My new blog site

I'm slowly converting my blogger account to my new blog de Arte Coquinaria. It has been rather slow going as I've had difficulties with the picture posting process, which I think I have now mastered thanks to the Quince Queen, Tania.

Any feedback on the look of the new site is much appreciated. I'll be trying out several new themes over the next little while, so don't be surprised if the new site looks completely different every time you load it.

East Meets West

Much to the disbelief of the majority of my friends and acquaintances, I was actually born and raised in Vancouver. Apparently, this qualifies me as a rare breed, a true and original ”Vancouverite”. As most Vancouverites hail from places far and wide but rarely are born here, I would have to agree. Over the years, I have seen tremendous changes in the city, some good, some not so good. But from a foodies’ perspective, perhaps the best change of all has been the proliferation of an amazing array of restaurants with their decidedly Asian inspiration.

My first experience with Asian food was when I was five years old during our weekly downtown Woodward’s department store pilgrimage. After my regular frozen chocolate malt at the wonderful Woodward’s International Food Floor (a gourmet mecca), my mother and I stumbled upon a Chinatown dim sum restaurant high above Main Street across from my mother’s favourite Italian delicatessen Tosi & Company (which incidentally has been in business since the early 1900’s and if you’re ever in Vancouver, a must see). Dining at this dim sum eatery quickly became a weekly tradition and our family became somewhat well known by the service staff and chef. Despite their lack of English skills, the waiters took to teaching me the fine art of using chopsticks. To this day, I feel as comfortable with chopsticks as with a fork and knife in hand.

Sadly, this dim sum restaurant no longer exists (and neither does Woodward’s department store). To this day, I have yet to find dim sum that compares to their quality anywhere in Vancouver. This past weekend saw me with a serious craving for dim sum, but with an active and sometimes cranky toddler, the weekend passed without a visit to a dim sum establishment. So it was with a great flourish that I sought out the ingredients for a ‘pseudo’ dim sum lunch. Not having the time or the inclination for making my own dumplings, I decided on a compromise: make a typical dim sum seafood dumpling filling and serve it on a bed of Chinese greens. Luckily I did not have to go too far for inspiration: my wall of cookbooks and its huge selection of Asian inspired themes. What should it be? Hot Sour Salty Sweet? No, too Southeast Asian. Ahh yes! Ken Hom: Travels with a Hot Wok! Of course. A true East-West fusion cookbook and inside I found my calling:




Scallop Pancakes with Chinese Greens
Serves 4 (Makes 8 pancakes)

For the Pancakes:
450g (1 lb) scallops, including corals, coarsley chopped
1 egg white, beat until frothy
2 Tbsp. finely minced shallots
2 Tbsp. finely chopped green onions
1 Tbsp. finely grated ginger
3 Tbsp. cilantro, finely minced
1/2 tsp. freshly ground five-pepper mixture or pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 Tbsp. rice flour
2-3 Tbsp. olive oil

For the Greens:
450g (1 lb) Chinese greens, such as gai lan or bok choy
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce (or to taste)
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. lemon juice
1-2 tsp. Sambal oelek (or to taste)

Combine the scallops with the egg white, shallots, green onions, ginger, cilantro, salt and pepper. Stir in the rice flour until well combined. Set aside.

Cut the greens into 3 inch pieces.

Heat 2 Tbsp. of olive oil in a non-stick skillet. Form the scallop mixture into eight pancakes in the pan (you may have to do this in batches) and brown lightly on both sides. Add more olive oil, if necessary. Remove and keep warm on a baking sheet in a warm oven.

To prepare the Chinese greens, heat a wok or a non-stick skillet over high heat. Add the olive oil and when it is hot, add the garlic and stir-fry for 20 seconds until it has lightly browned. Then quickly add the greens and stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until the greens have wilted a little. Now add the rest of the ingredients and stir-fry for another minute.

Arrange the greens on a plate topped with the scallop pancakes.

Enjoy!

Note: The addition of the egg white, cilantro, grated ginger and green onions in the scallop pancakes is my variation. The first time I made this with no egg white, and the pancakes were not pancakes, just stir-fried scallops. For the greens, I’ve tinkered and added the oyster sauce and the sambal oelek (a ubiquitous ingredient in our household, to say the least!). Just omit if you don’t like the heat.

