Chicken Shawarma - grill or Instant Pot

This recipe came about because after doing Weight Watchers for a while, I was bored with all the ways I normally make chicken. My go-to chicken marinade has been a balsamic & soy sauce concoction that my husband turned me on to but after months of eating so much chicken we were bored with it and needed to try something new.

With that in mind, I decided to try chicken shawarma and making a homemade tzatziki sauce.

I hadn't made tzatziki before but all of the store-bought tzatziki I had tried was disgusting. It was nothing like the delicious yogurt sauce our amazing local Mediterranean Deli had! So I thought I would give it a try and it was surprisingly easy and delicious. I see a lot of tzatziki sauce in my future.

To get a good flavor, I suggest to marinate the chicken at least 4 hours but you can do overnight or 24 hours if you have the time. The longer you marinate, the better the flavor!

Ingredients
3 large chicken breasts (about 2.5 lbs)
1 cup of fat free chicken broth (for Instant Pot only)

Marinade
3 Tb olive oil
Juice of one lemon, freshly squeezed
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tsp table salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika, smoked or Hungarian recomended
1/2 tsp chili powder
fresh ground pepper to taste
2 pinches of ground cinnamon

Tzatziki sauce
1 cup of plain, fat free Greek yogurt
1 Persian cucumber or 1/3 of a regular cucumber
Juice of half a lemon, freshly squeezed
1/2 tsp table salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp of dill weed (or to taste)

Directions:
Slice the chicken breasts into long strips, I got approximately 10-11 strips from the 3 breasts. Place the strips of chicken a Tupperware container or gallon sized Ziploc bag. Using a garlic press, mince the fresh garlic and add to the chicken. Add the remaining marinade ingredients to the container, toss the chicken to coat thoroughly and allow the chicken to marinate for at least 4 hours. Overnight or 24 hours is recommended.

For the Instant Pot:
Place 1 cup of fat free chicken broth in the bottom of the IP. Place the trivet in the bottom of the pot and place the chicken strips on top of the trivet. Lock the lid in place and close the vent. Set the IP to high pressure, 10 minutes. When the cooking cycle completes, quick release the pressure and serve.

For the grill:

Mixed tzatziki, yum!

On a heated grill, grill the chicken strips until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 165 degrees, approximately 10 minutes per side and serve.

For the Tzatziki sauce:
Finely dice or grate the cucumber and add to a small bowl. Add all of the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly.


I like 1/4 tsp of dill to 1 cup of tzatziki but you might need to experiment a little to see how much you like. Dill has a strong flavor, so tread lightly! My husband happens to love dill and he always adds more to his sauce, you might like more too!

The grilled version had a nice char on it and was very crispy but I when it was reheated it was little drier also. The IP version was more moist and juicy. If you wanted it to have the char, you could broil it for a few minutes or sear it after it's cooked but it's really good straight from the Instant Pot!

For Weight Watchers, I count 1 point for each strip of chicken for the olive oil in the marinade. The Tzatziki is zero points!

This blog is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. Points were calculated in July 2018 on the Weight Watchers Freestyle program. This post main contain affiliate links, if you make a purchase using one of these links this blog may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Pad See Ewe - the best EVER Thai dish

If you have ever eaten take out with me, you know that I have a strong preference for Asian food, both Thai and Chinese. Normally, I don't see the appeal in getting take out that I could make myself at home and my common refrain is "yeah, but that is just as sandwich."

I used to get Thai almost weekly with one of my friends. When I lived in DC, I also had the "Pad See Ewe Summer" where myself and a few other Pad See Ewe (PSE) enthusiasts went to many, many Thai restaurants in the District to see which one made the best PSE.

This delectable dish, goes by many different spellings - Pad Si Ew & Pad See Ewe being the most common. If you haven't tried it yet, RUN do not WALK to your nearest Thai restaurant. When you are totally hooked, come back here and we will try to make it at home together.

A word of warning, PSE noodles are the great white whale of ingredients. At least they have been for me, I have literally gone to 3-4 Asian groceries and had an unsuccessful Amazon search before I finally found them at a massive Asian Market called Li Ming's in Durham, NC, that I had been meaning to visit for the last year, for the express purpose of finding PSE noodles. Now that I know they have have them I will definitely be back.

Li Ming's also carries what is definitely the largest selection of soy sauce I have ever seen. I am not even nearly culturally equipped enough to shop at this store; I can only identify uses for about a 1/2 of the items they carry.

