“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
Harriet van Horne
This is a sweet & spicy shortbread, not the traditional sort, because I made it with brown sugar that gave it a very different texture. In addition, I went further and sprinkled the tops with a mix of brown sugar & cinnamon before baking, which enhanced the flavour of cinnamon!
I love the ‘Think Spice’ monthly event at Sunita’s World. It does make you put on your thinking cap, and actually think the spice…at least with me it does! Can you imagine…I been thinking ‘Cinnamon’, her spice of choice for December ’07, ever since I read her post. I madly tried to stick a stick of cinnamon into anything & everything, but wasn’t quite there. This spicy cinnamon ‘shortbread of sorts’, which is my own creation, finally did it!
Cinnamomum Zeylanicum
Native to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), true cinnamon, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, dates back in Chinese writings to 2800 B.C., and is still known as kwai in the Chinese language today. Its botanical name derives from the Hebraic and Arabic term amomon, meaning fragrant spice plant. Cinnamon was once so highly-prized that wars were fought over it, it was used as currency, and it has aphrodisiacal powers. (Peggy Trowbridge Filippone)
Ingredients:
Butter – 3/4 cup
Brown Sugar – 5 tbsps
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 1 /4 tsp
Cinnamon – 1 tsp
Topping
Brown sugar – 2 tbsp
Cinnamon – 1/2 tsp
Method:
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Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Grease 2 baking sheets.
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Sift flour + baking powder + cinnamon + salt 3 times.
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Beat butter & brown sugar till mixed well. ( I hand mix it)
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Stir in the flour & pull together into a soft dough.
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Rest the dough for at least 30 minutes. I feel this intensifies the taste of the cinnamon.
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Roll out to 1/4 ” thickness & cut out into desired shapes. Place on baking sheets.
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Mix the cinnamon powder & brown sugar for the topping. Sprinkle onto the cookies.
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Bake for 15-20 minutes till the egdes begin to brown. Keep an eye on them since the dough is brown. Cool on cookie racks. drizzle with melted chocolate if you like.
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Makes 2-3 dozen cookies depending on the size of the cutters.
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Note: Do not be tempted to roll the cookies out thinner, because they become very fragile.
