Mini Cookies. Aren’t they just the best? Two bites and you’ve scarfed one down. I make mini-cookies every now and again, mainly because I have this huge cookie jar and I make a contest out of it on my Facebook page to see who can guess how many there are. Last year I did the standard Chocolate Chip Cookie with mini-chips, this year, it’s the Chocolate White Chocolate Chip version. If you cant to pay along, head on over to the FB page and enter!
Cookies
Back to trying out one of my rather unusual flavor combinations, this time in the form of finely chopped apricots, the herb taragon (which has a rather licoricey flavor) and olive oil. They are really very good, despite my weird pairings. Would go equally nice with a cup of coffee or tea, or on a cheese plate with some fig jam. Really quite delightful, especially if you aren’t into the overly sweet type of cookie.
Yesterday it was freezing here in greater Boston. I mean *cold cold cold*. I couldn’t even get my apartment to warm up too much, until I decided to bake something. I didn’t have a lot of “spare” ingredients in the pantry either. I did have a bag of these chocolate melting wafers, that I decided to use as giant chocolate chips. Turns out, pretty yummy cookies and a warm flat. Win win, if you ask me.
What do you get when you combine a brownie and a cookie? Well, you get this cool love-child of a thing called a Brookie. If you make them as bars (vs in cookie shape), you get Brookie Bars. And what happens if you happen to throw in a bag of cinnamon chips? Well, you get these absolutely delicious Cinnamon Chip Brookie Bars! As you can see, the “January Health Kick” didn’t last very long. LOL
Here we are at the end of 2018, and I am baking again. The change of one year to the next always makes me think of “Lucky Foods” to ring in the new year. The US South has black eyed peas, Eastern Europeans have pickled herring. In Italy and I believe Spain, you eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. In Germany, there are lots of traditions as well, but I am going with something that implies luck, though not necessarily New Year’s. You see, in English, we have the expression “Lucky Devil” (as in, “You’re such a luck devil for winning the lottery!”). In German, a similar expression is to be a “Glücksschwein” (lucky pig) or “Glückspilz” (lucky mushroom). I had found these cute little cookie cutters at the Christmas Markets in Munich a few weeks ago, so decided to make Glückspilz Spitzbuben (Lucky Mushroom Linzer Cookies) — mainly because I thought that words Glückspilz and Spitzbuben would be funny to say (can’t you tell that I am a linguist by profession?). Filled with apricot and raspberry jam, and sure to bring luck in 2019!