Hey, good lukken! What ya' got cookin'?

Brandy Welvaert, bwelvaert@qconline.com

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Photo: John Greenwood / staff Joan DeCap of Hillsdale baked these Belgian lukken cookies.

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Photo: John Greenwood / staff Al DeCap weighs a couple balls of lukken cookie dough to make sure he gets them the right size. His wife, Joan, will bake the cookies for the 45th Anniversary Celebration and Dinner for the Center for Belgian Culture of Western Illinois Oct. 11.

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Photo: John Greenwood / staff Joan DeCap of rural Hillsdale uses a four-cookie electric cookie iron to bake Belgian lukken cookies. She uses her mother's recipe, but she said each person creates a slightly different cookie.

It began as a family tradition reserved for the holidays, but these days, Joan DeCap of rural Hillsdale can't seem to break away from her cookie iron.

The culprit? Lukken, old-world Belgian sugar cookies, which are buttery and thin, crispy and lightly sweet. They quickly bake in a waffle iron fitted with a plate that marks each cookie with a delicate crisscross pattern.

"Last year it seemed like I started making the cookies in June and didn't stop until January!" Mrs. DeCap jokes.

Mrs. DeCap's mother, whose parents came to the United States from Belgium, taught her to make the cookies with a recipe that she spent years perfecting.

"This is my mom's recipe. It started out with all butter -- like one pound of butter -- and it changed from there," she explains.

Lukken are flat, unleavened cookies with few ingredients, but their simplicity belies their distinctive flavor and texture. If you've never tasted lukken, the first bite reveals why they're a tradition for so many Belgian families in the Quad-Cities and elsewhere.

Most lukken recipes call for flour, butter, sugar and eggs. Some cooks use brown sugar, or a combination of brown and white sugar; others add a hint of vanilla extract -- or something a little bit stronger.

"Ours have whiskey," Mrs. DeCap says. "I added a little Jack Daniels to these. It burns off in the iron."

She spends about 1-1/2 hours baking a batch of about 144 cookies. Her husband, Al, helps by rolling the dough into balls. He uses a small scale to weigh the first few to ensure that they're the right size -- about 1 ounce, or the size of a walnut.

"After you do a few million of them, you get the hang of it," Mr. DeCap says with a sly grin. He can speak Flemish, and he throws out a few words here and there to prove it as he rolls dough.

Mrs. DeCap stands nearby at the counter, squishing dough balls in the iron and watching the second hand on her watch. The scent of caramelized sugar and butter soon fills the kitchen.

When the couple's seven kids, grandkids or great-grandkids can't make it home, sometimes the cookies travel. "I sent my grandson cookies in Iraq," Mrs. DeCap says. "I can fit about 30 or 32 in a Folger's coffee can. He says they made it over pretty good."

The cookies keep well as long as they're stored in an airtight container. They also may be frozen.

Though lukken dough is easy to make, an electric iron like the one Mrs. DeCap uses is a big investment. She spent about $150 on her iron, which can bake four cookies at a time.

Old-fashioned hand-held cookie irons, or lukijzers, bake just one or two cookies over a fire. Another type of iron sits atop a cast-iron base that covers a stove-top burner.

Both stove-top and electric irons are made and sold by Dan Vanderkinderen of Ghent, Minn., a town known as the rolle bolle capital of Minnesota. Mrs. DeCap's iron is one of his creations.

Mr. Verkinderen's Web site, "Dan Verkinderen's Rolle Bolle and Belgian Cookie Iron Home Page" (www.starpoint.net/~darco), features cookie irons as well as recipes for lukken and information about their history.

In Belgium, lukken are given as New Year's gifts and so, alternatively, are called nieuwjaarswafeltjes in Flemish, which roughly translates as New Year's wafers.

Because the cookies are easy to make, there's actually a Flemish idom about them: "Het gaat lijk lukken bakken" means that something's as quick and easy to do as baking lukken, according to the site.

When she bakes, Mrs. DeCap wears an apron with a Flemish slogan of its own: "Smakelijk eten." Mr. DeCap says it means "tasty eating."

When it comes to lukken, that about says it.

Lukken (Belgian Waffle Cookies)

"This recipe was my mother's, and she perfected it," says Joan DeCap of rural Hillsdale.

2-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine

3 eggs

6-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons whiskey

In a bowl, cream the sugar, butter and margarine. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing to combine.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and salt. Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Now add the whiskey and stir.

Heat a lukken iron (lukijyer).

Using hands, roll dough into balls about the size of walnuts, around 1 ounce each. (A small scale may be used to get the size right at first.)

Place balls of dough in lukken iron and press. Check cookies every few seconds, being careful not to burn them.

Makes 11 dozen to 12 dozen cookies.

-- Notes: Mrs. DeCap's cookie iron is large enough to bake four cookies at a time, and each batch bakes in about 30 seconds to 1 minute. She spends about 1-1/2 hours completing this recipe.

Lukken cookies make a wonderful dessert on their own, with ice cream or with a glass of wine.

-- Source: Joan DeCap, Hillsdale.

Oliebollen

Here's one more recipe that will be prepared by volunteers for the dinner. This recipe for apple doughnuts (oliebollen) comes from the "Belgian Cook Book" (1971), compiled by the Center for Belgian Culture of Western Illinois. Curious Cook Liz Meegan kindly lent her copy of the book for this story.

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon sugar, plus more for rolling

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 package yeast, mixed with 1 cup warm water

1 egg

3 cups flour

1-1/3 cups chopped apples

Scald milk; stir in sugar, salt and butter. Cool to lukewarm. Add 1 egg. Mix yeast into milk mixture. Add half of the flour and the chopped apples. Beat until smooth. Add remaining flour. Let rise until double in size. Beat down. Drop by teaspoonsful into grease heated to 375 degrees. Fry until golden-brown. Roll in sugar. Makes about three dozen.

Lukken irons

You can find lukken irons locally at the Center for Belgian Culture, 712 18th Ave., Moline. The center is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Irons also may be purchased online at www.starpoint.net/~darco/cookie.htm. Dan Vanderkinderen of Ghent, Minn., makes them and sells them.

-- What: 45th Anniversary Celebration and Dinner for the Center for Belgian Culture of Western Illinois.

-- When: 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11; dinner will be served at 7.

-- Where: Oakwood Country Club, Coal Valley.

-- Reservations: $30 per person, includes hors d'oeuvres, entertainment by The Belgian Band, and dinner. Reservations are due today (Oct. 1); call Celie Donohue at (309) 792-8246.

-- Menu: Oakwood chef Russell Bolar will re-create recipes from the Belgian Center's cookbook. Volunteers will bake desserts and breads.