Maple is one of my favorite flavors. It also is a “winter” flavor for me, though I don’t really have a reason for that. Pancakes are year round food, so why should maple syrup only be reserved for winter on my pallet? Inexplicable. But it is of course still winter and it’s frigid out at that, so I’m just going to stay inside with these lovely cookies. They will not last the weekend.
Krapfen. Fasnachtsküchle. Berliner. Doughnuts (Donuts). These are all traditional Pre-Fasching (Carnival, Mardi Gras…) sweets common in Southern Germany. OK, maybe most of Germany, but I am from the South, so that is what I can speak to. There are crazy sorts in Germany, and each bakery seems to make a whole bunch of types in the weeks between New Year’s and Fat Tuesday. I just made one base recipe for these and then finished them in overly decadent ways. Eat them while you can: Lent starts tomorrow!* (I’m not religious and I don’t do the whole ‘giving up stuff for Lent thing, but you get the idea.)
These are celebratory cupcakes. Why, you ask? Well, today is the 5th Birthday (anniversary?) of this here Cup of Sugar :: Pinch of Salt website. Yup, it was 5 years ago on a snowy weekend that I started this adventure and who knew I would still be going strong 1152 recipes later. So happy birthday, CSPS. Have a cupcake on me!
The very first thing that you will notice about these cookies is the smell. Open the container or parcel that they are in and the glorious smell of coconut is almost overwhelming, in an amazingly delicious kind of way. Coconut overload. They are crunchy, with the soft bits of coconut sort of weaved though. The chocolate is just a bonus, but makes them pretty over-the-top, if you ask me.
Here’s a quick and easy recipe that I threw together… ok, I actually threw it together twice, because I made both a raspberry version and a lemon curd version. These two shortbread bars are actually very similar — identical until the top part, actually. I wanted to show how versatile this recipe is, and that it is super super easy to make. Start to finish in under an hour, though they do take a while to cool. I made 12 oblong bars out of each (4 x 3 cut), but you could do 4 x 4 so they are almost cookie-sized.