As much as I love them, I’m tired of chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. They’re reliable standards, but the cookie world can be so much more. Therefore, in 2019, Shiri and Jamie will embark on the Great Cookie Challenge – a shared exploit during which we try to make 50 new-to-us cookies. Grab a glass of milk and your spirit of cookie adventure. It all starts here!

Cookie #1: Alfajores (Shiri)

I am not usually one to fruit the cookie. Don’t get me wrong, I love fruit. But when I think of a cookie, I think of a dessert indulgence. Which is a little weird because pie fits firmly in the dessert category in my mind, but the dessert stomach wants what the dessert stomach wants. And when I want a cookie, I’m usually angling for a lot of sugar and butter and chocolate or some such.

Alfajores are a Spanish cookie, and while they have plenty of butter in them, they don’t contain any sugar, though there is a bit of honey in the recipe I used (Rustica: A Return to Spanish Home Cooking by Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish, p. 102). The sweetness in alfajores comes mostly from dried figs and golden raisins (also known as sultanas). These lovely little rolls of delicious also contain nuts, flour, spices, and sherry (which I didn’t have so I used a white port from Robledo Family Winery, which performed its role admirably).

Despite these being a departure from my usual cookie choice, I quite enjoyed them. The container I brought to my office emptied out in a couple of days in the wake of New Years and New Years resolutions, which seems to be a ringing endorsement.

Cookie #2: True Love Cake (Shiri)

Okay, it says cake in the name, but in the description, Samantha Senevirante describes this Sri Lankan treat as a cross between a blondie and a butter cookie and, having made them, I agree. So cookie it is.

From The Immigrant Cookbook: Recipes That Make America Great, collected and edited by Leyla Moushabeck, True Love Cake is buttery and sweet and gooey and contains just a touch of one of my favorite ingredients: rose water. Rose water is a strong taste and flavor, and if you overdo it, it will ruin whatever it is you’re making and you’ll be tasting perfume for weeks (take if from someone who’s made that mistake). So measure carefully and do it away from the mixing bowl. This may also be a good dessert to make for friends who are gluten intolerant: some folks in that group (some – check in with individual folks) can handle semolina flour. If you don’t like the texture of fresh lemon zest (and I have had mixed experiences with it because candied lemon zest in airplane food *shudder*), you can buy powdered lemon peel, but it will be more concentrated than fresh zest so you’re going to want to use less. See those italics? Don’t ignore them.

I left a container of True Love Cake in the office last night for the morning folks to try. One of them texted me this morning and asked me to bring her the recipe, so I’m going to call #2 a success as well.