Adriana's Amaretti Biscuits

Adriana's Amaretti Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
2 tsp honey
1 pinch sea salt
180 g ground almonds
150 g caster sugar/fine sugar
100 g dried fruits e.g. apricots, cherries, prunes (not dates) snipped into quarters
100 g nuts e.g. pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts
icing sugar for dipping

Method:
Insert clean Butterfly Whisk into clean grease-free TM bowl.
Whisk egg whites, honey and salt 2 minutes/Speed 3½/Measuring Cup OFF.  
Remove the Butterfly Whisk and add the remaining ingredients.
Stir Speed 2/Reverse Blade Direction until mixed, about 20 seconds.

Using wet hands, shape into small rough dough balls and dip half the ball into the icing sugar. Place on a lightly greased baking tray, icing sugar side up and bake at 190°C with fan/375°F/gas 5 for 12 minutes or until just golden. Aga ovens: Bake on the rack set on the floor of the Roasting Oven for 9 to 12 minutes.

Alternative:  At step 2 add 50 g of dark or white chocolate chips.

Suggested combinations: Cranberry and pistachio Apricot and almond Cherry and almond Fig and walnut Prune, apricot and pistachio Prune and walnut Cherry and dark chocolate chip (omit nuts) Pistachio and white chocolate chip (omit fruit) Hazelnut and white chocolate chip (omit fruit)

White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies from vanillasugarblog.com

Cookies:

1 cup + 2 ½ TB all purpose flour

1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa

1 & ¾ sticks (7 ounces) unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 and ½ ts pure vanilla extract

2 TB (or more) of whole milk

¼ ts salt

.

Filling:

½ cup + 2 TB good quality white chocolate chips or chunks

¼ cup (more or less) raspberry coulis (see below)

.

Raspberry Coulis:

1 pint fresh raspberries

2 TB granulated sugar, or to taste

1 TB fresh lemon juice, or to taste

.

Cook notes: The raspberry coulis can be made a couple days ahead of time. Simply keep it in the fridge, tightly covered until ready to use. When ready to use, please let it come to room temperature before using. The melted white chocolate will seize up if you add a cold coulis to it. If you don’t want to make the coulis you could easily just fill the thumbprints with melted white or dark chocolate. Or even any flavored Hershey kiss would work. It is hard to tell when the cookies are done because of their dark color. They won’t brown, but look for dry cookies or cracked. Don’t bake them any longer than 10 minutes! Mine were done in 8 minutes.

.

For the coulis: Put all the ingredients in medium sauce pan and cook over medium (not high!) heat until fruit is mostly dissolved and mixture has reduced a bit as well as thickened up; about 30 minutes or more. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pushing down on the solids. You might have to let this sit for a while to finish draining—it takes a while. Don’t forget to scrape off the bottom side of the sieve for all the juicy, thickened pulp. Discard the seeds. Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice if needed; it shouldn’t need anything. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

.

For the cookies: Sift flour and cocoa together into a medium bowl. With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla and salt; continue beating until blended and smooth, about 1 minute more.

Add the flour-cocoa mixture and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms, about 1 minute. Then add in the whole milk—it might not need the whole 2 tablespoons, but use enough to help it come together. This is a dry dough, so don’t add in any more than 2 TB. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until firm enough to roll into balls, about 60 minutes (or longer).

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners. Using your palms, roll heaping teaspoonfuls of the dough into 1-inch balls. Or 2-inch balls. Arrange them 2 inches apart on the lined sheets.

With a lightly floured thumb or index finger-tip, press straight down into the middle of each ball almost to the cookie sheet to make a deep well. (Or use the end of a thick-handled wooden spoon.)

Bake one sheet at a time until the tops of the cookies look dry, 8 to 10 minutes.

Gently redefine the indentations with the end of a wooden spoon.

Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes and then let them cool completely on racks.

If you’ve made the coulis ahead of time, now is the time to take it out of the fridge and let come to room temperature.

,

For the filling: Put the white chocolate over a double boiler over low heat. Melt slowly and keep stirring until melted. Once melted add in the raspberry coulis, slowly, a bit at a time, all the while stirring. You can use as much or a little raspberry coulis as you like. The coulis is strong, so a ¼ cup is plenty.

Using a small spoon simply fill each cookie with a teaspoon amount of filling. You could also pour the chocolate mixture into a pastry bag or plastic bag and pipe in the filling. I found a small spoon to work wonders. Cool completely before serving or storing. Should make: if you rolled them into 1-inch balls about 34-36 cookies; if you rolled them into 2-inch balls about 16-19 cookies.

Prune and chocolate cake

Prune and chocolate cake

From this link http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/16/christmas-lunch-recipes

This rich and elegant cake is deceptively simple to make, and a great alternative for the many who don't get on with Christmas pud and mince pies. Serves eight to 10.

12 pitted prunes
100ml brandy
250g butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
250g dark chocolate, about 70%, broken into pieces
4 eggs, separated
100g caster sugar
100g light muscovado sugar
50g plain flour
50g finely ground almonds
1 tbsp icing sugar

Soak the prunes in the brandy overnight. Next day, grease a 23cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Butter the parchment. Heat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3. Drain the prunes, reserving the soaking liquid, and gently pat dry on kitchen paper.

Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the base of the bowl. Stir occasionally until the butter and chocolate have melted, then leave to cool slightly. Whisk the egg yolks and sugars in a large bowl until well combined. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture. Combine the flour and almonds, then fold them in, too.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they hold firm peaks. Stir a large spoonful of egg white into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, then fold in the rest of the egg whites with a large metal spoon or spatula, trying to keep in as much air as possible.

Pour half the cake mixture into the prepared tin. Arrange the prunes over the top, then spoon over the rest of the mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes, until only just set – it should still wobble slightly in the centre – then leave to cool for about 15 minutes before releasing the tin.

Dust with icing sugar, and serve warm or cold, on its own or with thick cream or creme fraiche – flavour the cream with some of the prunes' soaking liquid and a bit of icing sugar, if you like.

My Tiramisu

At long last I've decided to share my secret tiramisu recipe, (mainly because I keep on forgetting it if I don't make it for a long time) but also because it's nice to share.

Ingredients (serves 6)* EGGS, 4, with yolks and whites separated
* SUGAR, a pinch
* MASCARPONE, 500g
* Sponge finger biscuits, 10-15
* AMARETTI biscuits, a standard small bag
* Espresso or Strong Coffee, 1 cup
* Cognac or Brandy, to taste (I'm quite liberal)
* COCOA, 1/8 cup
* Vanilla extract, 1 tsp or a pod of real vanilla

Directions

1. Separate egg whites and yolk.
2. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of sugar in TM, with butterfly whisk, speed 4 keeping an eye on it until firm (mixture should form soft peaks when touched with a spoon and spoon lifted off).  Pour out and put to one side.
3. Put the egg yolks and a tablespoon of brandy into the TM bowl and heat 5 mins/ 80 C / Speed 4 (if you don't have a TM, then just mix the egg yolks and brandy without heating)
4. Add mascarpone, vanilla and mix 20 seconds / speed 4. Empty the mixture into a large bowl.
5. Gently fold in the egg white into the mixture.
6. Mix the brandy into the coffee to taste
7. Arrange the lady fingers and amaretti biscuits into an appropriate medium rectangular flat dish (about equal amounts of each, you can vary the ratio to your preference), and soak with the coffee and brandy mixture
8. Spoon the mascarpone mixture on top.
9. Sprinkle with the cocoa
10. Chill at least 3 hours or overnight

Breadsticks

At this link

Ingredients


For the dough
- 500 g Manitoba Flour
- 80 g Vegetable Oil (peanut oil in this recipe)
- 1 Brewer's Yeast Cube
- 1 Full Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Sugar
- 260 g Water

For the surface
- Coarse Salt to taste
- Sesame Seeds or Poppy Seeds or Rosemary or Chilli Pepper


How to prepare the Bread Sticks with Thermomix

Put water, oil, yeast and sugar in the bowl. 10 Sec. Speed 3.

Add flour and salt. 2 Min. Speed Dough Mode.

Roll this dough out in a 1/2 cm thick sheet.

Using a pastry wheel cut into stripes 1-2 cm large.

Spread with oil and let leaven for 12 Min.

Sprinkle with some coarse salt and sesame seeds (or poppy seeds or rosemary or chilli pepper according to your taste) and bake at 250°C for 12 Min.

Millionaire's SHORTBREAD WITH ROSEMARY-INFUSED SALTED caramel

From this link.

Ingredients

225g plain flour

85g caster sugar

315g unsalted butter

1 x 397g tin sweetened condensed milk

4 tbsps golden syrup

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 tsp Maldon sea salt

200g good-quality plain chocolate (at least 70pc cocoa solids)

Method

The rosemary-salted caramel is revolutionary. You would never think to pair the two ingredients, but rosemary adds a mature depth to this normally too-sweet treat. And the basic shortbread recipe is fantastic on its own, too.

Makes: 16 squares

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Cooling time: 1 hour

1Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 3. Line a 23cm square brownie tin with greaseproof paper. Put the flour and sugar into a bowl and rub in 200g of the butter -- the texture will be sandy but malleable enough to form a ball shape when pushed together. Press this sandy shortbread mixture into the tin and smooth it with your knuckles. Prick it with a fork and bake for five minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 150°C/Gas Mark 2 and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until pale golden and no longer doughy. Let it cool in the tin.

2Melt the remaining 115g butter in a pan over a low heat for two to three minutes, then add the condensed milk, golden syrup and rosemary sprigs.

3Whisk the mixture well until the butter is thoroughly incorporated. Bring it to a slow simmer then, keeping the temperature even, cook for 10 minutes, stirring continuously, until thickened and light golden-brown in colour (this mixture can burn very easily, so never take your eyes off it). Very carefully remove the rosemary from the pan, then pour the sauce evenly over the cooled shortbread. Sprinkle with the salt and leave it to set.

4 Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave for one minute and 45 seconds on high, or until fully melted, stirring halfway through. Leave to cool for five minutes, then pour and spread the melted chocolate evenly over the toffee mixture and leave to cool in the fridge for one hour. Once set, cut the caramel shortbread into 16 squares.

The squares can be stored in the fridge, but if you keep them at room temperature for a while the caramel goes lovely and gooey!

Olive Oil / Coconut Oil Lotion

Lotion

2 cups melted coconut oil
1 cup olive oil
10 drops each:
tea tree oil
lemon oil
lavender oil
5 drops oregano oil

Use your own combination of essential oils for the qualities you need and/or the scent you desire.