My first Meme

To be quite frank, up until today, I hadn't the foggiest idea of what a 'meme' was. I have been officially tagged by Tania the Candied Quince, and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. Well here goes.

Coquinaria's Seven Meme

7 Things to Do Before I Die:

1. Teach my daughter to be a strong, independent and educated woman.
2. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
3. Learn to tango & flamenco dance.
4. Grow a pecan tree.
5. Attempt to grow a mangosteen tree (my favourite fruit).
6. Re-start my chocolate/gourmet food business.
7. Learn Latin.

7 Things I Cannot Do:

1. Not buy cookbooks.
2. Stop screaming at the sight of spiders.
3. Hate chocolate.
4. Take out the garbage.
5. Avoid the shoe section.
6. Stop having pancakes on Sunday.
7. Stop loving life.

7 Things that Attracted Me to Blogging:

1. Outlet for my creativity.
2. Writing.
3. Meeting cool and interesting people who share my obsessions/passions.
4. Repository for my culinary mishaps & victories.
5. Trading recipes.
6. Ideas.
7. Inspiration.

7 Things I Say Most Often:
1. "Please stop throwing your (breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner) on the floor. It makes a mess!"
2. "Get your finger out of your nose."
3. "You're my little cookie-smurf." (Cookie monster-in-training).
4. "Schmoopie...I love you." (Barf, I know...)
5. "Are you going potty?!?"
6. "Yay! You're going potty!!!"
7. "Let's go O-U-T!!!!"

7 Books I Love:

1. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
5. Last Days of Socrates by Plato
6. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
7. White Stone: The Alice Poems by my dear friend Stephanie Bolster

7 Movies I Watch Over and Over:

1. Anything starring Audrey Hepburn, especially Breakfast at Tiffany's
2. Gone with the Wind
3. Red, White & Blue Trilogy (especially Blue)
4. Lost in Translation
5. Amélie
6. Tampopo
7. So I Married an Axe Murderer

7 Bloggers I'm Tagging:

1. me
2. me
3. me
4. me
5. me
6. me
7. me

Pathetically enough I just don't have enough bloggers to tag as all those I could tag have already been tagged. Sorry...

Is this why it's called a "ME ME"?

New Year's Eve Tradition Carries On

There are family traditions and there are family traditions but this particular tradition always has all of my family gleefully anticipating New Year's Eve: my mother-in-law's Ollieballen & Appelflappen. Really, my family begins talking about them come Hallowe'en and by Christmas it is a downright obsession. Now this is a Dutch tradition that goes way back. My mother-in-law was taught to cook these oily delicacies at an early age from her mother and her grandmother back in the Dutch East Indies (Sulawesi, Indonesia). To think that these traditional recipes survived concentration camps, other atrocities that I need not mention and the months long voyage back to The Netherlands is a miracle in and of itself. That we carry on these traditions is amazing to me. I will carry the baton next year as my mother-in-law has decided to teach me the tradition, given my penchant for all things food-related.

Ollieballen are literally 'oil balls'. In Croatian and Italian culture they are called 'fritule' or fritters and are fried also during the Holidays. I believe they exist all over Europe in some form or other. However, Dutch eat them exclusively on New Year's Eve to insure good luck for the up-coming year. Mind you, the feasting probably goes on for a couple of days as when you take the trouble of making these delicious treats, you usually make a lot. And I mean a lot. Enough to feed the village, so to speak.

Ollieballen are little yeast risen dough balls usually with raisins and sometimes chopped apples that are fried golden brown. Appelflappen are like apple fritters, but much much better.

Here are my pics and they were absolutely delicious this year. Unfortunately, I do not have a recipe as my mother-in-law does it by eye "a little of this...and a little of that" type cooking. I will ask her to write something down, but that may take a little convincing.

New Year's Culinary Confession

Happy New Year! I hope that your 2006 is a wonderful year full of cheer and happiness. Note to self: I do not work for Hallmark, nor can I ever hope to.

