The Maltese Bacon

Cardamom Walnut Cookies

Oh gosh! I've been absent for a long time here, but this blog will not suffer death. It was just on hiatus for a bit, vacationing with Kate Moss in Thailand. There was also a couple boring technical difficulties involved, including accidentally deleting a million photos (too much hot tea!)

So, about these cookies... It is as if cardamom, walnuts and butter hath sprung from a rainbow and been blessed with Sasha and Malia's sweet little hands. My friend Blyth loved them. Will definitely use this recipe many more times.

They survived the beating I gave it when midway through baking I realized I had been reading the wrong recipe (that's what happens with all those tabs) for the last few steps and the cookies were actually supposed to be shaped into balls, not flat disks. So, yes, I took them out of the oven and reshaped them with paper towels or else they would have burned.

Cardamom Walnut Cookies (Adapted from epicurious.com)

• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar (epicurious does give you the option of using powdered sugar in addition to this, but I think it's such a drag trying to dust it off your black wool sweater.)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom (I would recommend crushing about 6-8 cardamom pods with their seeds in a mortar and pestle.)

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups walnuts, toasted, finely chopped (I made some of the walnuts into a paste in my spice grinder.)

Mix 2 cups granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cardamom in large bowl.

Combine remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom, butter, vanilla extract, lemon peel and salt in another large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat at medium-high speed until well blended (I mixed it by hand). Add flour and chopped nuts. Beat until smooth dough forms, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Gather dough into ball and wrap in plastic; chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment. Using hands and generous 1 tablespoon dough for each cookie, roll dough into forty-eight 3/4-inch balls; transfer to baking sheets. Bake cookies until golden, about 25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on sheets.

Add 12 warm cookies to large bowl of granulated sugar and cardamom and toss gently to coat. Repeat with 12 more cookies. Let remaining 24 cookies cool completely on sheet. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Store in airtight container.)

Delicious Banana Bread & Its Equally Dope Half Vegan Counterpart

I am not sure when a banana bread is called a cake, a loaf, a bread or some combination of the 3. Does anyone know? Nick Malgieri calls this recipe a loaf cake but I can’t help but call it a bread. Calling for a scant  3 tablespoons of butter and 3 egg whites,  it is delicious without being too heavy. 

Perfect for my savory-heavy taste buds that can only take so much of sweet and rich baked goods. Growing up, we would have the occasional tea time with a Vietnamese dessert, which are on the lighter side in the absence of eggs, cream and butter. My mom would go to the bakery and pick up gooey rice balls with split green beans or make mung bean soup sweetened with coconut milk.

The vegan version of this bread is just as good. I made some for my half vegan friend, who is able to eat butter but is constantly being subjected to watch people eat eggy desserts. There are no egg substitutes here, or other weird things. The bananas act as a very moist binder. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for it to bubble like white lava, pushing air bubbles into the loaf. Please don’t quote me on this, as I am not a food scientist.  Recipes are after the jump.