But the point is, if you cannot find the fresh flat rice noodles, you can substitute dried rice noodles. Sometimes, you gotta make it work.

My weekly Thai food eating friend, sent me a PSE recipe she made a few weeks ago which spurred on my desire to go to Li Ming's. I like to have "saucy" and "eggy" PSE, so I made a few alterations, I have put the recipe I used below with my alterations.

PSE

• 1 head broccoli, chopped
• 3 tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
• 2 eggs
• 1 lb Fresh Flat Rice Noodles
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 6 tablespoons regular Soy Sauce
• 2 tablespoon sugar  
• 1/2 lb, your protein of choice, sliced thin or extra veggies
• 2 tablespoon olive or other cooking oil

If your fresh flat rice noodles are not pre-cut, cut them into strips of 1 inch wide. Chop your broccoli (Chinese or regular) into pieces. Heat a wok or large skillet to high heat and then add 2 tablespoons of oil. Drop in the chopped garlic and stir. Add your protein and saute to cook. While your protein cooks, mix your soy sauces and sugar together in a bowl on the side. When your protein is almost fully cooked, add your sliced rice noodles and pour you sauce over it, stir it together.

Push your noodles to the side, clearing a space to drop in your eggs. Put the eggs into the open space and scramble them until fully cooked, then mix them in with the noodles. Add broccoli and stir together. Let it heat in the pan for a few minutes to cook the broccoli and give yourself a little char on the noodles. PSE is not normally spicy, but if you want a little kick, add some cayenne pepper now.

The verdict:
Even with increasing the amount of sauce, I still felt it could have been saucier, so I'll need to work on that. I think this sauce isn't quite right also, it's good and it's close but it's not perfect. I might need a little fish sauce or oyster sauce, or something. I'm not quite sure yet, I'll keep trying! I also, did not include this in my recipe but I made mine vegetarian, so I added some cabbage and bean sprouts I had. Normally, I like my PSE with chicken but the veggies were good too! They soaked up the sauce nicely.

It was also surprisingly quick to make! I will definitely be making this again and keep fine tuning the sauce as I go.

Mofongo

One reason I haven't posted in a while, is that I was on vacation last week! I went to Puerto Rico with a friend and have come back very tan. You might be wondering, what are the tasty things to eat in Puerto Rico? Good question!

In the cab from the airport, my friend and I had the fortune to have a very dynamic driver. Not only did he point out all of the interesting sites we passed but he also recommended multiple restaurants. He told us the typical dish from Puerto Rico is monfongo - green (unripe) plantains mashed and stuffed with some kind of meat. You can stuff it with pork, chicken, beef or seafood. We went to one of the restaurants he recommended, called Raices, which had a whole mofongo menu.

I had mofongo with fried pork, delicious!

Schnitzel

One of the most delicious and simultaneously artery clogging meals I've ever eaten was schnitzel with hollandaise sauce at a restaurant in Berlin. Tasty. Schnitzel is traditionally a veal cutlet rolled and pounded flat, breaded and pan-fried. It is not normally coated with butter and cream sauces, that was a slightly overkill. While schnitzel was originally veal, it is often now made with pork.

I love schnitzel. A friend of mine, who shares my love of schnitzel was recently visiting and were were talking schnitzel, it got me in the mood. I had never made it, nor had my friend so we dove in! Alright, I did not really let my friend do anything, which slightly irritated him I think. I get my kitchen control-freak tendencies from my mother.

I don't eat veal for ethical reasons, so we made pork schnitzel. I decided to buy some thin cut pork chops, since they were already thin we did not have to work much to roll them out. If you need to do so, you'll want them to be about a 1/4 inch thick before frying. I followed this recipe, the note saying it was written by a German sold me!

The schnitzel were delicious! I served them with salad and sweet potato fries. My friend and I ate all of them, no leftovers. However, we both agreed that paprika would make them better. Paprika is a staple spice in lots of German recipes. Yum.

Sensational Summer Sangria

Sangria is amazing on a hot summer day - fruity, refreshing and sinful. It'll also get you schnokered.

This isn't exactly your classic sangria but it's a delicious flavor blend that I dare you not to love. It was a big hit at my last BBQ at least, even the more "macho" attendees were forgoing the iced beer in favor of this fruity fare.

Sensational Summer Sangria
1 bottle red wine (something not too dry and not too pricey)
32 oz citrus flavored sparkling water (I used tangerine-lime flavor)
4-6 shots of tequila (or a little more or a little less)
1 lemon
2 orange

Pour the wine, sparkling water and tequila in a punch bowl. Slice lemon and oranges, squeeze their juice into the bowl and toss them in.

After I made the first batch and had a sample glass, I immediately left for the liquor store to buy more tequila because I knew there would a second batch needed. Typically sangria would be a rum drink but I feel that tequila is in the "tropical family" and therefore acceptable. The flavored water replaces the juice some recipes call for but adds a nice fizz, which is remarkably refreshing on a hot day.

Salut!

3-day weekend = cooking ambition

As memorial day weekend approached, all I could think about was food. What was I going to make on this extra day free from work that I would normally never have time for? I was browsing around on Simply Recipes when the answer found me: foccacia. When on Earth would I ever have time to hang around and wait for bread to rise again? Probably never.

This is the first time I've ever made bread. Do I choose something simple? Nope. I have to choose some complicated Italian bread that I'm not even sure I pronounce right.

The directions from Simply Recipes are below, or click on the link to see some step by step photos.

For my first time making bread, I think this was a huge success. I should have probably used more herbs, it seemed like a lot of rosemary at the time but the finished product could have used more. Also, you might want to think about halving this recipe, that means you'll be using half a yeast packet but it might be a good idea anyway. There was so much bread. I ate tons of it while it was still warm. I gave it to neighbors. I might make croutons with some of it. There was so much!

Directions (from Simply Recipes)

This recipe makes enough for 2 good-sized loaves. Or you can do what we've done, which is take 2/3 of the dough and bake it in a 9x15-inch baking pan, and the remaining third of the dough free-form on a baking sheet. You can make it all in free-form loaves that look like puffy pizzas, or shape them into casseroles or cake pans – there are no absolutes on the shape of this bread. The bread takes on the flavor of the olive oil so use a good quality one. Like most breads, this focaccia freezes well. You can also slice several day old focaccia bread and toast it, serving it with butter and/or honey.
Ingredients:

* 1 package dry yeast
* 1/3 cup warm water, about 100 degrees
* 2 1/4 cups tepid water
* 2 Tbsp good quality olive oil, plus more for the pan and to paint on top of the bread
* 3 cups bread flour
* 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 Tbsp salt, plus coarse salt (fleur de sel if you have it, otherwise Kosher salt) for sprinkling over the top
* 2-3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary (can use sage or other herbs such as thyme or oregano, but whatever herb you use, do use fresh herbs, do not use dried)

1 Stir the yeast into the 1/3 cup of slightly warm-to-the-touch water and let it rest for 10 minutes.
2 In a large bowl, pour in 2 1/4 cups of tepid water and 2 tablespoons olive oil. After the yeast has rested for 10 minutes and has begun to froth, pour it into the water-oil mixture.
3 Whisk in 2 cups of flour (either the bread flour or the all purpose, at this stage it doesn't matter which) and the tablespoon of salt. Add the rosemary. Then, cup by cup, whisk in the rest of the flour (both the bread flour and all purpose). As the mixture goes from a batter to a thick dough, you'll want to switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon. By the time you get to the last cup of flour, you will be able to work the dough with your hands. Begin to knead it in the bowl – try to incorporate all the flour stuck to the sides and bottom of the bowl as you begin kneading. Once the bowl is pretty clean, turn the dough out onto a board and knead it well for 8 minutes. You might need some extra flour if the dough is sticky.
Note that a KitchenAid mixer (or some other brand of upright electric mixer) works well for the mixing and kneading of the bread dough. About the time you add the last cup of flour you'll want to switch from the standard mixer attachment to the dough hook attachment. Just knead the dough using the dough hook on low speed for 8 minutes. If after a few minutes the dough is still a little sticky, add a little sprinkling of flour to it.
4 In a large clean bowl, pour in about a tablespoon of oil and put the dough on top of it. Spread the oil all over the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise (in a relatively warm spot or at room temp) for an hour and a half.
5 Spread a little olive oil in your baking pan or baking sheet (will make it easier to remove the bread). Place the dough in your baking pans or form it into free-form rounds on a baking sheet. This recipe will do two nice-sized loaves or one big one and a little one. Cover the breads and set aside for another 30 minutes.
6 Dimple the breads with your thumb. Push in to about the end of your thumbnail, roughly 1/2-inch. Cover again and leave it to rise for its final rise, about 2 hours.
7 With 30 minutes to go before the rise finishes, preheat your oven to 400°F. If you have a pizza stone put it in.
8 Once the dough has done its final rise, gently paint the top with olive oil – as much as you want. Then sprinkle the coarse salt on top from about a foot over the bread; this lets the salt spread out better on its way down and helps reduce clumps of salt.
9 Put the bread in the oven. If you are doing free-form breads, put it right on the pizza stone. Bake for a total of 20-25 minutes. If you have a water spritzer bottle, spritz a little water in the oven right before you put the bread in to create steam, and then a couple of times while the bread is baking.
When the bread comes out of the oven, turn it out onto a rack within 3-5 minutes; this way you'll keep the bottom of the bread crispy. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes before eating.
Makes a large loaf and a small loaf of 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. How much will this serve? Easily a dozen, but it’s so good you might find yourself eating more than you expect.

