Greek Lemon Cookies -- not just for special occasions

                       Greek lemon cookies, slow-roasted grapes [photo, TWCarns]  


Trying to replicate someone else's recipe is always a chance for lots of discoveries. In this case, I was attempting to make something similar to delicate shortbreads with coconut oil, lemon and thyme from a local bakery. None of my cookies taste exactly like theirs, but I found treasures along the way. The recipe below is adapted from the internationalkitchen.com, "Shortbread cookies with olive oil and lemon."

One big surprise for me with these cookies is how much kids like them. I thought that they would be too lemony, but not so. And the grown-ups are fond of them too, so make plenty. They are supposed to last well, but they're always gone in a couple of days.

The basic recipe calls for:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (the online recipe doesn't specify, but this temperature seems to work well).

• 1 cup oil (olive in the recipe, I've used that, and also substituted refined organic coconut oil)
• 1 cup sugar (try substituting 1/2 cup brown sugar, + 1/2 cup white sugar)
• 1 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
• 1 tsp baking powder (I use this amount even when making 1/2 the recipe; it just makes the cookies a bit more cake-like in texture)
• 1/3 tsp salt (try kosher or a slightly rougher salt than table salt to give more taste)
• zest of 1 lemon (medium-size lemon)
• about 4 cups of all-purpose flour (I start with 3 cups, and add 1/4 cup at a time until I have a very soft, sticky dough -- usually about 3 1/2 cups altogether)
• white sugar to roll cookies in before baking (optional) OR
• sea salt flakes (like Maldon) to sprinkle on top if not rolling the cookies in sugar

I have also added 1 to 2 tsp of minced fresh thyme.

Beat together the sugar, oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest (and thyme or other herbs if using).

Whisk together the 3 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Add gradually to the liquids, and whisk until smooth. Then add 1/4 cup of flour at a time, until it is a very soft dough. You can add more flour to make a slightly stiffer dough if you prefer. 

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape small balls of dough (about 1 Tablespoon). Press flat onto cookie sheet. You can roll in them in sugar before flattening them on the sheet. They should be about 1/2 inch thick. If you don't roll them in sugar, you can flatten them and sprinkle a few flakes of salt on top. Or leave them plain. In the photo above, some are rolled long, some are round and pricked with a fork, and some are round and plain.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until light golden brown. The online recipe cautions that they overbake easily, but I haven't yet had that problem. Allow to cool before removing from the cookie sheet, so that they firm up a bit.

Although the recipe calls these "shortbread" cookies, purists might say that they are not true shortbreads because they have both leavening (baking powder) and liquid (lemon juice) in them.

Bonus recipe for slow-roasted grapes

One advantage of making several batches of shortbreads in a moderately heated oven is that it is the perfect opportunity to roast grapes. These pictured above were red seedless grapes (green seedless work just as well), broken into clusters of 3 to 6 grapes each and left on the stems. I tossed them in a mixing bowl with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, and spead them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. They stayed in the 350-degree oven for about 2 1/2 hours. That's it. They are somewhat wrinkled and the juices have seeped out a bit and caramelized.

Some recipes call for roasting the grapes tossed with a light coating of olive oil for about 15 minutes in a 450-degree oven. Those are not as wrinkled -- they are still whole, bright and juicier -- a different and equally delicious experience.

 Street in the Plaka, the old section of Athens, with the Parthenon at top of picture [TWCarns]

What's up with wheat in 2013?

                                                                                                            January 5, 2013


Depends on who you ask, of course. Wheatavore checked out a few different sources, among them Huffington Post, Epicurious, and a couple of English web sites. HuffPost’s predictions for 2013 hedged their bets by tallying up forecasts from several other sites and showing those that made more than one list.

• HuffPost highlighted “Artisanal Bread at restaurants,” based on its mention by Baum and Whiteman, and Bon Appetit. About time? I have a stack of artisanal bread cookbooks and guides waiting to be read, so it’s been around for a while. But more restaurants – not just bakeries like Tartine, and locavore specialists like Faviken in Sweden –  are beginning to feature their own sourdoughs. Huff Post directs the reader to Baum and Whiteman’s site which notes that restaurants aren’t just setting out the bread – in European style, they’re charging for it -- but also offering more distinctive choices.