New Year's Eve was spent, as most years, feasting with family and friends. And as with every year, I obsessed with out-doing what I had served the week previous for Christmas Eve dinner. This year I served Mesclun with Blood Oranges, Green Beans with Lemon & Pine Nuts, Delia Smith's outrageously good, to-die-for Crunchy Saffron Roasted Potatoes (regrettably, no longer available in her recipe section online, but if you ask nicely, I will haul out the recipe and type it out) and Seafood Stuffed Salomon Roulade with Beurre Blanc sauce. Of course dessert was, for me, the piece de resistance: my Tipsy Trifle. Now I say "my" as over the years I have honed this recipe and made it my own. I also have no recollection from where the original recipe hailed. I will concede that there are probably hundreds of similar copies on the internet, but damn it, this one's mine. All mine!!!

First I bake a yellow cake. In years past (sans bebe), I have made a Jam Roly-Poly (Jelly Roll to some) which really looks pretty all cut up in the bottom of a trifle bowl. But this year, and here's the 'confession' of my culinary sin: I used...boxed mix! Yup! You really did read that right! I, the self-proclaimed 'food snob' plunked down my hard-earned 99 Canadian cents for a box of Betty Crocker's yellow cake mix aka "fluffy stuff" or FS from here on in. Of course, you have to understand that I am no longer a carefree gourmet, baking cakes here and there at my whim and leisure. I now have to contend with a force so great, few can overcome: a demanding toddler. Usually, she orders me to pick her "UP! UP!! UP!!!" at the precise 'critical time' during a baking recipe. But most troubling is her serious penchant for the big KitchenAid mixer. Hauling it off the shelf sees her running full speed to the kitchen to set up camp and be underfoot. So I resorted to FS. But I did mix it proudly with my new, handy-dandy KitchenAid hand mixer that Santa was kind enough to bring me for Christmas. Yes I am a kitchen gadget fiend. Yes I could always use more! But I digress.

'My' Tipsy Trifle

1 recipe yellow cake, box mix, sponge cake or pound cake sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/2 to 3/4 cup Chambord liqueur or Bristol Cream Sherry
1/2 cup or so of raspberry preserves or jam
2 cups of fresh or frozen raspberries
2 - 3 cups (depending on the size of your trifle bowl) of thick creme anglaise, or English Devon style custard
3 cups of heavy cream, softly whipped with 2 Tbsp. sugar


I baked FS in a 9 x 13 inch pan, slicing it once cooled crosswise into 1/2 inch wide strips, leaving them out overnight on a baking rack to dry out slightly. This 'drying' step is critical, since FS (especially FS, but other cakes too) would turn into a mass of goo once you add all the boozy additions that have made me famous. OK I'm boasting here. Famous in my teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy circle of friends & family. Jenny likes the sauce I hear you say? Well, actually no, not really. My liver is in tip-top shape as I enjoy my sauce in tiny quantities, except when it comes to desserts.

Next day, line your pretty trifle bowl (of course, after rummaging around for over 1 hour I couldn't find mine, only to remember that it was buried somewhere in a mountain of storage boxes in my in-laws' storage cabinet 15 km's away!) with the slices of cake, FS or otherwise, dousing liberally with Bristol Cream Sherry. Or you could do my variation, douse liberally with Chambord liqueur, but not feeling the need to part with $50 of my hard earned cash, I used the more traditional cream sherry. Then spread with a thin layer of good quality raspberry preserves, or heck just jam is fine too! Preserves just sound so much better, don't they?

Scatter on a handful of raspberries. Next a healthy glop of custard and next an equally healthy dose of whipping cream, repeat layers ending with a good bit of cream. Decorate as desired. Or just leave plain, as is.



Ta Da....

