I’ll be the first to admit it; basil and Smarties… it’s a peculiar pair.
I didn’t start out wanting to make basil and smarties cookies, I had leftover basil, not enough to make pesto and I didn’t want it to go to waste.
Lemon-lime basil cookies, that’s what I wanted – every refreshing lemony bite tastes like summer, and yet I was out of lemons and limes.
For some reason, maybe because it was the only candy I had lying around, I wondered what I’d get by infusing basil’s sweet subtle minty flavour into a Smarties cookie.

What I got were these Smarties & Basil cookies; rustic, crispy and slightly spicy from the basil and molasses

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I woke up very early this morning to get to work for a 7AM conference call; living in a time zone hours behind the rest of the world is a pain sometimes.
I still wish I were an early riser though; just before 8, I saw the sun shimmer and glow, bursting its way onto the morning sky, and thought “so that’s what sunrise looks like” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a sunrise, It looked so yellow and dramatic.
Speaking of meetings… we usually have team meetings on Mondays at my place of work.
We take turns chairing these meetings, and whoever’s turn it is to chair is supposed to bring treats – usually muffins, bagels and the sort.

And for as long as I’ve been there, like clockwork I’ve always brought banana bread!
This isn’t because I love banana bread, or that I make killer banana bread; on the contrary, I don’t make it – I buy it from Capers and it’s easy.
Whenever it ‘s been my Monday to chair, I’d pop into Capers on Sunday night and pick up a loaf of banana bread, or better yet beg someone to get it for me.
I’ve literally been this lazy for years – until last month.
Maybe it was the excitement of the season but it suddenly seemed ridiculously boring to do yet another store-bought banana bread.
Perhaps I was in festive baking mood, I thought about the oatmeal coconut and almond cookies I made for the half-marathon and figured it’ll make a pleasant morning snack
This time I opted to add pomegranate molasses. I’ve been on a pomegranate molasses kick lately; I put it in everything for that sour tart taste.

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My grandmother was an amazing baker, and even though in the short time that I knew her she only baked at Christmas time, there were telltale signs of a lifetime past spent baking.
There was the wood-fired clay oven that sat under a tarp next to her home, and then there were the stories…
My grandmother’s baking was just a part of Christmas as the church on the hill on Christmas morning.
The smell of freshly baked loaves of cakes and bread is like a nostalgic embrace, could this perhaps be the reason I’m hooked on baking?
Baking is a cathartic exercise for me, especially around Christmas when it bears more meaning.
The first cookies I baked for the season were these Italian wedding cookies; it has many other names – Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes or polvorones, I call them Happy Christmas cookies.

Delicate, crumbly and rich, with a nutty buttery flavour, and dusted in powdered sugar, you can’t help but think of snow…
They’re truly perfect for the holidays, and smell divine while baking.
There are many variations to this cookie and perhaps why there are so many names for it. This version uses very few ingredients; ground almonds, butter, flour and powdered sugar.
Kept in an airtight container they’ll last for about a week, although they might not last that long… if you know what I mean ☺

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Happy Christmas Cookies
INGREDIENTS

• 1 ½ cups softened butter (I used Earth Balance Soy-Free Spread)
• ¾ cup confectioner’s sugar

(use organic, non-bone-char-filtered for vegan option)

• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups ground almonds (I used Trader Joe’s ‘just almond meal’)
• 4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
• Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325F (160C)
2. Cream butter in mixing bowl
3. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and salt, beat until light and fluffy
4. Add ground almonds and vanilla extract and mix
5. Blend in flour and mix until well combined
6. Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes
7. Shape dough into balls, place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.
8. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Do not let it brown
9. Cool lightly, then dust with more powdered sugar
10. Enjoy

Today I’m going to tell you about these adorable cookies I found at the Italian store, and my favourite way to snack on them.
My friend D. told me about these cookies years ago, along with charming stories of the summers he spent in Italy with his grandmother
I think I fell in love with his childhood a little, which made the cookies seem a bit more magical when I first saw them.

Bucaneve or snowdrop is a flower shaped popular Italian cookie with frosting on top.
At teatime when he was a kid, D’s grandmother would toss of few of bucaneve cookies in a bowl of sweetened milk and leave a few out for dunking or tossing in later.
It’s simple cookie; dry, sweet and crumbly with a delicate vanilla flavor; and doesn’t fall apart when dipped in milk.

This is exactly how I eat them too… milk and Bucaneve cookes, like cereal in sweetened almond milk; it tastes indulgent, like I’m having dessert.
With the holidays upon us, I see a lot of snacking in my future, and how fitting it will be… snacking on snowdrops.

I’m a recipe collector; I have such a huge collection, I probably need two lifetimes to get through everything I want to make.
It’s an ever growing collection and it’s not all in one place, there are those bookmarked, some starred in Google Reader, several on Springpad, scraps of paper and magazine clippings, etc.
Some recipes I’ve had for years and I’m yet to try, some I keep just for sentimental reasons; and the others I keep going back to.
These almond butter spelt cookies… I had for a few months before finally making them, I kept forgetting to buy tahini.
The original recipe has peanut butter but I’m more of almond butter fan – plus I have a giant jar of almond butter that needs expending.

I found the recipe on Green Kitchen Stories, a food blog I absolutely adore.
I’ve been cooking through the site, it’s mostly healthy vegetarian with awesome photography, and I love that their little girl is also called Elsa.
I also like these cookies very much; they’re as wholesome as they come and awesome, they’re made with spelt flour without eggs, butter or sugar.
They taste surprisingly good, and wonderful with coffee or tea.

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