Category Archives: Cookies, biscuits

Palets bretons (Sweet and Salty Brittany Cookies)

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This was one of the first recipes I have posted. I hardly had any visitors at the time, so I have decided to dig it up and write about these French biscuits (or cookies). They may look ordinary, but their delicate crumbly texture, buttery taste and a delicate touch of saltiness make them very special.

“Palet” (pronounced without the final “t”) means a “puck” , and “jeu de palets” is a Brittany regional game with pucks which shape is similar to those used in hockey. Brittany is famous for its rich in butter sweets – usually made with salted butter – and one of those is a crumbly cookie, called “palet” in reference to its puck shape. They have a buttery taste, are slightly salty and sweet at the same time, very crumbly and melt in your mouth too quickly… Palets bretons are quite popular all around the country and can be found in every supermarket, but they are easy to prepare and obviously taste better baked at home.

Together with Crème brûlée palets are a good way to use up egg yolks (if you have made Coconut Cookies for example…or another dish calling for whites uniquely).

There are French internet recipes galore for these cookies. The one I tried for the first time and have always made with success comes the French blog Miamm…Maman Cuisine, where I also found the trick to keep their shape (see below).

TIPS: Click here to see a few ideas of how to use up the leftover egg whites.

You can sprinkle the cookies with coarse salt for an extra crunch and extra saltiness, but I don’t advise it for the first batch you prepare (you can test on one or two biscuits first).

Special equipment: muffins or similar size forms

Preparation: almost two hours (including 1 hour in the fridge)

Calories (the whole batch): about 1700 kcal

Ingredients for 12-15 pucks:

80g (about 3 oz) salted butter (or unsalted butter+1/2 teaspoon salt, but salty butter is better)

80 g (about 3 oz) confectioner’s sugar

140g (about 5 oz) flour

1/3 small package of baking powder (1 1/2 heaped teaspoon)

2 yolks

(coarse good quality sea salt)

Mix the yolks and the sugar well in a food processor. Add the softened butter, mix again.

Add the flour and the baking powder.

Knead it for 5 minutes.

Form a thick sausage (diameter=the bottom of one whole in a muffin form), wrap it in plastic film and put into the fridge for 1 hour (or more, until the dough becomes hard enough to be easily sliced).

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it, cut into 1 cm (about 0,4 in) thick slices.

Put them inside the muffin forms (this way they’ll be more or less of equal size and will only rise instead of spreading around).

If you don’t have muffin forms or other cookie forms, simply put the cut cookies on a baking sheet, but at your own responsibility: they’ll probably spread around and become flatter than the ones “imprisoned” in a mould.

(You can sprinkle them with coarse salt for an extra salty crunch.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes till golden.

ANZAC Biscuits with Dried Cranberry

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Have you ever heard of ANZAC biscuits? Many of you might be put off by the above unequally shaped, unattractive cookies, but in reality these are one of the most delicious and addictive sweet snacks I know. Until now I have been preparing only their standard version and I wish I had thought of cranberries earlier because I liked them this way even more.

ANZAC stands for “Australian and New Zealand Army Corps”, created during the World War I and these biscuits were created at the same time by women desperate to send nutritious home-made food to their husbands, sons and boyfriends. According to this website, faced with at least two months’ transportation time, a group of women worked out a recipe based on rather healthy Scottish rolled oats biscuits and added only those ingredients which ensured long preservation. There are several theories on why eggs are not used, but their absence certainly makes biscuits last longer.

The first time I baked these biscuits (see the recipe here), I was inspired and encouraged by Mr. Three-Cookies, the cookie and biscuit specialist from Three-Cookies blog, where I found the recipe (actually at Easily Good Eats by the same author). Before tasting ANZAC biscuits for the first time I expected ordinary, but good crunchy biscuits, with a healthy twist, i.e. oats. What I obtained was well beyond my hopes: slightly crunchy, slightly chewy, addictive sweet snacks with a very pleasant buttery taste, enhanced by baked nutty oats. In short, the mixture of such simple ingredients has created a complex, surprising result I am still fond of, after dozens of batches.

ANZAC biscuits have always been so satisfactory, I haven’t even bothered to modify the basic recipe. However, a couple of days ago, the beautiful Cranberry Coconut Quinoa Loaves posted by Kelly (from Inspired Edibles) convinced me that dried cranberries are a perfect pairing for coconut and this is how I had the idea to tweak my usual recipe. The experiment was a big success, at least for a big fan of chewy cookies like me (the cranberries’ presence has at least tripled the chewiness!). The flat rounded, more or less equal shape was more difficult to obtain with dried fruit inside, but then I’m not a very meticulous cook… Thank you so much, Kelly for such a wonderful inspiration; cranberries and coconut are an excellent pairing, definitely worth further explorations. Thank you again, Mr. Three-Cookies, for making me discover the world of ANZAC biscuits.

