Estonian desserts: Kaeraküpsised, my favourite oat cookies in the world

I've got a problem with most oat cookie recipes I come across. They are way too complicated and contain way too many ingredients, whereas I want my oat cookies to be simple, bordering on the plain. Also, I don't want my oat cookies to be dentally challenging, i.e. too crunchy or hard, as most of the commercially available oat cookies are. Finally, I like my oat cookies to be sweet rather than savoury, so as much as I love the sensible and healthy Scottish oatcakes, these are best suited to transfer a tiny chunk of cheese into my mouth, and not as nibbled when I feel peckish and want something sweet to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Here's my favourite oat cookie recipe that I've adapted over the years from the Finno-Ugric cookbook (Soome-ugri kokaraamat, 1995) that I've mentioned before. These cookies only contain the bare minimum of ingredients (no flour or baking powder in sight). They're crisp on the edges but with melt-in-your-mouth centres. And they are incredibly tasty as well. I love yellow raisins in my oat cookies as opposed to dark ones, but I think Buderim's candied ginger nibbles would work well, too. Or dark chocolate chips, if you're feeling naughty..

Pille's melt-in-your-mouth oat cookies
(Suussulavad kaeraküpsised)
Yields about 40-45 cookies



500 grams old-fashioned porridge oats
4 large eggs
150 grams sugar
170 grams butter, melted & cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 grams small seedless yellow raisins

Whisk eggs with sugar until pale and frothy, season with vanilla extract, then stir in melted butter, oats and raisins. Stir until combined. The mixture should be on the soft side.
Take scant tablespoonfuls of the mixture and transfer them onto a lined baking sheet. (You don't want to make your cookies too large, as egg is the only thing holding them together, and they'd collapse if they're too large).
Bake in a pre-heated 180 C oven for about 10-11 minutes, until cookies are baked and golden brown on edges.
Transfer gently to a metal rack to cool. Keep in a airtight container for a few days.

Other cookie recipes @ Nami-nami:
Crumbly pistachio cookies (March 2006)
Estonian Christmas cookies (December 2005)
Hazelnut butter cookies (November 2005)
Lemon & pistachio shortbread cookies (March 2007)
Mayonnaise cookies (August 2005)
Peanut butter cookies (November 2005)

BLAST FROM THE PAST
Two years ago today I wrote about the expensive and beautiful flowering tea. Last year I posted some pictures about three fabulous breakfasts I had on the Greek island of Santorini and asked you to nominate your favourite :)

Apricot tartlets with pistachio paste

K and I were hosting a very sweet couple from Norway and their two adorable children, a 4-year old Hanna and a 7-month old Fergus, over the last weekend. They left today for a six-day break on Saaremaa/Ösel, after which they'll head to Latvia for a few days and then back to Norway. As far as I could tell, they had great time in Tallinn, and we enjoyed hosting them. And cooking for them, obviously. Here's one of the cakes we made last Friday that we all liked. Easy and quick to make, plus tasty.

Again, I had picked up some really nice and plump Provencal apricots from the market. Most of them were made into apricot jam by K (3 jars are stored in the fridge, one was mostly used on Sunday pancakes and some ended up accompanying vareniki), but I managed to save some of the apricots for these tartlets. The original BBC Good Food recipe used marzipan, but as I had used up all the marzipan for the Marzipan Cake with Strawberries, I used some pistachio paste instead. And apricots and pistachios really do go well together indeed.

Apricots tartlets with pistachio paste
(Aprikoosi-martsipanikoogikesed)
Adapted from BBC Good Food, originally from Olive Magazine
Yields 12 tartlets



300 grams store-bought puff pastry
100 grams pistachio paste (or plain marzipan)
6 large ripe apricots, halved and pitted
muscovado sugar for sprinkling
sliced pistachio nuts for garnishing

Heat the oven to 200C.
Roll out the puff pastry and cut 12 circles using a large glass (about 8 cm diametre). Using a slightly smaller glass, score a line about 1 cm from the edge (that will help the rims to raise). Place pastry circles on a lined baking sheet.
Place a spoonful of flattened pistachio paste or marzipan in the middle of the smaller circle.
Place an apricot half, cut-side up, on each marzipan spoonful, sprinkle with some sugar.
Place the baking sheet in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is puffed up (it's a puff pastry, remember:) and golden brown, apricots slightly caramelised and sugar melted.
Sprinkle with sliced pistachio nuts and serve with a spoonful of softly whipped cream or mascarpone cheese.

