'Farm - bread' cookies

I tasted these cookies for the first at a small local food exhibition/competition. Most of the foods displayed there were typical Slovene ‘farm’ food. And these ‘farm - bread cookies’ were among them. They looked exactly like little farm baked brown breads with nice cracks on top and dusted with flour, and hence the name. They were delicious, and I wanted to have the recipe so badly. Blaž’s grandma and mama did not know it. So, when we went to Blaž’s aunt’s place last weekend, I asked her if she knows. And she did!! She had got the recipe in some booklet that came with newspaper during Christmas one year with recipes of cookies and cakes, and had made it before. The cookies take very little time to prepare and bake. A clean simple recipe it is. They look so tempting. And taste so wonderful. The outside is very crunchy, and then inside, the flavors melt in the mouth. An interesting combination of textures, crunch, and melting flavors these cookies are.

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

(Makes ~50)

3 egg yolks

250g coconut flour

120g chocolate powder

120g ground walnut

3 egg whites

200g sugar powder

For coating: 100g sugar powder

METHOD:

1.      Mix well the egg yolks, coconut flour, ground walnut and chocolate powder.

2.      Beat the egg whites to form hard peaks. While beating, slowly add the sugar powder.

3.      Gently fold the beaten egg white into the coconut flour mix to form a uniform mass.

4.      With wet hand make little balls (~2cm) and roll them in sugar powder.

5.      Bake in pre-heated oven at 175°C for around 15 minutes (on the middle rack). While baking, the cookies will crack like farm-made bread.

6.      After cooling, they should be crunchy outside and soft inside.

Walnut cookies

I have been thinking to write about these awesome and simple cookies for some time now. These walnut cookies are my favorite. I can eat tens of them together. I had it for the first time when Blaž’s grandmother made and instantly fell in love with it. The crispiness, taste of walnuts, sweetish taste of vanilla sugar, all simply melts in the mouth. And it is such simple to make!! One can give any shape, but the classic horse-show shape is my favorite. With a layer of homemade marmalade in between it can form another delicious combination. These old classic grandmother recipes are forever.

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:
(Makes a box full)

250g flour
100g walnut flour
100g sugar
1sp vanilla sugar
150g butter
1 egg
Vanilla sugar powder

METHOD:

1. Mix everything to form uniform dough.
2. Wrap it and keep in fridge for 15 minutes.
3. Pinch off small balls from the dough, roll it over palm and bend to give a horse-show shape. Use flour in this step to avoid stickiness if any.
4. Preheat oven at 200°C and bake in batches until the cookies turn light golden. It takes around 15 minutes.
5. After taking out from oven, dust with vanilla sugar while still hot and remove into a box carefully. Take care, as while hot the cookies are quite delicate.

NOTE:
You can make cookies in pairs of circles with a hole in one of the cookies in a pair. After baking, add a little marmalade of your choice on the base cookie and cover it with the one with hole. Dust with vanilla sugar.
The walnut power should be ‘airy’ and not compact or sticky. It is best to get it from store as simple grinding will take the oil out and make it sticky and clumpy.