Eggnog Biscotti

I managed to bake one batch of cookies this year! I'm not a big pro with the cookies, but, somehow, I've always had a thing for biscotti and they just never fail me. I really adore these. The freshly grated nutmeg makes them smell amazing and they look pretty with the glaze, don't they?

Recipe
(from here)

Biscotti:
280g all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
85g unsalted butter, room temperature
133g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon rum
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 eggs

For the glaze:
28g unsalted butter, softened
120g icing sugar
generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg
about 1 tablespoon whole milk

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.

Biscotti: in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in vanilla, rum and nutmeg. Beat in eggs one at a time. On low speed, mix in the dry ingredients and mix just until a dough forms.

Divide dough in half and shape each half in a log about 15x5cm. Place the logs about 7.5cm apart onto prepared sheets and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and let stand for 20 minutes – leave the oven on. Line another large baking sheet with baking paper.

Slice biscotti into little less than 2cm slices. Place slices onto prepared sheet and bake fo 10 minutes. Turn all slices carefully, and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheet over a wire rack.

Glaze: whisk butter, sugar and nutmeg until mixture starts to get creamy. Add milk gradually, whisking until drizzable consistency. Drizzle biscotti with glaze and set aside until glaze is dry, about 20 minutes.
Biscotti can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days – without the glaze they last even longer.

Makes about 20.

Corn Flakes Crispy Cakes

Here comes the ultimate kids' treat for Christmas! Many of you might know these, but there's a twist to this recipe here you might not have guessed. I've rediscovered Nigella Lawson's old TV shows lately and in her version of these (she calls them "chocolate crispy cakes"), she uses butter and mars bars for the coating. What you end up with - and I'd like to quote Nigella on this one - is a "tremendously good goo. A kind of chocolate stickiness ribboned through with caramel and still having the chewiness of nougat… Can't really be improved!"

Recipe
(from here - I recommend watching the whole video! It's big fun!)

50g mars bars
50g butter
70g corn flakes

(I doubled the amount)

Prepare enough mini-muffin paper cases. To be honest, I didn't count them, but you'll end up with enough to feed a bunch of people.

In a medium saucepan, slowly melt butter and mars bars. Do this on a low heat. Be patient - it'll take a moment. Then, stir in the corn flakes and mix well until they are covered with the butter-chocolate mix.

Then, transfer spoonfuls into the mini-muffin cases. Let cool in the fridge for at least an hour or so.

Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Cookies

It's been ages since I last baked something with peanut butter. At some point after finishing my studies, I got over my "addiction". I stopped having a peanut butter sandwich every morning and the peanut butter jars disappeared from my cupboard. But when I was looking for a suitable treat for a saturday afternoon with a bunch of kiddies, I thought that these cookies might be a safe bet. And, of course, I had to stop myself from eating peanut butter from the jar with a spoon again… A huge thank you goes out to Susanne, her husband and their kids for a super fun afternoon. Hope to see you again soon!

Recipe

(from Life is Sweet by The Hummingbird Bakery)

115g butter, softened

110g caster sugar

100g soft light brown sugar

1 large egg

125g peanut butter, smooth or crunchy

165g plain flour

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

50g mini marshmallows or chopped larger marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line three large baking trays with parchment paper.

With an electric whisk, cream together butter and sugar for about 5 minutes on a medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and peanut butter to the mixture and beat for 2 more minutes. Sift together dry ingredients and add them to the butter-sugar-mixture. Beat on a lower speed for a few moments until all is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. Fold in the marshmallows by hand.

Using a tablespoon, form the cookie dough into balls (weighing about 30g each). Place these balls of dough on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 5cm between them.

Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon and Hazelnut Cantuccini

I haven't made cookies for quite a while now. I stumbled over this recipe when I was looking for something suitable for coffee with my neighbour and her two girls. I actually had a healthy snack in mind, like granola bars or something, but when I saw this recipe, I couldn't resist. So cantuccini it is - granola bars can wait.

