Cookies With Dates

We have started to count down for 2010. Everyone has been thinking of the good and bad points of the leaving year these days. When you turn on the TV, you see several programs on the events of 2009 and all people have wishes for the new year.

How was 2009 for my part? I was planning to create this blog at this time last year(2008). After discussing several things of the blog with hubby (thanks a million my dear for your help), we released Give Recipe in the first weeks of 2009. I remember how excited I got when I received the first comment. Now there are over 2000 comments in my blog, but I still get excited by a new one. Thank you everyone for commenting on my posts, I appreciate them much. The number of the posts is 153 with this one, and Give Recipe’s character has been getting more and more clear through these posts. At the beginning I wasn’t aware of how big the place of Give Recipe in my life would be, but I’ve realized before long that there isn’t a single day I don’t think of it. Also, I’ve had the chance of learning about the world of food blogs since the starting of Give Recipe. I have many blogger friends and I’ve learnt lots of new dishes from them so far. As I’m working as a teacher, I’ve been so busy with my students and school works for some months. That’s why I can’t find enough time to follow my favorite food blogs and commenting on them every time. But I’m trying to visit them whenever I have some time. I’m looking forward to Winter break to have more time to catch up what my friends are doing in their blogs.

The other nice event for me in 2009 was the birth of my niece, the cutest baby around the world. I love her so much that my eyes get full of tears whenever I look at her photo. I wish her all the best.

To say a sweet goodbye to 2009, I made these cookies with date. The best thing I love in them is the orange flavor. The cubes of orange zest are like little gifts hidden in the cookies.

Happy new year to everyone!

Hurmalı Kurabiye
Ingredients (8 or 10 servings)
For the dough:
-    2 cups flour
-    ½ cup ground pistachio
-    ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
-    1 tbsp vanilla
-    1 tbsp baking powder
-    1 egg white
-    125g butter, at room temperature and chopped in cubes
For the filling mixture:
-    1 orange zest, sliced in cubes
-    2tbsp orange juice
-    20 dates
-    3 tbsp ground hazelnut
-    2 tbsp hot water

For the filling mixture, remove the seeds of dates and wait them in hot water for some minutes so that they can be chopped easier.

Put the dates into a mini chopper, add hot water and orange juice and chop them. If it’s still so dry, add a little more hot water and mix together until combined well. Add hazelnut and orange zest cubes in this mixture.

Sift the flour on the counter. Add vanilla, pistachio, baking powder and confectioner’s sugar on it.  In the middle of the flour, toss the butter cubes and eg white. Knead this mixture well until it’s not sticky and soft enough.

Lay the baking sheet on an oven tray.

Preheat the oven at 170C.

Take walnut sized pieces from the dough, flatten them out, put enough filling mixture in them and roll them in your hands. Place the cookies on the baking sheet. Bake them for 20 minutes and take out from oven. Let them cold.

You can keep these in jars for a week. Put some orange zest slices in the jar if you like. It gives a fresh smell to the cookies.

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Sesame Rings

Kandil Simidi

When I saw the well written post on mahaleb (mahlep in Turkish) at Oysterculture, I decided to make something using this special spice and share it here. I’ll not explain what kind of a spice it is, Oyster has already done it so well, so if you want to learn it more, please visit her blog.

I call these sesame rings as they are coated with sesame, but in Turkey, their original name is ‘kandil simidi’, which may be translated into English as ‘lailat simit’. Lailat is the name of holy nights in Islam. There are mainly 6 special nights in this religion and they are related to muslims’ prophet Muhammed and the holy Qur’an. Muslims pray and plead for mercy at these nights. Women make some pastries and share it with all their neighbors. This is not a must, but it’s like a tradition some people carry on. On these days, pastry shops make especially these rings and pay special attention to the appearance of their stands. Vendors at different corners of city also sell kandil simidi in small paper bags just on these days. I don’t know if any other cultures have such foods that are made on some certain days of year, but in Turkish culture there are several foods that you can find only on some certain days. Lailat simit is one of these foods and it you can find it at pastry shops six times in a year. There are some pastries similar to this mini simits at these shops, but they don’t have the same taste. If you want to eat it more than six times in a year, you must make it at home. And that’s what I do! The word mahaleb always reminds me of kandil simidi, that’s why I decided to make and share it here.

As you see in the picture, it’s so similar to simit, it’s like the smaller version of it. They’re alike in terms of their shapes, but their tastes are quite different. Simit tastes more like bread, it doesn’t spread easily when you chew, but it’s the main feature of kandil simidi to spread easily in your mouth. And their ingredients are different, too. We can say that they are similar in their shapes and names, but they are different in their tastes indeed. We generally define ring-shaped things as simit because of their shapes.

If you like crackers and if you love to snack, these are perfect! When I make these, we keep them in a large jar for a week. Instead of packaged crackers or pretzels, we have these sesame rings as a snack along with black tea when we have too many hours for dinner to stop our hunger for a while.

Ingredients
-    250g margarine or butter
-    6 tbsp sunflower oil
-    ½ cup water
-    1 tbsp vinegar
-    1 tbsp sugar
-    1 dessert spoon salt
-    1 egg yolk
-    1 tbsp baking powder
-    4 ½ cup flour
-    1 dessert spoon mahaleb
-    1 egg white
-    Sesame

Put all ingredients except egg white, sesame and baking powder in a tray and mix them. When you knead it well, add baking powder and keep kneading. You will have a soft dough.

