My Grandma's Shortbread Cookies

December 12, 2020 by Gizem in Dessert

I have never really been a cookie person except for these shortbread cookies. I find most cookies too sweet. This is my grandmother’s recipe and whenever she made these cookies, I would eat a whole batch in a couple of days. These cookies are still one of the two desserts I always request from her. Last year, I finally asked her for the recipe..

The keys to these cookies are clarified butter and lots of flour. I have no idea how these two main ingredients plus sugar can create such magic. The center of the cookie has a little bit of a snap but the moment it comes in contact with your tongue, it starts melting.

With the holidays approaching, everyone is baking cookies as gifts. I selfishly baked the whole batch for myself and ate it too. No regrets. These cookies do however, make great gifts mainly because they keep really well. And if you want to jazz them up, you can even dip one corner in melted chocolate before serving.

Yields: 24 cookies Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 1/2 - 4 cups all purpose flour

Preparation

1. To make clarified butter, place the butter in a saucepan and melt over very low heat. We don’t want the butter to boil and burn so low heat is key. The goal is to separate the butter from all the milk solids.

2. Once all the butter is melted, you will see white milk solids coming to the top. Let the butter cool for 10-15 minutes, this will help settle the milk solids to the bottom of the pot.

3. Without pouring the milk solids, slowly pour the cooled down, melted butter into a mixing bowl. With a spoon, skim any leftover clarified butter from the top of the pot and transfer to the mixing bowl. You should now have clarified butter in your mixing bowl and all the white milk solids in the pot. You can discard the milk solids or keep them to add into eggs, pancakes, biscuits, etc.

4. Let the clarified butter solidify in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. We want the clarified butter to be pretty soft for kneading. If you forget the butter in the fridge for too long, take it out and bring it back to room temperature.

5. Once the butter is solid yet soft, take it out of the fridge. Add powdered sugar and vegetable oil into the mixing bowl. Mix using your hands or a mixer until the sugar is fully incorporated and the mixture has a paste-like texture.

6. Add in the flour, 1 cup at a time. Incorporate the flour completely before adding the next cup. Depending on how much clarified butter you have, you might need a little more or less flour. We are aiming for a dough that is soft and that does not stick to your fingers. It should hold shape without crumbling. If the dough gets too crumbly, add a tablespoon vegetable oil to soften.

7. I find this dough easier to shape after chilling in the fridge for 15 minutes. If you are in a rush, you can skip this step and continue with shaping.

8. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Preheat the oven to 340 F.

9. Working in batches, roll the dough into a 1 inch thick log. Using a sharp knife, cut 3 inches long cookies with angled edges as shown in the picture below.

10. To give cookies their S shape, hold from the top left and the bottom right corners and push the dough inwards as shown in the pictures below. (I prefer the S shape but these cookies can be shaped in any way you like.)

11. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the cookies turn white on the top, for 15 minutes.

12. Let cool completely before transferring to a plate. The dough needs to set for at least an hour before you can handle the cookies. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature. These cookies are even more delicious the next day.

Poached Quince

November 08, 2019 by Gizem in Dessert

It has been a while. I guess, all I can say is, life happened. We have been in Seattle for almost two years and being workaholics, we have buried ourselves in our jobs. With the fall months rolling in, I got reminded of how much I miss cooking and sharing recipes on this blog, both for myself and for everyone who has been following. So I am back and this time, I plan to stick around.

I know many of you (including me!) don’t like to scrolling ten minutes through a giant blog post to finally reach to the recipe but this is a blog and I have been gone for a long time so some updates are in order.

This year, we traveled to South Korea where we ate so much and everything (would anyone like posts on our trips with a focus on food?) and to Isle of Skye that took our breath away with its amazing scenery. I started lifting weights again with amazing Brent Hruska of Barbell Vitality and not only I can now deadlift 170lbs but I also lost 18lbs along the way! Goodbye FL pounds I gained in the year we lived there. We have been to many national parks and had a great camping trip in Crater Lake Natinoal Park with a close group of friends. I am not an outdoorsy person but I discovered a love of cooking on open fire and will be sharing recipes for camping in the future for sure. I have been on a ton of trips for work, to DC, San Francisco, Orlando and more San Francisco, which allowed me to see family and friends while also working hard. And Cesar got a new job and he is loving it! There is more to come this year with my parents visiting for the holidays and more travels but I’ll save those for later.

Fall came to Seattle very early this year, I for one, wasn’t ready for it. But then when I saw all the amazing fall bounty at the University Farmers Market I got in the mood for cooking again. If you are still stuck in the summer months, this is the perfect dessert that will get you in the mood for fall, especially if you are not ready for the pies and not into all the pumpkin spice craziness.