Carb Comfort

Just when the excesses of Christmas deposited enough padding on my derriere to help shield me from these 'bitter' Canadian winters, I decide to make my reliable creature comfort fare: Macaroni & Cheese. Now please keep in mind that this macaroni & cheese isn't for me but my 18 month old daughter, who recently became powered by Energizer. OK so it is for me (and her, I swear!), who am I trying to kid? Having been on a carb controlled regime for the last couple of months, Christmas has sent me into somewhat of a carb consumption tailspin. Cookies, stuffing, cookies, buche de noel, cookies, pecan caramel sticky buns, and cookies. Did I mention cookies? After all, I live with Giant Cookie Monster (GCM) who devours cookies just like his namesake. MMMMMMM Cookies!!!! NUMM NUMM NUMMMMM.



So macaroni & Cheese is my last carb hurrah! Well okay maybe not the very last. This weekend is New Year's and it just wouldn't be New Year's without my mother-in-law's Ollieballen (yum! oil balls!!!) and Appelflappen; two traditional Dutch New Year's treats. Think fried dough liberally dusted with icing sugar. Not unlike New Orleans' Cafe du Monde beignets. Mmmmmm... will post pictures. Ta ta and to all a Happy New Year!

Energizer Bunny Macaroni & Cheese

2 1/4 cups macaroni
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 lb. Velveeta, cubed
2/3 cup full fat sour cream
1 1/3 cups cottage cheese
3 cups grated old cheddar cheese

Boil macaroni in salted water, cook only half way. Drain and place in a 2 1/2 quart greased casserole. Melt butter over medium heat; stir in flour; mix well. Add milk slowly whisking constantly and cook over medium heat, until sauce thickens. Add salt, Velveeta & grated cheddar cheese and mix until cheese has melted. Mix sour cream and cottage cheese into sauce. Pour over macaroni. Mix well. Bake at 325F (180C) for 30-40 minutes.

Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice

Baking Gingerbread has never been a family tradition for me...well not yet, anyways. As a self-proclaimed pom-pom waving foodie, I have been known to get an ever so teensy bit obsessive about certain food items. Like my spice collection. One of my (many) current 'obsessions' is finding a gingerbread cake recipe that has eluded me for eight years now. YES! Eight years. Obsessive/compulsive disorder you say? THHHHHPT! Well okay then, you be the judge.

It all started eight years ago around this time of year, just before Christmas. Dining out a local restaurant, I was offered a special dessert menu for the holiday season. There it was (my soon to be obsession): Warm Gingerbread Cake with Orange Caramel Sauce. Suspecting mediocrity like the rest of the meal, I ordered with skepticism. Now I have had cakes and I have had cakes, but this cake stood out. Dare I say the best cake I'd ever eaten? Well it's a little too early in my life to say 'best' since I've got a lot of living to do yet, however up to this point, it's the best. By far. Bar none. It was almost chewy, spicy but not too much and full of wonderful gingerbread flavour. It had a treacly texture somewhat like my Sticky Treacle Pudding that I have made to rave reviews, but much more complex.

I'm not the type to ask for a recipe, but I simply had to ask this time. Chef returned with a prompt response: sorry! No can do. So I resorted to what every red-blooded Canadian girl would do: I flirted. Shamelessly. Enough to make Gloria Steinham shudder. But a girl's got to do what a girl's go to do! I had to have this recipe! I used every ounce of girl persuasion I knew. I batted eyelids, I smiled coyly, I...well you get the picture. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it's true. I guess I didn't have the effect I was hoping for as Chef responded with a coy smile of his own and a teasing list of ingredients with no amounts, of course!

I have perfected the caramel sauce. So much so that I parlayed it into a rather successful small business venture. But the cake is another story altogether. I have tinkered and tried several dozen recipes over the past eight years. While all of them were good, and some were even excellent, they just weren't exactly what I was looking for. Perfection remained elusive. Until a few days ago!

My quest for this gingerbread cake recipe has taken on a whole new meaning these last few weeks. This weekend my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. They were married in Frankfurt, Germany and on their dessert menu: GINGERBREAD! As I will be hosting the dinner party festivities I want to bring back some of those memories of Frankfurt, December 1965. Why yes of course, now, I must find the best recipe and I must find it NOW!

Behold my bastion of all things food. It comes to my rescue time and again, but why I hadn't found this recipe yet in all these years remains a mystery. So here it is, let the drums roll: the Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread. While there was no Guinness in the original list Chef had given me, this dark brew does impart a remarkable flavour and texture to the Gingerbread. While I still have some tinkering to do, this cake is the closest replica of what I had so many years ago. My obssessiveness/compulsiveness has finally paid off: now I can officially start a family holiday tradition. Baking this Gingerbread cake.

