Tag Archives: Cookies

Springtime Crinkle Cookies

Posted on by
Reply

Easter Crinkle Cookies

Axel my daughter turned TEN 2 days ago, despite the confinement because of coronavirus, she still deserves a nice table decoration set by “MOMMY” i.e myself. Axel loves these cookies and they are super easy to make. To color them, you just split the dough in 3 parts and add 3 drops of food color to each. The result is a batch of fluffy Crinkle Cookies with a dash of lemon flavor. 

Springtime Crinkle Cookies

Makes 32 cookies 

Ingredients

  • 100g butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp Lemoncello
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup icing sugar

Preparation

  1. Cream the butter and sugar.
  2. Add in eggs and lemoncello until fully incorporated.
  3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt and add into batches.
  4. Split the dough into three portions and color with food color of your choice.
  5. Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
  6. Roll dough into balls and cover with icing sugar.
  7. Bake in oven at 170°C oven for 8-10 minutes.

 

Advertisement

Apricot Jam Crumb Tart

Posted on by
6

Tarte Em Tony IMG_0613

Isn’t something to have a recipe after your name? Fettucini Alftedo,  Béchamel sauce or cake Savarin! I wonder if these people knew that one day their name would be remembered and taught for hundred years later.

Most of us have special recipes passed to us thru our parents, relatives or neighbors. Recipes that are famous in the family and even sometimes in the neighborhood! But how is it possible to make a recipe internationally recognized and adapted for the next generations?

I invited my friend Carole to spend the day with us. She got us with her a box filled with apricot crumble tart cut in squares.

I tasted one and it was the best buttery shortbread-style cookie ever with a soft crumbly texture that just melts in your mouth. Totally delicious! And when I asked for the recipe, Carole answered with confidence: “Tart Em Tony” (translated from Arabic to Tony’s mama), as if I was supposed to know what does that mean and what’s inside. She continued: ” Everybody on the block knows Tart Em Tony. That was our favorite dessert when we were kids”.

My face turned pale, it must be jealousy! Who on Earth is Em Tony and has a recipe after her name? A recipe that all the neighborhood shared at a time when food blogger wasn’t even a word.

I requested the recipe and instantly Carole whatsaped it to me. It was a picture from a recipe book handwritten just like the old days. How many of you remember his mom writing all her recipes in an old agenda notebook. The trend was to copy recipes into our books, while now we take snapshots with our smart phones and share digital copies effortlessly with friends or on the Whatsapp family group.

EM TONY tart

I know that many of my recipes have been tried all over the country. I know that my pumpkin sweet potato soup is a hit and have been passed to many people on the five continents, but would I ever have one recipe that will outlive me? A recipe recognized as the Oryana recipe, and for decades from now? I will call that an achievement!

Ingredients

  • 200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ¾ icing sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 cups plain flour
  • 1 cup apricot jam

Preparation

Grease or line a 9-inch square pan. In the bowl of the stand mixer cream the butter and the icing sugar on medium speed. Beat in the egg and vanilla and mix further until light and fluffy.

In a separate bow, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add it slowly to the butter mixture, mixing until the dough comes together.

Push half of the dough into the pan so it covers it evenly. Let it chill in the fridge along with the other half of the dough for about an hour.

Take it off the fridge and spread the jam on the top.

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

To make the crumble topping, grate the remaining dough over the jam to cover it all.

Bake the tart in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before cutting.

It can be sliced into squares using a knife or cut into circles using a cookie-cutter.

Easter Cookies – Kaak al Eid or Kaakét Tetta Rose

Posted on by
13

Kaaket Tetta RoseWe all have at least one favorite gran’s recipe. Some have passed to us directly and others thru our parents. One of my favorite nana’s recipe, is her Easter cookies.

I can’t think of my Tetta without remembering her jokes and joyous laughs. She passed away 16 years ago and I still remember the way she asks, as soon as she sees me, Shou Eikhir nikteh? What is the latest joke? My grandma was a very educated person, she moved to Ashrafieh (in Beirut) when she was very young. Mother to 4 children she always found time to make crosswords and read car magazines (yes cars!). I’m sure if “internet” was even a word at that time she would have been the first of her generation to download whatsap and write quotes that starts with KEEP CALM. She was outgoing and loved life and everybody I know enjoyed her stories and never ending list of proverbs.

Back to her secret recipe and the smell that wakens loads of memories and brings warmth to my heart, I’m honestly very appreciative to my sister who sourced the recipe out and shared it with me on a piece of paper, Xeroxed from the original copy which, is written in Arabic by Tetta Rose herself.

Since it’s my blog’s third anniversary, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate!!

Luscious cookies, boasting a full array of flavor and texture, they are moist and rich transporting you to a-melt-in-your-mouth bliss.

Those cookies are traditionally treated to special holidays like Easter or in my modern word they are treated for special events like a 3-years-of-blogging celebration. I’m so proud that I made it till here!