If you don’t like or have cranberries, I strongly advise testing the classic recipe first (or simply follow the below recipe eliminating cranberries):

If you are fond of coconut sweets, you might like these too:

Easiest Chewy Coconut Cookies (aka Macaroons)

Coconut, Chocolate and Rum Truffles

Moist Chocolate and Coconut Cake

or the above Moist Coconut Cake but without chocolate

Coffee and Coconut Cream with Agar

Light Chocolate and Coconut Cream (also with agar)

or Matcha and Coconut Cream with Agar

If you want to play with the basic ANZAC recipe, Mr. Three-Cookies has frequently (and successfully) experimented with these amazing biscuits, so check his Three Cookies blog for inspiration.

TIPS: Unless you have a health problem, do not use margarine or any other vegetable shortening. The butter taste and aroma is so strong, you will lose a big part of the pleasure.

As I have mentioned above, they keep fresh in a tightly closed container for several days (and maybe even more, but I wasn’t able to test more than five days). The biscuits stay crunchy and slightly chewy.

Do not expect vivid red spots on your biscuits: the cranberries will darken during the baking process (the ones you see above are just meant to add a touch of colour to the dark biscuits.)

WARNING: do not taste the raw dough! You will end up eating it straight from the pan while you wait for your previous batch to bake.

Preparation: 1 hour (or 30 minutes if you manage to bake everything in one batch)

Ingredients (I have obtained about 35 biscuits, you will obtain a bit less if you skip cranberries):

70 grams/1 cup rolled oats

90 grams/1 cup desiccated coconut

120 g/1 cup flour

125 g/about 4,5 oz butter

160 g/3/4 cup brown cane sugar

1 tablespoon dark syrup (I used 2 tablespoons molasses)

1 teaspoon baking soda (bi-carbonate of soda, in countries where it is not widely available, for example in France, it can be easily bought in pharmacies)

2 tablespoons boiling water

6 heaped tablespoons dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Melt the butter and syrup or molasses in a big pan.

Combine the flour, the oats, the coconut, the cranberries and the sugar. Add slowly to the melted butter.

At the end combine the boiling water and soda. Pour the mixture into the dough and stir well with a spoon.

Roll small balls (I usually make walnut-sized balls, but this time I wanted smaller biscuits, so I made the balls 1/3 smaller) and put them on a baking sheet (leaving at least 3 cm spaces between each ball since they will spread).

Flatten them slightly (they will flatten even more during the baking process) and bake 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Don’t worry if the dough seems crumbly. It is normal. Just squeeze well the dough when forming balls in your hands and don’t flatten them too much.

Keep them in a tightly closed container. Apparently they keep for ages. All I know is they keep for at least five days, well closed.

Easiest Chewy Coconut Cookies

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If sometimes you don’t feel like spending hours in the kitchen, but are in urgent need of easy sweet snacks, you might be interested in these cookies. I believe they are similar to what is called “coconut macaroons” in North America, but they are much simpler and quicker to prepare. They require maximum ten minutes of work before being baked, you don’t need any kitchen appliances and, last but not least, they call for only three ingredients, which most of you probably always have in the house (sugar, egg whites and desiccated coconut). This, accidentally, makes them gluten free, if I’m not mistaken. As you will see below, you don’t even need any measuring cups or scales: a tablespoon is all you need. Oh, and I would have forgotten: these cookies are the first thing that comes to my mind when I have leftover egg whites.

I posted them a very very long time ago, but I prepare them so often, I couldn’t resist this quick reminder. I have been making them in the same way for many years and this ridiculously simple recipe is the result of my attempts to copy chewy coconut cookies I used to love as a child. I have however a warning to all those who prefer less sugar in desserts: these cookies are sweeter than most of the desserts I post here! For once I don’t mind it because this sticky, chewy texture I go crazy for couldn’t be achieved with less sugar. I sometimes bake them in mini-muffin moulds, but most of the time I don’t bother and form “pucks” with moist hands and then bake them directly on baking paper.

If you don’t like coconut, you might find these biscuits interesting:

hazelnutcookiespp

Easy Chewy Hazelnut Cookies

TIPS : Click here to see a few ideas of how to use up leftover egg yolks if you are left with some (I strongly recommend crème brûlée, maybe even with matcha…)

Since the coconut and sugar dryness vary (not to mention the egg whites size), the given quantities can be only treated as approximate. Check the consistency: you should be able to form balls from the dough, but it should remain very sticky and moist.

Preparation: about 30 minutes

Ingredients (about 15 cookies):

2 egg whites
7 flat tablespoons caster sugar
12 well-heaped tablespoons desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven at 170°C.