Recipe
(from the fabulous "Homemade" by Yvette Van Boven)

1 pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
250g flour
2 eggs, beaten
125g sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
grated zest of 2 lemons
50ml sunflower oil
50ml milk
100g chopped hazelnuts

Makes about 24 cookies.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat two thirds of the eggs (you will need the rest to brush the biscotti with later). While beating the eggs, add sugar, then vanilla sugar, lemon zest and oil.

Sift in flour and beat well. Then, add milk. If your dough seems to thick, add more milk. Add the chopped hazelnuts and mix well. Divide the dough into two even portions and, on the baking tray, form two loafs. Brush with the leftover egg mixture.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Take out of the oven and let cool a bit. Then, with a sharp knife, cut into pieces (about 1.5cm thick). Line the cantuccini on the baking tray again and bake for ten minutes on each side. Then, let cool on a wire rack.

Matcha and Lime Cookies

Next to the colored eggs and my Easter bunnies, I also made these green little cuties last weekend. I just didn't have time to post them here yet since I've been away on holiday for a few days last week. At a car racing training in Germany, can you believe it?! Co-driver only, of course, but guys, that was quite a ride. And now that Edi brought me home in one piece, I finally have time to share this recipe with you. I had bookmarked it in one of my cookbooks ages ago and ever since I've cleaned out my kitchen cupboard and found my tin of matcha powder again, I've been wanting to give this recipe a try. I thought that these cookies would make nice Easter goodies. They get their bright-green color from the matcha powder which, in Switzerland, you can get in Asia shops. Color-wise, matcha and lime are the perfect combination and their flavors go together wonderfully. Complex and bitter versus fresh and sweet - builds a perfect harmony.

Recipe

(from Delicious Days by Nicole Stich)

80g icing sugar

2 teaspoons matcha powder

3 limes

150g cold butter

1 pinch of salt

200g flour

25-50g corn starch

3 egg yolks

75g sugar

Sift icing sugar and matcha powder into a large bowl. Wash one of the limes with hot water and grate the zest. Cut butter into cubes and, together with the lime zest and salt, add to the sugar. With your electric hand mixer (I used the dough hook), mix until you have a bright-green smooth dough. Then, add flour and corn starch. Mix again. Then, add the eggs.

Form the dough into a flat disk and wrap into cling film. Put into the refrigerator for at least one hour. You can also leave this dough in the fridge for about 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan-assisted: 150°C) and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Wash the other two limes with hot water, grate the zest and grind in a mortar together with 1 tablespoon sugar. Mix with the rest of the sugar and put into a bowl.

Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out your dough (about 5-7 millimeters). Cut out your cookies with a cookie cutter of your choice. Toss the cookies into your sugar-lime mix until they are covered with lime sugar. Align the cookies in the tray and bake in the middle of the oven. Depending on how thick the cookies are, that takes 10-15 minutes. They should be baked thoroughly, but they should not be brown around the edges. Take out of the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Keep in an air- and light-tight container.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

When I was making these cookies today, Nadina called to ask me whether I wanted to have coffee with her. I'd like that, I said, but I would have to finish my cookies first. We met at a cafe later and I brought some cookies as a present for her and her boyfriend Matthias. We had a good laugh when Nadina told me that Matthias had said that he would bet that I was making something with peanut butter when she had told him that I was baking Christmas cookies. Well, you know... guilty as charged. Here comes this year's Christmas treat for the addict.

Recipe

(Original recipe in German: here)

100g soft butter

150g peanut butter (I used crunchy)

150g sugar

1 large egg

220g flour

For the decoration: 

store bought dark chocolate glaze

nonpareilles or chocolate sprinkles

In a bowl, mix butter and peanut butter with an electric hand mixer until soft. Then, add sugar and beat until combined. Add the egg and beat. When all is well combined, sift in the flour. Beat with the electric mixer first, then knead with your hands. Form a ball, flatten a little and cool in de refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Roll out the dough until about 4mm thick. Cut out cookies. Put the cookies on your tray and bake for about ten minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

When the cookies have cooled completely, decorate with chocolate glaze and chocolate sprinkles or nonpareilles… Whatever you feel like. I melted the chocolate glaze according to the instructions on the packaging and brushed the glaze onto the cookies. Then, I covered the cookies with chocolate sprinkles.

