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Hazelnut and Caramel Cookies

These cookies couldn’t be more different than the way they started out. First they were the hazelnut thumbprint cookies I made as an excuse to use the sun-dried, saffron-yellow apricot jam a friend gifted me. When the time came to update the recipe for my Turkish cookbook, I decided to make a plain thumbprint, coating it with finely chopped hazelnuts for crunch. Then I learned that Banu Bingör, a dear friend and recipe tester extraordinaire, had turned the original thumbprint into a simple ball cookie studded with a single whole hazelnut. When she brought a jarful of them to one of my book signings and I found myself eating cookie after cookie to get to that perfectly toasted hazelnut, I wished for a chance to revise the recipe. Its beauty was in the restraint, and I was determined to get it right the next time.

I got that chance with the translation of my book into English, and I had every intention of staying true to Banu’s version. However, restraint is not a virtue of mine. I embrace that gladly, because otherwise I would not have come up with a cookie that deserves the description “melt in your mouth” more than any other I have ever baked.

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How to Choose, Cut, Seed and Juice a Pomegranate

My fascination with pomegranates started with the bowls of pomegranate arils I enjoyed as a snack when I was little and grows with each recipe I develop. Over the years, I must have cut, seeded, and juiced almost a quarter ton of pomegranates, half of which were for the recipes I developed for my book, The Artful Baker. The first one is the Pomegranate Sorbet, which my friends deem the only dessert that may be enjoyed without the slightest guilt after an indulgent New Years Eve meal (amateurs!) and the second one is the Pomegranate Jam. Earlier versions of both of these recipes are on my blog (here and here), but I highly recommend the versions in my book, especially the updated version of the pomegranate jam (with homemade green apple pectin) as it completely changed my jam making forever.

Both recipes call for fresh, hand-squeezed pomegranate juice. Using a juicer might seem like a shortcut, but I strongly advise against it as the tannins in the membranes will make the juice bitter. Juicing pomegranates by hand is easier than you might think, and it’s well worth the effort. Theoretically, you could substitute store-bought fresh pomegranate juice, but at least as far as the jam is concerned, I just can’t see the point of preserving something that comes in a bottle. If we’re thinking alike and pomegranates are bountiful where you live, let’s start.

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Chocolate Babka

I think it was the first week of the lockdown. My doorbell rang. I hadn’t ordered anything, so I opened the door with caution. Turns out a friend of mine had bought Easter breads (flavored with mastic & mahlab) for her close-knit group of friends from a favorite bakery of mine in İstanbul, called Üstün Palmie. And I was one of those lucky recipients. It came to my door still warm from the bakery and I’ve been obsessed with baking the best version of it at home ever since. More on that later.

The obsession started with that bread–actually, sweetened and flavored breads are called çörek (pronounced “chö-wreck”) in Turkey–and continued with this wonderful Chocolate Babka, drenched in a dark caramel syrup.

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