Take a bowl, mix everything with a spoon, adding gradually sugar and coconut. Since the coconut and sugar dryness vary (not to mention the egg whites size), the given quantities can be only treated as approximate. Check the consistency: you should be able to form balls from the dough, but it should remain very sticky and moist.

Form small balls (medium apricot size) with moist hands, put on baking paper or greased baking tray and squash slightly.

You can also use mini-muffin moulds (any moulds you have and like will do).

Bake the biscuits until slightly golden (about 20 minutes in my oven).

They keep for several days if covered with plastic film.

Chocolate Terrine with Speculoos (Unbaked Chocolate Cake with Biscuits)

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Chocoholics: beware! This chocolate terrine is one of the most dangerous home desserts I know. Once you taste it, you will constantly be tempted to prepare it once more and once more and once more… When you realise that the recipe is ridiculously easy and the result guarantees admiring looks from your guests, you will understand why I praise it so highly. Katerina from Culinary Flavours is the person I hold entirely responsible for turning me into an addict to this rich, creamy, decadent chocolate delicacy. Her seducing photos wouldn’t simply get out of my mind and when I took a first bite, I found it hard to believe that such a quick and simple preparation can lead to something so sublime.

Katerina’s recipe was called “marquise”, but it could also be named “terrine” because similar desserts bear both names in French cookery books. She has used American chocolate cookies; I have used Speculoos, the famous Belgian spice biscuits, which go so well with the winter season we are approaching. Whether you call it terrine or marquise, whatever biscuits and aromatic alcohol you add, you will certainly receive sincere compliments from your guests and family. Thank you, Katerina, for making me discover one of the easiest and most impressive chocolate treats. I will certainly serve it for Christmas.

I have slightly modified Katerina’s recipe and cut down the amounts by half. Since it’s very filling and rich, this mini-terrine/marquise will suffice for six people. For a bigger group or for second servings, double the amounts. Click here to see Katerina’s original recipe and to have a stroll through her wonderful blog with recipes from Greece (her home country) and all around the world.

TIPS: If you don’t melt chocolate often, this might be the only tricky part of this otherwise easy cake. There are different ways to do it, but my favourite is to melt it, broken into pieces, in a small pan, on very low heat, constantly stirring. The important thing is not to let the chocolate boil. Take the pan off the heat before the chocolate melts completely (I usually wait until 90% of chocolate melts) and keep on stirring. It will melt in the already warm melted remaining chocolate and this way you will avoid bringing chocolate to a boiling point, which makes it impossible to use. I usually melt butter this way together with chocolate.

Preparation: 20 minutes+ a night in the fridge

Ingredients (serves six, fills a 4 x 20 cm/about 1,5 x 8 in baking dish or 8-10 x 10 cm/about 3-4 x 4 in square dish):

125 g/4,4 oz good quality dark chocolate (do not use the “baking” chocolate, but good quality one, without vegetable grease and with min. 70% cocoa)

75 ml/2,5 fl oz liquid cream (at least 25% fat)

50 g/1,8 oz butter

60 g/2 oz Speculoos or other biscuits of your choice

(1/2 flat teaspoon instant coffee)

4 flat tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon rum (or any aromatic alcohol that would go well with your biscuits and chocolate)

(crumbled biscuits, cocoa or confectioner’s sugar to sprinkle over the marquise before serving)

Melt the chocolate and the butter (in a pan (see TIPS), in a microwave or in a hot water bath).

Add the sugar, the cream, the alcohol and stir well.

Break the biscuits to small pieces (but not to powder!) and incorporate into the chocolate mixture.

Line a baking dish with plastic film (I advise to fold it in two so that it doesn’t break when you take out the cold marquise).

Pour the chocolate mixture into the dish, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Serve very cold, straight from the fridge, sprinkled with crumbled biscuits, cocoa or confectioner’s sugar or the way it is.

Financiers with Raspberries

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Financiers count among the biggest wonders in the world of pastry. Few ingredients, simple preparation and marvellous, sophisticated result. I have already written about them quite a long time ago (here), but this new summer fruit version turned out so good, I absolutely wanted to share it with you. As I have written in my old post, Financiers are one of the most famous French pastry items and a pure delight for almond fans. They contain almost no flour, but mainly butter, powdered almonds, egg whites and sugar, so you can imagine how intense the almond taste is.

Baked since the Middle Ages by French nuns of the Visitation of Mary, at first they were not called financiers and had an oval form. Then, for a certain time they were forgotten and around 1890, Lasne, a Parisian confectioner, revived the recipe. Since his shop was close to the stock market and financiers were his regular clients, he named the cakes “financiers” and transformed their form into the one recalling a gold lingot, probably thinking they appealed more to his clients. I usually make my financiers in muffin forms, but this time somehow the rectangular shape seemed more appropriate.

