Linzer Cookies

These cookies is belived to have originated in the Linzer Torte, the famous tart from the Austrian city of Linz. They are a holiday classic in the Austrian, German, Swiss and Hungarain traditions, often eaten in Chrismtas.  The Linzer Torte is said to be the oldest-known cake in the world. Old or not is always a good idea to make these cookies, not only for their gorgeous presentation also because their soft and delicate taste. I used almond flour into the mixture, but you can also use hazelnut, walnuts or even pecan nuts. Also with the jam are other alternatives, orinally is spreaded with a red jam such as raspberry, blackcurrant or like in my case with cherry jam, but you can fill them with your favorite jam taste.

INGREDIENTS makes 14 cookies

190 g all-purpouse flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup almond flour
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar, plus more for sprinkiling
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon groud cinnamon
110 g unsalted butter at room temperature
55 g white sugar
1 teaspon vanilla extract
1 large egg
Cherry jam for filling

Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl and place aside. Pulse the almond flour, confectioners sugar, salt and cinnamon in a food processor until finely groud, transfer to the bowl of the mixer.

Add the butter and the sugar and beat until fluffly. Mix in the vanilla and the egg. Add the flour mixture and mix until combined. Divide the dough, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180º and prepare the baking tray with parchment paper or baking sheets.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut with your favorite cutter and cut out the centers of half.

Place the cookies on the baking tray, make sure you leave 5 cm between each other. Bake for 8-10 minutes until pale golden. Remove from the oven, leave the cookies on the tray for 2 minutes and transfer to racks to cool.

Sprinkle the top part of the cookies with confectioners sugar. Spread the jam onto uncut cookies. If jam is too liquid you will need to heat it to thicken. 

recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

These cookies are crisp, but once they are filled with the jam they become to soft little by little. So if you prefer to eat them cripy just fill them the day you going to serve them. Either options are nice.

Is just one week left to xmas eve ♥

Turrón and Chocolate Tartlets

And finally I come with a Christmas taste recipe! what better to start with a "turrón" treat? Turrón is a spanish Christmas delight, similar to nougat. There are a large variety of turrón but this time I used the one I like the most: the one called Xixona, which is soft and it is a paste of almonds, honey, eggs and sugar.
I told you in several times I love tartlets, so I decided to fill them with a mix of turrón and chocolate which combines perfect. I added a touch of Baileys to the chocolate which is also a good mix and Christmas is a good excuse to have a shot of this nice whisky cream. I bought the "turrón" in a jar, which comes ready to spread or bake. But is also easly to get the cream blending the whole piece.

INGREDIENTS makes 6
Pastry dough see here
150 ml heavy cream
190 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
4 tablespoons Baileys
6 tablespoons turrón cream (use penaut butter or speculoos cream instead)

Place the chopped chocolate into a bowl. Bring the heavy cream to boil on a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove just when starts boiling and pour into the chocolate bowl. Stir until smooth, add the Baileys and let it cool until few minutes before to set the shell.

Put some chocolate mixture with turrón into the shell mixing with a frok giving a marble effect.
I topped with a cookie.

Serve cold.

Only 12 days left for Christmas eve ♥

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

I would liked to begin this week with a Christmas recipe idea, but I really had not time after my days in Vienna. But last week, and just right after I've got my new books I decided to make these crackle cookies which they look quite like winter cookies and such as snowed delights which makes me think they are already a Christmas treat. Are very easy to make and they taste delicous, makes me remember the brownies taste.

So this is my recipe adapted for Martha Stewart's book.

INGREDIENTS makes about 40 cookies

225 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
135 g all-purpose flour
60 g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
120 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
90 ml whole milk
Sugar glaze for rolling

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl of simmering water stirring. Set aside and let it cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffly. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add melted chocolate. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the milk until just combined. Divide the dough into four equal pieces and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firms, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180º.

Roll each portion of the dough into balls of about 4 cm using your hands.* Roll them on sugar glaze and place them on the baking tray, making sure you leave enough space between each other since they grow in the oven.

Bake them about 14 minutes until have flattened and sugar splits.

Transfer from the oven to a wire rack to let cool completely.

If you can resist it beacause they are yummy when they are still warm! But you can keep them in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

* To prevent sticking you can use granulated sugar. I did not used.

I am gonna start with Christmas recipes right now, after my mini trip to Vienna I'm even more motivated, Vienna has a lot of Christmas markets around the city, typical sweets, xmas ornamets and of course Glühwein and hot punch to prevent the cold.

Have a nice week ♥

Honey Cupcakes

I love markets, even if I go there just to have a walk and have a look, specialy in winter time, though is not yet oficial winter, for me here has already begin since more than a month ago, specially today that was snowing this morning. So I have to be ready for colder days and that's the way few weeks ago a seller of a lovely stand convinced me to buy a honey jar in the biological market I use to go on fridays. I love the personal treatment of sellers and if they let you taste the products much better. 

Once I arrived home, and as is usual in me I decided to make cupcakes with it. As you can imagine the flavour of them is quite sweet, I did not add so much quantity on the frosting but instead I drizzle the top with some drops of honey.  

INGREDIENTS makes 12
110 g butter at room temperature
200 g white sugar
2 large eggs
200 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 ml whole milk
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 160º and prepare the baking.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and the salt, and set aside. Mix the milk, the honey and the vanilla and set aside.

