home-made gifts Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Passionate About Baking

LIME SHORTBREAD COOKIES…Stringing them along for Xmas!!

‘Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold.’

Judith Olney

LIME SHORTBREAD COOKIES

A variation of Orange Shortbread Fingers from the ‘Great Big Cookie Book’…an exciting book with over 200 recipes. A crisp, buttery cookie with a twang of lime! I used lime juice & rind to make this cookie; gave it a nice zesty/citrus flavour-FRESH!! Decided to go a step further later in the day, and sandwiched some with a chocolate ganache. This made it even more interesting, and a bigger hit with the kids. Here’s my version of the recipe which is a very simple one;keeps in an airtight tin for up to 2 weeks (incidentally mine lasted 2 days!!)

For zesting the lime, I used something really interesting & essential by my standards…a ‘Microplane Zester Grater‘ (see picture below) that my sister got for me from the US. It’s magical for zesting limes & oranges, & also for Parmesan, coconut etc. For those who haven’t got one, its worth owning it. It is quick, fuss free, effective and ‘oh so convenient’…even for the emergency dash of garlic & ginger!! Quick clean up too. I can see me using a lot of this neat instrument in future!

Ingredients:

Butter – 1/2 cup (room temperature)

Castor Sugar – 5 tbsps
Finely grated rind of 2 limes
Juice of 1 lime
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Lemon Sugar for sprinkling (or extra castor sugar)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Grease 2 baking sheets.

Beat the butter & sugar till creamy & soft.I do this by hand.

Beat in the lime juice & rind (I do this too by hand & don’t use the mixer at all for this recipe).

Gradually add the flour and gently pull the dough in together to form a soft ball.

Roll out on a lightly floured suface to about 1/2 ” thickness ( for sandwich cookies I roll to a 1/4 ” thickness).

Put on the baking sheet,sprinkle with lemon or castor sugar, & bake for about 20 minutes till golden brown.

Remove to a cookie rack to cool.

Makes about 2-3 dozen.

Crisp & tangy…

Here’s where I thought that adding a dash of chocolate always dresses up things some more…so why not? I sandwiched the flowers in pairs- some with circle cut-outs in the centre, some whole cookies & some little pairs !! They were delicious both ways-with or without the chocolate!

These make good home-made gifts too. Off they go to Zlamushka’s Spicy Kitchen for a ‘Spoonful of Christmas’ & Susan’s Food Blogga ‘Eat Christmas Cookies’ event!

‘Box them or bag them;

Either which way, you MUST have them!!’

STAINED GLASS COOKIES…Hold ’em against the light!!

‘Cookies are made of butter and love’.

Norwegian Proverb

Festive, fascinating & delicious cookies!

A cut-out cookie made out of my favourite basic sugar cookie dough. Then smaller bits are cut-out and filled with broken pieces of hard-boiled candy, and put in to bake. In a while you can see the candy melting beautifully into the cut-outs & the cookie baking to a perfect brown. I make these a couple of times in the winter months; in summer they tend to get sticky due to humidity levels being high. They involve an extra bit of effort, otherwise would love to make them more often!

Ingredients:

Butter – ¾ cup (room temp)
Castor Sugar- 1 cup (I grind sugar crystals in my coffee grinder)
Egg – 1 / beaten
Flour – 2 ½ cups
Salt – 1 pinch
Vanilla Essence/Extract – 1 tsp

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy and light.
Add the salt + vanilla essence and beat for 30 seconds.
With a spatula mix in the beaten egg.
Put in all the flour in one go, and gather together to make a firm dough.
Chill for at least 30 minutes in wrap.
Preheat the oven to 190deg C. Keep 4 cookie sheets ready with baking parchment (I use aluminium foil).
Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut with assorted cookie cutters. Place them on the prepared cookie sheet.
Cut out smaller shapes into the cookies.
Fill these smaller cut-outs with small amounts of crushed hard-boiled candy. I’ve used ‘poppins’ which we get in a roll in different colours. If you wish to hang them, make small holes on top of each cookie with a straw.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, watching closely so that they don’t get too brown. You will see the candy melting and bubbling.
Remove from oven; spread the candy around with a wodden pick if the cavity is not filled completely. Let the cookies lay on the sheet for a minute. Carefully remove to racks & cool. I usually cut around the foil on each cookie, & peel it off once the cookie is cool. These cookies are quite fragile when hot/warm.
This recipe makes approximately 4 dozen 3″ cookies.

‘People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within’.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Stained glass cookies make lovely tree ornaments and gifts as well. They light up faces, young & old, with a beauty that is special. Great as gifts over Christmas…am sending them to Susan at Food Blogga for her ‘Eat Christmas Cookies’ event, & to Zlamushka for her ‘Spoonful of Christmas’ event.

ITALIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES…food-as-a-gift for Christmas!

‘There’s nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate.’

Linda Grayson, “The Pickwick Papers“

Up, Close & Chocolicious!

