Appenzell Honey Cakes (Swiss Cookies)

Debbie R.'s Note:

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

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 70 cookies

• 2⁄3; cup sugar
• ¾ cup honey , lukewarm
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground aniseed
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ cup kirsch (or milk)
• 4 ½ 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