August 09, 2006

Brussels cookies

I made these darling little cookies for a very young friend of mine who is to be christened this Saturday. Sadly I will miss it because I have to work, but I promised her mother to bake something, just like I did for her older daughter two years ago. Back then it was cinnamon rolls, now I wanted to try and make something really sweet, and made this design up. The recipe itself is a Swedish classic, Brysselkex - Brussels cookies. It is common to colour the caster sugar you roll them in, though maybe not bright pink which is what I chose. I also wanted to decorate them in some cute way and found a jar of sugar teddy bears, in the shop, blue and pink. I ate the blue ones and put the pink on top of the cookies.

Actually I am not that good at baking these kind of cookies! I always put them too close to each other on the baking tray so they get stuck in each other, or break them, and above all not one is similar to another. My grandmother has a wonderful expression for this - "church people" That means that the cookies looks like a gathering of people in the church, all are different! Well, this time I am almost happy with them. I would be out in the kitchen baking a new batch If I were a perfectionist but then I am not.

For once I don´t have to translate the recipe since I own an English version of the Swedish classic Seven kinds of cookies with 300 recipes!

Brysselkex
Approx. 50

450-500 ml plain flour
100 ml caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 grams butter or margarine (but I never use margarine)
Garnish: about 200 ml caster sugar and a few drops food colouring if you feel like it. And approx. 50 sugar teddy bears (optional)

Cut the butter in cubes and work into the other ingredients. I used a food processor.
Form into 4 cm thick ropes, as round as possible, and roll them in sugar
Cover and let it sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour
Cut into pieces and put on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, not too close together!
Bake in the middle of the oven in 175C/350F for about 10 minutes
Transfer them onto the kitchen counter, I simply slipped the whole parchment off the baking sheet, and let them cool completely until you handle them

5 comments:

Rachael Narins said...

Those are just adorable. Lovely!

Chanita Harel חני הראל said...

very nice to meet your Blog, thank you :)

Anonymous said...

I think I would really enjoy your grandmother! What a wonderful expression "church people" - perfect.

G said...

That description "church people" is why I love to read blogs.

Clivia said...

Thank you, all! The christening was this Saturday and I have heard several reports that the cookies went down well with all the guests!