If you cook and bake a lot, cookie recipes all start to seem the same. Some variation of butter, flour, sugar and eggs, with flavoring to make the cookie stand out — oatmeal and raising, white chocolate chip and cranberry, chocolate chips and peanut butter (not that there’s anything wrong with any of these). But it’s rare to see a really unique cookie recipe.
I came across this recipe for Arnhem Girls or Arnhem Biscuits, a traditional Dutch cookie, years ago, when I lived in New York, in John Thorne’s Pot on the Fire
“It was flat and thin and oval, and crystals of sugar were embedded in the top of it. I took a nibble. I took another nibble. I savoured it slowly. I took a big bite and chewed it. The taste and texture were unbelieveable. This, I told myself, is the best biscuit I’ve ever eaten in my life. I ate another and another, and each one I ate only strengthened my opinion. They were simply marvellous. I cannot quite tell you why, but everything about them, the crispness, the flavour, the way they melted away down your throat made it so you couldn’t stop eating them.”
Color me intrigued. With such an evocative description and an unusual method, how could I not be? But, as with most recipes, I set it aside and forgot about it.
