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12 cookies of christmas

Today Angie, from angie and james do stuff, is sharing these wonderful Glazed Honey, Rosemary, and Ginger Polenta Cookies with my Boulangerie readers.  Don’t they look incredible?!  I love that these cookies are not your typical “Christmas cookie”… they are so unique!

Don’t forget to stop by Angie’s blog HERE.

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First off, I would like to thank Jillian for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this brilliant 12 Cookies of Christmas blogging series. This little invitation has inspired me to create something delightfully original in the spirit of Christmas. Yes, there was a personal challenge involved. The internet is already blessed with hundreds of recipes for an assortment of sugar cookies and gingerbread men and I knew it was time for a change. The challenge was to create a novel Christmas cookie that still held a strong, familiar taste of the festive season.

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It took a great deal of thinking and experimentation, but it all paid off when I got a final product that tasted like absolute heaven. The sweet amber liquid of orange blossom honey, the subtle zing of chopped rosemary, the refreshing bite of ginger, the spicy fragrance of cinnamon and nutmeg, the simple yet much-loved crunch of polenta… When combined, the marriage of these ingredients transform a simple cookie into something sophisticated and beautiful. One might call this a younger, hipper distant cousin of the sugar-dusted pfeffernüsse cookie (German ‘pepper nuts’).

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A light drizzle of delicately tinted sugar glaze decorates the tops of these little domes, giving an added rush of sweetness to the tastebuds. Of course, for a slightly less saccharin cookie, one may health-consciously omit the glaze. The cookies keep for a good number of days when stored in an airtight container. Perhaps up to a week. They keep for even longer when placed in the fridge.

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Glazed Honey, Rosemary & Ginger Polenta Cookies

a recipe by Angie G.

 Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (sweet rice flour)

1 cup polenta (fine cornmeal)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, chopped

A pinch of salt

300g unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup honey, room temperature (preferably orange blossom honey)

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground ginger

For the pink glaze:

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon milk Red food colouring

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Preparation:

Preheat oven to 175°C and line baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, polenta, cinnamon, nutmeg, rosemary and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the honey and continue to mix until smooth. Stir in the ginger and mix thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in 3 or 4 increments, mixing well after each addition.

With your fingers, pinch off bits of dough and gently roll them into 1 inch balls. Don’t be afraid to do this. The dough may be soft, but it is buttery enough to work with without it sticking to your hands! Flatten each ball slightly and place on prepared baking tray. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until the edges start to brown. Remove tray from oven and let cookies sit for 5 minutes before gently transferring them to a wire rack to cool. The cookies will be soft when you take them out, but will crisp up when they start to cool.

To make the glaze, combine icing sugar and milk. Stir to form a thick, glossy mixture. If mixture is too thick for drizzling, add a tiny bit more milk. Add 1 or 2 drops of red food colouring to the mixture and combine until you get an even pinkish colour. Using a fork, drizzle the glaze over the cookies to form decorative patterns. For easier cleanup, place a sheet of baking paper underneath the wire rack to collect drippings. Glaze will take about half an hour to set.

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