Financiers have different versions and raspberry addition seems quite popular, especially in the summer. When I decided to add the fruits I was worried that their acidity might spoil the perfect harmony of the Financiers. Luckily I was wrong. Raspberries bring a subtle tangy note, but they disturb neither the Financiers’ extremely soft, mouth-melting consitency nor their sophisticated taste. I encourage everyone to try this version before raspberries disappear from market stalls.

My recipe comes from Leçons de cuisine de l’école Ritz-Escoffier . The only thing I have modified is the sugar amount (70 g instead of the original 85g).

TIPS: Financiers are very easy to prepare and are an excellent occasion to use up egg whites. Finding powdered (not only ground) almonds might be difficult. I always buy ground almonds and sift them through a sieve. The leftover, big bits of ground almonds are excellent to prepare the even easier Thumbprint Almond Cookies (see the recipe here) or Kings’ Pie (Galette des Rois), which is also a good way to use up two yolks, leftover from this small batch of Financiers…

Click here for some ideas of using the remaining egg yolks.

The only tricky part is taking the financiers out of the forms. They should be cold and handled delicately.

Preparation: 30 minutes

Ingredients (for 6 muffin forms or rectangular, similarly sized forms or 12 mini-muffin shaped forms):

50 g (about 1,8 oz) powdered almonds

70 g (about 2,5 oz) sugar

50 g (about 1,8 oz) butter

2 egg whites

1 heaped tablespoon flour

a pinch of salt

12 raspberries

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Prepare the “beurre noisette” (lit. hazelnut butter): heat the butter in a pan on a low heat and observe the milk solids, which will separate at the bottom. When they become light brown (hazelnut colour), put the pan aside.

Combine the egg whites, the sugar, the almond powder, the pinch of salt and the flour in a big bowl. Add gradually the butter, mixing with a spoon.

Pour the mixture into greased – with butter – muffin or rectangular forms (or other small cakes forms) 2/3 of their height.

Place two raspberries in each financier.

Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes until golden.

Let them cool down before taking out of the forms.

Cannelés de Bordeaux

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Today I have a big honour to guest post at the wonderful Ping’s Pickings blog. Ping is one of my dearest blogging friends and one of the rare people who always make me laugh with her hilarious style and unique sense of humour. Thanks to Ping’s wide-ranging culinary interests, her posts are always surprising and often result in an amazing discovery, such as the excellent Coconut Pie, which under the name of Coconut Cake has become a staple in my house or the incredible Rum and Carrot Cocktail I have written about in my previous post. Since Ping is particularly fond of unusual patterns and originally shaped pastry (I still get hypnotised looking at these spirals), I have decided to write about cannelés de Bordeaux, hoping their cute shape brings a smile to Ping’s face.

Cannelés (or canelés) de Bordeaux are one of my favourite sweet treats and it would be difficult to say which aspect I appreciate the most. Their taste, aroma, texture and even the beautiful shape are all irresistible. I still remember the first time I tasted them. I loved their rich flavours and was totally blown away by their extraordinary, springy softness. As their name suggests, cannelés come from Bordeaux in France, but they are very popular all around the country and also become famous abroad (I have recently seen a Japanised version on Shizuoka Gourmet blog). Different sources quote different origins, but all agree that the characteristic shape, as well as the obligatory vanilla and rum presence are quite recent and date back to the beginning of the XXth century.

Cannelés are not really difficult, but they require patience, close attention during the long baking process, they do not accept shortcuts and every modification is a big risk. French websites, forums and blogs are full of cannelé recipes and related tips, but I must admit that I had to go through several failed experiments before I found a method that works with my oven and my silicone moulds. From my experience a big amount of rum as well as 24 hours refrigeration are necessary to obtain the optimum taste and texture. Apparently old-fashioned copper moulds guarantee the best results, but they are not easy to use and I am perfectly happy with the cannelés I obtain with very convenient silicone moulds. I have adapted my recipe from the one featured on Marmiton.

Please do not forget to check my post on Ping’s Pickings!

TIPS: Here are some ideas to use up 2 leftover egg whites you will be left with:

Chewy Coconut Cookies

Easy Chewy Hazelnut Cookies

Financiers

Scallops Fried in Nori

Sesame Crusted Chicken Nuggets

Preparation: 15 min + 24 hours in the fridge + about 1h30

Ingredients (makes 18-20 cannelés):

500 ml (2 cups) milk

25 g (a bit less than 1 oz) butter

pinch of salt

200 g (1 cup) sugar

100 g (about 3/4 cup) flour

100 ml (about 0,4 cup) white rum

1 vanilla pod (sliced in two, lengthwise)

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

In a big bowl combine the flour, the eggs, the yolks, the sugar and the salt.

Pour the milk into a pot, add the butter and the vanilla pod.

Bring to boil.

