Chania Sesame Biscuits, with Cinnamon, Orange, and Clove- Memory in the Mouth.

"Mmmm...Chania...," My daughter is munching on a cookie with her eyes closed, as far away from Crete as you can get and still be in Greece. We have these simple crunchy cookies all summer long when we are in Chania- with coffee, with wine, with milk for the little ones. Three batches of messing around with some flour and oil, and I got them just right. Memory in the mouth.

Our bakery in Chania has a huge wood-burning oven. By one in the afternoon, the dishes of the neighborhood start coming out, and people come and pick them up- Gemista (stuffed vegetables), Chicken and potatoes, this being Crete of course zesty minty Boureki. The food tastes better from the romantic heat of a true hearth with wood smoke, extra seasoning from the steam of your neighbors' dishes. They make a cookie like this, and a lady comes fro Rethymnon every week to the farmers' market to sell another one. They are all over in one shape or another. What they have in common is that they are all made with olive oil because it flows like water in Crete, they have no eggs(!), and almost always they have some raki (tsicoudia).

Some shape them into rings or fanciful twists, but the sesame makes them pretty enough. I think their virtue is that you can make lots and lots of them in no time at all, because they will disappear quickly- not too sweet, not too rich, just fragrant, beguiling. A simple trick keeps them crumbly rather than tough or hard. If you never bake, these area good start-mix with your hands, no tricky shapes, and makes a ton for your minimal effort. Perfect for making with kids.

We will need:

700 g/ 6 C flour

1 1/2 tsp/ baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp flaky sea salt

200 g/ 1 C sugar

Finely grated orange zest

3 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

240 ml/ 1 C good olive oil

200 ml/ 3/4 C fresh orange juice, plus a couple shots of raki (or vodka), more if you like. The raki burns off in the oven, evaporating, leaving the biscuits more airy and crisp.

Blend all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, rubbing the orange zest into the sugar a little as you do-

Add the oil only-

and mix with your hands until the oil is completely blended in- it will be crumbly This is the trick- the oil coats the flour grains, and keeps them from forming gluten strands when you add the liquid. 

The oil turns the flour this rich, green-tinged gold.

Now go ahead and mix in the juice and raki with your fingers, until it makes a dough that just holds together. 

Take large handfuls and shape them into flat logs. Dampen the outsides with water, and roll them to coat them completely in sesame seeds. The seeds stick easily to the damp log.

You will probably need 2 baking sheets for all the logs- I usually get about 12 logs. Now slice them on the diagonal like you are making biscotti, and give them a little space- they puff. Don't be very careful- they are a rustic shape.

Bake them at 170 C/350 f for almost a half an hour- they will have puffed, and may be a little soft still when you remove them form the oven but they will crisp as they cool.No need to use baking paper or even oil the baking sheet, but you may need to loosen a couple of them with a spatula.

Unlike most cookies, these are not better hot, and in fact are not even very god hot or freshly baked- give them an hour for the flavors to settle.

Read More »

Lunch Box of Perfection

I adore the people of the public high school my younger daughter (the one who got locked out of the house by accident in the incident that inspired the Pavlova of Guilt) goes to. As the school year is at an end I wanted to go by and wish them a happy summer and bring a box of a successful batch of cookies.

Oatmeal-raisin cookies sound like a very basic thing and they should be, but I had never quite found a recipe that gave me my personal ideal- not too sweet, soft and tender with just a little chew to it, and a gentle balanced flavor that makes them easy to eat many of- delicious, comforting, and a little like food.  I realized in the name-day cookie experiment for Charlene (our older daughter). (If you are not in the Mediterranean, you may not know this custom- it's brilliant. The Saint for whom one is named has a holiday, and everyone sharing that name celebrates on that day. So central is this social device that one would take out an advertisement in the paper in smaller cities if one were not receiving visitors on that day. In Athens, the names celebrating each day are announced in the metro! It's a hospitable region of the world; when it is your name day, you offer everyone- classmates, co-workers- a treat). These were great- just the classic toll house cookie recipe minus a little flour and with lots of oats. I thought they would be even better in the classic combination: oatmeal raisin, exploiting the raisin's affinity for rum.

Everything we need

Oatmeal-(rum) raisin cookies:

1 C/250 g butter (I used salted butter, so I did not add salt)

3/4 C/ 150 g brown sugar

1/2 C/ 100 g white sugar

some vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp/ 5 ml baking soda

1 tsp./ 5 ml salt (if you are using unsalted butter)

1/2 C / 50 g whole wheat pastry flour (Why? For the rich flavor!)

1 C /100 g white flour

2 1/2 C / 250 g oats

1/2 C dark raisins

2 T rum

cinnamon to taste

Heat the oven to 350 F/170 C, and line 2 baking sheets with non-stick parchment.

Put the raisins in a small glass dish and microwave them with the rum on low power for a minute- they will absorb it nicely!

Then cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the eggs and vanilla, and then the flours with salt and baking soda. Last stir in the oats and the rum-soaked raisins, with cinnamon to taste (1/2 tsp.?). I usually like a pronounced cinnamon flavor, but the balance of the butter and the salt and the brown sugar and the rum is wonderful- the rum adds a nice mid-mouth depth- and you won't want to cover that up.

Place on the baking sheet like this:

(the oreo-sized cookie is for spacing and scale)

Now the tricky part- put them in, set the timer for 5 or 6 minutes, then switch sheets top to bottom. Time another 4 minutes or so, then check often- they should look baked, with dry tops, but hardly any color taken at all. Here is the top and bottom side of a perfect batch:

See how the bottom (on the right) is hardly darker than the top of the cookie? That is what you want- baked, but just- it should need to set up on the cookie sheet for a minute before you can even remove it with a spatula. They will continue to set as they cool.

Of course, if you let them turn golden like a regular cookie, they will just be regular oatmeal-raisin cookies (albeit with that base-note of rum), For me the delight is in their tender softness and hint of chewiness (If I were going for crisp, I would make oatmeal-walnut, or oatmeal-coconut- something that lends itself to a little snap)- everything the raisin underscores.

This is a perfect school snack, or the perfect snack to bring to a school. I made a double batch (twice the amounts listed) and that made 7 dozen nice-sized ones- one big box and lots left over (some for the kids at the coffee roaster downstairs I shop from because they keep asking what I am making with all the oats).

Read More »