Since childhood I have loved my mother’s coffee cookies. We always baked them for Christmas. These little sablés are good too and much less work than the real old coffee cookie Maman used to make. And..they come with a Parisian flavour! What could be better? Come Noël, we will revert back to Maman’s old fashioned Christmas coffee cookie.

La recette:

Pincée de fleur de sel:

• Keep some sablés single, without being sandwiched together. They will be crispier and perfect for dipping into some coffee or tea.
• Replace the ground almonds with plain flour if you so prefer.
• Instead of the TBSP of strong coffee, add a TBSP of instant coffee powder if you have it available.
• Replace the coffee in the icing sugar with some milk and flavour with vanilla essence for a contrast in flavours, or add cacao to taste for a mocca cookie.
• The icing sugar can be added to a cookie simply with a knife but a piping bag makes for a neat filling.

The dough on the pastry mat. Be sure to always work with flour under your pastry to prevent sticking.

Using a piping bag makes for neat cookies, but still with a home made feel..and of course taste!

Une Parisienne

My Parisian umbrella always goes with me to Paris. A little bit of a cliché it is, but I love it. It depicts a typical Parisian street scene in winter(of course). a year or so back, I had my beautiful friend pose for me with the umbrella. She is the epitome of Parisian elegance, even though she doesn’t live there anymore.

So, with these petits sablés and une ravissante Parisienne, peeking from behind her umbrella, I hope I could give you just  a little taste of Paris for today.

..à la prochaine fois..

Ronelle