Montag, 26. November 2012

Nut Slices - XMas Cookies IV



 The next recipe for Christmas cookies is ready to be explored by you!
You think I already have a lot?
Well, you should see how Timo loves those cookies and how they “melt” under my fingers. I really have to hurry to bake new ones. If not, one poor decemberday, there are no cookies left! Uh-OH!

Okay, here are the nut slices. I already posted them last year, but without recipe. Because I really love them and I want you to love them, too, here is it.

In Germany, you can buy these slices in big size in bakeries. I already loved them as a child.
But now, I prefer the smaller ones, because you can better control the amount you eat and I am always a little tickled pink when I filch one out of the cookiebox.


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NUT SLICES
70-80 pieces


Ingredients:


Dough:

>> 250 grams all-purpose flour
>> 4 Tbsp sugar
>> 200 grams unsalted butter, softened
>> 1 egg

Nut Topping:

>> 150 grams unsaltened butter, softened
>> 180 grams icing sugar
>> 200 grounded grams hazelnuts
>> 1 tsp cinnamon, grounded
>> 2 eggs

>> 200 grams dark chocolat


Let´s go:
> Preheat oven to 190°C (370° Fahrenheit)
> Prepare baking sheets with baking paper
> Knead a smooth dough from flour, sugar, butter and egg.
> Roll it out to a rectangle - it`s worth the effort to prepare this rectangle really exact, so it is absolutely perfect to cut later into triangles.

TIP: To roll out the dough without heavy sticking, layer it like this:
B
aking paper – dough – flour – baking paper. Roll over the last baking paper.

> Prick dough with a fork at some parts

> For the nut topping: mix butter, icing sugar, hazelnuts, cinnamon and eggs.
> Coat onto your dough-rectangle

> Bake it in the middle of your oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly brown.
> Take it out and cut it when it is still hot in small triangles.
Easiest way is that here:


> Let cool down
> Melt chocolate in a warm waterbath (how to see my recipe for the cocoa-spice-mountains here)
> Dip two corners of your triangles into the chocolat, put onto a baking paper and let dry.

TIP: Before dipping into chocolate, shake the slice a bit for that the crumbs fall down. If you do not, your melted chocolate is soon full of little crumbs.


Enjoy! These are really very yummy!
And we do it like every time:
Dancing around in the kitchen, raise your beautiful voices to sing jingle bells and be happy, because you just made the awesomestststst cookies ever! With singing and dancing, they get even better!


Donnerstag, 22. November 2012

Cocoa-Spice-Mountains - Xmas Cookies III




Hellohooow Naschkatzen & Naschkater (german word for having a sweet tooth :o))


So here I am with my next "Every-year"-recipe for xmas-cookies.

I visited my parents like last year at their little house at the lake - the best thing there in winter is the little chimney! My mother and me bake a lot. We love it, and my father loves it when there is a beautiful warm crackling fire burning in the chimney and everything smells like cookies.
After that haaard work we had some nice walks with our cameras around the lake, which is so beautiful and sometimes a little scary in wintertime.

The crackling chimney. And on the right, me and my "uncle" Hans-Karl

For the cookies:
These ones here belong to those recipes I didn`t eat in childhood, but I explored it the first time I bake my own cookies in my very first own appartment. Since then, I bake it every year, because the flavour is..well, like it is said: chocolat with spices! And I am crazy about spices - you should see my cupboards - and I`ve got also a lot of herbs in the garden, which I dry or use fresh. Well, I am a little witch, I guess.


So, this is a verrry simple basic recipe.
Like I am a little kitchen-alchemist, I love to add flavours and make experiments with basic recipes.
You can do so, if you want, too!
Add some spices you love or you can imagine very well in combination with chocolat (thyme? rosemary?). Or dip in a chocolat you really love...white, black..whatever. As topping, you can also put on whatever comes in your mind. With my mom I already chopped apricots and sprinkled them into dark choc. So: Be creative. Or just stick to the recipe here. It`s awesome, just like it is (you even can omit the choc-topping, they are wonderful in a pure way)

Okay, the only thing a little tricky (if you are not in Germany) is the gingerbreadspice (I don`t know if you get this in other countries).
So I add a recipe for it, too. It is just a spice mixture. A little from here and there and POFF! - tadaaa! There it is!

For sure, you can just add cinnamon, if you like, then you have chocolat-cinnamon-mountains.

