cookie culture shock

[baratron]

irc log from #commonroom, posted with permission of the participants. Typos mostly uncorrected :)

baratron: what on earth is "snickerdoodles"?
baratron: someone posted on ukvegans asking for recipes for Christmas cookies. i pondered that one all day - wondering if they meant speculaas or one of the german spiced cookies that i don't know the names of

Comments

[trinker]

Snickerdoodles are *NOT* speculaas.

Speculaas are a spice cookie, pressed into molds. Snickerdoodles are a sugar (plain butter/shortening and sugar flavored) cookie dropped onto baking sheets and sprinkled with cinnamon; or sprinkled with cinamon, rolled into spirals and sliced before baking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickerdoodle notes they may be *German*.

Meanwhile, I'm being mean, but the querent is ...well, a bippyhead. This is what I found in less than a minute's searching for "snickerdoodle recipe vegan": http://vegancore.blogspot.com/2006/05/secret-ingredient-is-evil.html

[baratron]

And it also says "Snickerdoodles are a traditional Christmas cookie in The Netherlands." Which is most definitely rubbish. So I'm inclined not to trust the Wikipedia on this at all :)

[trinker]

I did see that. Silly people.

http://www.epicurious.com/cooking/how_to/food_dictionary/entry?id=4630
claims it's NorAm-ish, and I'm more inclined to believe that.

[ceno]

Am I alone in misinterpreting 'speculaas' for a brief moment there?

[hatter]

No. You have asked the shortest question to answer, so you get an answer now and I might return to the rest of the thread later.

the hatter

[baratron]

*snicker*

Yeah, I often freak out people on irc by talking about speculaas... :D

("Speculum", right?)

[alexmc]

I haven't read the whole of the chat, but one of my german lodgers made cookies for Christmas. Yum.

[dwoucke]

don't you have star shape biscuits at christmas?

[thekumquat]

There are certain parts of American cuisine that sadly have never taken off in the UK: going out for brunch, real baked beans, and Christmas cookies.

I grew up making cookies each Christmas - if you're coming to mine for New Years and email me your dietary reqs, I'll make some.