How about a few holiday classics..but the baklava is too much

Cookie week continues into day three  Today our baker did some studying to come up with her selections. Cookies are not part of the holiday tradition in Istanbul so perhaps a little research was in order. She came up with two kinds that were apropos for the holiday season.

I only do this for Cookie Week

Classic Holiday Cookies very well presented

Great looking pinwheels

Almond cookies with orange

The first were almond cookies with some orange rind.  These are good buttery cookies with ground up almonds that are dipped and rolled in powdered sugar after baking. The ground nuts in addition to the flour makes them lighter though they can be a bit on the dry side.  This makes them go very well with coffee or tea.  You have to be careful eating them so as not to breathe in the powdered sugar leaving you coughing uncontrollably as happened with one of our cookie consumers.  There should almost be a disclaimer for everything covered with powdered sugar - or powdered cocoa for that matter - about breathing in the powdery stuff. Hell, they warn us about everything else.

The daily selection!

The second selection was vanilla chocolate pinwheel cookies. These are made by making two cookie doughs - vanilla and chocolate obviously - and the cutting them into matching size rectangles. You then place the chocolate on top of the vanilla so that the edges are aligned and then roll the whole thing up into a cylinder. As you cut the cylinder from the ends you get the pinwheel effect. Bake and you are done!  They came out looking very professional and our baker stated that was because she was very precise about lining up the two rectangles. These are not very sweet,  once again not a moist cookie and bigger than a lot tend to be. "Substantial" as one person described them. They were certainly good, however, and also went very well with coffee or tea.  And of course someone had to find some way to have fun with the pinwheels....

Fun with the pinwheels

Someone was also nice enough to bring in a selection of baklava. Unfortunately it did not fit the homemade theme of cookie week so we put off serving it until today.   Since everyone was focusing on the cookies we didn't eat any of it. We were concerned about how long it would keep and were assured it could be kept around. Nonetheless we decided it would be best served up with morning coffee the next day on a first come first serve basis. It disappeared quickly!

More than we could handle

Great selection of baklava treats

This will be great for coffee tomorrow!