My maternal grandma was an incredible lady; she fled Hungary and spent six months in a refugee camp in Austria before immigrating to Canada. She gave up everything, including a job as a kindergarten teacher, so my mom and aunt could have a better life. She battled diabetes, lymphoma with immense courage and survived a triple bypass.
I remember spending summers with her and learning about my Hungarian roots from her; one way she exposed it to me was through cooking and baking. One treat I love and remember fondly is, mézeskalács or honey cookies. We always had them at Christmas and gobbled them up. I tried many times to make this recipe successfully, but I failed –I either burned them or they were too dense or the flavour just wasn’t there.
My grandma cooked mainly from memory; what she was taught by her foremothers and by touch and taste. This summer though, as my travel plans were put on hold; I challenged myself to successfully make one of her recipes…and this time I succeeded.
Ingredients…
7 Tbsp honey
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp gingerbread spice
Directions…
-Preheat oven to 390 F
-Combine honey, oil, egg and sugar
-In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and spices.
-Add dry ingredients to the honey mixture and blend together to make a dough
-Take 1 teaspoon of dough and roll into a ball
-Place honey cookie on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
-Bake for about 8 minutes, or until the bottom of honey cookies become slightly brown
-Cool completely
*You can glaze these cookies; however, in our household that wasn’t done.