The original recipe uses ghee, but please feel free to substitute it with butter while keeping the quantity same. Am sure this recipe will be a hit through, especially among the members of my family, their eyes will widened as soon as they read the title.

I wish for Lebanese to keep this tradition alive and will continue to make kaak for Eid.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups coarse semolina (Ferkha)
  • 300g/1 ½ stick butter (or ghee), melted
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp “Mahlab” (found at Middle Eastern spice shops)
  • ½ tsp instant yeast

Preparation

  1. Mix coarse semolina and flour together.
  2. Add yeast and melted butter and rub with your hands until well combined.
  3. Add sugar to milk and whisk until dissolves. Add mahlab and whisk again.
  4. Gradually pour milk, kneading the dough gently with hands. Place the dough in a large bowl and cover with a wet kitchen towel. Let it sit for 1 hour at room temperature.
  5. Divide dough into 2 balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each ball to an approximate thickness of 1/4 inch (6 mm). Dip cookie cutter in flour before cutting out shapes and transfer to baking sheets.
  6. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes (depending on size) or until edges are firm and cookies are dry to the touch. Do not let cookies color.

Cool on sheets 1 minute; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

It is becoming to look a lot like Christmas!

Posted on by
12
Gingersnaps

Gingersnaps

Don’t we all, at some point of our life, have met someone who, from the first time, was stamped in our memory?

Last June, I flew all the way to Abu Dhabi just to watch Madonna’s concert. It was a huge thing to me. I love her songs, her performance and every bit of her show. Being standing close to the stage in the front row, felt like I was partying with the Queen of Pop and I was really happy to finally see her!!

On my way back home, I watched movies on board and barely gave attention to the girl sleeping in the seat next to me, until just before we landed we started a conversation. Traditionally it started with the where are you from question, and funny enough I found out that she was at the concert too, she lives in Lebanon just a stone’s throw away from my house, her girls are in the same bus with Kaia my daughter, she’s also in the advertising business and loves cooking!! All I can remember is that we kept on answering me too, me too:) It’s true I haven’t seen her since, but we do exchange messages on Whatsapp occasionally and the last time we did she asked me for the Gingersnaps recipes.

Mmm… one of my favorite too! Especially, the traditional Swedish recipe, the cookies are very thin and spicy. The dough is not sticky and very enjoyable to work with. I use black treacle or carob molasses, very popular in the Lebanese kitchen. I like to combine 2 kinds of sugar to have a nice brown color, but if one brown sugar is used it will not make any big change on the outcome. Warming up for Christmas!

This one goes to you Joumana! Enjoy it!

Ingredients

  • ½ cup light brown sugar
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup black treacle
  • ½ cup drinking water
  • 150 g (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter, diced
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 cups all-purpose-flour, sifted
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • Pinch of salt

Preparation

1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, treacle and water and heat until it starts boiling.

2. Add the butter and stir constantly over low heat until it is completely melted. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.

3. Blend in the spices.

4. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the mixture a little at a time and mix well to a smooth consistency.

5. Refrigerate overnight.

6. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.

7. Sprinkle flour on a working surface and roll it thin. Cut into desired shapes and place them on a lined baking sheet or a greased cookie sheet.

8. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Let the gingersnaps cool on the cookie sheet.

Sugar Sugar Cookies

Posted on by
3

Tomorrow, Kaia has her first bake sale at school this year. I always send with her cookies. They are easy to prepare, firm enough to transport and the students love them.

She loves helping, she rolls the dough skillfully and found out on her own that it’s better to dip the cookie cutter in flour before making shapes. My little munchkin has great tips to give away!!

This recipe is great for cookies coated with icing or decorated with sprinkles. Deliciousness in every single bite! I think that tiny pinch of salt added, changes all the taste and makes it a show-stopper for everyone.

If you use chilled butter your dough should come out firm. If it happens that it’s soft, chill the dough for half an hour before start working with it.

You might like to sprinkle crystal sugar or colored sugar before baking the cookies, to add a sparkle. Easiest cookies recipe ever!

And this is how I make it.

Makes around 30 pieces.

Ingredients

  • 200g / (2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla
  • 2 ¾ cups all-purpose-flour, sifted twice
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt

Preparation

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 350°F, and place rack in the center of the oven. Line baking trays with parchment paper.
  2. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
  4. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until a dough is formed.
  5. Divide dough into 2 balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each ball to an approximate thickness of 1/4 inch (6 mm). Dip cookie cutter in flour before cutting out shapes and transfer to baking sheets.
  6. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes (depending on size) or until edges are firm and cookies are dry to the touch. Do not let cookies color.
  7. Cool on sheets 1 minute; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Note: If you’re using large cookie cutters, place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies inside the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to chill. This will prevent the dough from spreading and loosing shape while cooking.