rosewater lemon cookies

NERDFIGHTERS!

I was one of those people in school who didn’t have many friends. For some of the years I was at school the most prominent memory I have is reading in the library (or some other enclosed space if the library was closed) during lunchtimes.

Big time nerd, guys. But that’s ok. I survived school (barely) and am now fairly confident in my nerd-dom. Recently I discovered the Brotherhood 2.0 project (follow here) and started watching. Basically, John Green (author of Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns and co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and his brother Hank Green (creator of EcoGeek) decided to embark on 365 days of textless communication, and vlogged back  and forth every weekday for a year. Through that project they coined the term “Nerdfighter” and got me hooked. If I’d discovered this project in its duration, the year of 2007 (when I was in year 10) I feel like my entire school experience would have been different.

Now I feel like it’s partially my responsibility to spread awesome wherever I go, because, hey, I’m a nerdfighter. Definition here (among other info):

So, when I finished studying the other night, I rewarded myself with making these cookies. They don’t look like they’re meant to because I have a smaller tip than was suggested, but that’s ok because you can make words out of them! Like this:

And this:

It’s pretty cool. That there at the bottom is a blob of cookies that stuck together that my housemate decided looked like a person. Seeing as it was a certain person’s birthday, it worked.

Don’t forget to be awesome.

Rosewater, Lemon and Polenta Alphabet Cookies

So originally these were Orange Polenta Crescents, because instead of rosewater you use orange flower water and instead of lemon zest you use orange zest. And you pipe them into crescents using a 3/4″ star tip. I didn’t have orange flower water, oranges or a 3/4″ star tip, so I improvised. They’re still really good. They’re pretty addictive, actually.

125g (1/2 cup) butter

80g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

1 teaspoon rosewater (or orange flower water)

finely grated zest from one lemon (or orange – probably could have used more)

2 eggs

165g (1 1/3 cups) plain flour

80g (1/2 cup) polenta

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Place butter, sugar, rosewater and zest into a food processor and process light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time while processing. Add flour and polenta and pulse until a smooth dough forms. This might not quite happen at first – stick with it.

Put the mix in a piping bag with a 2cm (3/4”) star tip and pipe 7cm crescents onto the trays. Alternatively, use a smaller tip (this will really work your wrists) and pipe alphabet letters or lines and curvy bits so you can form them later.

Bake about 15 minutes, until pale brown around the edges. Cool on trays and then on a wire rack. They’ll keep for about three days in an airtight container.