But don't think my quest is over. Stay tuned...

Spice Girl Perils

A few years ago I become obsessed with spices. And I mean OBSESSED! Having spent close to a decade of my life travelling and exploring (I worked for a major airline), I had developed a serious penchant for herbs, spices and all variety of seasoning blends. My theory is you can learn a tremendous amount about a culture by the spices they use in their everyday cooking. I collected every imaginable seasoning I could get my hands on. I was proud of my stash and felt like I was "in the know" in the world of spices. So it was with great fervour that I set out to store & display my enormous collection of spices. I loved this set, but not the price tag: at $4 CDN per tin, and with my collection spanning 70 herbs & spices (and growing), I thought it was a little excessive. So I decided to design my own. I sourced out a local supplier for the tins and designed my own labels (!). I bought spices and filled the tins and now display them lovingly on my baker's rack. Until yesterday. My 1 1/2 year old daughter - let's call her Engergizer Bunny, EB for short - decided to ram her Winnie the Pooh ride-on toy straight into my baker's rack. Somewhere in the middle of the "...tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff..." refrain I heard a bang and then.....C R A S H, then the beginning of one of those cries that starts out breathless and works its way into a crescendo:
W A A A A A A A H!
EB was fine, but had gotten a good clunk on the head by spice tin Sweet Paprika. I got EB out of the way just in the nick of time: Sweet Paprika had triggered a veritable avalanche of herb & spice tins. It was like watching dominos falling, although not nearly as satisfying. So there you have it dear reader, my spice collection runneth over. It occurred to me after re-organizing that I should have taken a photo of the aftermath. Some post avalanche photos:




And my list of herbs, spices, etc. If you can think of any I'm missing, feel free to leave a comment.

ALLSPICE
ANCHO CHILI POWDER
ANISE SEEDS
ANNATTO SEEDS
BASIL
BAY LEAVES
BLACK CARDAMOM
BLACK PEPPERCORNS
BLACK SESAME SEEDS
CAJUN SEASONING
CARAWAY SEEDS
CAYENNE PEPPER
CELERY SALT
CELERY SEEDS
CHERVIL
CHILI POWDER
CHINESE 5 SPICE POWDER
CHIPOTLE CHILE POWDER
CINNAMON GROUND
CINNAMON STICKS
CLOVES
CORIANDER
CUMIN
CURRY POWDER
DILL SEEDS
DILL WEED
EPAZOTE
FENNEL
FENUGREEK
FILE POWDER
GARAM MASALA
GARLIC FLAKES
GARLIC GRANULATED
GARLIC POWDER
GARLIC SALT
GINGER
GREEK SEASONING
GREEN CARDAMOM
GREEN PEPPERCORNS
HERBES DE PROVENCE
ITALIAN SEASONING
JUNIPER BERRIES
LAVENDER
MACE
MAHLAB
MARJORAM
MASALA CHAI
DRY MUSTARD
MUSTARD SEEDS BLACK
MUSTARD SEEDS YELLOW
NIGELLA SEEDS
NUTMEG
ONION FLAKES
ONION GRANULATED
ONION POWDER
ONION SALT
OREGANO
PAPRIKA HOT
PAPRIKA SWEET
PAPRIKA SMOKED
PARSLEY
PEPPERONCINO
PINK PEPPERCORNS
POULTRY SEASONING
RAS EL HANOUT
ROSEMARY
SAFFRON
SAGE
SESAME SEEDS
SHRIMP/CRAB BOIL
STAR ANISE
STEAK SEASONING
SUMAC
SUMMER SAVORY
TARRAGON
THYME
TURMERIC
VANILLA POWDER
WASABI POWDER
WHITE PEPPERCORNS
ZA’ATAR

Cookie Swap

Well the Holiday Season is officially upon us! At this time of year, I always find myself in this ultra-food obsessed frame of mind that gets increasingly insane as the clock ticks on. The past week has seen me hauling out all my cookbooks (and I have over 200), recipe cards, online recipes, etc. madly looking for inspiration for my upcoming cookie mania. Surveying my tattered cookie recipes I thought 'there must be something better'. As luck would have it, I came across the virtual cookie swap at Domestic Goddess' website. Having had the desire to have my own blog, this was precisely the start I was looking for. And what a beginning it is: COOKIES! My DH will be happy. After all, I don't call him Giant Cookie Monster for nothing.