Artisan breads in a Santiago, Spain bakery, September 28, 2012.


Bon Appetit notes that bread is being served in new ways – “sourdough fried in pork fat and served with house-made butter.”

Agreeing with HuffPost, Etai Baron, co-CEO/founder, Udi's Foods Local says that Northern European breads – of the sort popularized by Noma in Denmark, Faviken in Sweden, and Tartine in the U.S. – will be more prominent than the breads of the Mediterranean. The northern breads tend to be sourdoughs, and often use a wider variety of grains, mixed in with the wheat flours.

• HuffPost also highlights another Bon Appetit trend, grind your own grains for those baking at home. Some stores sell bulk grains and have mills on-site. Hand or motor-driven mills are also available for home use. You can experiment with different blends of hard and soft wheats, colored wheats, or blends of grains. Or you can go locavore, growing your own wheat or finding a nearby source, and milling it yourself to get the freshest and most intimate terroir.

• A web site devoted to fast food restaurants suggested that places like Wendy’s are beginning to serve sandwiches on more exotic breads, including flatbreads. “During its investor day in June, Gerard Lewis, Wendy's senior vice president of Culinary Development, said he wants to be the first to market flatbread. . . . Wendy's also is exploring other types of breads such as a cheddar/jalapeno bun and a pretzel roll.”

• Epicurious offers its own set of predictions, some of which involve wheat. For example, we will be creating snacks at home, such as Vanilla Snack Cakes to make up for the loss of Twinkies [which I predict will be back on the market within the next twelve months, perhaps with a different name or a new manufacturer, but we aren’t likely to be deprived of our favorite non-food treat for long].

• In England, Lost in Catering is big on food trucks (which some U. S. websites think are so 2012 or even 2011), and new ways to wrap foods: “. . . Meats are increasingly being wrapped with Turkish pizza or stuffed Naan to add flavour.” The food trucks experiment with Chinese bao (dumplings) filled with more Western meats, and fusion choice such as “roti rolls,” a mix of Turkish and Indian foods, the roti being an Indian flatbread. For seated dining, sourdough pizza rules. [I have to make a personal pitch here for Rocca, a Kensington pizza place that we ate at in November 2011 with dough made from a “naturally yeasted” wheat and spelt mix – full of flavor, but not sour.]

• Another United Kingdom site suggests that American baked goods will give way to British traditions, especially regional baked goods – most of which I don’t recognize, but will have to research – “We're moving away from American-inspired bakes, such as whoopie pies, towards British ones. Maids of Honour, Bath buns, parkin, pikelets, Singing hinnies, Staffordshire oatcakes . . . there’s a rich national heritage to be explored.” Any national heritage that include Singing hinnies surely needs more attention. [Turns out that they are a kind of griddle cake, rather like a fried scone, made with flour,butter and/or lard, milk, sugar, and currants. They "sing" as they sizzle on the pan; "hinny" means honey -- affectionate slang for something sweet.]

A week of wheatavoring

One can eat well as a wheatavore. We just spent a week in Seattle and Victoria, B.C. and we ate great wheat every day. From veggie arrabiata at Fiamo in Victoria and carta di musica atTutta Bella in Wallingford (Italian), to croissants and palmiers at LePanier (French) in Pike Street Market, to udon at Boom Noodles (Japanese) at University Village to naan and samosas at Pabla (Indian) in Renton, the wheat dishes came from around the world.

                                             Pappardelle's at Pike Street Market


We found wheat to take home as well, from Pappardelle's Pasta in Pike Street Market across from Sosio's produce stand. The company has a website, and sells online as well. We took Extreme Habanero back to Anchorage to try ourselves, and Calypso, a mix of lime, mango-peach, and red Southwestern chile lumache shells for a friend. We didn't have room in our carrry-ons for the dark chocolate linguini, so will have to order that.

Pappardelle's gives out recipes, both on the website, and with each package of pasta purchased. But it's easy to think of interesting twists. The recipes offered for the chocolate pastas focus on desserts, with ice cream and chocolate sauce and fresh raspberries. Hard to beat that, but how about trying the chocolate gemelli instead of a plain pasta in this cacao and zucchini absorbtion recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini blog? Or use the Extreme Habanero radiatore with that chocolate sauce and rich vanilla ice cream -- a livelier dessert than most.