@pavlova had posted about the recipe from A Whisper of Cardamom:
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I settled on Samin Nosrat’s cookies but added ground pistachios to it, a la the previous recipe from
A Whisper of Cardamom. Nosrat’s have much better texture, are not so fragile and taste great. If you need to avoid eggs for vegan eaters, try the first recipe. Let me know if you find a solution to make them less fragile.
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Different cookies achieve different things.
There is an Indian biscuit called Nankhatai that is essentially a cardamom shortbread, soft and buttery (using ghee, not butter) and happens to be eggless. It’s probably my favorite cookie. You may enjoy it as another variation.
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looks great
I was just comparing this to the crazy cake / wacky cake before starting, and it’s almost identical other than one uses baking powder and the other baking soda and vinegar.
Going to give it a shot with the milk soak, to take to friends tomorrow as a test run.
(Crazy cake is always better day 2 because of the oil I think, at least when I have used it as a base for birthday cakes.)
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Well, well, well. Guess who’s getting very good at baking doorstops.
I gave the quinoa / ww bread another go, blooming the yeast first. Yes, the old yeast is not in great shape. So I added some new yeast from a little packet – boom! Frothy.
Then I decided to cold prove it overnight. I don’t know whether I am just completely out of practice, or didn’t let it rest enough at room temp, or the ww and quinoa are messing with the situation, but I had another not great outcome. I mean, it’s not as bad as the last – there are actually holes in the bread and it’s lighter, but it’s not what it should be.
Fortunately I’m only using 1 cup of flour at a go (so I don’t eat aaaallll the bread when I’m trying to cut back).
Have to go back to basics next with an all-white loaf (with new yeast)!
ETA: Now that I had some toasted, I should be less critical – it’s very flavorful, and firm like the flax quinoa bread from Whole Foods that was the inspiration, but not heavy / dense the way last week’s was (should have been obvious to me given the holes).
.
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These sound delicious. I am not much of a cookie baker, but I love the delicate texture of the originals I made. Egg would change things and I don’t think it belongs in shortbread. Am now craving pistachio cardamom shortbread, and luckily a friend just brought me some pistachios from Sicily.
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You may like Nankhatai – they have a soft crumb; the ones I grew up with melted in your mouth!
(I don’t believe they had any semolina in them, it was added in later versions because it can act as a binder and makes the biscuit less prone to fall apart. The version my great grandmother baked at home in a sand “oven” was apparently made of ghee and sugar, creamed by the palm of her hand until fluffy, plus maida / refined flour, and cardamom for flavor, that’s all.)
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Do you store your yeast in the freezer? A long time ago on Chowhound, someone advised to keep it there and I have done that ever since. It doesn’t seem to go bad.
Yes, the bag is in the freezer, and I have a tiny jar in the fridge. But I haven’t baked bread in a very long time, so the fridge stuff seems to died off.
I’ve always kept mine well sealed in the freezer … several years.
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I have been watching this discussion with interest. Many years ago, I had pistachio shortbread cookies on a trip to Auckland, New Zealand, that I haven’t been able to forget (or replicate). I might have to try both of these recipes (love cardamom, too). Thanks for posting about these!
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The wait for the new Nosrat book is, as my kids would say, hella long from my library. Thanks for posting the recipe!
Pullman loaf style bread, this is a mini, only four inches. The recipe is a smaller version of sourdough discard hamburger buns. The website is the same as the one @Stef_bakes had posted for the delicious sourdough dinner rolls (amybakesbread),
I’m expecting this to be equally delicious.
@Saregama …you might be interested in this size.
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Oh good idea. I will try this in my pullman loaf put full size.
Nutmeg Slices. This is a Swedish recipe.
These are like shortbread but much easier to make. Butter, brown sugar, flour, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon are the ingredients. Dough is divided into 4 pieces. Rolled and flatend, marked with a fork. Baked and then sliced. I refuse to say it smelled like Christmas in my kitchen. Recipe is from Fika by Anna Brones & Johanna Kindvall
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The cookies look great. The book gets some seriously good reviews. Do you recommend it for the casual baker?
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I forgot. Here is the recipe
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Let me look thru the book and I will let you know what i baked. I think it was baking book of the month with Chowhound.
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