Gianduia Sandwich Cookies

These are ridiculously easy and good! As a child, we always had a jar of Nutella in the house. Growing up Canadian with a Southern European background had its share of culinary adventures. I guess as children we must all be somewhat inherently embarrassed by what our parents do, say and eat and make us do, say and eat. My Mom would send me to school with homemade prosciutto and roasted pepper sandwiches on a Portuguese bun, or Nutella on crusty Italian bread (oh the horror!). All I wanted was PB&J, tuna fish or bologna sandwiches on Wonder Bread. I remember stomping on red wine grapes with my bare feet to make homemade wine in our backyard and drinking that first pressing of grape juice. I felt ashamed back then given that everyone else was buying their wine at the government controlled liquor stores. On special occasions we would have baccala (salted codfish) salad, roast sucking pig, roast duck with homemade noodles, and black risotto (black from the ink sack of the cuttlefish). All I wanted was roast turkey dinners with all the fixings. All those years I felt so embarrassed by the food we ate and our cultural traditions. Today I thank my Mom, Dad, Aunts & Uncles for the many culinary memories and I hope that I pass on just as memorable traditions to my daughter. Now I always keep a jar of Nutella in the house. This cookie is a salute to my childhood and culinary heritage.


Gianduia Sandwich Cookies
Makes 18

1 cup Nutella
1 extra-large egg
1 cup self-rising cake flour, plus additional for dusting

Preheat oven to 375F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, put ½ cup Nutella and the egg. Mix well. Slowly add 1 cup flour until a wet dough is formed. Dust a board with a little more flour and transfer dough to board. Knead gently, adding a little more flour if necessary. Dough will be sticky. Roll dough into 18 balls, flouring your hands as you go to make rolling easier, and place on parchment lined baking sheet, several inches apart.

Bake 12 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Using a serrated knife, split cookies in half horizontally. Spread bottom with 1 tsp. Nutella, then replace top, pressing firmly. Let cool completely. Store in a tightly covered tin.

Recipe adapted from 1-2-3 ingredient cooking, the name of which I cannot remember.

Edited to add: OK so these don't much look like sandwich cookies. My first batch were devoured straight out of the oven by Giant Cookie Monster (GCM) without me even being able to take my photo. Being lazy I decided to frost them with the Nutella and then give them a sprinkle with candied sequins.

Fleur-de-Sel Caramel Cookies

Fleur -de-Sel Caramel Cookies
Makes about 44 sandwich cookies

These are really good. The original recipe from Tish Boyle is called Almond Caramel Tiger Cookies and calls for almond extract, but I really like the flavour of rum in these. This is a shortbread sandwiched together with a rich caramel filling. I've switched it up a bit and given the filling an extra oomph by using fleur-de-sel sea salt. It really brings the caramel flavour to a whole new dimension. It also justifies my eccentric need to spend $10 on a small jar of salt.

Ingredients

Cookies
1/2 cup silvered almonds, toasted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract or rum extract (I prefer rum)

Caramel filling
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon fleur-de-sel sea salt finely ground

Special equipment 1 1/2 inch fluted round cookie cutter
3/4 inch round cutter

Directions:

Make the dough: Place the almonds and 1/4 cup of the flour in the bowl of a food processor and process until the almonds are finely ground, about 45 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and stir in the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour, the cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars at medium-speed until light in texture, about 2 minutes. Beat in the almond (or rum) extract. At low speed, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Scrape the dough onto a work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm enough to handle (or up to two days).

