You know I don’t make such cookies any more because of diabetes, but I just couldn’t skip this recipe when I saw its pictures. If you are looking for easy and quick cookies, you must try these. I have to warn you, though. These tahini cookies are so soft –you can see the craks on them, so you had better hold one of your palm under your chin to prevent any waste.

Preheat the oven at 160C.
Combine all ingredients and make a soft dough. Shape it with cookie cutters or with your hands. I make half moons with my hands, but you can give them any shapes you like.
Lay baking sheet in an oven tray and place cookies on it. Bake them until they get slightly golden about 15 minutes.

There are two religious festivals in Islam, Ramadan (Eid ul-Fitr) and The Feast of Sacrifice (Eid ul-Adha). As the biggest part of Turkey’s population consists of muslims, these two festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm, and the festival days are officially off; schools and official workplaces give a break. Today is the eve of The Sacrifice Feast and people will be celebrating it for 4 days. So I have a 9-day-break, which started on Saturday.

People sacrifice animals like sheep, ram, camel or ox generally on the first day of this festival. Non muslims might have some prejudices about it as they think it is like a massacre. However, there are some rules for sacrificing animals. For one thing, your financial position must be good enough to buy that animal, so it is not a must to sacrifice animals for everyone. Second, it’s not a festival of cutting and eating animals. It is a way of sharing and helping people. You must give one third of the animal to relatives, one third to poor people. The rest is left to the family who sacrifices the animal and served to guests in different dishes.

The Feast of Sacrifice is similar to Ramadan. New clothes are bought especially for children and people wear clean and neat. They visit their relatives and friends, cook together and have big lunch or dinners of meat dishes together. Something sweet such as candies, chocolate, Turkish delight, or special Turkish desserts are seerved to guests. Kids kiss hands of elders and elders reward them with pocket money. Also, kids from the same neighborhood knock your door for candies.

As I don’t like packaged candies, I thought it would be great to serve something I make at home. You know I made some cute date balls in Ramadan. You can check it out here. And I decided to make these small and cute flour cookies. It is one of the most popular cookies in Turkey. You can find it in all pastry shops and some cafe shops serve flour cookies with Turkish coffee or tea. So I am looking forward to seeing how kids at the door will react tomorrow when they see me holding a plate full of these cookies.

Un Kurabiyesi
Ingredients
-    125g butter
-    ¼ cup sunflower oil
-    2 tbsp icing sugar
-    2 tbsp corn starch
-    1 tbsp vanilla powder
-    1 cup flour
-    2 tbsp icing sugar for the top
Preheat the oven at 150C.

Mix the butter, oil and sugar. Add starch, vanilla, and flour. Combine them well with your hand.

Lay baking sheet on an oven tray.

Make small balls and place on the tray. Press on them gently with a fork to have a cute design on them.

Cook them about 30 minutes.

Take them from oven and tranfer on a wire rack. When they get warm losing some heat, sprinkle icing sugar on each.

Note: This makes about 30 small cookies, so you can play with the amount of ingredients.

You know I am a teacher and very busy at school, that’s why I can’t write here as much as I want. We’ve started to count down for the end of the school. Courses are going to be completed after 3 weeks and then exams start. We have two terms each year, Fall and Spring terms. We have different students each term and today I will share a recipe that one of my students from Fall term gave me.

On the last day of Fall term, we organized a small party with students in one of classes. Students agree that everyone would bring something to eat. I made lentil balls for them. I hadn’t made that many before (for about 30 people), so I was a bit suspicious about the result. Fortunately, it was great! Every student brought something they themselves or their moms made. And these cookies, made by a student’s mom, were one of my favorites. Although her mom wasn’t in the same city with us, she was so kind to make and send them to us. As my student saw how I loved these cookies, she called her mom and got the recipe and gave me the following day.

I tried the recipe last week and here is the result. These cookies are crispy outside but softer inside. When you touch one of them, you think it’s as hard as stone but when you have a bite, you see it’s not. Figs inside made it softer and as I love to eat figs and walnuts together, these cookies were perfect for me.

More than 30 cookies came out of these measurements, but I could keep them for 4 days. They were still so yummy on the last day. But I must warn you; these are so addictive! I made some of them big and some of them as small as marbles. I couldn’t take photo of the small cookies as we ate them all in that evening and night with various people.

We planned to got to cinema on the day I made these, and hubby told me to put some cookies in a paper bag and to put them in my bag. Can you believe that? He loves to snack while watching a movie, generally pop corn or some crackers and this time we took our own snacks to the movie theater. The small versions were better to take with me and I put a lot of marble like cookies as I couldn’t predict how many we could eat. It may sound crazy but I must tell that it was amazing to eat our cookies while watching movies!

We met two friends after the movie and went to a pub together. You might guess what happened later. Yes we shared the cookies left with that couple. Then when we were waiting for our orders, I saw that one of my ex students was coming to our table with 4 glasses of beer. I learnt that he was working there part time. And I offered the rest of the cookies to him. He gladly took and shared them with the other waiters. The all thanked with a big smile and with yum yum sounds. Do I sound like the witch in the fairy tale called Hansel and Gretel? You know these little children were taken in by her foods.

So here is the recipe of witchy cookies.

