make life sweeter!

Finally I made macarons :) and all because they were last month's Daring Bakers Challenge. Like the last few months I'm late in posting but this time I did actually finish the macarons on the 27th but still had to make the filling, fill them, photograph them and blog about them. And that took till now ;)
Though I love the look of vibrant colours in macarons, I didn't think it fitted the lebkuchen flavour I had in mind. I was inspired by the shops here in Austria that carry about a zillion different types of lebkuchen towards Christmas...yum! The filling was a simple dark chocolate ganache which was a delicious match for the spicy taste of the macaron shells.
I baked the first batch as the recipe stated but drying the shells in the oven didn't work out well for me. The shells sunk in while they were waiting for the oven to reach 190 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately they didn't magically rise during baking. Besides that problem, the shells browned too much because of the high baking temperature. They did develop feet but they didn't look like they were supposed to. The next two batches I went with one of Tartelette's recipes: air drying the shells for 30-60 minutes and baking them at a lower temperature. The first of these batches I should have baked a little longer but the second came out more or less perfect...I was happy :) The lebkuchen spices were delicious and the ground spices made the macarons browner than I antipated.
All in all making macaron's wasn't difficult and I even got the feet the first time round. Not sure if this was beginners luck or not but we'll see how future batches will turn out. Next time I'll try a more vibrant colour :)

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Wow, almost 3 weeks without a new post. And it's the season for baking. Something I've been doing but not enough time to post about it in a relaxed manner. So what have I been doing for the last 3 weeks? Taking care of my sick kids (not all 3 weeks though). Also I spent quite a lot of time thinking about what to make for Christmas since I invited A's family and mine to come spend that with us. I'm not the type to buy ready-made stuff and also not the type to keep it simple :) so I've started baking and cooking since last weekend. The dinner will be Italian(-ish). I'm not going to give everything away because the family reads this blog as well ;)
Of course there will be a need for sweet stuff as well, maybe a little more than the average Italian family will serve for Christmas but in the sweets department I'm all for more is more ;) Most stuff will be bite-size but it's nice to have a variety of sweets to bite in ;)
Unfortunately not everything went according to plan up till now. I usually don't repeat myself too much in the sweet department which means I want to try new recipes and especially new techniques. This resulted in some failures that I had/have to redo. This panforte I made was perfect the first time though. Not exactly nougat, not exactly cookie, I'd say it's somewhere in between. Honey and sugar are cooked and mixed with nuts, candied orange and lemons, flour, spices and cocoa, and then baked. Traditionally baked in a round 20 cm (8 in) pan but I tripled the recipe and baked it in a large rectangular pan so I'd be able to cut out 9 mini panforte's. By doing so I saved a lot of time by only making and baking the recipe once (and there were a lot of yummy scraps left-over to munch on :). The thickness is the thickness you'd have for a regular one, only instead of being 20 cm (8 in) they are only 9 cm (3 ½ in).
The recipe calls for candied orange peel and candied lemon peel. I was lucky to have Italian orange peel in syrup which I drained and let dry for a day before chopping. Candied lemon is not something you'd easily find in the Netherlands and I didn't have the time to make my own unfortunately. What I did instead was use sukade (the candied peel of the Citrus medica), though a citrus fruit it doesn't really taste like lemon, at least not the candied version you can buy here. To compensate for the lack of taste I added the zest of 2 lemons.
The panforte turned out perfect and delicious, the good thing about this nougat/cookie is that it keeps for several weeks so you can start making them early (that is if I would have posted about it earlier ;). There are more panforte recipes but this is one from Sienna. From what I've read about it, it's something that is typically served at/around Christmas time in Italy.
Even though not a typical cookie, I'm sending this recipe over to Susan's Eat Christmas Cookies.
Below is the original recipe. If you'd like to do what I did and make 9 mini versions, just triple the recipe and use a 27 cm x 35 cm (11 x 14 in) rectangular pan.



Panforte Senese (from the Dutch version of Culinaria Italia by Ludwig Könemann)

makes a 20 cm (8 in) panforte

75 g (2 ¾ oz) hazelnuts, toasted and skinned, coarsely chopped
75 g (2 ¾ oz) almonds, blanched and skinned, coarsely chopped
175 g (6 ¼ oz) candied lemon and orange peel, finely chopped
50 g (1 ¾ oz) flour
25 g (1 oz) cocoa powder
½ ts cinnamon
½ ts mixed spices
100 g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar
100 g (3 ½ oz) honey

for dusting:
2 tbs confectioner's sugar
1 ts cinnamon

Line the bottom of a round 20 cm (8 in) (springform) pan with baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F).
Mix nuts, peel, flour, cocoa, cinnamon and mixed spices.
Mix sugar and honey in a large sauce pan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved/melted. Raise the temperature and allow the mixture to cook until 115°C (240°F). Immediately add the nut, peel and flour mixture and stir till combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a wet spoon. Work as quickly as possible because the mixture will firm up when it cools.
Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan. Invert and place the right side up. Generously dust with a mixture of confectioner's sugar and cinnamon, and cut it in wedges.