Cut and bake the cookies: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured work surface, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8, sprinkling it lightly with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Using a 1 1/2 inch fluted round cookie cutter , cut out as many cookies as possible from the dough. Using a 3/4 inch round cutter, or the tip of a 3/4 inch plain pastry tip, cut out the center of half of the cookies (these cookies will be the tops). Re-roll the scraps, chilling the dough for 10 minutes if necessary, and cut into more cookies. Cut out the centers of half of these.

Transfer the cookies to ungreased baking sheets, spacing them 1/2 inch apart. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, for 10 to 12 minutes, or until just barely beginning to color at the edges. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

Make the filling: In a small heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to high and cook, without stirring and occasionally brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, until the syrup caramelizes and turns a golden amber color, about 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the heavy cream (the mixture will bubble up), stirring until smooth. Stir in the butter and fleur-de-sel salt until the butter is melted. Let the caramel filling cool for 20 minutes, or until it has thickened enough to spread.

Assemble the cookies: Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or waxed paper. Spread a scant teaspoon of the caramel filling over the bottom of each whole cookie. Top each with a cut-out cookie, and place the filled cookies on the lined sheet. Place the saucepan of caramel over low heat and heat, stirring constantly, until it is thin enough to drizzle. Using a spoon, lightly drizzle the tops of the cookies with parallel lines of caramel. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 5 days.

Adapted from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle

Moravian Christmas Wafers

Moravian Christmas Wafers

Makes 90 very thin wafers

These are the ultimate in crispy spice cookie! This recipe is adapted from Maida Heatter's recipe for Moravian Wafers. Where mine differs is first in the cutting: I rolled mine out very thin on a lightly floured surface and cut with scalloped edged 2" cookie cutter. Second, I also decorated it with melted white chocolate in zig zag patterns. For me, the white chocolate rounds out the spiciness of the wafers.


Ingredients:

2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. finely ground white pepper
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1 stick or 1/2 cup (4 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 egg yolk

6 oz. chopped high quality white chocolate (such as Callebaut)

Directions:

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper and mustard; set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until well mixed. Beat in the molasses and egg yolk. On low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredients and beat until mixed.

Divide the dough in half, patting each into a disk, wrapping well in plastic wrap and chilling in the refigerator for at least 1 hour until firm. Using a lightly floured rolling pin on a floured work surface roll one disk out to 1/8" thickness and cut out as many cookies as you can using a 2" scalloped round cookie cutter. Rerolling scraps of dough and if too soft to handle, re-wrap the dough and chill until firm.

To bake, pre-heat oven to 350 degress. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Transfer cookies to baking sheet spacing 1" apart and bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly coloured. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks.

To decorate: Melt chopped white chocolate in a heat proof microwavable bowl in the microwave for 1 minute on HIGH power, stirring after 30 seconds until completely melted. Using a spoon, drizzle melted white chocolate in zig zag patterns over cookies. Let white chocolate cool and set. Store in airtight containers with waxed paper between the layers of cookies.

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread
Makes 60 cookies

These are my idea of Christmas cookies, pretty pink shortbread decorated with sanding sugar or non-pareils. They make a lovely gift. Adapted from a BHG recipe.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cubed
10 oz. chopped white chocolate, divided
1/2 tsp. almond or vanilla extract
3 drops red food colouring (optional)
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained, dried on paper towels and finely chopped
Non-pareils, sanding sugar, edible glitter for decoration

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Using a pasty blender, cut in cubed butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in maraschino cherries and 4 oz. (2/3 cup) of the white chocolate. Stir in almond or vanilla extract and red food colouring, if using. Knead mixture with hands until it forms a smooth ball.

Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls. Place balls 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar, flatten balls to 1 1/2 inch rounds.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until centers of cookies are set. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

In a microwaveable, heat-proof bowl, melt white chocolate on HIGH power in microwave for 1 minute, stirring after each 20 seconds until smooth and completely melted. Depending on your microwave, check the melting process carefully as the chocolate can scortch easily.

To decorate: Dip half of each cookie into chocolate and allow excess to drip off. Roll dipped edge in nonpareils, sanding sugar or edible glitter. Place cookies on waxed paper until chocolate is set.

To store: Layer cookies between waxed paper in airtight container and cover. Store at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.