My mother's side of the family is one hundred percent Albanian and making traditional Albanian food is something that has become very important to me and these cookies are no exception. I love making these simple twist cookies. I can remember my grandmother making these and having them at family gatherings.
As a kid I liked these cookies because they were a light buttery-lemon cookie. Even when I was younger I preferred simple tasting baked goods- pound cake, plain donuts- these were always some of my favorites. Now I enjoy the simplicity of the cookie and dunking them in my coffee. I know other Eastern European countries make similar cookies, and it would be easy to make variations on these by adding different flavoring or topping with a different glaze, but this is my families recipe and I like sticking to tradition.
Ingredients
Cookies
½ lb butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
6 cups flour, sifted
5 tsp. baking powder
5 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon extract
Topping
1 tbsp water
1 egg yolk beaten
Preheat oven to 370 degrees. Slightly grease baking sheet or use parchment paper.
Cream sugar and butter until light. Add eggs and beat well. Slowly add the flour alternating with the vanilla and lemon extract until blended. Knead slightly to form soft dough. Pinch off about one tablespoon of dough at a time. Roll with your hands into a rope about 6 inches. Put together the tow ends and twist. Place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Prepare topping by mixing egg yolk with water. Using a pastry brush, coat prepared dough with topping. Bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly brown.
2 comments:
These look really good. I love the sound of these. I am always drawn to cookies that seem like they will be great with coffee and anything with lemon is a winner with my taste buds.
Beautiful cookies! Traditional treats are always the best!
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