Take pieces as big as a walnut and first shape it like a stick, then combine its two ends to give it a simit (ring shape) shape.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put egg yolk in a small bowl and sesame on a seperate plate. Dip mini simits first into egg yolk and then coat it with sesame.

Originally, it is made with sesame, but I also make it with crumbled hazelnuts to have a variety. If you like, you can try it, too.

Lay a grease proof paper in an oven tray. Put these sesame rings on it. And cook them in oven until they get golden (for about 45 minutes).

Perfect for tea time when you make these rings with sesame.

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Spotted Hearts

Benekli Kalpler

Last week was our final week with my students at school and before saying good bye to them, I wanted to make something sweet for them. This is not a usual habit of mine, but I enjoyed teaching those students much, so I think these sweet spotted hearts would be the best gift for my lovely students. We were together for 5 months and I was their English speaking and listening teacher, so we talked on several topics together. What I love the most about them was that they always had something to say about any issue, they knew when to make jokes and when to talk seriously. I’m not sure what they love about me, maybe my age.

When I told my colleague, Özlem that I would make something for my students, she suggested making this together and I gladly accepted. It was so enjoyable to make something with her as she is a cheerful and witty person.

Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ tbsp baking powder
- 250gr butter (room temperature)
- ½ tbsp vanilla powder
- 2 ½ cups flour (you may add more if the dough is not thick enough)
- 2tbsp cocoa

Sieve the flour in a large bowl. Break two eggs in the middle of it. Mix them with hands. Add butter, sugar, vanilla and baking powder and combine them well. The dough must be soft but thick. If it’s not thick enough add a little more flour in it. Then let it rest for 20 minutes.

After this time, divide the dough into two. Put one half of it into another bowl. Combine this one with cocoa. You can add more cocoa if you like it darker.

Take the dough without cocoa on the counter and roll it out with a rolling pin. Then take the one with cocoa and roll it out, too. Lay the latter on the former one and roll them together.

You’ll have a cylinder dough now inside which you see a brown layer.

Slice it with a sharp knife just like a cake. You see how yummy it looks even before it is cooked. I would almost have a bite from one of these cute raw slices, but my friend stopped me. I’m sure her concern was the number of my students.

Preheat the oven at 180 C (400F)

Grab a piece and roll it out. Now it’s time for some joy! We’ll shape our dough with cookie cutters.

This is my favorite step of making cookies. Press a cookie cutter you like on the dough and cut it. Remove it from the counter with the help of a knife.You see a butterfly shape in the photo, but I didn’t like it much, so I replaced it with a heart shape.

Put it on an oven tray. You don’t need to oil the tray this time as the cookies have enough butter in them. After cutting a cookie, take the formless dough left and combine it with another slice of uncooked dough. Roll it out and do the same. Repeat this until you finish the dough. Cook them for 30 minutes until they get a bit brownish.

You see a photo of us here, I’m wondering if you can recognize me as the teacher among these young guys. Let me help you. Look at the left corner, I’m the one with a black tshirt. What do you say? Don’t I look like a teacher? My students agree with you. Many students think that I am one of the new students at the beginning of the term and I love this as this makes me feel as young as them.

You can guess how my students were surprised when I took the cookies out of a bag in the middle of the lesson. This was a gift for them and my gift was the smile on their faces while eating these hearts and asking for one more.

Chivalrous Fruits

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Yann Tiersen Cookies

Please congratulate me… I finally achieved to cook these yummy cookies. Don’t ask how many times I tried. I just don’t want to count. After each failure, I promised myself not to try again. However, I couldn’t help breaking my promise as I see great cookie photos on the net. I did it at last.

This morning, when I woke up, I had the same feeling: Craving for cookies! I tried to be positive as I believe in the power of positive feeling. I opened my window to get some fresh air, watched the rain for a while, turned on the music player (playing Yann Tiersen) and found myself preparing the cookie ingredients once again.

The result was great! That’s what my husband and brother said with “yummmmm!” sound effect. So how did it come?

Ingredients
•    1 cup sugar
•    1 egg
•    1 stick (125gr) butter, room temperature
•    ½ lemon, zest grated
•    2 tsp lemon juice
•    2 cups flour
•    2 tsp ginger
•    1 tsp baking powder
•    Pounded almonds and whole almonds for garnish

Preheat the oven to 180C (356F)

Mix egg and sugar until smooth. Add butter and go on mixing. The mixture should be creamy. Put grated lemon zest and lemon juice in it. Now add flour and ginger little by little and mix it with a spoon. The dough shouldn’t be too hard or too soft. Take small pieces, first roll them, then flatten.

Put the pounded almonds in a bowl. Roll the flattened cookies in the pounded almonds and put them on greased  sheet. Finally place whole almonds on cookies. And bake it for 15 minutes. When they are done, do not leave them in the oven. Take the tray out. Let them cold. And serve these cookies with a cup of tea.

You can not guess how I’m happy with them, my first success on cookies.

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