Appenzell Honey Cakes (Swiss Cookies)

Submitted by Debbie R.

"From "The Swiss Cookbook". I haven't tried them yet. Times are guesses and do not include the one-hour chilling time."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 70 cookies

ingredients

• 2⁄3 cup sugar
• 3⁄4 cup honey, lukewarm
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground aniseed
• 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1⁄2 cup kirsch (or milk)
• 4 1⁄2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• milk (for brushing)

directions

1. Beat sugar, honey, egg, spices and Kirsch (or milk) until smooth and well blended.
2. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Stir it into the egg mixture until a stiff dough forms.
3. Knead lightly on a floured board. Cover the dough and let it rest one hour.
4. Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into 3-inch rounds. Brush with a little additional milk.
5. Bake at 325 for 15 - 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Reviews

[Muffin Goddess]

I'm so sorry, I feel terrible about this, but I really didn't like these. I'm not assigning stars, because it's possibly just my personal taste, but I found the cookies to be very gummy after baking. The dough smelled wonderful while I was making it, so I had high hopes for the finished cookies -- the kirsch is very strong while the dough is being made, but it mellows out once the cookies are baked. I thought that there was a lot of flour in this, and the dough was really stiff, but I also thought that the 1 hour of resting time might help out with that. When the hour was up, I wasn't able to roll it out, so I just kind of made a giant snake out of it and sliced the cookies instead. The dough just wasn't very pliable. I placed the slices in the pan, brushed them with milk and baked them for 15 minutes. They still looked exactly as they did when they went in, so I put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Some of the cookies started to brown a bit at that point, so I took them out. The flavor was very pleasant, but I just couldn't get past the texture. They kind of reminded me of those old-school fat-free snack cakes (like when Snackwell's first came out). I think the dough just needs some tweaking (more egg? more honey? some butter?), because the taste is already there, but the gumminess was definitely a problem for me. Maybe I just don't know how to appreciate these because I'm not Swiss? lol Made by a fellow Emerald City Shaker for ZWT7