Put the butter and the sugar in the mixing bowl and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs on at a time, beating after each addition. Add the sifted dry ingredients alterning with the milk.

Divide the mixtre between the cucpakes cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let them in the tin for 5 mintues and finally let them cool completely in a wire rack before decoratin.

For the decoration I used a buttercream frosting and I added a teaspoon of honey, just to give a taste touch.

Before serving top with a drizzle of honey.

I will need to start soon with the Christmas recipes! By the way on thursday I am going to Vienna until sunday, anyone can give me an interesting suggestion? 

Enjoy your week ♥

Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake

Despite the large title of this recipe I can assure you is very easy to make. Just have a look below to the directions of this loaf and you will see it's very easy to make, you just need to mix all the ingredients at the same time and in less than 10 minutes the mixture will be in the oven. I just wanted to keep the original title which looks very nice don't you think so? Lemon never fails, that's what I always think if I need to choose a flavour, and this loaf was not an exception. I took this cake to my dutch class and everybody liked it!

It is very moist and the lemon topping gets into the sponge giving it extra flavour and texture.

INGREDIENTS makes a 22cm loaf tin
155g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
155g caster sugar
20 g cornflour
155 g unsalted butter at room temperature
3 large eggs
greated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180º and grease the tin.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and cornflour into the mixing bowl. Add the sugar, the butter, the eggs and lemon zest and juice and mix until evenly blended.

Pour the mixure into the loaf tin and level the top with a spatula. Bake in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the loaf cool in its tin. 

For the drizzle:
150 g powder sugar
juice of 2 lemons

Sift the sugar into the lemon juice and mix it well using a hand whisk. Prick the surface of the loaf all over with a skewer. Pour the drizzle over the loaf and allow it to set before removing the loaf from the tin and seving. 

Recipe from Primrose Bakery.

I have to tell you I enjoyed a lot my weekend in Barcelona in the fair of BCNandCake, I meet a lot of people I was looking forward to meet and also new people with awesome blog pages, you can check some of the pictures I did here. 

I'm also so happy I was on time for Alma's book presentation and she took time to sign my book ♥

Orange and Cardamom Cookies

Today is Thanksgiving, but no, I am not gonna show you any special recipe for this day. Actually I did never celebrate this and I do not have any plan for tonight. But is really funny to see in the movies how important is that celebration and how nice looks, of course I do not think everything is like in the movies. But I am really surprised even is an american tradition it has not expanded at all to the rest of the world, such as Halloween and other traditions. So I am just bringing you some cookies that makes me remember the american style ones, soft and chewy, I really like this texture and the spiced and orange taste is a great combination. 

INGREDIENTS makes 32 cookies
150 g plain flour
160 g brown sugar
130 g butter, softened at room temperature
2 teaspoons cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons whole milk
white granulated sugar to roll them

Sift the flour, cardamom, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. 

In the mixing bowl beat together the sugar and the butter. Add the egg and the orange zest. Alternaly add the sifted ingredients with the 2 tablespoons of milk. Cover the bowl with plastic film and place it in the fridge for an hour.

Preaheat the oven 170º and prepare the baking sheet.

Make little balls with two spoons and roll them into the granulated sugar and place them on to the baking tray. Make sure to leave about 7 cm to each other since they grow during the baking.

Bake them for 7-10 minutes until cookies get golden. 

Remove from the oven and wait 5 minutes befor to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to let cool completely. Store in an airlight cointainer for up to 1 week.

So if you celebrate it: Happy Thanksgiving Day, and I will be glad next year if you invite me over!  ^_^

Tomorrow I am gonna be in Barcelona, I hope to arrive on time for Alma's book presentation, and on saturday I will be on the BCNandCake, how else is gonna be there? Would be great to meet some of you ♥

Coffee and Pecan Layer Cake

Last saturday I really felt the need to make something with coffee and I remember this cake. I did some other coffee cakes recipes before and definitely this is the one I like the most. If you like coffee you will love it. It has a soft and sweet taste with a perfect moistured sponge. I took the original recipe from this lovely Nigella's book, since I've got it I did quite a lot of its recipes and specially this one I wanted to share here with you.

INGREDIENTS  18 cm tin
225 g light brown caster sugar (or half white half brown)
225 g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
200 g plain flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 medium eggs
2 tablespoon milk
4 teaspoons espresso coffee
1 teaspoon boiling water
50 g pecan nuts

Preheat the oven to 180º and grease the tins.

Crunch the pecan nuts in a food processor. Sift the flour, bicarbonate and powder baking. Keep aside.

Dissolve the espresso powder with boiling water.

Beat the sugar and the butter until fluffy and pale. Add the espresso alternately the eggs, the sifted ingredients and the pecan nuts. Finally add the milk.

If you use two tins divide the mixture in two and bake for 25 minutes. Or bake it for 40 minutes if you use an only one tin. Make sure a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes, before turning them out onto the rack.

For the Frosting:
300 g icing sugar
150 unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 teaspoons espresso coffee
1 tablespoon boiling water
1 tablespoon whole milk
pecan nuts for decorating

Sift the icing sugar in the mixing bowl, add the butter and beat until fluffy and pale. 

Dissolve the instant espresso powder in 1 tablespoon boiling water and add it while is still hot to the mixture. Add the milk and mix until well combined.

Top with pecan all around the edge of the circle.

Enjoy ♥