Pour the boiling milk mixture into the bowl and combine with the remaining ingredients, constantly stirring.

When the batter has cooled down, take out the vanilla pods and scrape off the grains into the bowl, discarding the empty pods.

Add the rum, give the batter a stir and put into the fridge (covered) for 24 hours.

The following day preheat the oven to 250°C.

Fill the baking moulds up with the cold batter to the 2/3 of the height.

(If you make several batches put the remaining batter back to the fridge).

Put the moulds to the oven immediately and bake at 250°C (480°F) for 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 50-60 minutes (in the case of my oven it’s only 50 minutes).

Take the cannelés out of the oven and let them cool completely before removing from the mould.

They should be browned outside, but still soft inside.

Cannelés keep fresh for three days (or maybe more but I have never had a chance to check…).

Featherlight French Fritters (Bugnes or Merveilles)

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Tomorrow is Mardi Gras (literally Fat Tuesday, in English called Shrove Tuesday), the last day of Carnival (or Shrovetide) in the Christian calendar. Shrove Tuesday was the last moment to indulge in rich sweets just before the approaching fasting period (Lent) starting on Ash Wednesday. Since fats were traditionally forbidden during Lent, Carnival sweets were usually deep-fried, thus allowing to use up the forbidden ingredient. Even though now most people do not fast during the Lent, these seasonal sweets are still very popular in many countries.

Bugnes (pronounced “byuñ”), French carnival fritters, are the speciality of the Lyon region. The most popular bugnes version is made of doughnut-like soft leavened dough, but the bugnes I prefer – actually the only ones I like – are crunchy, featherlight strips, sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar and very similar to Italian chiacchiere (also called cenci, bugie and a dozen of other regional names) and Polish “faworki” (“chrust“). In French-speaking Switzerland and in other parts of France very similar light Carnival fritters are called “merveilles” (miracles).

This recipe comes from “Le Grand Livre de Cuisine d’Alain Ducasse: Bistrots, Brasseries et Restaurants de Tradition” and just like all the Alain Ducasse’s recipes I have tried (for example Lemon Tart or Crème Brûlée), this one is perfectly explained and leads to amazing results. His bugnes have a very moderate sweetness level, are not fatty at all (one quickly forgets they had any contact with oil) and the grated zest gives them a wonderful flavour. I think these fritters are the lightest thing I have ever obtained with deep-frying method.

TIPS: Bugnes have to be planned ahead (the dough needs to be refrigerated overnight), but they are quite easy to prepare. The only arduous part is the rolling-out process. The dough really needs to be almost paper-thin (about 1 mm), otherwise the air bubbles will not form and the bugnes will not be featherlight.

Special equipment:

a rolling pin

a pizza cutter or pastry cutter (a good sharp knife can also be used, but cutters are more practical)

Preparation: 15 minutes + 1 night in the fridge + 1 hour

Ingredients (yields about forty 4 cm x 12 cm strips):

250 g flour

1 teaspoon salt

15 g sugar

2 eggs

grated zest from one lemon and one orange or from two lemons

75 g softened butter

oil or pork fat for deep-frying

Combine the flour, the eggs, the salt, the sugar and the zest and knead with your hands or in a food processor until the dough is smooth.

Add the butter and knead for a couple of minutes until the dough stops sticking to your hands.

Wrap the dough in plastic film and leave overnight in the fridge.

The following day roll out the dough as thinly as possible (about 1 mm) and cut into strips.

Heat the oil (160°C if you have a possibility to check the temperature, if not make some experiments with small pastry cuts: if the oil starts bubbling around them and they don’t fall to the bottom, it means the oil is hot enough).

Deep-fry the bugnes until golden brown. They are very thin, so it will take only about 10 seconds on each side.

Drain them on paper towels.

Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and serve.

Puffed Rice and Chocolate Unbaked Bars

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I have been making puffed rice chocolate truffles since I was a child and it was probably the first sweet treat I was able to make completely on my own. My childhood version of the oval truffles – called “hedgehogs” or “pine cones” because of their form – contained only cocoa, butter and rice, but now I always use chocolate and add nuts, raisins and a dash of aromatic alcohol. Last weekend I wanted to use my new kitchen toy, namely a big silicone mould for rectangular bars or biscuits and this way my rice balls have been transformed into rice bars. I have discovered that using moulds is much easier, quicker and allows me to use less chocolate. Whatever the shape, they are ridiculously simple, filling, relatively healthy, irresistibly chewy thanks to softened rice and slightly crunchy thanks to the walnuts.

As you can see on the photo I don’t put a lot of chocolate. It’s there mainly to “glue” the remaining ingredients. If you want, you can double the chocolate amount. I also don’t add any sugar. Raisins and chocolate are sweet enough for me. If you decide to make truffles, definitely double the chocolate amount and add more butter.

