I am being bad. I spent yesterday on a day trip with my mother and sister--they both love arlettes, so Tuesday evening I made a huge batch. My kids didn't eat all those that I left here--for breakfast I had two cookies and two cups of coffee. I'm eating an apple, to partially redeem myself.

Mama Goose, I have never heard of Arlettes. What are they?

Sue

I plan to have a toasted mini bagel with cream cheese and homemade kumquat marmalade with my tea as soon as I get off the computer.

Arlettes are crispy, flaky, cinnamon cookies (biscuits to the British), made with puff pastry dough, so that they have air-filled layers. The dough is rolled very thin, in powdered sugar, to keep them from sticking to the counter and rolling pin, then baked quickly in a 400 degree oven. The sugar melts during baking, making them shiny in spots.

You can use prepared puff pastry dough, but I make my own from flour, salt, butter, and water.

This recipe is close to the one I use, but I've changed a couple of things. I spread the rolled dough with a thin layer of softened butter, then sprinkle with just cinnamon--no sugar, before rolling into logs. I slice thin rounds and roll them thin in powdered sugar (some recipes call it icing sugar), then place on parchment paper on the baking sheets. Each one needs a heaping tablespoon of powdered sugar for rolling, which is why I omit the sugar in the filling. The paper makes it much easier to remove the baked cookies, and can be reused for each successive batch.

Store in a tightly covered container--humidity makes them less crispy.

For a rarity, since I'm sick with a head cold, I simply had Throat Coat tea with some green tea. I usually have eggs of some shape or form. And lots of water. I didn't eat until 1 pm.

I had two low cal slices of toast with peanut butter on them and a grapefruit.