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| BISCUIT TIN BONANZA |
Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.
When the November Daring Bakers challenge was announced, I of course imagined myself making all 12 cookies. In reality, however, that was never going to happen. But while expecting to make two kinds of biscuits, at the most, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself with more than that in the end. (Well, I couldn't have a bonanza in my biscuit tin if it were filled with only one type of cookie now, could I?)
From Peta's recipes, I made the Lebkuchen but with a couple of substitutions: The recipe calls for honey but I was forced to add molasses and agave syrup as well as I didn't have the amount needed of any single one of those ingredients. By choice, I replaced the brown sugar with red palm sugar for a richer flavour. And I added allspice to the list of spices. The raw cookie dough was like fudge and tasted very good and if not for the raw egg in it, I would have eaten it without baking the cookies! The ones shaped like Christmas trees have a "glass window" (couldn't get a stained effect, unfortunately), made by filling cutouts in the cookies with crushed clear coloured hard sweets before they are baked.
I made three other biscuits as well. The Fig Bars (my favourite biscuit) are based on the Date Pillows I posted on a while ago, while the Lime Meltaways (for the tang) and Chocolate Pretzels (for the shape) are from Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies, a 2006 special issue magazine.
After all the biscuits were made, I happened to have an egg white left over and decided to use it for
Fortune Cookies (I halved the recipe from about.com and managed to make seven cookies)
– they just add interest to the biscuit tin! (And the fortunes will cheer me up after my heart fails from all the butter and sugar I've had!)
Many thanks to
Peta for all her hard work, her tips in her Food Talk article on making piped short bread and especially her lebkuchen recipe! And check out what the Daring Bakers made in
the slideshow at the site. There are so many varieties, colours and shapes. Lots of ideas for future cookie bakes.
Here are few other items that I think would be perfect for any festivity:
I am loving all of these cookies - I am inspired for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteYour cookies look adorable, Jane! I have wanted to try that "window" technique for a while now, it's awesome! Unfortunately, I couldn't make it this month at the DBs. You did a great job on the challenge!
ReplyDeleteFantastic cookies, Jane! What a great spread. I love the glass window lebkuchen, so pretty!
ReplyDeleteglass window cookies and fortune cookies!! wow, i'm totally blown off by ur creativity :))
ReplyDeleteGreat cookies! I'm impressed you were able to make so many varieties. I had high hopes to get 12 made but I barely squeaked out two. Nice job on the challenge!
ReplyDeleteYour cookies all look amazing! I would love to get an amazing box of treats like this. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteAwesome job!!! All your cookies look so fantastic! Love the chocolate stained glass trees! I tried those once but something went terribly wrong and ended up chiseling them off my cookie sheet. LOL.
ReplyDeleteJane, once again, awesome cookies. I was fortunate enough to get to taste your fig newtons and they were lovely... and I dont even particularly like figs! Can't wait to see what you do for the next challenge *wink* :)
ReplyDeleteWow, I would love to get this box of cookies! Must try the Fig Pillows and Lime Meltaways.
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