Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Chocolate chip walnut cookies

  We have all had that one dish in a restaurant or a bakery in our home city or while traveling where a dish just simply knocks your socks off. When the creativity of the chef or the baker shines through and you simply can’t help but wonder if you can recreate the dish at home. Some of those experiments sometimes become nearly as good as the original and you feel like you cracked the code on something magical.   The Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookies were one such thing for me. And I am not a cookie lover, and …

Gevulde Speculaas – Dutch Spiced Cookies

Gevulde Speculaas

Gevulde Speculaas – Dutch spiced cookies filled with a sweet almond mixture. These spiced cookies are so much a part of the ancient spice-routes. I am posting these as part of the #creativecookieexchange for Holiday Baking. Spices were a sign of affluence and a chance to make lots of money in the 16th century. The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands established the Dutch East India Company around 1600 to gain monopoly over the spice trade. The trade of spices, rubber, tobacco, coffee, sugar, tea etc from Dutch India contributed significantly to the growth and prosperity of the company and …

Four Ingredient Healthy Cookies

Four Ingredient Healthy Cookies

  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a gym rat. It’s not that I am lazy. I am on the move all day, every day. My job requires me to stand non stop for 8 + hours. You can’t cook or teach while sitting, can you?  Don’t get me wrong. I do love to workout, but it has to be on my terms. When I want it and Where I want it. I don’t usually like going for a group workout. I find the process intimidating. I mean seriously, I can barely drag myself to the gym …

Almond Linzer Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Almond Linzer Cookies

The Linzer cookies are named after the town from where they originated, Linz in Austria.  The name, Linzer, came from Linzertorte, which is an Austrian torte/tart with a lattice top and blackcurrant jam filling. Created in the 17th century,  the Linzer Torte is the world’s oldest torte recipe.  The ingredient that distinguishes tortes is that they use nuts rather than flour as part of the main ingredient. The Linzer cookies traditionally use a raspberry jam filling.   This month our Creative Cookie Exchange  celebrated Nuts in Cookies! Because they are delightful and a tradition all over the world. And since Linzer cookies …

Henna Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Henna cookies

Hi you guys! Yes, I am back. It’s been a while since I blogged and what better way to get right back in than with some delicious sugar cookies dressed up in Henna motifs. These henna cookies are in fact my first try with doing anything remotely artistic. I have never been a very artsy person. So doing these cookies was a huge deal for me because I needed to see for myself if :- 1)  I would have the patience to sit through a few steps of decorating  and 2) if I could finally dabble in the art of …

Black Forest Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Fudgy Chocolate and Cherry cookies

  I must have an insanity gene somewhere. It’s often hidden under various guises but at times I see it raising its head. Why else would I take my teen’s favorite favorite favorite cookies and turn them into black forest cookies? I know she likes her chocolate cookies to be left alone! I know because she has told me this on many occasions when I don’t leave chocolate cookies alone. But what can you do against the power of the insanity gene when it threatens to take over? It took over! The insanity that is. I love black forest cake. …