Spanish Chorizo in DC!

This weekend I went to Eastern Market near my new place in DC and what did I find? But a large selection of Chorizo, including the Spanish variety.

It was $9.99/lb. I got two fairly decent size links for $3.50. I also asked if they had any Fuet, but they don't carry it. Too bad. I suppose I will have to be happy with what I found.

The Chorizo seems to be off good quality and prepared fresh. I'm not sure if it's local or imported but I have a hunch that it was made in the US in the "Spanish style." Next time, I will ask. There were actually two meat sellers that had Chorizo at the market, I might try the other one the next but honestly, the product looked the same. One of them was also selling Lomo, another delicious Spanish pork product.

And the taste? I had one quick slice last night and it was pretty tasty. I'm going to reserve judgment until I have sampled it thoroughly.

Look for my full write-up on Eastern Market later this week (I hope).

Scallops tartare

Did you know you can eat scallops raw? I had no idea! My other big food-related adventure in Normandy was a cooking demonstration on several different ways to prepare the local scallops, one of which was scallops tartare. While I had some initial reservations about eating a raw scallop, I then thought, "what the hell, I'm in France and if anyone knows food, it's the French."

***Keep in mind I was in a scallop fishing region, during the scallop fishing season and these were very fresh scallops. Use caution should you decide to prepare scallops tartare.

Scallops Tartare

Fresh scallops
Soy sauce
Cider vinegar*
Shallot
Chives
Lemmon zest

*I'm assuming that this is produced with the regional cider, but I believe I've seen in it in grocery stores in the US also. I haven't checked yet.

Finely dice fresh scallops. Toss with 1 part soy sauce to 2 parts cider vinegar and lemon zest and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Garnish with chives and serve as an appetizer.

I enjoyed the raw scallops a lot but I think if I try to make them at home (I think I can get fresh scallops from the Maryland coast) I might try orange zest instead of lemon. I have notes on a few other scallop recipes that the chef showed us but to be honest, they don't make a whole lot of sense, if I can figure it out I will post on them later. You'll notice the photo is obviously of another one of the recipes and not the scallops tartare. It's also blurry because I took it on my camera phone. I will try to get it together should I be in France at a cooking demonstration again.

French food regulation

One of the things I did while visiting France was to take a trip to Normandy and watch a presentation about the regional products including camembert cheese and apple cider. I was struck by organized the French are regarding food production! Are you familiar with Geographic Indicators? Internationally, these are applied by the WTO to protect the integrity of food products particular to a specific regional tradition, ie Champagne only comes from Champagne and everything else is a "sparkling wine." In France, there are regulations about where a cow can eat if it's milk will be used to make camembert. If some renegade cow should escape and start eating grass from an area outside the cambembert region, its milk cannot be used to produce this particular cheese because that grass is different, so the milk will be different and change the taste of the cheese. Interesting huh? Camembert cheese is just an example, the same is true for wines, cider and a whole host of other French food products.

While listening to this presentation I was struck by how unorganized US food production seems in comparison, when it comes to producing quality products at least. At the same time, I'm not entirely sure that a cow eating grass a few miles away will really change the taste of the cheese all that much. However, at least you know what you are buying and where it came from. While this would limit the quantity that can be produced, after all only so many grapes can be grown in a season in Champagne, it would ensure that everything was produced at top quality.

Other interesting info on Camembert
*It takes 15 days to produce the cheese, mostly to let it dry.
*It is NOT pasteurized. The presenter took real issue with US food regulations requiring cheese to be pasteurized and in his opinion this is the reason for the lack of quality cheese in the US. I'm not sure this is the reason, but I can't deny that France has way better cheese.
*It takes 2.5 Liters (about 2.5 quarts) of milk to make 1 round of camembert cheese.
*Each ball of cheese must be put into a container individually to drain. Traditionally this was all done by hand but now it is sometimes mechanized.

