Zambolis apartments

Zambolis apartments
For your holidays in Chania

Monday 30 November 2009

Belgium fingers (Mπισκότο Βελγίου)

Greek cakes and sweets are usually overly sweet and syrupy, or creamy and stodgy. They are very difficult to enjoy on the road, as they leave behind messy trails of syrup and cream. The window displays of Greek cake shops are very tempting, but most of the cakes found there taste very similar to each other, even though they look very different from one another. Appearances count much more than what's inside them. If you have a particular fondness for chocolate, for instance, then how do you choose among the chocolate 'pas-tes' available? They all taste the same anyway, so no matter which one you choose, you will be satiated in the same way.

zaharoplasteo egaleo athens
The typical Greek zaharoplasteio: everything looks unique, but it generally tastes the same.

The is the exact opposite of the typical English cake display. Everything displayed in a shop window has its own unique appearance and taste. No two items are alike. If you have a particularly fondness for fruity desserts, for instance, you'll choose a strawberry tart. But if you prefer a crisp spicy biscuit, you'll want a gingerbread man. Do you like chocolate? Then go for a creamy eclair or a cakey muffin. Want to keep healthy? Then try some carrot cake. Not a single one of these sweets bears any resemblance to one another. And they're all delicious.

cake shop greenwich london
Cake shop in Greenwich, London: can you name all the sweets?

These sweet treats are very similar to the kinds of cakes and biscuits that were available at the confectionery stores in Wellington when I was living there. They were also similar to the sweets you could order in a cafe to go with a very large cup of cappuccino, along with some Kiwi favorites, like afghan biscuits, which had nothing to do with Afghanistan ,and Belgium biscuits, which, again, had nothing whatsoever to do with Belgium. Belgium (or Belgian) biscuits are spicy jam-filled topped with pink icing. They have their own unique taste.

You need:
125g butter or margarine
1/4 cup soft brown sugar (not granulated, crystal or powder sugar; soft dark brown sugar is the most suitable - I didn't have any available, so I used crystallised brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups plain flour
raspberry jam
pink icing (I didn't use this, but these biscuits are usually iced in this way)

Cream butter and sugar together with the spices, then mix in the beaten egg. Add the flour and baking powder, and mix into the dough, which will be very soft. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface and cut small cookie-sized rounds. Spread a dab of raspberry jam over one cookie and top with another cookie round. Place the sandwich biscuits onto a greased baking tray and cook in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes, till golden brown.

belgium biscuits

If you want to ice the biscuits, let them cool down completely, and then ice them on one side.

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15 comments:

  1. Maria, these look delicious! As for Greek "pas-tes"...I adore them as long as they use real cream and not that mock rubbish.

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  2. I'm not *such* a sweet tooth, but I do like to bake sweets, specially cookies! Yours look very good, I'm bookmarking the recipe.

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  3. These look scrumptious! Must try!

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  4. At home we always baked the biscuits and then "jammed" them together. Do you remember the ones from NZ bakeries not only had pink icing but a scattering of "hundreds and thousands" on top too.

    Memories rushing back for me - thank you dear Maria

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  5. Greek pastries are a treat to me. My one regret when I was there was that I controlled what I put into my mouth even though we were hiking every day.

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  6. Maria, these look delicious. All home-made cookies and biscuits are superior in my opinion. Of course I'm biased. In my shop 'll be having a small selection of 'British' style sweets, like shortbread, gingerbread men, scones with jam and cream etc!! I hope my display looks as nice as the one above. The strawberry tarts look divine. One of my favorites but only when the strawbs are in season.

    Peter G,

    You'd be hard pressed to find a Zaxaroplasteio that doesn't use fake stuff in it's wares these days!

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  7. I cannot name all these sweets, but they look amazing. My favorite Greek coffee house when I lived in the Northeast had similar types of sweets. They were great!

    About your question, a persimmon should never be eaten when still astringent, because they taste horrible that way. I am no expert, but from my experience with persimmons, generally when they start to get soft, that's a sign that they are most likely ready to eat. Although, some varieties can still be firm and sweet. If I am not sure, I usually keep the persimmons at room temperature for a few days or even a week.

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  8. I'd never had a Belgium biscuit until my uncle brought me some from NZ. The icing was very hard, so your uniced version sounds a lot nicer with spice and jam.

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  9. I don't remember anything exactly like the ginger slice you talked about. But after googling it I think it must be very similar in taste to what we call 'Parkin' not the same appearance though.

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  10. I with Peter, as long as real cream is used, the glyka and the finer Zaxaroplasteia are a joy to patronize.

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  11. The biscuits look great ... a treat the kids and I would surely enjoy!

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  12. They look delicious! I'll try them! Have a nice month!

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  13. I only partly agree with you Maria. I think it really depends on the pastry shop you go to. The more upmarket ones are as good as any French pastry shop,. with very different tastes and textures for each thing they have on display. It is only some of the local shops, which use many ingredients they shouldn't (like powdered eggs or imitation cream), that have sweets taht all taste the same. The only problem I find with english style cake shops is that they sell CAKE and not "pastes" and for me cake is for coffee time whereas
    pastes" can be a dessert too.

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  14. it's true that there are upmarket zaharoplasteia, but we dont actually have any that i know of in hania. for example, when i visited XATZHS in Thessaloniki, the superior appearance fo their products could not be compared to anything we have in hania. i would say that there are very few places here where imitation products are not used. the only products worth buying from such places end up being the traditional greek desserts like galaktoboureko. their 'pas-tes' look pretty, but taste fake

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  15. The plague of fake ingredients has hit the confectioners shops really hard in the last decade for cost reasons. But the greeks seem undeterred as they use fake ingredients in home pastry cooking as well since we do not have a butter and cream tradition. If only Parliaros could hear all the negative criticism from the average greek housewife he would laugh his heart out. I too stick with traditional desserts preferably filled with patisserie cream.

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