"What can I bring?” I asked our friends that invited us to a Hanukkah candle lighting party. “Whatever you feel like,” they answered, “we trust you to bring something tasty.” This is usually the answer when I ask what to bring, which challenges me every time to find something new and interesting to contribute.A few days before the holiday, I browsed recipe sites on the internet, went through my cookbooks, looked at old newspaper scraps of recipes that I kept and brought with me to the United States many years ago, and there on an old piece of newspaper I saw a pastry I did not know. There is no longer anyone to ask what these cookies are, and how can it be that I never tasted or even saw them, but the picture looks yummy, the recipe is mouth watering, and most of all, they have a funny name, so I decided that that's what I'll bring, Moroccan yoyo cookies.
Ingredients
Dough
4 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
1 TBS baking powder
4 eggs
⅓ cup canola oil
⅓ cup orange juice
1 lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
Sugar Syrup
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup water
1 TBS lemon juice
1 cup ground coconut
Place flour and baking powder In a mixer bowl with beater and stir. Increase speed and add all other dough ingredients. Knead only until a dough is formed. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Place water sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Heat over high heat while stirring until sugar dissolved. Lower heat and cook for 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Roll dough into a ⅛ inch thick rectangle. With a cookie cutter make a circle 3 inch in diameter. Remove remaining dough and with a small cookie cutter make a hole in the center of each circle.
Heat 3 inch high oil in a deep pan. When oil is hot but not boiling, insert dough circles. Fry 1-2 minute each side until circle floats and turns golden.
Place the sugar syrup in a small bowl and the ground coconut next to it. Dip each cookie in the syrup and roll in the coconut to cover all sides.
