Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘småkage’

Chocolate-Almond Biscotti

Posted in Chocolate, Cookies, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 20, 2015| 6 Comments »

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Making Biscotti has been on my to-do-list for years now. I love Biscotti and buy them often at the store, but knowing now how delicious and easy they are to make, I’m gonna have to try making them again real soon. This particular Biscotti is meant to be softer than your standard Biscotti and it is a little piece of chocolate heaven. I love the fact that it is softer and I must confess, I had two in one setting.

Making Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Making Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Chocolate-Almond Biscotti (makes 15 Biscotti)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (270 grams)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (45 grams)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (85 grams)

1 cup sugar (215 grams)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup blanched, chopped almonds (70 grams)

1/2 cup chocolate chips (85 grams)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, stir and set aside. In the bowl of an electrical mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and smooth, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at the time, mixing well in-between and scraping down sides as needed. Add flour in three increments, mixing to combine, dough will be firm. Stir in almonds and chocolate chips.

Place dough on baking sheet and shape into an approximately 12 x 4 inch flat log (30 x 10 cm). Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Place Biscotti log onto a cutting board and with a sharp serrated knife, cut into 3/4 inch slices (2 cm). Place slices back onto baking sheet, cut side down, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

Source: adapted from Martha Stewart

Print Friendly and PDF

Read Full Post »

Bordstabler – Norwegian Cookies

Posted in Christmas, Cookies, Norwegian, tagged , , , , on November 17, 2014| 4 Comments »

Bordstabler

Ok, I know it’s not Christmas yet, it is not even December, however, I just get so excited about this time of year 🎅 Anyway, this cookie doesn’t have to be a Christmas cookie, it could be like a little side dessert for any occasion.

Bordstabler are wonderful Norwegian Christmas cookies. They are tender butter cookies with a strip of delicious almond meringue on top. I served these cookies for the Blacksmith gang and the cookies were all gone except for 3 by the end of the meeting.

The dough itself gave me a bit of trouble though. After all ingredients were added it still appeared very soft and tacky but I figured it would set up some in the fridge, which it did, but not enough. So I had to knead the dough while adding more flour until it was smooth and no longer sticky. That being said I have written the recipe up the way I followed it, but you need to know that you’ll probably have to add a little more flour than the recipe calls for and I would add it in as needed while kneading the dough. Even though the dough was temperamental the cookies were well worth the effort. I hope you enjoy these Bordstabler as much as the Blacksmith gang did 🙂

Bordstabler (makes about 25 cookies)

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk

1/2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

60 g sugar (2.1 oz)

125 g butter, at room temperature (4.4 oz)

125 g flour (4.4 oz), plus more while kneading dough

Filling:

2 egg whites, at room temperature

120 g confectioners’ sugar, sifted (4.2 oz)

120 g almond meal/flour(4.2 oz)

Directions:

Using a hand-held mixer beat together the egg yolk, whipping cream and sugar. While continuing to mix add butter and flour in 1/3 increments until all incorporated. Place dough on a well-floured surface; knead dough adding more flour as needed until dough is no longer sticky. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.

Before you take the dough out of the refrigerator, make the filling.

To make the filling: whip the egg whites until stiff. Sift the confectioners’ sugar over the egg whites and add almond meal, fold into egg whites. Place filling into a pastry bag fitted with a tip of your choice (I used# 21) and set aside. If you don’t have a pastry bag and tip, simply just spoon the filling onto dough.

Preheat oven to 345 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour and roll the dough out to 2 mm thickness. Using a pastry cutter, cut out the cookies to a 2 x 10 cm rectangle (0.8 x 4 in). Gently lift up dough rectangle and place on baking sheet. Using your pastry bag squeeze a long strip of filling onto each dough rectangle.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving cookies to a cooling rack.

Source: adapted from dinmat.no

Print Friendly and PDF

Read Full Post »

Brunkager – A Modern Version, Ginger Cookies

Posted in Christmas, Cookies, Danish, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2012| 9 Comments »

Brunkager

Brunkager

This year I decided to try out a new recipe for Brunkager. I view this recipe as a more modern Brunkage in that, the finished product is a small rectangular cookie instead of the traditional round shape and it has pistachios in addition to almonds. The cookies are very flavorful and delicious and the only problem I had was with the aesthetic outcome. I was not able to find any whole almonds and pistachios, all I could get was almond slivers and unsalted pistachio halves and pieces. Of course now that it’s all said and done I finally found the right kind of nuts…bummer… oh well. As far as the almonds, use what you have, but whole would be perfect. But for the pistachios, I would recommend that if you cannot get whole then don’t bother with it because it really wont give you the beautiful green “wow” effect that whole pistachios would provided.

This recipe also uses Potaske which is a leavening agent commonly used in some Danish baked products. Potaske can be substituted with Baking Soda which is what I used in my previous Brunkager recipe. If you use Baking Soda you can omit the 1 tablespoon cold water. Simply just mix the Baking Soda in with the dry ingredients.

I hope you enjoy these cookies, they are a wonderful addition to any Christmas repertoire.

Brunkager II

Brunkager (makes approx. 110 cookies)

Ingredients:

250 gram butter (8.8 oz.)

125 gram dark syrup (4.4 oz.)

250 gram dark brown sugar (8.8 oz.)

2 teaspoon potaske

1 tablespoon cold water

3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground allspice

500 gram all-purpose flour (17.6 oz.)

30 gram whole unsalted pistachios (1 oz.)

120 gram whole blanched almonds (4 oz.)

Directions:

Using a 20 x 20 centimeter (8 x 8 inch) container, cut 2 pieces of parchment paper to fit inside the dish without it crimping up in the corners. Place parchment paper in a cross fashion with paper extending over the edges. Set aside.

Place butter, syrup and brown sugar in a sauce pan and melt over medium-high heat. Once ingredients are melting, whisk vigorously until it comes together. Remove from heat.

Combine potaske and water, set aside. Combine flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and allspice in the bowl of a stand-mixer fitted with the hook attachment. Add potaske/water mixture to the warm butter/syrup mixture. Pour the warm butter/syrup mixture into the flour mixture and mix until a homogeneous mass. Add pistachios and almonds and continue mixing until combined.

While batter is still warm, pour into dish lined with parchment paper and press the mixture into corners and flatten. Cut another piece of parchment paper to fit and place on top of dough. Fold overhanging edges of paper in over batter and allow to cool at room temperature until the following day. Next day, remove dough from dish and cut into 4 logs. If you plan on baking the cookies at this point, cut logs into thin slices and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving a 1 inch space between cookies. Bake in a 180 degree C (350 degrees F) preheated oven for 9 – 12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely before placing in a cookie tin with a tight fitting lid.

If you plan on baking cookies on a later date, wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap, place in a zip-loc bag and store them in refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. Flavors will continue to develop as dough sits. Once ready to bake, allow dough to come to room temperature before slicing and baking.  Merry Christmas and Glædelig Jul.

Brunkager ready for baking

Brunkager ready for baking

Source: adapted from Det Søde Liv

Print Friendly and PDF

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: