Mustacudos de muez - Walnut cookies flavoured with cinnamon and orange

(in case you're wondering half way reading this if I realize that my post is called Mustacudos de muez - Walnut cookies flavoured with cinnamon and orange....I do ;)

I rediscovered some cookbooks that have been on my bookshelves for years and years. Two books on the French kitchen written by Julia Child. Back then I didn't even know who Julia Child was and wasn't very interested in the French kitchen. It was sort of a surprise that I had books by Julia Child on my shelves, never knew it. Anyway, one of the books is on lunch dishes and in this book I found the spinach quiche I wanted to make some time ago. A doesn't like savoury pies and tarts so I haven't made anything of the sorts in over 9 years. Making the dough for this quiche the French way with lots and lots of butter was trickier than I imagined. I thought rolling the dough between baking parchement would help like it does with sweet shortcrust dough but it didn't work that well. I wasn't able to roll it out to the desired thinness of 3 mm and ended up having a much thicker crust. Of course I was pressed for time when I baked it (had to be ready for lunch with the in-laws) so I didn't blind bake it long enough (did I mention that I forgot to prick the bottom with a fork?). If I would have been baking in a more relaxed fashion I would have been smart enough to blind bake it some more to compensate for the thickness. So after blind baking I pricked it with a fork and returned it to the oven. Of course the bottom puffed up enormously. Also the sides puffed up, well not really up, more inward. Looked pretty though in the oven, like a big flower ;) This time I did bake it longer than Julia said. After taking it out of the oven I just pressed the bottom down with a crème brûlée dish. The tart shell didn't look all that pretty, though it did improve when I baked it with the filling (which was really delicious btw). Not being happy with the crust (looks and done-ness) and the lack of time to make pictures I decided not to feature this recipe on my blog. Maybe in the future, who knows. So instead I'm giving you the very last recipe that I made for my Middle Eastern themed birthday party: Walnut cookies with cinnamon and orange. The cookies are very easy to make, naturally gluten-free and delicious :) It's another recipe from Claudia Roden, this time from The Book of Jewish Food. According to Claudia the cookies are made by Turkish Jews, I presume for Passover as they don't have any flour in them.

Mustacudos de muez - Walnut cookies flavoured with cinnamon and orange (from the Dutch version of The book of Jewish food by Claudia Roden)

makes about 16

250 g (9 oz) walnuts
90 g (3 ¼ oz) sugar
1 egg
zest of ¾ orange
1 ts cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking sheet with baking paper or grease the baking sheet.
Process all ingredients in the food processor until a medium coarse paste. Roll into walnut sized balls with wetted of greased hands.
Bake the balls for about 25 minutes.