The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

The title of this post should be the BEST chocolate chip cookies in the world, because these are as close to perfection as any one cookie could be. I have to warn you though, they are definitely not the sort of cookie with staying power and they have the ability to tempt and conform even the most stubborn cookie hater. Does anyone have one of those in their lives, or am I the only one? There are some strange people out there and if there’s one thing I have never quite been able to figure out it’s how is it even possible to not have a sweet tooth? Any insight on this is always appreciated.

It’s funny how certain individual tastes have such an ability to annoy me. While I’m not even close to being a fussy eater, there are a few things that I cannot imagine ever developing a taste for (Lamb or any sort of mutton for example), yet I find myself judging people who insist that they don’t have a taste for anything sweet. To me this isn’t possible. What is more probable is that they have some sort of undetected physical disorder that has stunted the growth and development of their taste buds. Or maybe this is the a sign of a more serious mental condition? I regress… but after years of contemplation, I’m no closer to any conclusion and I don’t accept that this is just a symptom of individual taste.

Springerle are a traditional German Christmas cookie, known for there beautiful embossed designs and stark white color. I’ve heard their origin can be traced back as far as the 15th century, maybe earlier (wikipedia says 14th century) and are undoubtedly one of the prettiest cookies I’ve ever come across. My family is German and on my mothers side they are from the south where these cookies originated. I grew up with stories of these cookies as they were a big part of my mothers traditions and I remember them distinctly from those years we spent in Germany over the holidays.

As a kid who grew up with very little in the way of sweet treats, I can still remember one of the first times I tried a springerle cookie. I remember looking wide eyed at this beautiful cookie, white as a marshmallow with its amazingly intricate design and thinking if it was anything like the rest of Christmas in Germany it would surely be the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Even more distinct is biting down into its dense almost cake like surface and realizing that there couldn’t be anything further from the glorious taste of a marshmallow then this. Needless to say, for a kid of my generation who did not grow up in Germany they fell a little short of what I had imagined. I didn’t hate them as I would imagine a kid with a refined sense of what a cookie should taste like would, I wasn’t that discriminating, but I definitely was not as impressed as I thought i would be.

OK guys and gals it’s officially December so I’m no longer holding back in the holiday baking department. Believe me, it took some effort over the past two weeks to refrain from launching myself head first into cookie baking and I’m thankful I was able to exercise some restraint. It’s not easy having a constant supply of home baked goods at your immediate disposal, especially if you have some weakness where will power is concerned. I don’t know about you, but I’m capable of finishing off a whole bakery full of cookies before they have even been around for a day.

These lemon pistachio cookies come from Martha Stewart and they will make you forget about your usual holiday cookie recipes. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to cookie baking, there are 3 particular recipes I absolutely have to make each year. They are also usually the ones I bake first. This year after a long process of elimination,  I have selected several new recipes that I’m quite excited to try.I won’t be leaving my traditional one this year either, just adding a few new recipes to the mix.

I have recently found myself craving chocolate more intensely than ever before. Whether it be choosing a dessert after dinner at a restaurant or a sweet treat to accompany a small cup of coffee to get me through the 3pm work day lull- chocolate is what has been tempting me recently.

When I still lived in San Francisco, there was one place where I would always lose my self control: the Tartine bakery. There’s nothing better than than grabbing a few of their amazing cookies and spending the afternoon laying around Dolores park. When I found myself back in the bay area last week for the Blog Her Food conference, I was extremely disappointed that I was unable to make it to Tartine. I felt that it was the one things I let slip by and shouldn’t have. Ahhh regret. Of course it is always impossible to get to all the the places I adore in the course of one already over packed weekend, but I found myself regretting this one the most.