BLAST FROM THE PAST
Two years ago I posted a recipe for Pasta alla Vodka, based on a recipe from Nigella Lawson's Feast. It's still one of my very favourite quick pasta dishes. Go and have a look - it's got a new photo as well!

Waiter, there is something in my ... dumplings! Curd cheese vareniki with home-made apricot jam

Oh, how time flies. It's already the sixth installment of Waiter, there is something in my ... foodblogging event, this time hosted by Johanna who, very appropriately for an Austrian, has chosen dumplings as a theme. Not any dumplings, but dumplings with filling that have been steamed, boiled or baked (but NOT fried). So dim sum, ravioli and tortellini were ok, but doughnuts, gnocchi or spätzle weren't. My instincts said that my favourite dumplings, pontšikud, wouldn't be ok, as a) they're boiled in oil, which Johanna might interpret as frying, and b) they've got no filling. To be on the safe side, I made a batch of vareniki - a popular boiled dumpling from Ukraine (read more here), stuffed with curd cheese cream and served with home-made apricot jam and pistachios. The name, vareniki, comes from the Russian verb 'to boil', so they're boiled dumplings. To me, they're big Ukrainian cousins of pelmeni, the small meat-filled Russian dumplings that I love. Although vareniki can be savoury, these particular ones are sweet - a lovely combination of vanilla-infused curd cheese filling and just a bit sharp apricot jam and ever-so-slightly crunchy pistachio nuts.

Now, the recipe below will be vague and incomplete - apologies for that. K. made the apricot jam from the Provencal apricots available at the market these days, and he wouldn't share his secret recipe (though I suspect it's something like a scant 250 grams of sugar to 1 kg of pitted apricots, boiled gently for 20 minutes until thickened). I wasn't too happy with the dough recipe, so I'll be working on improving that (it was a bit too tough to my liking, so I'll replace milk with water next time to start with). But you'll get the recipe for the filling, which was great.

Vareniki dumplings with curd cheese filling, served with home-made apricot jam & pistachios
Serves 4



Dough (work in progress):
400 ml plain flour
1 tsp sugar
0.5 tsp salt
1 egg
100 ml milk

Filling:
250 grams quark or curd cheese (press through a sieve, if not smooth)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

To serve:
home made apricot jam and pistachio nuts
or
any fruit puree of your choice (strawberry puree would work well)
icing sugar

For the dough, I mixed milk with egg, seasoned with salt & sugar and added the flour, mixing until combined. Then I placed it in the fridge, covered, for about an hour.
For the filling, I simply combined all the ingredients (you could also add raisins or candied ginger or grated lemon zest, if you're so inclined).
To make the vareniki, roll the relaxed dough onto a thin disk (about 3 mm thick), then cut into 8-10 cm circles. Place a tablespoonful of filling into the centre, moisten the edges with water and fold in half, so you'll have half-moon shaped dumplings. Pinch the edge together with a fork.
Place into a freezer for 20-30 minutes (vareniki can be cooked from frozen, so you can leave them in the freezer for longer, if you wish).
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to the boil, add a generous pinch of salt.
Slip the dumplings into the boiling water, 3-5 at the time, depending on the size of your pot.
Boil for about 5 minutes or until the dumplings float (they'll definitely sink in the beginning).
Take out of the water with a slotted spoon, drain on a clean kitchen towel for a moment.
To serve, place on a small plate, spoon the apricot jam on the plate, sprinkle with pistachio nuts and dust with icing sugar.

Here are links to my previous Waiter there is something in my ... entries:
May 2007 (STUFFED VEGETABLES): Stuffed tomatoes with two types of salad - cod liver salad & cucumber and wild garlic salad
April 2007 (BREAD): a traditional Estonian quick mushroom bread, Seenekarask
March 2007 (EASTER BASKET): a selection of various Easter delights.
February 2007 (PIE): a great Russian puff pastry and fish pie, Salmon Kulebyaka.
January 2007 (STEW): my version (in collaboration with Anthony Bourdain:) of the French classic Boeuf Bourguignon.

UPDATE 05.07.2007:
you can read Johanna's round-up of all the different takes - sweet & savoury, familiar & exotic - on dumplings here.

BLAST FROM THE PAST:
A year ago I wrote about the English classic, Bakewell Pudding for Andrew's Blog Save Our Tart event.