We are back from our 2.5 weeks long trip from Turkey; it was great. Once I organize them, there will be some pics to share with you, but for the time being let’s get another cookie recipe on file. This one uses hazelnuts (or filberts, if you are more accostumed with that name.) Most of (around 70%) world’s hazulnut is grown in Turkey and here in the US Oregon seems to lead the production.

My aunts and mom used to make this cookie nearly every week to serve along with tea to visitors. They had a handful of recipes that would be used over and over again. Seemed like they were interested in learning other recipes from their friends; the recipes would be written down, may be made once or twice and before you know it, they’d back to the old ones.

Very easy to make, this cookie never makes any surprises; always comes out great quantities and with succcess. Try it once, you may be hooked to it, as well.

One thing you should be aware when using hazelnuts is that unlike other nuts that I know, they tend do go rancid after a while. It might be a good idea to store them in airtight container in your fridge if you are not planning on using them for a while.

Hazelnut Cookies:

• 1 cup (approx 250 gr) butter


• 2 eggs (keep one egg white seperate, will be used to brush on)


• 1 cup ground + 10-15 whole (to put on top of the cookies) hazelnuts


• 1 cup sugar


• 3 cup flour (may need a bit more)


• 1 tsp baking soda + 1 tsp lemon juice

1. Heat your oven to 175 – 180C (350F)


2. Put the butter, eggs (keep one eggwhite aside), sugar and 2 cups of flour in a big bowl. Add baking soda and lemon juice on the rest of the ingredients and mix them all well. Ad a bit flour at a time until it becomes a big ball, leaves the side of the bowl easily and does not stick to your hands


3. Roll out the dough in a clean surface to have 0.75cm – 1cm (approx 1/3 – 1/2 inch) of thickness, use your favourite cookie cutter to cut them. (for some reason we always used this flower shaped one!) Roll the remaining pieces and continue this process until you are done with the dough, putting the cut ones on greased baking sheets


4. Put whole or half of hazelnuts on the cookies


5. Mix the eggwhite slighly and brush them on the cookies


6. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 – 20 mins, until they are slightly brown color

Afiyet olsun!

I bet I am not the only one that is drawn for the smell of lavenders. That very special smell of those tiny, wonderful colored flowers has been kept in little sachets in our drawers to give fresh smell for years. In fact I love them so much that when my mom told me that she was having lavender sachets made for our wedding favor, I just thought “mom still knows me!”

Recently I have been seeing recipes using dried lavender blossoms used in icing or flavoring cookies. About 4 months ago in a Turkish forum I belong to, a friend wrote this recipe that I am about to share noting that it was an old recipe taken from Roz Denny. In that recipe it was calling for ordinary sugar but I chose to make my own lavender scented sugar first to give the cookies more of the flavor I was hoping to get. Lavender scented sugar is made the same as one would make vanilla sugar— mix sugar + dried lavender blossoms, put in a tight sealed jar and keep in a dry/dark place for some time. The longer you keep the heavier the scent would be. I think you can make your own recipe for the sugar to lavender propotion; I chose to use a tablespoon of lavender blossoms to a cup of sugar. That mix was in our pantry for 4 months—I do not think you need to wait that long, I simply forgot that I made the mix!

One thing you have to make sure is to get the dried lavender blossoms that are free of chemicals—do not go to a flower shop for instance. Either grow your own :) or get it from baking aisle of your store.
Now the recipe:

• 5/8 cups of unsalted butter, in room temperature


• 1/2 cup (lavender scented) sugar, pulverized in a food processor


• 1 egg, beaten well in a separate bowl


• 1 Tbs dried lavender blossoms


• 1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour

For the self-rising flour: add 2 tsps baking powder and a bit of salt to flour to make the total amount to be 1 1/2 cups—do not add more.

1. Preheat oven to 355F (180C)


2. Mix the butter and sugar until resembles cream


3. Add egg and beat well


4. Add lavender blossoms and flour, mix well


5. Line the baking sheet with wax paper and oil it as well. Using two tablespoons, drop a piece of a rounded dough, flatten it. (I used our icecream scoop for this and mine ended up a bit too big, resulting in 8 cookies, I suggest making small rounds)


6. Bake for 15 – 20 mins, until golden brown. Let it cool on cookie sheets and enjoy!