Soft glazed gingerbread cookies courtesy The View From Great Island (with thanks to @Mig for the reference). Indecisive, I ended up making both the gingerbread and chocolate-gingerbread versions. I believe the original recipe harkens back to an Ottolenghi recipe in the cookbook Sweet.
I’ll get my rant out right off: why use measures only, and not also include weights? If you dig around her website, you’ll find she converts 1 cup of flour to 125 g., but one shouldn’t have to dig. I used 100 g. for the molasses measurement, although subbed 50% of the molasses with Lyle’s golden syrup, as we like our molasses in small, measured doses.
Converting aside, these were easy and fun to make. I chilled my dough discs in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling, and chilled the stamped and cut cookies in the freezer for another 15 minutes before baking. I used my new Nordic Ware cookie stamps, and glazed the cookies while still slightly warm.
These came out just as I had hoped. Soft, a little spicy, with a bit of crackle on top from the glaze. I think they are very pretty cookies, and may like the chocolate version just a tad better, but would be happy if offered either.
My Christmas baking has begun with 2 16" long Makivnyk (poppy seed roll). A traditional Ukrainian bake for Christmas. As a kid it was my job to grind the poppy seeds in a tiny mill that my mother brought with her from Europe. If i remember right the seeds had to go thru 3 times. Boy i hated that job. The seeds would get in between my nails, there were no latex gloves then. Now i buy a can of prepared poppy seeds at a european deli and add chopped walnuts. My family loves this roll especially my British SIL.
Thank you for those links. It’s those original Tartine photos which are floating around the internet which got me interested in tracking down a similar recipe. Jackpot!
Traditional Christmas cake is done and has had its first sousing with port. Christmas pudding is merrily steaming away on the stovetop for another 2 hours.
My handle phoenikia is from finikia, which is another word for melomakarona, one of my favorite cookies. The most typical recipe in Greek kitchens is scented with cinnamon, brandy, citrus, and often also clove, nutmeg and occasionally allspice.
I found this Greek Armenian finikia recipe that uses a lemon sugar syrup for soaking, rather than the typical honey cinnamon syrup.
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BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
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One of my late sisters used to make Koulourakia every Christmas (note: we are not Greek). To bug her I used to refer to them as “Kouroulakia”. I wish she were still around to be bugged!