Apricot Cinnamon Cookies

I still tend to overbake cookies. At least one batch every Christmas. Even if I always tell you to watch your cookies closely, especially towards the end of the suggested baking time, and to take them out of the oven rather sooner than later (e.g. in this case as soon as the edges turn golden brown) I manage to mess up a batch of cookies myself every now and then. Taking cookies out of the oven at the right moment is a tricky business. You always have to consider that they keep getting firmer after you've taken them out of the oven. If you leave them in the oven too long, they will be too firm after they have cooled down. Thank God this recipe here yielded enough dough for about three baking trays full of cookies, so I had enough cookies left after letting the first batch turn much too brown. I think, these here are my favorite this year.

Recipe

(once again from the lovely Weihnachten mit Fräulein Klein)

250g flour
100g ground almonds
100g icing sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
60g dried apricots, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
200g cold butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons brandy (I use an apricot liquor)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 sachet vanilla sugar
80g icing sugar

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon and icing sugar. Add ground almonds and vanilla sugar, then the apricot pieces and the egg yolk. With your hands, knead until you have a smooth dough. Form a ball, flatten a little, wrap in cling film an cool in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. On a floured surface, roll the dough out until about 3mm thick. Cut out your cookies with a cookie cutter and arrange on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes. Take out of the oven, take away from the hot baking tray immediately and let cool on a wire rack.

When the cookies have cooled down, mix water with brandy and cinnamon. Add icing sugar and vanilla sugar. Mix until you have a smooth glaze, there shouldn't be any lumps. Brush onto your cookies and let dry.

Chai Crescents

Okay, let's get down to cookie-business. First up: Chai crescents - a spicier version of the classic and always popular vanilla crescents. I spotted those in Fräulein Klein's wonderful Christmas baking book which is a colorful treasure chest full of festive sweet recipes and cute ideas for Christmas decoration. These cookies here are rather easy to make. Just pay attention that you handle the hot crescents carefully when you roll them in your icing sugar mixture as they tend to break apart.

Recipe
(from Weihnachten mit Fräulein Klein)

70ml milk
4 bags of chai-tea (for example Yogi tea)
100g ground almonds
250g flour
80g icing sugar
1/2 vanilla pod
150g cold butter

To cover the cookies:
5 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 sachet vanilla sugar

First, heat up the milk in a small saucepan. Then, take away from the heat, add the 4 teabags and allow to infuse for about 30 minutes. Remove the teabags and let the milk cool down completely.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together flour and icing sugar. Mix with the ground almonds and the scraped out seeds of the vanilla pod. Add the cold butter in pieces and the chai-milk. With your hands, bring together to a smooth dough. Form a ball, flatten a bit, wrap in clingfilm and allow to cool outside or in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

After an hour, take the dough out, cut into 3 equal pieces and form equal rolls from it. Cut these into smaller or bigger pieces, depending on how big you want the cookies to be. Bend the rolls into crescents and place on your baking tray.

Bake for about 10 minutes (they should not turn brown!). When you take them out of the oven, dredge in a mixture of icing sugar, cinnamon and vanilla sugar while still hot, but do that carefully, otherwise the crescents will fall apart! Let cool on a rack.

Fig and Walnut Cookies

I haven't baked anything in more than three weeks. What with my trip to Berlin (which was fantastic, by the way!) and then I caught an ugly cold and had to rest for about a week. But I have another recipe for you which I didn't get around to posting before my holidays. It's an adaption of an old favorite of mine. It's really a no-fuss recipe and you get quite a lot of cookies from it. Feel free to vary this recipe just they way you want... other dried fruit, other nuts or seeds, some spices...

Recipe
(from Nicky Stich's wonderful Sweets)

100g dried figs, coarsly chopped
50g walnuts
100g butter, at room temperature
100g brown sugar
75g caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
175g flour
75g coarse rolled oats
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
fleur de sel (I left that out since I don't have any at home)

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix sugar and butter with an electric hand mixer for about 3 minutes until smooth and pale. Add the egg and the sea salt and mix well. Add flour, rolled oats and baking soda and mix. In the end, add figs and nuts and mix until just combined.

