the thing about papaya

Is that, in my experience, they usually do not have a lot of flavor... and they smell like feet. Or worse. But I bought one yesterday at Whole Foods and remembered that we have a jar of poppy seeds at home, and for some reason decided they would go well together. Poppy seeds are a little peppery, and the papaya is slightly sweet and balances it nicely.
And of course, by now you all know my obsession with curds, right?? I REALLY wanted to make papaya curd!!

First of all- I googled papaya curd and I got 1. a minute-by-minute replay of some contestant on chopped who won even though his papaya curd did not do so well and 2. a listing of restaurants in New Delhi that sell papaya curd. Not very helpful. So, I made it up! It worked really well, actually. The flavor is very light and you can taste the papaya (but not smell the feet!). Poppyseed cookies are just a simple butter cookie recipe, but I used baking powder instead of baking soda, which is where my mistake lies- they were a little too... poofy, for what I was going for. Anyway, one day I will have the science of rising agents down perfectly, in the mean time, enjoy the poofy papaya poppyseed cookies!

Poppyseed Butter Cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp

1 c cold flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c white sugar

1 large eggg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

scant tbsp poppyseeds

-cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in egg until combined. add flour, baking powder, salt, poppyseeds, and vanilla with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together completely. place in the refrigerator and preheat oven to 375*.

-when oven is to temperature, remove dough from refrigerator and roll into 1" balls to place on a cookie sheet with a layer of parchment paper. flatten each ball with your thumb and bake for 10-11 mins or until the bottoms of the cookies are just golden brown. remove from oven, cool for 1 minute and press a small spoon into the top of each cookie to create an indent.

-let cool completely. can be stored wrapped up to 1 week in the refrigerator.

(This is the point, after they cooled, that I piped in the papaya curd. Recipe later!)