These little balls were part of the Middle Eastern style dessert I served on my birthday party. They are incredibly easy to make, require no baking or cooking, are gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free (well almost), dairy-free and most important: delicious! The only two real ingredients are walnuts and dates. Those two are made into a paste in the food processor, rolled into balls and (optionally) rolled in icing sugar. Their taste reminded me of marzipan but with a walnut taste. The dates make the balls moist and sweet but not heavy on the date taste. Will try making them with almonds next time, see if it's even closer to marzipan.
As this is a recipe that doesn't require any baking or cooking, I'm sending it over to Grace of A Southern Grace for her event Beat the Heat.

Halawa tamr or date and walnut balls (from the Dutch edition of A New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden)

250 g (9 oz) walnuts
250 g (9 oz) dates, stoned
icing sugar (optional)

Process the walnuts and dates in a food processor until they are a paste. Roll into small balls and roll through icing sugar if desired.

btw ever seen such a short recipe?

My parents were visiting yesterday morning, usually I make something a little more elaborate than muffins but we had a busy weekend so I had to make something quick. Nectarine muffins seemed like the perfect thing to make, there were a few very ripe nectarines sitting in the fruit bowl begging to be used. Didn't really have time to make streusel so I just sprinkled them with storebought hazelnut crunch (which btw is very good). While I was getting the ingredients ready to start baking I remembered that AFAM was featuring coconut as it's monthly fruit. So I changed milk into coconut milk and I even strayed from my butter obsession/addiction and decided to use coconut butter (coconut oil) instead of butter. So behold one of the few dairy-free recipes on my blog ;)
The muffins rose beautifully in the oven and I was very curious how they would taste. I'm such a big fan of butter that I very very rarely use another type of fat. Not because that other type is not good, but just because it would have been even better with butter :) I was a bit afraid the coconut taste would be a bit too much, I mean, I added a cup of coconut milk and 6 tablespoons of coconut butter. The crazy thing was, I didn't taste coconut...AT ALL! And I'm a very good taster! I was really disappointed because I didn't add any other flavour because I was afraid it would be too many flavours. Ok, there was the nectarine but that wasn't enough. Cinnamon, ginger or cardamom would have been a delicious addition I think, or hazelnuts added to the batter.
As for the texture of the muffin, that was very, very good. Airy, fluffy, moist, everything you would want in a muffin. Will try this recipe again but with butter :) and some spice.
This is my entry to AFAM hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.

Nectarine muffins with hazelnut topping (adapted from Essentials of baking by Williams-Sonoma)

makes 10-12 depending on how big your cups are (I filled 11 1 dl (3 ½ fl oz) cups)

280 g (1 ¾ cup / 9 oz) flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
155 g (⅔ cup / 4 oz) firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
250 ml (1 cup / 8 fl oz) coconut milk
90 g (6 tbs / 3 oz) coconut butter (coconut oil), melted
150 g (1 ¼ cup / 5 oz) chopped nectarine
hazelnut crunch or chopped hazelnuts
12 muffin cups (I used 1 dl cups)

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda and brown sugar in a bowl.
Whisk the eggs until blended in another bowl. Add the coconut milk and coconut butter and stir until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Add the nectarine and fold in on making sure not to overmix.
Divide the batter between the muffin cups, filling it about ¾ full. Sprinkle generously with hazelnuts. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Best eaten warm.

We survived our little vacation to Denmark ;) but not without fevers and toothaches though. But despite that we had a wonderful time. We pretty much stayed within a circle of 25 km from our rented holiday house. I visited a baker once and my conclusion was that Danes know how to bake ;) They use a lot of marzipan in their baking...yum! Sorry, no pictures, we ate them before I got the camera out ;)



The picture above is me trying to be creative with cantucci ;) I blogged about these cantucci when I just started blogging. It's actually the only biscotti recipe I've ever made. I like the combination of almonds and anise seeds so much that I've never dared change it. No fancy chocolate and hazelnut biscotti for me! The only two things I could maybe use instead of anise seeds would be candied orange peel or lemon zest.
These cantucci are more or less like cantuccini di Prato except that I make mine long and thin instead of short and thick. I've made this recipe on numerous occasions and they are always a big hit. Even got me a compliment from an Italian :)

Cantucci

makes plenty

200 g (7 oz) flour
125 g (4 ½ oz) sugar
100 g (3 ½ oz) almonds
1 ts baking powder
2 ts anise seeds
2 eggs

Preheat the oven at 160ºC (325º F) Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the eggs and mix. Knead it through (if it is very sticky, add a little flour). Put the dough on a floured surface and shape into a log that is about 1 ½ -2 cm high and 12 cm broad.
Put on a buttered baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake for 35 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
Cut the log into ½ cm slices and place them on the baking sheet. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.