With a tablespoon, form balls the size of a walnut and place on your baking tray. Flatten a little. Leave enough space between the cookies. Sprinkle with a little fleur de sel. Bake each batch for about 15 minutes until the cookies begin to get brown around the edge. I say this each time, and I say it now: Don't overbake. They are still slightly soft when you take them out of the oven. If you take them out too late, they will be too hard after they have cooled. Let them cool on the tray for a few minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack. Store in an airtight box.

Monster Cookies

After three weeks, I already feel pretty comfortable in my new office. And guess what?! One of my office mates is a peanut butter addict, too! So, after about two or three days, Bettina and I found ourselves discussing this topic with great enthusiasm. Sure thing, PB cookies were going to be the next treat to bring along to the office! People keep asking me why these here are called "monster cookies" and frankly, I have no idea. I just figured, monster cookies are typically American, the main ingredients being peanut butter, oatmeal and colored chocolate candies. I used one of my good old PB cookie recipes and slightly adapted it to create my own monster cookies.

Recipe

(adapted from The Weekend Baker by Agibail Johnson Dodge)

300g smooth peanut butter

160g brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

20g flour

60g old-fashioned rolled oats

150g Smarties (mini M&Ms would also work)

Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a large bowl, combine peanut butter and sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on middle speed until well blended. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and mix until well blended. Pour in the flour and mix on low speed until well blended. Add the oats and the Smarties and fold in with a ladle.

Using a small ice-cream scoop or two tablespoons, scoop up rounded tablespoons full of the dough and, using your hands, shape into balls (about 4cm diameter - I made them a bit smaller). Arrange the cookies on the baking trays, leaving about 5cm space between them. Flatten them a little with your hand or a fork.

Bake one tray at a time until the cookies look dry on top, about 12 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool on the tray for 10 minutes. Then, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 25 cookies. They can be stored in an airtight container in a cool place for about a week. You can also store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.

If you feel like it, you can decorate them with chocolate glaze after they have cooled down completely. You can use either store-bought glaze, or, over low heat, melt some chocolate (a bit less than 100g should do it) in a small saucepan and, with a teaspoon, drizzle over your cookies.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

It's been a while since my last peanut butter post but lately, I've been having a craving for it. So I went and bought a jar of peanut butter, took one of my new beloved cookbooks off the shelf and made some cookies. Watch out guys! Peanut Butter is back! And it joined forces with cocoa powder. A combination which gives these cookies an oh-so heavenly full flavor. They have a crackling sugar coat and a wonderfully dense texture... with crunchy peanut pieces here and there. I give up - peanut butter won me over yet again.

Recipe
(from: The Hummingbird Bakery - Home Sweet Home)

170g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
115g butter, soft
120g crunchy peanut butter
120g caster sugar, plus 40g extra for rolling
90g soft light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line two or three baking trays with parchment paper.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. In another bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter and both sugars with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well, scraping down the bowl as you go. Add the vanilla extract, mix again. With the speed on slow, add the dry ingredients and mix until combined and the dough is formed.

Put the extra caster sugar in a small bowl. Roll the dough into 4-5cm ball (I made them a bit smaller) and roll each ball in the caster sugar to coat. Place the dough balls onto the prepared baking trays, keeping them about 4cm apart. Flatten a little with your hand.

Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the cookies have a crusty surface and have cracked. They are rather soft when you take them out of the oven, but the get more firm when cooling down. Don't overbake - as ususal, I overbaked the first batch, they were much too hard after cooling down.

Happy Easter

The choice this Easter seems to be between rain and snow. Sun - definitely no option... So I enjoyed the lively and colorful afternoon yesterday all the more. Evelyn had spontaneously invited me to come with her to her sister's where the whole family and friends get together to color Easter eggs. Since I knew there was going to be a bunch of children, I decided to bring along something for the kids. But, safe to say, even the adults loved those cute little bunny cookies. A big thank you goes to Sibylle, Evelyn's lovely sister. I had such a good time!

Recipe

(from: Swissmilk)

for the dough:

250g butter, soft

125g icing sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 egg

400g flour

Beat the butter with an electric hand mixer until soft and creamy. Add icing sugar, salt and egg. Beat until the batter is pale. Sift in flour, beat shortly and then, form a ball of dough with your hands. Cut the ball into quarters, flatten each quarter a little, cover with cling film and let rest in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Roll out your dough until it's about 5mm thick (it's best if you let it come to room temperature again after cooling, you can roll it out much easier this way). Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter of your choice and place on the baking tray. Cool again for about 15 minutes.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before glazing.

for the icing:

150g icing sugar

about 3 tablespoons lemon juice (I had no lemons so I took water)

food coloring, if you like

In a small bowl, mix icing sugar and lemon juice. Add food coloring. Glaze the cookies with a pastry brush or dip into the glaze face down and then put on your wire rack. Sprinkle with sugar pearls.

Almond Cookies with Dried Apricots

Somehow, winter still has us... it's cold, cold, coooold... However, that doesn't change the fact that I'm ready for spring! I'm in the mood for all those soft and bright spring colors: green, orange, yellow, lilac... So I went shopping for some new clothes last Saturday. And, as usual, I treated myself to a bouquet of flowers. It happens sometimes that I buy the decoration first and that it makes me think what I could bake that would look nice on a picture together with it. These apricot-colored roses led me to baking these cookies which I had bookmarked some time ago in one of my favorite books. These cookies have a lovely warm and full flavor, not too sweet, though. Depending on whether you like those soft or crunchy, you can adjust the baking time. I somehow managed to get them just right, with a crunch on the outside and still a little soft in the middle! I don't always manage to get cookies exactly in the consistency I would like to.

Recipe
(from: Süsse Sünden - Tarek Malouf)

135g butter, soft
80g sugar
80g brown sugar
1/2 sachet vanilla sugar
1 egg
190g flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
100g dried apricots, coarsly chopped
60g ground almonds
20g almond slivers

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.

Put butter and the three sugars into a bowl and mix with an electric hand mixer until fluffy. Add the egg and mix on medium speed.

Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda into another bowl. Add the flour-mix to the butter-sugar mix in two addition and combine well. Add the apricots and the ground almonds.

With a tablespoon form balls the size of a walnut and place on the baking tray leaving enough room between the cookies. Flatten them a little with your hands and sprinkle with almonds slivers. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 12-15 minutes. It depends on how large your cookies are, the book suggests bigger cookies and the baking time is about 20 minutes. They are still slightly soft when you take them out of the oven. I ended up with 24 cookies.

Cranberry Cookies

Here comes yet another recipe from Sweets. I have mentioned already that I am really fond of this book. Even more so since I made these cookies this weekend. They are the perfect snack to bring you through the day. I took them to the office today and Evelyn, Stefanie and I totally went wild :-) "Katriiiin??" Steffie asked every now and then, "Can I have another one of those cookiiiies?!". Evelyn opened the box about every third time she walked by our side board. And I... I can't help it anyway... when have I ever been able to only have one single cookie when there's a box full of them in front of me ;-)

Recipe
(from Nicky Stich's wonderful Sweets)

100g dried cranberries, coarsly chopped (I was too lazy to do that)
50g walnuts (coarsly chopped, I used sunflower seeds instead)
100g butter, at room temperature
100g brown sugar
75g caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
175g flour
75g coarse rolled oats
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
fleur de sel (I left that out since I don't have any at home)

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix sugar and butter with an electric hand mixer for about 3 minutes until smooth and pale. Add the egg and the sea salt and mix well. Add flour, rolled oats and baking soda and mix. In the end, add cranberries and nuts and mix until just combined.

With a tablespoon, form balls the size of a walnut and place on your baking tray. Flatten a little. Leave enough space between the cookies. Sprinkle with a little fleur de sel. Bake each batch for about 15 minutes until the cookies begin to get brown around the edge. I say this each time, and I say it now: Don't overbake. They are still slightly soft when you take them out of the oven. If you take them out too late, they will be too hard after they have cooled. Let them cool on the tray for a few minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack. Store in an airtight box.