Interesting notes on Cider ("cidre" in French) from Normandy
*Production is also governed by geographic identifiers and food regulation boards.
*There are 1000 different varieties of apple grown in the region and all can be used for cider.
* The cider is not distilled and about 5% alcohol.
* Distilling the cider once will make Portos (sp?) which is more alcoholic and the one I tried was also sweeter.
* Distilling the cider a second time will make calvados, an apple brandy from the Normandy region. The calvados was very sweet and much more alcoholic than either the cider or Portos. Aged calvados (10, 20, 40 years) is considered to be better but is much more expensive because as it ages it evaporates and you have less and less calvados in the barrel. You can mix two aging calvados' together but if they are not the same age, the final product is all the young age. For example, if you mix a 40 year calvados and a 10 year the final product is all a 10 year calvados.

My favorite was by far the cider. All the different kinds of cider I sampled were good but the best was a blackberry-apple blend.

It would be nice to see the quality artisan producers in the United States to become more organized, like those in France, and promote their products as regional specialties not just nationally, but internationally. While there are brands that do this now, it would nice to see more regulation regarding the quality of production in the US and less that encourages quantity (and overeating).

More culinary delights in Spain

I LOVE Spain. And yes, mostly for the food. What can I say, I'm a woman with limited interests. While in Paris, I was attending a conference for work but now I'm on holiday - a cheap one because work paid for the pricey flight, can you say bonus?

So I'm staying with a friend in Barcelona, whose flatmate is apparently an amature chef and made us an amazing dinner that I can't even begin to explain...if he spoke English or I Spanish, I'd ask him to explain. Tomorrow, I'm going to cook for them and after the fantastic dinner tonight, I'm a bit concerned. Will let you know how it goes...not even sure what I'm going to make....

Tonight, I was also treated to one of my favorite Spanish foods - chorizo. Chorizo is a Spanish type of sausage that isn't spicy but has something of a zip to it and can be sliced and eaten as an appetizer or cooked lightly as part of a main dish. It's tasty in omelets, pasta dishes and as a starter. Chorizo is just one of the many delightful pork products in Spain. Actually, if you aren't a pork-eater, probably not the best place for you to visit.

The flatmate of my friend is actually Catalan (Barcelona is in Catalonia) and when he heard me expounding on the delights of chorizo after my friend and I came back from the grocery story, promptly produced not only a Spanish chorizo but the regional Catalan version called fuet. I think I actually like the fuet better! If that's possible.

It is possible to purchase chorizo in the United States also, though it's much more expensive. I purchased a "good" (according to my friend) one at a local store in Barcelona for about 2 Euro ($3), which is significantly less that what I'd pay in the US for one of similar quality. Additionally, the ones in the US tend to taste a bit different because the regulations on processing meats are different and don't always allow for some of the traditional methods used for certain foods in Europe. (Look for an upcoming post on cheeses in France.)

There is also a wide range of Latin American varieties of chorizo available in the US at ethnic markets, though to be honest I haven't tried any of them. Anyone have any recommendations there? I imagine they are more economical. The Washington Post food section recently had an article on chorizo, see it here. It doesn't even mention chorizo from Spain really, something I considered to be an oversight considering Spain is the origin of chorizo, and focuses on Latin American varieties.

Ok, I'm off to bed, I have eating to do tomorrow.

Lots of eating in Paris!

Greetings from a chilly winter Paris!

You may have noticed posts have been virtually non-existent this month, there has been some cooking but no time to organize photos and write them up. They are coming, I promise. The reason for this lack of on blog entries, is because I'm currently in Paris. The Eiffel Tower is literally right outside my window. Ok, well it's somewhere in the city...I'm not sure where as I actually haven't seen it!

For the most part I've been holed up in a super swank hotel working and eating lots! The French do cheese and bread phenomenally! Cheese and bread are two things that are seriously lacking in the United States.

First, the cheeses in the United States tend to be quite bland - ultra-pasteurized and wrapped in plastic. This is not conducive to quality in my opinion. I wonder if it's because of the regulations for bacteria in the sales of dairy products due to health concerns. This is the reason at least that you are not allowed to bring cheese through customs into the United States.

It is possible to buy quality cheeses in the United States, if you are willing to pay an arm and a leg for them. It's a major area of lack in our cuisine. Though I do love a nice extra sharp cheddar.

