Food & Thoughts

We're cookie O.D.ing here, I know, but I promise, this is the last one this year. These are Applebutter-filled Gingerbread Cookies. I found the recipe back when Luisa made applebutter last year, and she mentioned it could be used in cookies as well, providing a link to the LA Times and a recipe . Unusual for me, I didn't bookmark the recipe, only printed it, and it had been languishing in my notebook ever since. That is, until I made applebutter a couple of months ago and tried finding something to use all those jars for, besides licking it off a spoon. Which is good, but these - are absolutely divine. I made the dough a couple days in advance so I needed only to roll, fill and assemble, then bake on the day. That whole thing is a bit time consuming, but I really like the look of these, so I think it's worth it. I cut the "windows" at an angle, as you can see from the picture below, just to play around a little. They're gently spiced, and with the applebutt...

The last of the Gourmet cookies I tried this year. Chocolate Sambuca Crinkle Cookies . Admittedly, I made these because I have not one, but two half bottles of Sambuca lingering on top of the wine glass cabinet where we keep or liqour. We don't drink Sambuca. In fact, we rarely drink hard alcohol at all, but if or when we do, it's usually gin or vodka tonics, or the occasional mojito. I think maybe the bottles are leftovers from my younger days - I seem to remember a pretty hardcore shot of vodka, with orange slices dipped in sugar, resting on the edge of the glass, with a bit of sambuca poured over it, and then lit with a match. But truth be told, if that's what I drank, how on earth do I still remember? Sounds like it could make anyone forget! The cookies also have chocolate and walnuts in them, which are big ringers in the taste department, and Sambuca definitly needs something to pair up with. Personally, I like the anise-taste, but M despises it. I can't even get ...

I told you before that I am a hoarder . But I'm not only a hoarder of dried goods. I'm also doing very well in the kitchen utensils/machines/gadgets department. Like cookie cutters. I have a big jar full of them, and they look mighty pretty on my shelf, in my office - they're not even in the kitchen any longer. But truth be told, I've hardly ever used them.Yet, when I'm abroad (they're expensive around here, so I seem to be able to control myself) one or two always seem to sneak themselves into my suitcase. I have no idea how this happens. The truth is, I don't really care for cut-out cookies. They're often bland, buttery, boring affairs with their biggest asset being their shape (and perhaps their frosting). I know, you shouldn't judge a cookie - or anything else, except maybe a new haircut - by it's shape alone, but I do. I like the rugged, crumbly, fat discs of joy - not the controlled, straight-lined kind. Still, those cutters needed some e...

I have been sorely absent form this blog - again. I will try and make it up to you with a spurt of a Christmas Countdown - I know I have only five days to go (we celebrate Christmas Eve here in Denmark, so I'm counting down to the 24th., in case you thought I got the days mixed up), but at least it's something. Next year, I'll be better. Early with the New Year's resolutions, aren't I? As we have done the past three years, this Sunday, the third Sunday in advent, was Julestue chez nous. Cookies were baked, both the traditional vaniliekranse and klejner, but for once I managed to make some of the ones I'd bookmarked during December as well. I always make many plans to try something new, only I never succeed - the days just seem so short in December, don't they? I bookmarked these Brown-Sugar Brown-Butter Shorties from both Smitten Kitchen and Gourmet - did you by the way have a look at their extravagant spread of cookies from the decades ? You must! The co...