İncirli Cevizli Kurabiye
Ingredients
-    2 eggs
-    1 ½ cups sugar
-    1 cup vegetable oil
-    1 tsp baking soda
-    1 tbsp vanilla
-    1 cup walnut, crumbled
-    8 dried figs, finely chopped
-    4 cups flour
Preheat the oven at 170C.

Mix all the ingredients except flour with your hands. Add flour at the end and combine all of them well. Shape them in your palms. Their size is up to you. I made some marbles size and some walnut size. I flatten the walnut size cookies a bit, but left the marble size cookies as they were.  Lay the baking sheet in an oven tray. Place the cookies on it and bake them until they’re golden. Wait them on the tray for 10 minutes more after taking them out of oven. Then take them on wire rack.

You can keep these cookies in closed containers at room temperature for a few days.

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.

Besides the preperation of clothes, there is another preperation for Eid. Cleaning the house! When I say cleaning the house, I mean a real and complete cleaning. As they will have many guests during Eid days, women want to welcome their guests with a perfectly cleaned house. So women mop up everywhere, clean the windows, wash and iron the curtains, dust the cupboards and everywhere! We call this cleaning “Bayram Temizligi” (Eid Cleaning). After such a laborious cleaning, you may think that women start the feast so exhausted, but no, they are so strong that they don’t have any complaints about the other works waiting for them such as making a Turkish dessert and host their guests.

In fact, the celebration of the feast starts in the early morning. Fathers go to mosque to perform their ritual prayer called namaz and they take their sons with them. After namaz, people in mosque celebrate their Eid by shaking hands and wishing happy Eid to each other. Meanwhile, moms prepare a perfect breakfast with various boreks and newly brewed black tea. When fathers and sons return, they celebrate their Eid; mom and dad hug each other, children kiss their parents’ hands and put it on their forehead wishing happy Eid. Parents generally give some money to their children to make them happier, which is called “bayram harcligi” (Feast Allowance). Then they enjoy their breakfast and they feel that this breakfast has a different taste after a long fasting time.

After breakfast, their door bell starts to ring, they know it will ring many times today. A group of  children (even the small ones) are waiting with bags in their hands no matter they know the house owner or not. And the owner of the house treat them with colorful candies or chocolate. Children take one or two candies happily and put them in their bags. When the children of that house see them, they immediately grab a bag and join the group as they are looking forward to picking candies from neighbors. They all know that it’s much more enjoyable to keep the candies until they finish all houses. At the end, they open their bags and show how they have plenty of candies and eat them together.

Children turn back to their houses not so late as they know their grandparents are waiting for them, so when they return, without any loss of time, with their parents, they go to their grandparents. They kiss the hands of grandparents in Turkish style and guess what? They are rewarded once more with the feast allowance. Then, they don’t forget their beloved ones who are not with them any more. They go to the graveyard to visit departed family members there. They pray for them and leave some candies on the grave.

After these, on the way home, people make short visits to their neighbors one by one to celebrate their Eid. Turkish desserts such as baklava and kadayif are served accompanying with Turkish tea or Turkish coffee. And while they are leaving, mostly the child of the house is waiting for them near the door with a bowl of candies or chocolate in one hand and a bottle of lemon cologne in other hand. S/he first offers the candies to the leaving guests and then drops some lemon cologne into the waiting palms of these guests. That’s the Turkish way of sending guests during this Ramadan Feast. Some people may also offer candies and the cologne as a way of welcoming the guests. And surprisingly, some people offer these two both to welcome and to send their guests. And people shouldn’t refuse any of these offerings at any of their visits, they are thought to be so rude if they say ‘no’. Can you imagine how sweet we become after Eid?

Personally, I didn’t want to buy candies from stores and I wanted to make something special for this Eid as I thought it would be more valuable for guests and especially for children. I made these natural candies from dates yesterday and as I understand from the eyes of children at my door, they loved it! And when their parents saw these home made candies, even they asked for the second one. I think I should have done more of these.

Ingredients
-    20 dates
-    ½ cup pounded almond
-    2 tbsp orange juice
-    1 orange zest, chopped in very small cubes

To coat the date candies
-    A handful of  pounded pistachio
-    A handful of crumbled hazelnuts
-    A handful of chocolate chips

Pit the dates and put them in a mini chopper and chope them a few times. Then add orange juice to help them to have a right consistency. When it become like a date dough, take it to a bowl. Add pounded almon and chopped orange zest and combine them very well with your hands. Then take a walnut size piece, roll it in your palms, give it a ball shape and coat it with pistachio or hazelnut or chocolate chips. I used all of them to make my Eid candies more colorful.

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.

Benekli Kalpler

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

Pineapple, apple, pomegrenate, pear, orange and banana are passing over the river hand in hand to reach the big forest across the river. This will be the first time for them to see the other side of the river. They have been living here for year, but have never had enough courage even to walk on this bridge. But this time they’ve taken their courage in their hands and decided to hit the trail. Their solution to defeat their fear is to walk hand in hand and to sing a lively song. They are singing with such a great joy that all the living things in the forest can hear them. With the effect of their joyful voice, all butterflies start to dance, all frogs stop croaking, even bears wake up from their deep sleep as they are all mesmerized with this song. It’s been a long time since they heard such a fascinating harmony and rhythm. The destination of these cute fruits is that small hut in the forest. They’ve heard that Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma is ill in her bed and they can’t leave her alone, that’s why they’ve decided to adventure and look after her. (drawing by mom)

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?

Yann Tiersen Kurabiyeleri

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.