Quince is a fruit that comes from the same family as apples and pears. But unlike apples and pears, most types of quince are not edible raw. They are too sour, hard and astringent to be tasty unless cooked. In Turkey (which has the highest production of quince to my knowledge), we make jams, pastes and desserts with quince. This recipe is a classic and a family favorite. It is light and not too sweet, plus, it looks quite elegant so you can knock everyone’s socks off if you make some for your various Thanksgiving festivities.

Yields: 8 servings Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

4 quinces

Half a lemon’s juice

12 tablespoons of granulated sugar (3 tbsp per quince)

1 cinnamon stick

3-4 cloves (or 1 teaspoon ground cloves)

For serving:

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Crème fraîche (or clotted cream)

Preparation

1. Fill a large bowl with cold water and squeeze half a lemon’s juice. Quince turns brown very rapidly once cut and peeled. To avoid this, you will be placing the cleaned quinces inside the water.

Do steps 2-4 one by one for each quince to avoid browning.

2. First cut the quince in half along its width. If done correctly you should see the seeds in the center, forming a flower-like shape. Cutting them this way makes cleaning process much easier.

3. Using a spoon and/or paring knife, carve out all the seeds. DO NOT discard the seeds. We will use them later. Set them aside.

4. Peel the quince and place into the bowl filled with cold water.

5. Once all the quinces are cleaned, place all the halves into a sauté pan with the carved center facing the top. If they are not standing flat, you can cut a bit to flatten its bottom.

6. Cover each quince with 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar.

7. Add in the cinnamon and cloves.

8. Sprinkle all the quince seeds that you set aside onto the quinces. The seeds help give the quince a deep orange/red color once cooked.

9. Start cooking on low heat. Cook for 30-35 minutes. The sugar and the water are going to turn into a syrupy consistency. You can stop cooking when there is some syrup left in the bottom of the pan. The quinces should get softer and turn a deeper orange in color.

10. Using a spoon, transfer the quinces to a serving platter. Drizzle them with the syrup in the pan. Place chopped walnuts into the carved center of each quince. When serving, place a dollop of crème fraîche onto each piece.

Enjoy!

Tahini Cookies

November 08, 2019 by Gizem in Dessert

Argh, I can’t believe summer is coming to an end soon (at least for me). I have had the most glorious summer 50% working on Mint and Sumac, 25% exploring Seattle, 10% exercising, 10% playing Stardew Valley, and 5% socializing. Also fit “reading to hit my goodreads challenge” somewhere in this breakdown. But soon (as in 2 weeks soon) I am going to go back to being a real adult and start working full-time again. So in the last few weeks, I have been trying to maximize my socializing time and catch up with all my friends before I disappear into long commutes and book-me-4-weeks-in-advance schedules.

With that spirit, last week, I had two friends over for Turkish coffee at 1:30pm on a Thursday (soon unimaginable scheduling) and made these tahini cookies and boy, they were delicious. Turkish coffee is generally served with a sweet bite like a cookie or Turkish delight. This helps balance the strong flavor of coffee and cleanses your palate. My goal was to find a tahini cookie recipe that melts in your mouth because I think it pairs perfectly with the texture of Turkish coffee. When I saw this recipe from Mamaleh’s on Bon Appetit, I knew I had to try it. These cookies have a texture very similar to shortbread cookies and they are also a little soft and chewy inside thanks to the tahini (I think I drooled a little just thinking about it).

Tahini is one of the staple ingredients in my pantry. For those of you who might not be familiar with it, tahini is basically sesame paste. I use it for dressings, sweet spreads, baked goods, mezes, smoothies, so basically everything. Its creamy texture and versatile taste that works in both sweet and savory dishes makes it a popular ingredient in my kitchen. Nowadays, you can find tahini at almost all grocery stores. Look for it in the baking or nut butters/spreads aisle.

Tips:

I highly recommend dipping these cookies into sesame seeds as the recipe suggests. You can even mix in some black sesame seeds. But, if you want to try something different you can also dip them in crushed walnuts or pistachios.

Do not overcook these tahini cookies. When you take them out of the oven, they might look a little undercooked but they harden as they cool.

Yields: 18-24 cookies Time: 40 minutes

Recipe from Bon Appétit by Mamaleh’s in Cambridge, MA

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup tahini

3 tablespoons honey

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup sesame seeds

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Beat the butter, sugar and honey in a bowl, until creamy. Add in the tahini and mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

3. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.

4. Add the flour mix into the wet ingredients, slowly, in 2-3 batches, mixing after adding every batch. I mix the dough with my hands to make sure all the ingredients are combined well.

5. Pour the sesame seeds in a small bowl.

6. Scoop approximately 1 tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball in your hands. Press gently with your palm to flatten the dough a little. Dip one side of the dough into sesame seeds. Place the dough, sesame side up, on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

7. Bake for 15 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Let the cookies cool before serving. Serve with a cup of coffee or black tea. Enjoy!