Monday 22 January 2007

recipe carousel #30 - cookies

I’ve been dreaming of chocolate cookies lately. Chewy, soft cookies with flecks of semi-melted bittersweet chocolate. I’ve also been dreaming of pecan and caramel cookies. And walnut cookies. And coconut. And lemon. Oh and gingerbread too.

Cookies are great. You can serve them with milk or a smoothie or even a thimble full of liqueur to make them a little more adult. In Australia most people call them biscuits, but my insistence on calling them cookies is yet another sign of my American father.

So, here are seven cookie recipes to sweeten up your week.

Fried Cardamom Cookies were made by Gattina in Hong Kong (Kitchen Unplugged). Gattina’s baking inspiration came from Beatrice Ojakangas’ “The Great Scandinavian Baking Book”. After slaving over cookie dough it occurred to Gattina that baking Scandinavian Christmas cookies during a sweltering New Jersey summer may not yield the exact dough consistency she’s hoped for. Alas this is all too well understood by the outnumbered southern hemisphere food bloggers who read from their fellow bloggers about stews in summer and ice cream in winter. Gattina’s recipe makes a batch of cardamom spiced dough that is rolled into circlets and sniped decoratively before being deep fried. Photo courtesy of Gattina.

Italian Prune Cookies were eagerly sought after by Annie in the USA (Mixed Salad Annie). Annie searched the internet high and low to come across these deliciously moist Italian sweets mad eof raisins, prunes and flavoured with lemon zest. After being baked the cookies are drizzled with lemon scented glaze. Resist if you dare! Photo courtesy of Annie.

Ginger Sables are recommended by JenJen in Australia (Milk & Cookies) to help stave off insanity during night shifts. These delicate cookies contain a good smack of warm ginger and a hint of cinnamon. Be sure to be patient and keep your dough in the fridge long enough to firm up. JenJen got a little eager and hers turned out flatter than she wanted – they look damn fine to me! Photo courtesy of JenJen.

Almond & Pink Peppercorn Cantucci is a recipe love by Johanna in the UK (The Passionate Cook). Johanna’s passion is caused by the unexpected alternations of sweet and spicy in every mouthful. Ground almonds flavour the overall biscuit while whole almonds, pink peppercorns and ginger paste provide texture and bite. These are true biscuits in that that are cooked twice: first to create form and then they are sliced and baked again until rock hard. In fact cantucci are traditionally very hard and are usually dunked into vin santo or coffee before eating. Photo courtesy of Johanna.

Brutti ma Buoni are a Piemontese specialty cooked up by Rowena in Italy (Rubber Slippers in Italy). Translating to “ugly but good”, these clusters are made of egg, chopped almonds, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Rowena calls them “delicately sweet” and recommends them with a cup of tea. Just remember not to curse Rowena for the sticky crust at the bottom of your pan – she promises it will wash off easily. Photo courtesy of Rowena.

Lenguas de Gato are feline favours from MarketMan in the Philippines (Market Manila). He declares these beauties to be “crisp, sweet and buttery” but isn’t quite sure how they got their name “cats’ tongues”. MarketMan also ponders over the watery white content of local eggs and wonders whether recipes should contain measurements rather than numbers of eggs. Photo courtesy of MarketMan.

Green Tea Shortbread Leaves are JulieBean (The Suburban Apron Company) in the USA’s afternoon tea after spending her birthday in a Japanese Garden. Martha Stewart’s recipe combines traditional shortbread ingredients with the verdant bitterness of matcha (green tea). JulieBean found the kitchen filled with the glorious scent of green tea as the cookies baked. This entry is one of those I included in the first two ever Recipe Carousels and so I’ve included it again under the cookie theme. Photo courtesy of JulieBean.

Add your own recipe!
If you want to link in your own cookie recipe and share the love around, just leave the link in the comments section. You didn’t have to invent the recipe yourself, just make it and post it on your site. The whole idea of Recipe Carousel is that good recipes are shared with people who love to cook.
Note: Usual comments are more than welcome but all html links must be recipe related (yours or others).

Check out other Recipe Carousel themes: vegetarian mains, nuts, milkshakes, rice, festive food, legumes/pulses, eggs, pancakes, breakfast, raw food, berries, dips, cocktails, pasta, yoghurt, crispy snacks, vegetable desserts, fruit in savoury food, made from scratch, strawberries, jam, bread, seafood mains, ice cream, soup, chocolate and drinks.

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2 comments:

  1. I feel the same for those fried cardamom cookies too. Just the presentation is enough to get me wanting to try making some!

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  2. They all look good to me since cookies are my favorite food.

    Thanks for stopping by.

    ReplyDelete

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