Umpleby's Bakery & Café

Day 9 Orange Hazelnut Crescent We continue our exploration of non-round/ non-ball cookies with another shape – the crescent.  Speaking of crescents, do you know the origin of the croissant and why it is shaped the way it is?  Well, it originated in Budapest in 1686 when the Turks were besieging the city.  Damn those Turks! To reach the centre of the town, they dug underground passages. Bakers, working during the night, heard the noise made by the Turks and gave the alarm.  The assailants were repulsed and the bakers who had saved the city were granted the honor of making a special pastry made in the form of a crescent in memory of the emblem on the Ottoman flag.   That means this year the croissant is celebrating the 325th anniversary of its origin.  Happy Birthday Croissant!  I’ve enjoyed making you for the past 12 years.

But now back to today’s cookie.  We welcome back nuts to the recipe, this time ground hazelnuts.  Add some orange zest, give it that venerable crescent shape and finally decorate with some mighty fine chocolate.  What a tasty cookie!

Day 8 The Chocolate Dipped Shortbread  After a long hiatus we welcome back this favorite for the Holiday Season.   The secret to the delicate crunch of this amazing cookie is that the recipe calls for some rice flour as well as AP flour.  To those who don’t know what AP stands for – if you see it in front of flour it means “all purpose”.  As opposed to standing for Associated Press or Advanced Placement or Audio Precision or Alternative Press or ….  you get the idea.  Another great thing is that we dip them in some very fine chocolate.  And nothing says Christmas like dipping stuff in chocolate. Remember the macaroons from day 6 ?  Dip those in chocolate and you have your self another completely new cookie.  ( I’m not going to cheat though and slip that cookie in the 24 day count)  Another great thing about this cookie is its shape.  It’s piped with a star tip giving it the nice match- stick-look.  And that’s great when you want a diversified cookie platter.  Who wants a tray of just round cookies or ball shaped cookies?  You need a few trylons to go with all those perispheres.

Day 7 The Peanut Butter  Here is another cookie that arguably isn’t Christmas-y.  However, what I like about it is that it brings a unique flavor and look to the cookie tray.  One look at those cross hatch marks on the top and you know it is a PB (as a personal preference I like using a 3- prong fork over a 4 pronger)

And for the peanut butter lovers out there this is the best cookie to have for the season.  Sandwich two of them together with some more peanut butter and you get that huge Girl Scout cookie seller – the savannah.  Coming tomorrow – the return of the prodigal cookie…..