Nazar Cookies

I just returned a week ago from a business trip to Turkey. There was a lot of business and  then some time extra to poke around in some of my favorite places in Istanbul. Wherever you go in Turkey, you can’t escape the watchful eye of the Nazar.  

Once you see them, it’s hard not to feel eyes on you everywhere. They peek out at you from every corner of the market or bazaar. Vendors pin them on you and the adorn every shop. Their purpose is to ward of the evil eye. I think Turkey has it covered.

Nazar tchotchkes at the Grand Bazaar, Instanbul

When I returned from my trip I still hade some chocolate anise allspice dough in the freezer leftover from making those Turkish embroidered boot cookies. I was already onto working on some Halloween posts and was making tons of colored eyes out of royal icing when the idea hit me to use the Nazar for cookie inspiration.

I cut out a large circle shape and used smaller size cutters to mark the different size circles. The royal icing recipe I use was from Bake at 350 and tinted with paste food coloring.

Maybe now that I’ve made these my oven will not magically not burn anything and all my macarons will not grow perfect feet. Maybe not. But I’m hedging my bets.

The cookies recipe can be found over at Craftstorming. Here’s looking at you.