France also does bread very well. White breads better than probably anywhere. (Germany has amazing dark breads.) It's all about freshness. You can buy fresh bread at bakeries all over the country everyday and very inexpensively. In fact, when you buy bread, especially baguette, you should eat it the same day. While this isn't very single girl-friendly, you can't argue with it from a quality aspect. Most bakeries and even grocery stores also allow you to buy half a loaf of bread which is amazing. The United States is largely lacking in fresh bakeries and the majority of bread has so many preservatives in it that it will keep for about two weeks.

Granted when living in the Netherlands, I was very irritated when my bread grew mold after only a few days because I had no chance to eat it! However, I appreciated the quality and freshness of the bread. You just can't argue with the taste!

So I have very limited internet access while in France, so more on some of the culinary delights later, right now that's all I have to say - the United States is seriously lacking in quality (reasonably priced) cheese and fresh breads. Le sigh.

Carne Português

Carne Português means "Portuguese Meat" and that's not what this dish is actually called. A Portuguese friend of mine taught me how to make this and told me the name in Portuguese, something Carne...yea no idea. If anyone knows, let me know!

In any case it's delicious and the leftovers attracted several comments around the kitchen at work. It's somewhat similar to meatloaf. Without further ado...

3/4-1lb ground beef (half beef and half turkey works too)
1-2 slices of bread
1 cup of milk
1-2 cups of wine
1-2 large potatoes
1/2 cup chopped each of 2-3 "stuffings" (suggestions: cheese, bacon pieces, bell peppers, spicy peppers, olives, onions)
salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Place bread in bowl and pour in milk, use your hands to mix the bread and milk together until the bread is saturated. Mix the bread, meat, salt, pepper and garlic together. Flaten meat out on a cutting board, you will eventually roll it up into a loaf.

Mix in the your chosen stuffings, this time I used turkey bacon, bell peppers and cheese. You can either mix them up in the meat so the small pieces are distributed or roll the meat around them to form a core. I mixed in the cheese and peppers but put the bacon in the middle. Roll the meat up and form into a loaf and place in baking pan.


Pour the wine over the roll and sprinkle additional salt and pepper on the top. Chop up potatoes and put in the wine around the meat roll. Bake at 400 degrees for 40-60 minutes until both the meat and potatoes are fully cooked. If it's not finished after 40 minutes, you can turn the oven up to 425 degrees.


The flavors in this dish are spectacular. The meat soaks up a nice flavor from the wine and the potatoes soak up both the wine and meat flavors. If you use red wine, they will turn pink. Delicioso!

*Note: This will be the last post from my current place, new year and cooking from a new kitchen!

Holiday Baking: Spitzbüben - My favorite cookies!

These are my favorite cookies. And a complete pain in the rear to make. I have only made them myself on rare occasion due to their aforementioned pain-in-the-rearness but my grandma makes them every year for the holidays. They taste like Christmas.

Spitzbüben are a traditional cookie that came from my family's German heritage, one of about 10 such recipes. I'm not exactly sure where in Germany the cookies come from, but I have seen them in the Bavaria region. See photo below of a Spitzbüben I bought at Galleria Kaufhof (a German department store) in München last summer. Yes I took a photo of this cookie a year ago. I routinely take photos of my food and me eating. It's a small personality quirk.


This is what my final product looked like:


Ingredients
1lb butter (yes pound!)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour

1-2 egg yokes
bread crumbs
powdered sugar
jam (strawberry, grape, apricot, or other)

Combine butter, sugar, vanilla and flour to make dough. Mix with an electric mixer and if necessary kneed together with your hands. It will make a very sticky dough.

Roll out and cut into cookie shapes. Use ample flour on the rolling surface and rolling pin because the dough will stick to everything! The traditional shape for these cookies is a diamond but it's very difficult to find a diamond cookie cutter. Whatever shape you choose, try to avoid lots of points (ie Christmas tree cookie cutters are a bad idea), circles are probably the easiest. A metal cookie cutter, rather than plastic, because they make a cleaner cut and this dough is very difficult to work with.

Arrange the cookies on a greased cookie sheet, brush lightly with egg yoke and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Grandma uses real bread crumbs - mine came from a can. Bake the cookies for 10 min at 375 degrees.


The cookies are very fragile when warm so let them cool well before moving them off the cookie sheet. Spread cooled cookies with your desired flavor of jam. I like strawberry, my sister gets mad because I always eat all the strawberry ones. Coat lightly with powdered sugar and enjoy!