Thumbprints ... Christmas Cookies

Lately, I enjoy making cookies as Christmas gift which I usually do every year. Apart from gingerbreads, chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies..I also made thumbprints as well.



The recipe is taken from "Baking from my home to yours" by Doris Greenspan, I chose this one because we love shortbread and the texture of this one is similar to shortbread. But I made some changes by using almonds and strawberry jam instead of hazelnuts and raspberry jam.




1 3/4 cup finely ground almonds
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
Confectioners'sugar for dusting
about 1 cup strawberry jam

* I used vanilla sugar so I did not put the vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Whisk together ground almonds and flour.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy.

3. Add the extract and beat to blend.

4. Reduce to low speed and gradually add the nut-flour mixture, mixing only until it is incorporated into the dough.

5. Working with a teaspoonful of dough, roll the dough between your palms to form small balls and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.

6. Steady each cookie with the thumb or the end of a wooden spoon to poke a hole in the center of each cookie.

7. Bake for 15-18 mins, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point.

8. When the cookies are baked, remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the cookies rest on the sheet for 2 mins before transferring them to the rack and sifting confectioners'sugar over them.

9. Repeat with the remaining dough, remember to cool the baking sheets before baking the next batch.

10. Bring the jam to boil in the microwave then fill it in each cookie's hole.

11. Cool to room temperature.

Let's enjoy the Christmas cookies.

I also think to send this Thumbprints Cookies to Susan of Food Blogga for season 2 of Eat Christmas Cookies (If I can because I just noticed that today is the last day I can submit) - a nice event Susan organizes,Announcing Eat Christmas Cookies, Season 2, http://foodblogga.blogspot.com/2008/11/announcing-eat-christmas-cookies-season.html

My 1st homemade croissants.

Yappy.... finally I can make croissants!!!

I have never thought to make croissants myself although we like to have them for breakfast. I always thought it was complicated and I didn't dare to make them. But, we got lot of butter in the fridge and I gotto get rid of them. So, I decided to make a trial.

I saw the recipe in the "Tartine" baking book for a long time and also my friend Pook told me that she have made it and it turned out so good.

After reading carefully for the recipe I told myself, "hmmm.. it seems a hard job to do but worth to try it"



AFter 2 days working on it, I can say that it's absolutely fabulous! The taste and the outcome are so good for me.

I would like to give all the credit to the writers in this book, they help the beginner croissants baking like me to reach my goal!

Thank you.

Apple and Raisin Jalousie .... something we cannot resist!

For us, apple is a queen for this season. There are many kinds of apple available in the supermarket. I have tried almost all of them but "Pink Lady" is still my favourite. For making the dessert, I prefer the one that so pity I cannot remember the name, the taste is sweet and sour.

I told myself that next time I go to this fruit stall; I will make a note for its name.




I made it at noon but we did not have any left for our dinner dessert! It’s hard to believe that but it’s happened to us!

I used the recipe from "Baking Bible” and I just changed only one ingredient to suit us.

For the rough puff pastry

225 g. plain flour
a pinch of salt
140 pliable butter cut into small cubes
6-9 tbs (85-140 ml)ice-cold water

For the filling

225 g. apples
30 g. unsalted butter
55 g. light brown sugar
squeeze of lemon juice
1 tbs rum ( I used this one instead of brandy)
55 g. raisins

To finish

milk
caster sugar

For the rough puff pastry

1. Sift the flour with the salt into a large bowl. Using a table knife, toss he butter cubes with the flour.

2. Sprinkle 6 tbs of water over the flour and stir quickly with a table knife so the paste clumps together.

3. Using your fingertips to gather the lumps together, leaving any dry mixture in the bottom of the bowl.

4. If necessary, you can add water over any remaining dry flour to make it into a soft but not sticky paste.

5. Knead the paste lightly once or twice to bring it together into a smooth, even-texture paste.

6. Form the paste into a rectangle 2 cm. thick and wrap it in clingfilm or greaseproof paper. Chill for at least 10 minutes.

7. The butter must not be allowed to become hard or it will tear the paste when it is rolled out.

8. Give the paste a total of 4 rolls. (as before photo) If the paste still looks streaky after 4 rolls and folds it can have one more before being used. Allow the pastry to relax at least 10 minutes before using.




For the filling and finishing

1. Heat the oven to 220° C or 425° F

2. Roll the pastry ito 2 thin rectangles. One is around 13 x 20 cm. and the other should be 17 x 25 cm. Prick the smaller all over with a fork. Chill until firm.

3. Make a filling , Peel and core the apples and cut into large chunks. Melt the butter with sugar and allow to caramelize then add stir in the apples and lemon juice.

4. Cover with the lid and cook until the apples are tender but not mushy. Stir in rum and allow to cool. Stir in the raisins.

5. Bake the smaller piece of pastry until brown and crip. Remove from the oven and turn over the baking sheet and allow to cool.

6. Spread the filling all over it.

7. Lay the larger pastry on a board. Dust it lightly with flour so nothing sticks and fold it in half lengthways.

8. Using a sharp knife, but through the folded side of the pastry in parallel lines, at right angels to the edge. (it like when you were cutting between the teeth of a comb)

9. Leave an uncut margin about 2.5 cm. wide, all round the other edges, so when you open up the pastry you will have a solid border.

10. Lay the cut pastry on top of the pastry covered with the filling and tuck the edges. Brush the top layer carefully all over with milk. Sprinkle with sugar.

11. Bake for about 20 minutes or until well-browned. Save warm or cold.

Hope you enjoy. ^O^

Triple chocolate semifreddo

I have to confess that I really missed my kitchen when we were away from home nearly 2 months. So, once I back home I made pasta for our lunch and we told ourself that now we are home!!

Baking is the one I mostly missed, we got the invitation for dinner from my friends, Kate & Scott. I told myself it's the perfect time for making Triple chocolate semifreddo as we are kind of people who love eating chocolate!




I made this from Donna Hay cookbook, the one I felt in love at first sight when I saw from my friend, Pook (Dailydelicious) and she sent me some recipes from this book making me really happy. Thank you Pook.

We absolutely enjoyed the result. Just from the first bite....I felt like the touch of the angel's wings ^O^



250 g. dark chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
2 eggs yolks
110 g. caster sugar
430 ml. cream
100 g. chopped white chocolate (the recipe said 1/2 cup)
100 g. chopped milk chocolate (the recipe said 1/2 cup)

Place the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over the saucepan of simmerig water and stir until melted and smooth. Set aside.

Place the eggs, yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk for 4-5 minutes or until the mixture is thick and pale.

Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer for 5-6 minutes or until cool.

Fold through the melted dark chocolate and set aside.

Place the cream in the bowl ad beat until soft peaks form.

Fold the egg and chocolate mixture and the white and milk chocolate through the cream.

Pour the mixture into a metal bowl or cake tin. ( I made 6 glasses an one small cake tin) cover and freeze for 4-6 hours or till firm.

Enjoy ^O^

I got tagged!!

I got tagged from my friend Pook, Dailydelicious and this is the first time I got tagged in blogspot as well.

Let’s go to see the details for the tag:

For anyone who has been tagged you this is the rules:

Each participant answers questions about himself or herself. At the end of the post the participant tags 5 people. Their names are posted letting them know they’ve been tagged. They then have to read the participant’s blog. The tagged let’s the tagger know when he’s posted his answers.The questions are:

What was I doing ten years ago?

I started working for a British Company in which I worked till I moved to Italy.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

1. Cooking.

2. Cleaning the new dishes I just bought yesterday.

3. Reading the book that I have not finished yet.

4. Checking my mail.

5. Doing my sewing projects.

Snacks I enjoy:

1. Fonzies ( Cheese flavour snack)

2. Snickers

3. Jelly

4. Bread with Nutella

5. Nuts

6. Potato Chips San Carlo

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I know .... I know it’s impossible for me to become a billionaire but I always dream about what I would do if I won the big lottery …hehehehe

Anyway, my wish list is quite long so I just put the ones which are related to myself.

1. Buy a nice & small house with big kitchen (full of cooking equipment), sewing room and bathroom … why big bathroom??? It’s my secret ^O^

2. Take full course of cooking & baking.

3. Open a small restaurant having a book’s corner …. sure, I won’t miss the chance to be the Chef ^-^

4. Living here in summer and be in my homeland in winter.

Places I have lived:

There were not so many places I have lived in my life, one of them is my home town, Bangkok, a big and crowded city, another one is Chiang Mai, the place I lived for my bachelor degree. At present, I am living in a small town, north of Italy.

Jobs I have had: (paid jobs?)

1. Employee in the company I mentioned above.

And the people I tag are ….. I could not think about this now. Will wrote it later.

Almond White Chocolate Cupcakes

As Helen, http://tartelette.blogspot.com/
is hosting the monthly event Sugar High Fridays, http://www.domesticgoddess.ca/pages.php?page=10002 which created by Jennifer, http://www.domesticgoddess.ca/ . Once I read through the details of Sugar High Fridays #43, http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2008/05/announcing-sugar-high-friday-43-citrus.html I was really interested to join this event.

To tell you the truth, I thought about many desserts for this event, but finally I decided to do these cupcakes the one we really enjoy making & yesssssss....eating!!!

Then I thought about the frosting as normally I make from chocolate and cream cheese but this time I want to get some fresh orange tasting.

For the cupcake I made almond white chocolate cake , one of my favourites which I always like to make it.

Ingredient ( for 6 cupcakes):

45 grams flour
1/4 ts baking powder pinch of salt
75 grams butter, room temperature
45 grams sugar
1 egg
50 grams almond powder
30 grams white chocolated chopped


Preheat the oven at 175° C and prepare the muffin cups.

Whisk butter in high speed until it's creamy and pale yellow. Gradually add the sugar and keep whisking until they are fluffy and sugar dissolves.

Change to low speed and add the egg and beat until blended.

Gradually add flour and almond powder and mix them. Add white chocolated chopped and mix them together.

Drop 2/3 in the muffin cups and bake them for 15 minutes.


For the citrus icing

50 ml. fresh orange juice, strained
1/2 ts lemon juice
180 grams di icing sugar
2 ts powder egg white


Beat together in medium speed for 1 minute and then turn to high speed and keep on beating till it's thick and soft peak for 3 minuts.


For the decoration, I made the butterflies from marzipan just to get the atmosphere of spring.

April Panna Cotta

Finally real spring has arrived after waiting for long time, now you can imagine how is warm and sunny!!! I love this season a lot ... everywhere is green and full of flowers.

Normally when the weather starts getting warm and hot, I usually make ice-cream or panna cotta, both are our favourites!!



It happened to me to find this blog http://www.lacilieginasullatorta.blogspot.com/2007/05/per-la-panna-cotta-ingredienti-300g-di.html while I was searching for some recipes. It caught my eyes immediately because this is quite similar to the recipe that I normally use but this one has also the strawberry gelee which I have never made before. Want to try this combination!!

I can say that it's so delicious and also a perfect combination between panna cotta & strawberry gelee, I made 4 glasses and my husband & I finished them within one day and i have made it twice already. What do you think about the taste????

Recipe for 4 glasses (Adapted)

300 grams fresh cream

200 grams whole milk

60 grams sugar

1 vanilla stick

3 gelatine sheet (10 grams of gelatine)

Soak the gelatine sheet in cold water for 10-15 minutes. Pour milk, fresh cream, sugar and vanilla stick in a saucepan, stir together and set over medium heat. When it's almost boiled remove from the heat and put the gelatine into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Let cool to room temperature, pour into glass and keep in the freezer for 20 minutes. ( I divided the recipe and made them twice because I made 2 levels of panna cotta)

Strawberry Gelee

300 grams strawberry

4 tbs. sugar (depends on how sweet strawberries are)

1 tsp. lemon juice

2 gelatine sheet (7 grams gelatin)

Soak the gelatine sheet in cold water for 10-15 minutes. In small saucepan heat together strawberry puree, sugar and lemon in medium heat till the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the gelatine and stir until completely melted. Let cool to room temperature. Pour in to the glass which has one level of panna cotta. Set in the freezer for 20 minutes.

While the strawberry gelee is set in the freezer, make the second part of panna cotta and when it's cool, pour in the strawberry gelee and set in the fridge for about 2-3 hours.

Thank you la ciliegina sulla torta for the delicious recipe.

Enjoy!!

Mango Tonight

As I had ripe mango which i bought a week ago, I was thinking what should I make from this sweet mango!!

It happened that I cooked Thai dish and I know that my sister in-law and her husband like Thai dishes, so we decided to invite them for dinner. What do you think, did they say yes or no??

How comes they won't join??? heheheh

Then I got only a few hours to prepare the dessert and I thought about making something quick, nice and full of mango flavor.

So, I named it Mango Tonight!

They were made from the following;

6 small round vanilla sponge cakes

Mango sauce (250 grams of mango, 80 grams of sugar and 1 tsp of limon juice)

200 grams of whipped cream

230 grams diced mango

some Ladyfinger biscuits

I was lucky that I finished them quite early and had 2 more hours before they came for dinner!!

This experience made me notice that sometimes, the simple thing goes well and more than we expect!!

buttermilk scones

I have never thought to make scone until I stopped by at P' Thip's blog
http://thai4real.blogspot.com/2008/03/buttermilk-scones.html one of my favourit blogs.

Once I saw them, I told myself that they were such a nice and yummy yummy scones! Then suddently remember that i have some nice dried cherries I bought from the fair. As I did not have any idea what can I make with, i just kept eating them as snack!!

By the way, before I finish them up, better to use them for making scones. Is it a good idea?

Yeap, it was a good idea to make them, as soon as I took them out the oven, I could not help

tasting them. And as normal, once I make something that both of us like ... they were gone so quickly!!!

Thank you P'Thip for sharing the nice recipe. :)

Enjoy swirling ......

I got the inspiration to make these cute swirly macaroons from Tartelette blog http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2008/03/swirly-macarons-and-birthday.html ; when i saw her fabulous and perfect swirly macaroons i could not take my eyes off and kept telling myself to try to make them once.

I'm not expert in making desserts especially macaroon, the one I have heard it's not easy to make them turn out good and perfect. To be honest, I have failed once in doing these swirly but I'm lucky to get the good suggestion from Helen, Tartelette (thank you Helen!). Finally I can make it and I enjoyed swirling each of them.

In the matter of my husband, he doesn't fancy too much this kind of biscuits so i just filled them with Nutella and brought all to my friends in the class. I was happy to see them enjoying when they saw and tasted them with pleasure. You might want to know how they taste..... i can say that they should be delicious as my classmates finished them very quickly.

Ravioli with Gorgonzola Cream Cheese

Rainy Easter was something we did not expect…yes we did expect the sunny day instead of rainy and cold!! So, we found something to do together and for sure it should be something fun and delicious ^o^

We thought about making ravioli for our lunch, my husband asked me whether we have the entire ingredient we need or not. I suddenly asked him back that how comes we do not have? Maybe he forgot that we made a big shopping the day before Easter.

Having my husband in the kitchen with me makes my kitchen even smaller than before and I could not move around easily. Normally I do not allow him to be around in the kitchen, but this time I cannot deny that it’s such a nice time cooking together.

Pasta dough (I made quite a lot for 2 so, I kept some in the fridge for the next day)

400 gr. Semolina flour
3 eggs
Pinch of salt
Some water

Filling

200 gr. Ricotta cheese
150 gr. Spinach
150 gr. Shrimp
5 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper
Nutmeg

Gorgonzola cream cheese

2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. gorgonzola cheese
100 ml. cream
Salt & pepper

For pasta:

Whisk semolina flour in medium bowl and make a hole in the centre. Add eggs and stir with fork making movement in circle until mixture clumps together.

Add some salt and knead until dough is smooth, adding some water if dough is too dry.

Form dough into ball, cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

For filling:

Bring spinach to boil, squeeze all the water and cut into small pieces.
Melt butter in small skillet over medium heat. Add shrimps cut in to cubes till they cooked.
Mix together spinach, shrimps, ricotta, parmesan cheese and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.

For Gorgonzola cream cheese:

Melt butter and gorgonzola cheese together then pour cream and season with salt and pepper.

Cut pasta dough in pieces, cover with cloth to keep from drying out. I set pasta machine to no. 3 thin setting. Flatten 1 dough piece into rectangle. Run dough piece through machine. Fold in half crosswise and run through again. Continue to run through machine and dusting with flour as need to keep from sticking.

Place pasta sheet on lightly floured work surface, do not forget to cover with cloth to keep from drying. I used small cookies cutter to cut them out from pasta sheets. Place the filling in center of 1 dough round, fold dough over filling and forming half-moon and pressing to adhere.

Press edges with back of fork to seal tightly.Cook ravioli in boiling salted water until just tender and float. Drain and transfer ravioli to a bowl. Pour hot cream cheese over sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Chocolate mascarpone cheesecake pot

As we did not go anywhere for easter holiday as both of us have a cold, so we just stay home, be relax by watching tv and pamper ourself by making something good and absolutely delicious!!

I found that we had mascarpone cheese in the fridge, it reminded me for the dessert that i have seen in my friend's blog, Pook dailydelicious Once i saw it, i told myself that i gotto to try to make it once because i love both cheese & chocolate.

So, I decided to make it and to be honest i do not fancy too much about dessert, just love to make it. But u know what once the first dip got into my mouth...oh...it's absolutely delicious ... perfect and i could not stop myself!! Now, it's already on my favourite dessert lists and for sure i will do it again and again!!!

Thank you so much Pook for sharing the wonderful recipe.

Strawberry roll

In this month, i got a good price for fresh strawberries in the supermarket near my house. So, i kept buying them although i did not have any idea for the cakes or the sweets i want to do with them.

Frankly speaking, in the past week i made a lot of rolls and shortcakes with these nice and sweet strawberries. I still remember how my husband reacted when he came back home and saw those cakes in the fridge!! Oh my god!!... againnnnnnnn!!!!

Anyway, i decided to make the last roll yesterday and i told myself that my husband won't see them again for a very long time!! Not only my husband gets bored for eating them .... i feel bored to do it as well and wanna make something different.

Gelato al cioccolato

I have to say that this is the best chocolate ice-cream i have ever made it!!!

I got the wonderful recipe from this blog http://icecreamireland.com/2007/12/21/chocolate-whiskey-ice-cream/. Thank you so much.

Raspberry meringe kiss

Ho avuto questa ricetta dalla mia amica nella classe, Kate. Ho provato a fare in Lunedì e le ho portato ai miei amici, mi hanno detto che sono buoni.

Grazie mille Kate per darmi questa meravigliosa ricetta.

Gelato con biscotti

Sono due volte che faccio questo gelato e a noi piace molto.

Le palle di nocciola

Questo biscotto è facile da fare e ci vuole poco tempo specialmente per qualcuno che ha nocciole o mandorle già grattugiate (meglio se molto fini).

Devo dire che questi biscotti sono davvero profumati e buoni.

Polpettine

Nero e Bianco

Ho raramente fatto il dolce come il rotolo ma devo dire che era davvero buono con la crema di cioccolata bianco.

Chocolate Almond Cream Tart

Non ho fatto neanche un dolce per una settimana perchè avevo raffreddore. Mi manca tanto, perciò appena mi sento meglio ... sono andata a cucina e ho preparato questo semplice e buono dolci. :)

Torta di mele

A noi piace questo torta perchè è morbida e profumata tanto.

Tenerezza Rosa

Ho fatto questo dolce per S. Valentino. Il mousse di fragola con Red velvet cake.