Day 5: March 18, 2016 - Fontanaki Soft Cookies with Almond Flour and Rosewater - Μαλακό Αμυγδαλοτό Φοντανάκι με Ανθόνερο (από Τριαντάφυλλο)

Today's recipe: Fontanaki soft cookies with almond flour and rosewater. They are very soft (not baked)
 and fragrant "cookies" which almost dissolve in your mouth.

We found this recipe title and the recipe in our most recently acquired church cookbook (The Ladies Philoptochos Favourite Recipes - Saints Panteleimon, Anna and Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Community, Markham, Ontario, 2008).

We bought the cookbook at a church we attended the other week, and one of our friends in Philoptochos told us about the book.   Supporting the various Philoptochos groups is important to us, and when we see a cookbook of contributed recipes, we like to try to support that effort.  After all, we understand that it takes quite a bit of work to put together a bunch of recipes with directions that people will understand, and sometimes with pictures.

Fontanaki sounded like a little fountain.  We think it refers to the fountain of flavour that fills your mouth with these little bites.  This is a Lenten cookie, and by the ingredient list is very simple and minimal.  That sounds like something we would like.  Who doesn't like a quick and easy treat?  And, as we read the directions in the cookbook, we are reminded that Great Lent and fasting is not just about the type of foods we eat or do not eat, it is also about the quantity, the prayer, the thoughts, and more.  Since we focus a lot on the type of food, this recipe forced us to focus on the quantity, too.  Minimal ingredients, minimal time, minimal effort, but great reward!

We want to give a thank you goes to Ka. Elena for sharing this little treat with us, and with all the people who bought this Philoptochos cookbook.

For this recipe, you will need the following:

2 1/4 cups crushed fine almonds
1/1/4 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar/confectioner's sugar)
1 TBSP brandy
Rosewater, as needed
Granulated sugar, as needed
Cloves, as needed

In a bowl, mix the almonds, icing sugar, and brandy.  We were able to buy ground almonds at the grocery store, but if you cannot buy them this way, then your first step would be to crush the almonds as fine as you can -- with a food processor, blender, mortar and pestle, or a zipper seal bag and rolling pin.  The crushed almonds we purchased are very fine, almost powdery.  They would have a little more texture if we had ground them by hand.

Mix those ingredients together.  Start adding a little rosewater at a time while mixing.  Add enough rosewater until the mixture becomes a dough that you can form into balls.  If you add too much, and the dough is super sticky, add a little more ground almond and a little more powdered sugar until you get to the consistency you want.

Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.  This gives all the flavours a chance to blend.  If you are in a hurry, you do not need it to rest, but it may help the dough bind.

Roll the dough into small balls, the size of a walnut.  The easiest way to do this is with damp hands.  The dough is moist -- not like bread, so you will find that the more you work with it, the more sticky it becomes.  If your hands are damp, the dough does not stick to you, and it will absorb some of the granulated sugar, since the next step is to take each ball and roll it in the granulated sugar.  Cover the entire ball and set on a serving dish.  If you have small paper cups, you could put the cookies right in the cups.  Then, poke a clove in the middle of the ball for decoration.

These are similar to rum balls, but Lenten.  Some may eliminate the brandy and use only the rose water.  This will still result in lovely flavour.  There are other flavours of water that will go well with the almond, including orange water (we have tried orange blossom water but we found the flavour and aroma too intense).  You could also change the brandy to other liquors like ouzo or spiced rum.  The recipe which we have shared today is a base recipe to which you can make changes.  We also thought that these would look beautiful using the coloured sugars available for cookies and decorating (or using sprinkles, instead).  The cookie balls are moist enough to hold onto sprinkles or heavy sugar.  Also, these could be holiday treats using different colours, or you can use white granulated sugar and tint the dough using different colours.  We also thought about all the things that we would do to replace the clove -- small pieces of liquorice, cinnamon hearts, even a chocolate.  This is a basic recipe with basic ingredients, but it opened up so many possibility for future use.  We are delighted to have tried this, and hope you are too!  We would enjoy reading what you made, whether or not you used variations or the given recipe.