My mom lived in Dallas for a couple of years and being a very sociable person, she joined the newcomer’s club, made friends with all of the neighbors, and pretty soon had a fully booked social calendar with bridge parties, luncheons, museum visits and the like.
This is the type of communal cookie I would have liked to make and offer these ladies during their bridge and tea get-togethers. Each person can snap off a piece (as small or large as desired) and savor it with tea or coffee.
The crust is a pâte sucrée, a classic recipe from chef Roland Mesnier’s Dessert University who was the White House pastry chef, baking cakes and cookies to a long string of presidents and dignitaries.
According to chef Mesnier, he always made sure there was a plate of petits fours available at the White House; none of that whimsical stuff though!
The crust is crunchy and buttery and combined with a couple coats of apricot jelly or amardeen and the extra crunch of the almonds scales, it is hard to resist.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 2 sticks of unsalted butter (8 ounces)
- Rind of a lemon or orange
- 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla
- Dash of salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of amardeen syrup or apricot jam or preserves
- 1/2 cup of almonds slices
- 1/2 teaspoon of agar-agar if using amardeen syrup (optional)
- dragées, to shape the eyes (optional)
METHOD:
- Place the softened butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer; mix well until the mixture is light-colored, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla, lemon zest and salt. Combine. Add the egg and mix; add the flour and mix until it disappears. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour or longer.
- Tear off half of the dough, leaving the rest refrigerated; taking one potato-size lump of dough, shape it into a narrow tube and set it on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper; continue with more until a snake shape is formed, making the hear fatter and the tail narrower. Using a knife, form a groove all along the snake. Insert almond slices and a couple of eyes with dragées if desired.
- Bake the snake in a 350Foven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden with brown accents; the dough should be crisp when it cools. Cool the cookie.
- Brush apricot preserve, jam or amardeen all over the dorsal part, in two batches; (wait for the first coat to dry). Serve.
NOTE: This dough is sufficient for 2 large snakes or a batch of about 75 cookies. It will freeze well, tightly wrapped, for two months. Shape the dough into a log, refrigerate or freeze and cut in 1/4 inch slices.
To make jam out of amardeen syrup, pour the syrup into a saucepan (you should have two cups); heat until simmering and add 1/2 teaspoon of agar-agar; stir continuously for 30 seconds to one minute. Cool. If you are using one cup, reduce the agar-agar to 1/4 teaspoon.
For a different look:
Simply form ring shapes and insert almonds all around; when bakes into a golden-brown hue, let them cool a bit and apply the apricot jam with a brush.
21 Comments
Interest! That is one wonderful cookie. I love the flavors used.
Cheers,
Rosa
This would be so much fun for kids parties too… very tasty also
This is a beautiful “communal” cookie. It’s like breaking bread with each other. In this case, we would be breaking cookies.
Velva
Love this cookie and the story behind it. It would no doubt be a great “ice breaker” and could almost be subed for a bday cake – just got to make an indent and the snake’s head for a candle ;-p
A wonderful treat for a gathering of women enjoying coffee and friendship!!
Omg, mindblowing, incredible snake cookie..
I LOVE this idea! I mean its just so simple and so adorable! Im going back to uni in september and this would go down a storm with my housemates i think, definitely will make it
oh masha`allah excellent …. one for the kids
A very interesting cookie recipe…must be really good with lots of almond slices.
I can’t stop smiling! This is just adorable!
Those are truly wonderful work of creativity. Magnificent!
What a fun idea – and the topping and cookie sound delish – also quite a hoot when looking at that face… clearly SINfully decadent!
Valerie
So fun! I’d love to make this for a club meeting or something. The little “tongue” is a nice touch.
xx
Fun idea!!!Great for kids parties!
Lovely cookie… as a communal dish this will do great for the bonding. BTW, I made the fresh pineapple cake twice and it is a really wonderful recipe.
So cool! I love the almonds for the scales here.
this looks amazing!! and i just discovered this wesbite but have put it in my favs straightaway!!! if u want to- take a look at mine
I love this! Such a fun idea for kids and a tasty treat for adults
Great pate sucre recipe, but I have to say the snake freaks me out a bit. I can see making these in different shapes though. – S
good looking tasty snake cookies! I’ve got to get over my baking phobia would be a fun way of overcoming it.
Cheers,
Heguiberto
Absolument superbe et ça me donne des idées….réptiliennes et sinueuses.
pour mon émail : domidion@numericable.fr
mon nom d’utilisateur : domi
Gros bisous et bonne fin de semaine