Special equipment: silicone moulds (not necessary if you want to make truffles)

Preparation: 15 minutes + several hours in the fridge

Ingredients (makes about 8 bars 5 x 7,5 cm):

20 -30 g puffed rice (I prefer the unsweetened one)

15 walnut kernels

4 heaped tablespoons raisins

50 g dark chocolate (or more)

15 g butter

1 flat tablespoon instant coffee (optional)

50 ml Grand Marnier or any aromatic alcohol of your choice

Put the chocolate, the butter, the coffee and the raisins in a big pan (big enough to contain also the puffed rice).

Melt the chocolate, continuously stirring and don’t let it boil.

Put aside.

Chop the walnuts (or break them into pieces) and add to the pan.

Add the puffed rice, stirring and stop when you see the mixture will not stick together if you add more rice (it depends on the chocolate you use).

Fill the silicone moulds with the mixture or form balls with wet hands.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours. The taste improves if you leave the bars in the fridge overnight.

Thumbprint Hazelnut Cookies with Jam

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Every year, when jam making season arrives I realise once more I have made too many jars which would better be finished to make space for the new generation. Rather than forcing ourselves to have toast with jam for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I prefer making sweet treats calling for jams or fruit sauces, such as Thumbprint Almond Cookies. A couple of days ago I wanted to prepare them once more, realised I was short of almonds and substituted them with ground hazelnuts. The hazelnut version was so good, I am now wondering which one is my favourite… They may look clumsy (the jam is always oozing out of the thumbprint hole during the baking process), but the taste is heavenly.

Before the recipe details I would like to thank Mr. Three-Cookies (from Three Cookies) and Raymund (from Ang Sarap), who invited me to take part in Seven Link Challenge. The challenge consists of presenting 7 links from one’ own blog, each in a different category and then inviting other bloggers to participate in it. The aim is to present some older posts from ones’ blog and to share with the readers our opinions and facts about it.

Choosing the links for the 7 categories was not an easy task. It was however a great occasion to look back on my texts, photos and to have a critical view of my blog. Thank you, once more, Raymund and Mr. Three-Cookies, for tagging me! I will do the best I can. Here are the promised 7 links:

1. The most beautiful post.

I don’t know if I’m influenced by the way it looked in reality, but Asparagus Tempura is my favourite. It’s one of the most beautiful dishes I have ever had on my table.

2. The most popular post.

If I am to believe the number of visit Google has registered, the most popular was Chicken Karaage. I must say it was a very big surprise since I didn’t know there were so many people interested in this Japanese recipe!

3. The most controversial post.

I wouldn’t call it controversial, but since Marmite (the British savoury bread spread) is maybe the most love-or-hate product I have ever used, I might classify the Marmite Muffins as controversial. Believe me, even if you are not a Marmite fan, these muffins are irresistible!

4. The most helpful post.

I have no idea what might seem helpful to my readers. For me the thing that was really helpful was discovering how to make Dashi, or the Japanese stock. Since I started preparing it on my own, I realised how important it was in lots of dishes, not only in soups.

5. The post that was surprisingly successful.

The post which earned me most compliments and interest was Hot Strawberry Sauce. It is my all-time favourite hot sauce and I was positively surprised it appealed to so many readers.

6. The post that didn’t get the attention it deserved.

Actually I will bend here the rules and talk about two posts, both featuring Gochujang, sweet and hot chili paste, the only Korean ingredient I cannot live without.

Black Pudding and Gochujang Toast is the French (or rather European) and Korean fusion snack I would love everyone to try one day. Every time I make it I think how simple it is and how perfect for someone who is fond of gochujang and who adores good black pudding (aka blood sausage).

Scallops with Gochujang are one of the simplest and quickest meals or snacks I can imagine and I would love everyone to taste this combination one day. They go surprisingly well with… sour cream and when scallops are in season I prepare this dish quite often.

7. The post I am most proud of.

I wouldn’t really say here “the post” since the photo isn’t great. Fat Liver Terrine with Port (Foie gras au porto) is rather the culinary accomplishment I still am very proud of.

Duck Fat Liver Terrine is one of my top 5 dishes and usually the most expensive item on the restaurants’ menu. Even though raw fat liver does not cost a fortune and is easy to order from every butcher in France, very few – even French – house cooks ever try preparing it. There is a kind of mystery surrounding its long and a bit complicated preparation. Since there is someone in my family who does it divinely well, I decided to experiment one day on my own and was surprised how fabulous even a less-than-perfect looking home-made terrine is. Since I started making it on my own I have also become very critical to what is served in restaurants and often is simply awful.

