Ma'amouls

In my opinion everything baked/cooked with proper tools must taste good. Even if you have to wait for 10 years to get those proper tools.

Now I can bake cookies like a real Middle Eastern housewife.

Today's dish of the day - ma'amouls with dates filling. Mint Moroccan tea will be served later in the evening.

Sugar cookies

Cookies for dinner! Is there anything better?!

Dinner cakes

McVities Digestives dunked in Creme de Cassis, sweet cream cheese with banana filling; this sandwich is covered in dark chocolate, sprinkled with hazelnuts.

Chocolate button cookies

Recipe here.

Gingerbread cookies

The recipe is from here. Mine are covered with Lindt Orange Chocolate.

Recipe:

375g plain flour

120g butter

175g soft brown sugar (light or dark - your preference)

4 tablespoons golden syrup

1 egg

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F.

Place your (closed) container of golden syrup in a bowl or jug of hot water from the kettle and set aside.

Mix the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you get the texture of breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Add the egg and golden syrup (which should now be runny) and mix to a soft dough. Add a little more flour if your dough is too sticky. Knead the dough lightly until smooth.

And then use the dough as you fancy. Rolling thin will give you a crunchy gingerbread and thicker shapes will be soft. Bake on a lined baking sheet for an average of 8-10 minutes but keep an eye on smaller shapes as they will obviously bake much quicker.

My first ginger bread cookies

Merry Christmas!

Chocolate chip cookies

Warm fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies with walnuts for lunch. What could be better?