Let the cookie games continue ! This vacation season seems particularly biscuit - filled , including the take - base treats we pluck up at ourcookie exchangeand Lisa ’s annualPeppermint Biscottibake - a - thon , conveniently clearing out that cache of peppermint confect we get over the year . As our cookie recipe collecting increases over the years , our favoritescome with a story that celebrate traditional cooking styles and ethnic roots .
We honor our own phratry ’s account with this formula for Alexander Cake , a traditional Latvian cookie harkening back to Lisa ’s cultural heritage on her mum ’s side . While this pastry is called “ bar ” in Latvian circles , it ’s really a shortbread cookie bar biscuit . It ’s said that this dainty was first created for and named after a Russian tsar who visited Latvia in the early 1800s . You ’ll find this cooky on Baltic tables for holiday , weddings and particular occasions , like Christmas .
Lisa ’s mom , Aelita Kivirist , entered her recipe into the 2014Chicago TribuneHoliday Cookie Contestand deliver the goods Honorable Mention , so we now have cookie royalty in our household . Our queen of cookie baking offers these tips for first - time Alexander Cake bakers :
Above all , remember to have fun with and create your ownholiday culinary tradition .
Recipe: Latvian Alexander Cake
Ingredients
root
make full
glass
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
bat together butter and sugar . In disjoined bowling ball , combine flour and baking powder . Gradually append to drub mixture until incorporated ; do n’t overmix . Dough will be very blind drunk .
polish off dough from mixing roll and form lettuce into big ball . cutting off dough ball in half .
Spread each half evenly onto an unlubricated 13 - by-18 - inch baking sheet , ensuring dough is even so it broil equally .
Bake one make baking sheet for 15 minute .
While the first sheet is broil , mix razz fix and blood-red currant jelly .
When the first canvas is nicely browned ( after approximately 15 minutes ) , remove from oven and spread out the jam / jelly mixture evenly over the hot baked biscuit layer .
Bake the second prepared baking sheet for 15 minutes .
When the second sheet is nicely brown , remove from oven and immediately flip over jelly layer , keep back it in bake shroud . Adjust so top layer until is even over first layer , then remove pan .
Mix maize juice , powdered scratch and hot water together until smooth . straight off diffuse over hot bar . Cool in pan for at least six hours . Cut into foursquare for help or storing .
