It also gives the cookies additional eye appeal without altering the texture.

I once again relied on my good friend, Joy of Baking, for this Peanut Butter Cookies recipe, which you can find on my Recipe Page along with my notes.

To order these "Cookies for a Cause" please click this link to donate at my Daily Bread Food Bank fundraising page.

March 7: Kourabiedes

My previous apartment--before moving in with my manfella--was pretty close to Greektown. One of my favourite things to do early morning Saturdays was to grab a coffee from The One in The Only, take a stroll along the Danforth, enjoy the sunshine and stop in at my favourite Greek bakery Europa. I mostly partook of their amazing pistachio baklava (which I'd love to make from scratch someday), but something that always caught my eye was this big stacked pile of...something...covered in a mountain of icing sugar.

I was always a little afraid of it, because how can that much icing sugar be good? However, being the intrigued gastronome I am, I asked the shopkeep what they were. She said they were a Greek butter cookie called Kourabiedes (pronounced "kou-ra-bi-ETH-es") with almonds and spices. Upon hearing this I had only two questions:

1. "How much?" and
   
2. "Give it to me."

Mmmmm! It was a subtly-flavoured cookie with a light texture that was very enjoyable. The Greeks know what they're doing.

My favourite part of this recipe? Rolling little balls of dough by hand. I highly recommend scaling off your dough into evenly-weighted balls using a kitchen scale so that you guarantee they all come out the same size. My recipe yielded exactly 2 dozen 30 gram balls, which you then roll in ground almonds into cylinder shapes and form into crescents.

Fresh out of the oven.

Sprinkle generously with confectioners' sugar.

You could sprinkle even more sugar than this!

Opa!

I have to manually type out this recipe, so I'll post it when I get home. Look for it on my Recipes Page.

To order these "Cookies for a Cause" please click this link to donate at my Daily Bread Food Bank fundraising page.