It wasn’t easy at all! Now the invitation part! The rule is to choose 5 blogs to continue this game. I bent the rules once more and have chosen three “group” websites created and written by friends, couples or families. I wonder if they easily agree on the seven links’ choice… Hereby, I would like to invite the following bloggers to participate in this challenge:

-Shilpa and Jenny from Baking Devils

-Katherine and Greg from Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide

-Sara and her sisters, hiding under the pseudos kclever and mclevering, from Three Clever Sisters.

If you want to take part in this links challenge, you are more than welcome!

(I would also have tagged of course Nami and Shen from Just One Cookbook, but Nami already took part in this challenge.)

Now back to the Hazelnut Cookies recipe! These cookies can be baked in any moulds (or even without moulds). This time I used mini-muffin ones to make them really tiny. The recipe calls for matzo bread, but leftover biscuits (even slightly savoury crackers) can be used here too.

Preparation: 1 hour+ 1 h 30 min in the fridge

Ingredients (about 40 mini cookies):

100 g butter, melted

90 g ground hazelnuts

45 g matzo bread or biscuits (sweet or slightly salty)

1/4 teaspoon salt

130 g confectioners’ sugar (or less if using very sweet biscuits instead of matzo bread)

1 egg

half a 300 ml jar of thick jam

Mix everything in a food processor (apart from jam). Put into the fridge for at least 1 hour to become firm.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Fill in the greased mini-muffin – or other – forms with a 2 cm thick layer of the dough. (You can also form circles and put them simply on a baking sheet, but in my case the cookies spread around them and became flat).

With your thumb (or another similarly shaped tool) make a small indentation in the middle of each cookie. Put once more into the fridge for 30 minutes.

Take the cookies out from the fridge and fill the indentations with jam.

Bake around 10-20 minutes till they become slightly golden (check if the bottoms are well cooked).

Take them out of the oven and take out of the forms when they are cold.

They keep for several days covered with a plastic film.

ANZAC Biscuits

36 Comments

ANZAC stands for “Australian and New Zealand Army Corps”, created during the World War I and the biscuits bearing this name were created at the same time by women desperate to send nutritious home-made food to their husbands, sons and boyfriends. According to this website, faced with at least two months’ transportation time, a group of women worked out a recipe based on rather healthy Scottish rolled oats biscuits and added only those ingredients which ensured long preservation. There are several theories on why eggs are not used, but their absence certainly makes biscuits last longer.

Nowadays ANZAC Biscuits are widely available in supermarkets in Australia, New Zealand and apparently also in the UK. They are also very popular among home cooks and there is myriad ANZAC Biscuits recipes on the web. Mine is taken from Three-Cookies blog (or to be precise from Easily Good Eats by the same author) and if you know Mr. Three-Cookies, you understand that my choice was obvious. If you don’t, either of his blogs and you will quickly realise it would be difficult to find a better cookies and biscuits specialist. If you are familiar with ANZAC Biscuits, Mr. Three-Cookies is also a very adventurous experimenter and his Easily Good Eats blog features also modified versions of this classical recipe.

Before baking them I have never tasted ANZAC Biscuits, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I have already baked with rolled oats and desiccated coconut and frankly thought I would obtain good, but quite ordinary biscuits. Since my expectations were so low, the first bite felt like an electric shock on my tastebuds. I don’t know what magical chemical reaction is created among the ingredients, but the result is irresistible and surprisingly complex. I bet that if you have never tasted ANZAC Biscuits, “Wow!” is all you will be able to say while you bite into the first one. (UPDATE and WARNING: do not taste the raw dough! You will end up eating it straight from the pan while you wait for your previous batch to bake).

I have only slightly modified the recipe and followed Mr. Three-Cookies’ advice (see his post here), using brown sugar, which gave a very pleasant, slightly caramelised taste. I have also put molasses instead of golden syrup. I also totally agree with him on one point: do not use margarine or any other vegetable shortening. The butter taste and aroma is so strong, you will lose a big part of the pleasure.

As I have mentioned above, they keep fresh in a tightly closed container for several days (and maybe even more, but I wasn’t able to test it). The stay crunchy and slightly chewy.

Preparation: 1 hour (or 30 minutes if you manage to bake everything in one batch)

Ingredients (I have obtained about 30 biscuits):

70 grams/1 cup rolled oats

90 grams/1 cup desiccated coconut

120 g/1 cup flour

125 g/about 4,5 oz butter

160 g/3/4 cup brown cane sugar

1 tablespoon dark syrup (I used 2 tablespoons molasses)

1 teaspoon baking soda (bi-carbonate of soda, in countries where it is not widely available, for example in France, it can be easily bought in pharmacies)

2 tablespoons boiling water

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Melt the butter and syrup or molasses in a big pan.

Combine the flour, the oats, the coconut and the sugar. Add slowly to the melted butter.

At the end combine the boiling water and soda. Pour the mixture into the dough and stir well with a spoon.

Roll small balls (mine were a walnut size) and put them on a baking sheet (leaving at least 3 cm spaces between each ball since they will spread).

Flatten them slightly (they will flatten even more during the baking process) and bake 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Don’t worry if the dough seems crumbly. It is normal. Just squeeze well the dough when forming balls in your hands and don’t flatten them too much.

Keep them in a tightly closed container. Apparently they keep for ages. All I know is they keep at least three days.

Financiers

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Financiers are one of the most famous French cakes and an obligatory experience for every almonds fan. In fact, they hardly contain any flour, no vanilla or other aromatic ingredients and are a quintessence of what an almond cake should taste like. They are soft, have a very sophisticated, yet simple taste and disappear very quickly, so I usually make a double portion. Produced since the Middle Ages by the French nuns of the Visitation of Mary, they were not called financiers and had an oval form. Then, for a certain time they were forgotten and around 1890, Lasne, a Parisian confectioner, revived the recipe. Since his shop was close to the stock market and financiers were his regular clients, he named the cakes “financiers” and transformed their form into the one recalling a gold lingot, probably thinking they appealed more to his clients.

I have baked financiers dozens of times and even though at the beginning I used my special lingot shaped forms, I quickly started to prefer the muffin-shaped ones. I simply find them cuter this way and even cuter when baked in mini-muffin forms. Financiers are very easy to prepare and are an excellent occasion to use up egg whites. The only tricky thing might be finding powdered (not only ground) almonds, but I always buy ground almonds and sift them through a sieve. The leftover big bits of ground almonds are excellent to prepare the even easier Thumbprint Almond Cookies (see the recipe here):

The financiers recipe I have been doing since I remember comes from Leçons de cuisine de l’école Ritz-Escoffier . The only thing I modified is the sugar amount (70 g instead of the original 85g).

Click here for some ideas of using the remaining egg yolks.

Preparation: 30 minutes

Ingredients (6 muffin shaped financiers or 12 mini-muffin shaped):

50 g powdered almonds

70 g sugar

50 g butter

2 egg whites

1 heaped tablespoon flour

a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Combine the egg whites, the sugar, the almond powder, the pinch of salt and the flour in a big bowl. Add gradually the butter, mixing with a spoon.

Pour the mixture into greased -with butter – muffin forms (or other small cakes forms) 2/3 of their height.

Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes until golden.

Let them cool down before taking out of the forms.

Easy Chewy Hazelnut Cookies

4 Comments

They are quick, they are easy, they require few ingredients, they don’t need any beating, rolling, kneading, they help using up leftovers and, most of all, they are incredibly flavoursome! These hazelnut cookies are my second recipe – after chewy coconut cookies - for instant sweet snacks with leftover egg whites. They are inspired by a recipe found in one of the famous Two Fat Ladies‘ autobiography. In fact, Clarissa Dickson Wright, in her second and compelling autobiographical book entitled ” Rifling Through My Drawers“, took an excellent decision to include a recipe after each chapter. The funny thing is her Walnut Biscuits recipe was a transformation of… hazelnut biscuits she appreciated less. Since I had only ground hazelnuts, I somewhat transformed it back.

The second time I was preparing the cookies I forgot to whip up the egg whites and discovered they are even better made this lazy way! The only downside is they don’t want to keep nice round shape, but if you put them in tartlets or muffin forms they’ll spread out neatly. Frankly speaking I don’t mind them looking a bit messy. Hazelnuts can of course be substituted with walnuts, but the soft, moist dark brown cane sugar is obligatory (this is what makes them so chewy). Apart from the hazelnuts, I have modified a bit the ingredients’ amounts.

Click here to see a few ideas of how to use up the remaining egg yolks.

Preparation: 30 minutes

Ingredients (for approx. 15-18 cookies):

2 egg whites

50 g soft moist dark cane sugar

a pinch of salt

1 heaped tablespoon flour

80 g ground hazelnuts (or 55 g powdered and 25 g roughly chopped)

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Combine all the ingredients.

With a tablespoon put dollops of the mixture on baking paper.

Bake for about 20 minutes until they are set, but still a bit soft.

With a Glass

Category Archives: Cookies, biscuits

Palets bretons (Sweet and Salty Brittany Cookies)

ANZAC Biscuits with Dried Cranberry

Easiest Chewy Coconut Cookies

Chocolate Terrine with Speculoos (Unbaked Chocolate Cake with Biscuits)

Financiers with Raspberries

Cannelés de Bordeaux

Featherlight French Fritters (Bugnes or Merveilles)

Puffed Rice and Chocolate Unbaked Bars

Thumbprint Hazelnut Cookies with Jam

ANZAC Biscuits

Financiers

Easy Chewy Hazelnut Cookies

Thumbprint Almond Cookies

Mini Pear Tarts

Madeleines