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GINGERBREADSPICE

all spices grounded
>> 35 grams cinnamon
>> 9 grams clove
>> 2 grams pimento
>> 2 grams coriander
>> 2 grams cardamom
>> 1.5 grams nutmeg
>> 2 grams ginger


> Just mix all together and fill in a little glass or box or whatever. Tadaaaa! That`s it! Easy, eh?
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COCOA-SPICE -MOUNTAINS

60-70 pieces

>> 200 grams butter, softened
>> 100 grams icing sugar
>> 3 eggyolks (you can freeze the eggwhites for later. Use them f.e. for cinnamon-cookies or baisers)
>> 8 grams vanilla sugar (1 package here in Germany)
>> 1 tsp. gingerbreadspice
>> 1 pinch of salt

>> 200 grams all purpose flour
>> 130 grams hazelnuts, grounded
>> 35 grams cocoapowder (good quality, if possible)
>> 1 Tbsp. baking powder

>> 100 grams chocolat glaze
>> 70 pistachios, pure, roasted a little time in a pan. (You can also use almond bits or other nuts)



> Mix butter, icing sugar, egg yolks, vanilla sugar, salt and gingerbreadspice with a handmixer until creamy.
> Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa into the buttermixture, add hazelnuts and knead with a handmixer until smooth. Wrap in foil and cool it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
> Prepare two baking trays with baking sheets.
> Preheat oven to 170°C (350°C Fahrenheit)
> Flour your hands (! - better you put a little bowl with flour next to you to refresh it from time to time) and shape little balls from the dough. The size should be round about like a small (!) walnut.
> Put them on the tray. You can make round about 6 rows with 6 balls. They rise a little bit, but not that much.
> Bake them 12 minutes.
> Cool down on a cooling rack.
> Chop the chocolat glaze and put them in a small pot and prepare a how waterbath (How to: The small pot should fit on a little bigger one. In this bigger one, give 2 cm of water. Put the chocolat pot above (pot should not touch the water). Heat the water slowly (do NOT boil it))
- when the chocolat is melted, dip in the top of a cookie and add a nut on top.
> Cool down and let dry

You can store them up to 6 weeks ! But I guess you eat them before :)


Oh, and like always:
Dance through the kitchen, singing Jingle Bells for upgrading you cookies to wonder-awesome-awh-awh-christmas-cookies!
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Beautiful-scary lake

Me, my mum and a beautiful last-berry-standing.


Who wants to swim?

Montag, 12. November 2012

Mommy`s Spitzbuben - XMas Cookies II


Ooooookay guys, this is the easiest cookie-recipe ever. It is THE recipe of my childhood! Oh myyy!... I already had a post last year with these ones *klick*, when I made them with my mom, but no recipe - sorry for that!


I eat/bake those cookies for christmas time since I was a little kid - I guess I already participated in this feast when I was an embryo, because my mother made them long before I was born.
In Germany, this christmas cookie is really popular. Nearly every family bakes it.
We call it "Spitzbuben" in most parts of the country.

Over the years, I got different recipes from different moms and grandmas.
Every family has its own favourite recipe, but honestly: it`s just a shift in ingredient amount. The ingredients itselfs stay the same.

If you take more butter, it`s getting softer and more fluffy, if you take less, it`s getting harder.
If you roll them out thinner, it´s getting more fine, if you roll it out quite thick it has a great bite.

I post here my own variation, which is a  mixture between my mom`s recipe and the one of my mom-probably-one-day-in-law. The thickness of your rolled-out circles stays with you. As thick as you prefer. I roll them out 0,5 cm or a little more.

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SPITZBUBEN
amount depends on the thickness

Ingredients:
>> 200 grams sugar
>> 250 grams unsalted butter (little softened)
>> 500 grams flour
>> 1 egg

Filling:
>> a 400 ml glass of marmelade (jelly, no pieces of fruits!)


> Mix all ingredients (except marmelade) together, knead them quickly until homogenous
> wrap in
foil, put in the fridge for at least 1 hour
> put the dough out
, roll it out on a generous floured surface.

TIP: Put a foil between the dough and your rolling pin. So nothing sticks on the pin, it is the easiest way to roll out dough. Please - flour the surface GENEROUS. The dough can be really gooey!


> Cut out the cookies with a circle cookie cutter in the size you prefer. If you want, cut a little hole in every second circle (like I did) - so you get those nice "marmelade eyes".
> Put them on baking sheet on baking tray
> Bake them for about 8-12 minutes. Have an eye on the cookies. Get the
m out before they get brown on top. The bottom side is then lightly brown. Take care during the baking process, so you find out soon the "strength" of your oven and the baking time YOU need for your Spitzbuben.
> Take out, let cool down on a rack.

> Put the marmelade in a little pot and heat it softly until more liquid.

> Brush or coat (with a knife) one circle with some marmelade, put another circle on top.
> Let dry for a few hours.
> Store them in a Tupperware or closed box.

ENJOY! <3 Really
...they are awesome!

And like always: Dance around and sing Jingle Bells to make cookies even MORE tasty!



Dienstag, 6. November 2012

German Lebkuchen & Chocolat Baiser Kisses - XMas Cookies I

Okaaay, lovely people.
The pre-christmas time began. This is MY TIME! Christmascookierecipes...come to me! YAYA!



Just in time, 1st of november, I began baking. Not one day before or one later.1st!
I always make two recipes in one session.
One "every-year-again-recipe", a classical one. And the second is something new. Something different, interesting, not-so-classical.


