South African "Petite Gateau" Coffee Cookies.
"Petite Gateau" Coffee cookies
One more week of french class to go... Then I'm taking a break from speaking french for a while. Just gonna practically apply it to my daily life...Like going to my hairdressers new salon makeover party next week. Yeah for me socialising in French!! I made my first joke last week and they actually thought I was funny, but when I tried to explain it to my hubs, he didn't get it!?!
I dreaded these kinds of events in the beginning because I could only say the bare minimum in french, but now (hopefully) I can say a bit more than: Bonjour? Ça va and Je m'appele Mariza.(Goodday, how is it going, My name is...)I'll let you know all about how it goes though, it could be a disaster, or not?
Last week was very frosty and I have been waking up in the dark morning hours to be on time to take the tram. Delayed breakfast pics has been taken ,nowadays yogurt and a banana will have to do.
I usually arrive twenty minutes earlier before class and stroll towards the Boulangerie or local super market to buy a coffee. I'll get asked if I don't want a baked goodie with my coffee and decline quite apologetically... Such a dead giveaway that I am not french.
There is something so calming about fall. Everyone knows that winter is around the corner and we all come prepared with an extra layer of clothing.With fall comes comfort. Steaming hot soups, baked goods and coffee. I just love the smell of freshly baked bread, that's why living in France can be such torture! What about freshly baked cookies? Chocolate chip, ginger bread, sugar cookies and millionaire squares come to mind. The more sugar the better.
I made these cookies last week and my taste tester was quite pleased. This is an old traditional South African recipe. In France, "Petite Gateau" is the name for small cookies that you receive with your tea or coffee. I used to love coffee and custard cookies when I was little. It was grandma's speciality and we were only allowed to have them on special occasions. So worth the wait and wanting more. Buttery, soft and chewy with an yummy filling. Between four kids, things went quite gone fast. Warning, these cookies are addictive.
Coffee cookies
Ingredients
500g flour
2,5ml Bicarbonate of soda
2 ml salt
250 ml butter
15 ml Coffee powder
125 ml maple syrup or Golden syrup
2 ml vanille essence
1 egg
1 slab of white chocolate of choosing(for the icing),
Alternatively for chocolate icing
or 1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of icing sugar
1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
dash of salt
Method
1. Heat up your oven to 190°C.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and salt together.
3. Melt the butter and add the maple syrup and vanilla essence.
4. Let it cool down before adding the butter mixture and the whisked egg to the flour mixture. Mix well till a soft dough forms. (Sometimes I add extra flour, because the dough can be too buttery)
5. Start making your first batch by making balls in the palm of your hand and flattening them.
6. Press chocolate chips on to the cookies and place six on to a butter smeared baking tray.
7. Do this with the second dough and let it bake, decorate with melted white chocolate after they have cooled. (I used Speculoos white chocolate)
8. Take your last piece of dough and roll out in to a long sausage form.
9. Cut in to five centimetre long sausages. Press these forms flat with your hands or a fork and place only six on a tray, because they tend to spread out while baking.
10. Let the cookies cool down before you start decorating them.
11. Ensemble some of the finger form cookies by placing two on to each other with melted chocolate or dip the one end in chocolate and decorate with caramel sugar or salt for a salted caramel taste.
There you go, the perfect recipe to start your week off right.
Bon semaine & A bientôt!