Italian Almond Chocolate Truffles…

I had an old truffle recipe, which I played around with a bit, and made these for the first time a few weeks ago. These Italian Chocolate Truffles tasted divine, and make a lovely gift, especially after the dressing up. They are very easy to make & have an lovely almond flavour. I’ve made the little boxes with handmade paper & the magical glue gun. Once the boxes are filled, I wrap them in cellophane, add some ribbon & a little card, & they’re all set. These truffles last well for 2-3 weeks, so they are great for gifting in the holiday season.

These have made an appearance for the second time on my blog to get under Zlamushka’s tree for her ‘Spoonful of Christmas’!

Ingredients:
Dark chocolate – 625 gms
Almond Extract – 2 tsp
Butter – 1/2 cup
Castor Sugar – 50gms
Ground Almonds – 50 gms (I run them in the coffee grinder with the skins)
Sprinkles, grated chocolate, cocoa powder & white chocolate to decorate.Candy cases.

Method:

Melt the chocolate with the extract in a double boiler , or over a pan of simmering water.
Stir well to ensure melted right through.
Add the butter and stir until melted.
Take off heat, mix in the almonds & sugar.
Leave for a while to cool down.
Roll into small bite sized truffles, roll in sprinkles/grated chocolate etc.This is the bit I really enjoy!
THAT’S IT!! They are so simple to make!!
Makes approximately 5 dozen truffles.

Note: Variations are easy with this recipe. You can skip the almonds & flavour the truffles with coffee liquor or instant roasted coffee; or use orange liquor/extract to get an almond/orange flavour. The possibilities are endless. Dip them into melted chocolate or dust them with cocoa for a different look…INDULGE!!

BISCOTTI…The Great Italian Cookie!

“You’ll always make good food from great ingredients,but you will never make great food from bad ingredients.”
Michael Chiarrello

BISCOTTI in 2 TONES!!

Here’s what I baked yesterday…BISCOTTI. It’s been on my mind for really long ever since I’ve been haunted by a picture posted on Group Recipes.This particular biscotti recipe is from Rogers page on Group Recipes which I have adapted to suit the ingredients I had available. The fact that the recipe uses olive oil & not butter won me over!! The recipe is a wee bit fiddly as it uses no butter which makes the dough quite sticky and squishy; but don’t let this put you off. I guess that’s the idea…otherwise how would we get such a great crisp cookie, low on fat! The aroma it fills the house with is heavenly. I was literally eating the crumbs off the counter while slicing it up! Suggest you try it when the kids are away…

The name biscotti is derived from ‘bis’ meaning twice in Italian and ‘cotto‘ meaning baked or cooked. Biscotti is said to have originated during Columbus’s time , & because of their long storage ability they were an ideal food for sailors, soldiers, and fisherman. Most European countries have adopted their own version of biscotti: English – rusks, French – biscotte and croquets de carcassonne, Germans – zwieback, Greeks – biskota and paxemadia, Jewish – mandelbrot, and Russians – sukhariki.

Ingredients:

Granulated sugar – 2/3 cup
Olive Oil – ¼ cup (or canola oil;I used olive)
Eggs – 2
Vanilla extract – 2 tsp
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt -1/8 tsp
Flour – 1 3/4 cups
Unsalted pistachios – 1/2 cup / coarsely chopped
Dried currants – 1/2 cup (original post has dried cranberries)
Chocolate chips – ½ cup
Walnuts – ½ cup/choppedMethod:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat sheets.
Sift the flour + salt + baking powder
Beat the olive oil with the sugar.
Add the vanilla extract + eggs & beat well.
Stir in the flour mix. Divide it into 2 bowls.
Gently turn the pistachios + currants into one half; and chocolate chips + walnuts into the other.
Transfer the dough to your parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12” X 3 ½”. The dough is very sticky, so you may have to dampen your hands to form the log.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until firm to the touch & light golden brown. ( I over baked it in my general excitement).
Remove from oven and cool for about 10 minutes.
Transfer the log gently to a cutting board and cut diagonally into 2 cm slices with a sharp serrated knife.
Reduce oven temperature to 135 degrees C. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 8 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.
Makes about 20 – 24 biscotti

Note: If you are doing just the pistachio version, increase the pistachios to 1 1/2 cups; the currants remain at 1/2 cup & leave the chocolate chips & walnuts out. I just tried to get a bit of variety.

The Italian Cookie for ‘Coffee Lovers’ or ‘Wine Dunkers‘!

Biscotti have a long shelf life & make wonderful gifts. Stack them up & tie them together with a pretty ribbon; put them in a jar; or else fill them up in a lovely mug! If you use pistachios and dried red cranberries, these are all ready and dressed up for Christmas!

This is so festive, its gotta be a under the tree. So I’m sending this one as well off for Zlamushka’s ‘Spoonful of Christmas’.

Just found another Christmas event at Susan’s ‘Food Blogga’ which invites posts for Christmas cookies until 17th December…which gives people a chance to make them well before Christmas. Swell idea…so this one goes off to Food Blogga as well!! Can you hear the bells a-ringin’?

LEMON CAKE…Baked as a gift!!

“I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation.”

Madam Benoit

LEMON CAKE sans sour cream…

Made my ‘twisted’ & ‘tangy’ lemon cake again…keeping in mind Zlamushka’s ‘Spoonful of Christmas’. This was a gift for a friend, and looked very pretty when dressed up. Convenient to gift too, since it’s already in a ‘case’! This time I used something very interesting…‘Lemon Sugar’ that my friend got from Ukraine. They have these satchets of lemon sugar that are very citrusy and add a lovely tang and kick to the cake. This recipe made 2 nice loaves…so we had one too! Yippee!!

I plan to make lemon shortbread cookies with the sugar too…in the near future hopefully!

Sliced up & ready to be devoured!!

Ingredients:

Butter – ½ cup/100gms
Eggs – 3
Sugar – 1 ¼ cups
Flour – 1 ½ cups
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – ¼ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Yogurt – 4 tbsp / thick
Cream – 2 tbsp / 25 % fat
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Rind of 2 lemons
Lemon Sugar -1 tsp (optional)
Lemon Extract – 1 tsp
Orange Essence – 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

‘Lemon Sugar’ from the land of the sweet babooshkas…

Lemon Syrup:

Water – ¼ cup
Powdered Sugar – ½ cup
Lemon Sugar – 1 tsp (or juice of 2 lemons)
Orange Extract – ½ tsp (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease and dust 2 loaf foil (7-8 inches) cases well.
Sift the dry ingredients together. Keep aside.
Mix the yogurt + cream+ juice of 1/2 lemon in a small bowl. Keep aside.
Beat the butter + sugar well until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs 1 by 1, scraping the sides down after each addition.
Beat in the lemon rind + lemon extract + orange essence + vanilla essence + lemon sugar.
On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients alternatively with yogurt and cream mix…in 3 goes.
If you like, you can mix a deeper yellow colour in 1/3 of the batter to get a marble effect.
Divide the batter into the foil cases, alternating with the deeper coloured batter, if using, and level out.
Bake for approximately 60 mins, or till the tester comes out clean.
Leave on racks in foil cases.
Meanwhile, while the cake is baking, heat the water + sugar + extract+ lemon sugar and make syrup.
Should taste nice and tangy…like a concentrate.
Poke the cakes gently with a skewer. Pour the warm syrup over the hot cake.
Drizzle some thicker lemon icing over the top & decorate with sprinkles etc. ( I used basil leaves too dredged in icing sugar…since I didn’t have mint leaves)
Allow to cool completely, and then wrap in cellophane paper and ribbons to make a pretty gift.

ITALIAN CHOCOLATE ALMOND TRUFFLES…Home-made for Diwali!

“If there’s no chocolate in heaven, I’m not going!”

Author Unknown

ITALIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES…

Its almost time for Diwali…which is also known as the ‘Festival of Lights’. I usually try and make a different home-made sweet on Diwali because we get quite tired of the ‘mithais’ that do the rounds. It’s challenging to be different, and this time I decided to tread on new ground. I had an old truffle recipe, which I played around with a bit. These Italian Chocolate Truffles tasted divine, and make a lovely gift, especially after the dressing up,,,& are very easy to make! They have an intense almond flavour. I think I’m gonna skip the almonds for a few next time , and try a few with coffee, and some with an orange essence…just to experiment! I made these in a tearing hurry…and am glad I did!

PRETTY, AREN’T THEY?

Ingredients:

Dark chocolate – 625 gms

Almond Extract – 2 tsp

Butter – 1/2 cup

Castor Sugar – 50gms

Ground Almonds – 50 gms (I run them in the coffee grinder with the skins)

Sprinkles, grated chocolate, cocoa powder & white chocolate to decorate.Candy cases.

Method:

Melt the chocolate with the extract in a double boiler , or over a pan of simmering water. Stir well to ensure melted right through.
Add the butter and stir until melted.
Take off heat, mix in the almonds & sugar.
Leave for a while to cool down.
Roll into small bite sized truffles, roll in sprinkles/grated chocolate etc.This is the bit I really enjoy!
THAT’S IT!! They are so simple to make!!
Makes approximately 5 dozen truffles.

ALL WRAPPED UP TO GO…

I’m sending this as entry to a wonderful & festive blog event, for Diwali – Jihva Special Editon : The Festive Series.

Have a happy,safe & peaceful Diwali, festival & holiday season. We are going to celebrate just with sweets & lights … NO CRACKERS this year, as pollution levels are reaching an all time high. I guess it’s the least we can do.

Tag: home-made gifts

LIME SHORTBREAD COOKIES…Stringing them along for Xmas!!

STAINED GLASS COOKIES…Hold ’em against the light!!

ITALIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES…food-as-a-gift for Christmas!

BISCOTTI…The Great Italian Cookie!

LEMON CAKE…Baked as a gift!!

ITALIAN CHOCOLATE ALMOND TRUFFLES…Home-made for Diwali!

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