Here we go:

1) Absolut classical german LEBKUCHEN, from Nuremberg. For me, the Nuremberg Lebkuchen are the best in whole Germany. Nobody does so well as they do. The tradition is very very old. The Lebkuchen are so fresh and tasty and fluffy and spicy, and and and...OHH, I love them!
I had kind of a "second family", my guest family in Portugal, when I lived there. I brought them once a package of Nuremberger Lebkuchen, and the dad of the family got crazy about it. He ate it ALL (and he has two little kids...he didn`t want to share - hahaha!).
Please, people out there, TRY it! bake it. Love it! Enjoy! It`s so wonderful! Best of christmastime!





2) Not classical, but experimental, beautiful and ommnomm: Chocolat Baiser Kisses.
It combines three ingredients I really really love:
Cocoa (Chocolat) Powder (into the baisers), marsipan and nougat (my absolute favourite chocolattype!)


Here are the recipes:
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Nürnberger LEBKUCHEN
50 pieces, wafer aperture: 50 mm)

TIP: Begin to prepare them either early in the morning or in the late evening. They have to rest for 12 hours before baking.

Ingredients:
>> 50 wafer (aperture 50 mm)
>> 4 eggs
>> 250 grams brown sugar
>> 250 grams all-purpose flour
>> 200 grams hazelnuts, grounded
>> 70 grams candied lemon peel
>> 70 grams candied orange peel
>> 75 grams almond, chopped
>> 1 tsp cinnamon, grounded
>> 1 pinch of grounded clove
>> 1 pinch of grounded cardamom
>> 1 pinch of grounded nutmeg
>> 2,5 level tsp baking powder

Icing:

>> 200 grams icing sugar
>> 3 Tbsp lemon juice
>> 50 almonds, peeled (half or complete, it`s your choice. I prefer them half, because they stick better in the icing)


> Mix eggs and sugar in a mixer undtil creamy
> Add flour, almonds, hazelnuts, candied lemon & orange peel, cinnamon, baking powder and all spices. Fold in thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
> Prepare 2 baking sheets. Put wafers on it and a little cup of water next to you.
> With the help of two teaspoons, put a good amount of dough onto the wafer. You will get a feeling, how much it should be. Be generous! The heaps can be a little bigger.
> Damp your fingers and flatten the dough heaps into the final shape. Arrange them immediately after shaping onto the baking tray/baking sheet, where they should stay. The wet wafer makes it stick on the sheet, and you can`t really move them before baking.
> Put them aside and let them dry for 12 hours.
> Preheat oven to 150° C ( 300 F )
> Put the trays in the middle of the oven. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
> Let them cool down.
> Prepare the icing by mixing sifted icing sugar and lemon juice. Brush Lebkuchen with it and put one almond on the top. Let them dry completely.

TIP!!: To store them, please put a slice of fresh bread into the same box (seperated by a kitchen paper). The bread "feeds" the Lebkuchen with humidity, so they stay wonderful soft and luscious in the inside.

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Chocolat Baiser Kisses
30 pieces
Ingredients:
>> 100 grams almonds, grounded
>> 100 grams icing sugar + 20 grams extra for the marsipan
>> 2 Tbsp best dark unsweetend cocoa powder
>> 2 eggwhite
>> 50 grams fine sugar
>> pinch of salt
>> 100 grams marsipan paste
>> 100 grams nougat (I tried to use a good chocolat instead of the stuff you can find in the baking areas in supermarkets. It worked, and it tastes much better!)


> Preheat oven to 150°C (Air circulation 130°C)/300 F and prepare 2 baking sheets.
> Mix almonds, 100 grams icing sugar and cocoa powder
> Prepare a how waterbath and an ice cold waterbath.
> First, beat eggwhites over the hot waterbath with the fine sugar and pinch of salt. It should be a warm, stiff mass.
> Second: beat it immediately after that in the cold waterbath, until cooled down.
> Fold in almond mixture.

> Fill the mass into a piping bag.
    If you have no, do it yourself :)  >>MAKE YOUR OWN PIPING BAG
> Squirt 60 little heaps onto the sheets, not bigger than 2 cm diameter. You can flatten the top with damp fingers, if you want.
> Bake them for about 18 minutes. Let them cool down (in the oven, door open)

> Roll out marsipan on your 20 grams leftofer icing sugar.
> cut circles out of the marsipan in the same size of the final baisers. You can do that with whatever you find - I often take a small shot glass, the edge floured that it doesn`t stick on it.> Melt Nougat.
> Brush two bottom sides of your baisers, put one marsipan circle in between and glue them together.
> To dry them, you have to be a little creative, because if you lay them down, the both baisers drift apart. I put them on a cooling rack, where I could arrange them stable.
> Let them dry.


Most important: ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY and sing JINGLE BELLS, while dancing in the kitchen
(makes the cookies more magical)






Donnerstag, 1. November 2012

Everybody is involved! Be a foodie-hero!

Everybody who is interested in food - and better: everybody who isn`t yet - should please (!) watch this here: