How to bake cookies with flowers

Fresh edible flowers make a lovely addition to cookies, I find them quite elegant and delicate. I tried a few and the verbena are very good for shape and colour, the pink ones especially (they remain pink!), the red ones turn deep reed and the white and mauve turned... blue! Calendula and marigold petals keep their yellow and orange hues well, dianthus petals tend to shrink... but all in all I am pleased with my experiments, and the final results. 

Any cookie recipe that doesn't require too long in the oven would work, I just made some simple cookies with butter, self raising flour, sugar, vanilla and eggs, shape into little biscuits and placed them onto a oven tray lined with baking paper (leave some space between the cookies so they can 'spread' while baking). Then I topped each cookie with a small flower or some petals.

It is a good idea to gently press the flowers and petals into position over the cookies with wet fingers.

Finally I lined another sheet of baking paper on top, pressing down gently on the flowers. I put some ramekins on the ends to keep the baking paper down before placing the tray inside the oven, to make sure that the paper didn't lift off while baking.

My cookies took about 12 minutes at 160℃, but it all depends on recipe and size, so you'll just have to regulate yourself.  When ready remove from oven, peel off the top baking paper sheet, add some icing sugar, if you like, and let the cookies cool down completely before removing them from the baking tray.

Enjoy!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Gluten free almond shortbread biscuits - Biscottini al burro e mandorla senza glutine

Ingredients:

100 g ground almonds

100 g sugar

100 g butter (at room temperature)

50 g rice flour plus some for dusting

candied cherries (optional)

Mix all the ingredients and make into a dough, then make some small balls, walnut size, roll them in rice flour (otherwise you will get some flat biscuits when they bake in the oven) and place them on a oven tray lined with baking paper. If you like add a piece of candied cherry on top. Bake at 160° for about 20 minutes, but check the oven often as they can bake quickly (depending on size). Let them cool down completely and then enjoy. They keep well in a container, but if you want to store them for longer bake them a few minutes more.

And now the flowers from my garden (old photos, most of these flowers have gone now...)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Special Fresh As Give Away for Sweet New Zealand, and amaretti macaroons.

Attention all food bloggers and friends of Sweet New Zealand:

Remember to enter your sweet recipes this month (info here - I am hosting so you will need to email me the entries) by February 27th and you will be in the draw to win two delicious packs of Fresh As products: Raspberry Powder and Strawberries slices. You can enter old recipes as long as you add the SNZ logo. You can enter as many times as you like, winners will be chosen with Random.org, so you just need to be lucky!

Amaretti Macarons 

After the marzipan here are some amaretti, also made using apricot kernels together with almonds. These are the perfect gluten free biscuits, maybe next time I will make them without blanching the almonds (for a darker colour) except for the apricot kernels: these must be blanched and skin removed as it is poisonous. I add apricot kernels because they taste and smell delicious, like Amaretto liqueur.

Ingredients:

200 g almonds

A few Apricot kernels (up to 20)

200 g raw sugar

3 egg whites

Blanch the almonds and apricot kernels in boiling water to remove the skins, then grind in a food processor with half of the sugar (100 g). Whip the egg white until foamy with the remaining sugar (adding one spoon at the time). Fold in the almonds. Spoon on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 100°C for an hour or until the bottom of the amaretti comes off easily from the baking paper. Let them dry for a night before eating. They last a long time (if you don't eat them first!).

This recipe is for Sweet New Zealand #31, the blogging event open to all Kiwi bloggers (living in NZ or overseas) and expats blogging from NZ. I am the host for February, so if you like to enter a sweet recipe please contact me, or click here for the instructions. Also let me know if you are keen to be a host in 2014, and book a month!

Happy Chinese New Year (of the Horse) and Sweet New Zealand #30 Recap

Happy Chinese New Year!

I am starting the Year of the (wooden) Horse with the recap of the 30th edition of Sweet New Zealand, so I hope that all these sweet treats will bring me good luck! January has been busy with lots of work but also travel, and holiday, and the this blog has been busy too: last week it reached for the first time 100,000 page views in a month, I don't know if this will keep on, but as I am writing I am now at around 117,000 page views and for this I have to thank a few referrals, like Pinterest (Alli, I remember you saying something about this a while ago), a raw and vegan website (I knew that juicing was good!), but mostly Google (.com, ,nz, .uk, .au…).

Anyway, after a bit of self-promotion I am ready to start with the recap, posting all the entries in chronological order (received date).

A New Years Trifle of Gingerbread & Nectarine

The first entry is A New Years Trifle of Gingerbread & Nectarine by Alli Pirrie-Mawer at Pease Pudding. This was Alli's New Years Eve dessert, composed of Gingerbread Sponge, Creme Anglaise, Poached Nectarines, whipped cream and crystalized ginger for decoration. And what about the presentation! Alli, I think that the photo is so good that it will earn me a few pins :-)

(Almost) Fool-proof salted caramel sauce

The second entry is from Carmella at Easy Food Hacks who confesses her craze for salted caramel goodies and proposes this (almost) Fool-proof salted caramel sauce. The 'almost' word is in her title, not my interpretation. The recipe has step by step photos and instructions and seems pretty fool-proof to me!

Ricotta Cheesecake with Rum and Raisins

Then I had a entry: Ricotta Cheesecake with Rum and Raisins, I prefer ricotta cakes to regular cheesecakes as they are lighter, and possibly because I am Italian and ricotta, rather than cream cheese, is in my DNA. Good excuse eh!

Chocolate Mousse

Then I got in my inbox a Chocolate Mousse from Marnelli at Sweets and Brains, and kind of wished that Sweet New Zealand wasn't just a virtual thing… I mean, don't you just want to dip your spoon into the computer screen when seeing this one! Decadent as!!

Orange blossom & pistachio shortbread crescents

And what about these melt-in-the mouth gorgeous Orange blossom & pistachio shortbread crescents from Lesley at eat, etc…. Lesley says that they could easily be her favourite biscuits with their "oh-so-delicate flavour and texture and crunchy bites of nuttiness", and I believe every word of it: they sound truly delicious.

Grown Up Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake

Last month's host for Sweet New Zealand, Alice from Alice in Bakingland, is back in style with another stunning dessert: Grown Up Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake. I guess that this is grown-ups only because it contains alcohol, but Alice also believe that ice-cream cakes should be  adults' desserts, and if they are as pretty as this I can only agree. 

Tea Cup Steamed Ginger Coconut Cakes

Next up is Sue from Couscous & Consciousness with these delightfully pretty Tea Cup Steamed Ginger Coconut Cakes using a Donna Hay's recipe and her Mum's demitasse cups. The cakes are steamed, not baked, and Sue appreciated not having to turn the oven on during this hot summer. I agree, plus steam pudding are so delicious!.

Feijoa zest agar agar jelly

I managed to put another entry in, from my Only Recipes' Blog, something to think about before the first feijoas come in: Feijoa zest agar agar jelly. 

Raw vegan chocolate brownie

Last but not least (and I hope I didn't forget anyone now!) is our queen of raw desserts, Frances from the Bake Club (you should sub this also as the 'unbake' club!) with this Raw vegan chocolate brownie. Frances says that this is a recipe by Gabriel Power from nomnomnosh.com.  which she found in Harvest Wholefood newsletter, and that it is really rich. Need to say more? Yum!

Well, that's all folks, thank you for entering! As I didn't get any volunteer for February I will host Sweet New Zealand again next month, please let me know if you can do March (or April or any other month!).
Thank you and, once again, Happy Year of the Horse!

Making Chinese New Year Cards

Kawakawa meringues and biscuits

Kawakawa meringues

If you like to forage in the New Zealand bush you may be familiar with kawakawa, and know that it was used in traditional Māori medicine. Also, the leaves make a great tea! But you can also use the leaves instead of vanilla to flavour desserts: they have a distinctive taste which is good for biscuits, meringues and custard puddings (like Crème brûlée). It has a peppery flavour and it works!

For the meringues and biscuits I started with the Italian meringue, which is made by adding hot sugar syrup to the beaten egg white. Actually, the Italian meringue doesn't need to be cooked as the hot sugar syrup already 'cooks' the eggs, and it is often used as the base for many desserts. But yes, it can also be used for making hard meringues. The so called French meringue is mostly used in New Zealand (egg whites and sugar, rather than hot sugar syrup), and it is easier to make, but to get the kawakawa into the meringues you need a hot syrup! Once you master it you can make meringues with all sort of herbs!

Kawakawa meringues

Ingredients: 

250 g egg white

500 g sugar

about 150 ml water 

a few kawakawa leaves, washed and broken with fingers (discard the stalks)

Beat the egg whites with 100g of sugar. In the meantime melt 400 g of sugar in 150 ml of water over a flame, and the kawakawa leaves and bring it to boil. If you have a sugar thermometer it should reach

121° C, but I don't have one and I just guess when the syrup is ready: it starts to bubble and 'smells' right.

Pour the syrup into the egg whites and keep beating until they are cold again.

Pipe the meringues on a oven try lined with baking paper and bake at 50° C for 4 hours. Leave for another day to dry completely and then enjoy!

For the biscuits:

Same recipe as above, but keep some meringue aside and then fold in a bit of self rising flour, adding a spoon at the time until you have a soft batter that is still full of air and can be piped through a pastry bag.

Pipe out some longish biscuits and then bake at 160° C for about 30 minutes, or until they smell done! Let them dry for another day before storing away. They last for ages! 

Kawakawa biscotti

Variations

Kawakawa and rose meringue: I picked some rose petals (below) and sprayed them with grappa, then I placed them in a jar with a little caster sugar for 2-3 days, not to dry them, but just to preserve the smell. Finally I folded the sugary petals into the Italian meringue before piping it on the baking tray. I used roses, but violets, gorse and other flowers would be suitable too.

I made all of these for our Slow Food foraging feast last Sunday, they were a success!

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©