Christmas Biscuits

Everybody is taking mini mince pies to parties these days, so to differentiate I made some little Christmas biscuits.

For the pastry:

160 g flour

80 g sugar

80 g unsalted butter

1 egg

1 tbsp candied citrus peels

half tsp ground cinnamon

Mix the first 4 ingredients by hand and make a dough. Then add the candied peel and cinnamon and mix again, shape into a ball and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. Roll into a long strip, and taking a little bit of dough at time shape with your hands into walnut size biscuits. Place the biscuits onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake at 160˚C for 10-12 minutes. Let the biscuits cool down and then decorate: For half of the biscuits I just dipped one end in melted dark chocolate and sprinkled with some sugar granules (which I got from Italy) on top. For the rest I rolled some ready made white icing, cut it into small circles, to top each biscuit (spread a little apricot jam first to secure the icing in place) and then I decorated them with green and red icing pens.

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Comments

How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book Sweet As... where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal...

Mezze Maniche with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Since I had some left over mushroom sauce from yesterday's dish , today I made some pasta. I heard from other bloggers about the Garofalo pasta brand, in NZ I could only find it in one shop, and it was too expensive even to consider, so I thought that I should try it while I am in Italy. I choose mezze maniche for this dish. Mezze maniche with mushrooms I cooked the mezze maniche al dente. In the meantime I warmed up the pan with the left-over mushrooms and added 250 ml of cream. Then I added some freshly chopped Italian parsley and some freshly ground pepper. I drained the mezze maniche and passed them in the pan with the mushroom and cream sauce. They tasted great! Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©

Paccheri with tomato, parsley and garlic.

Paccheri are hollow pasta tubes that look like rigatoni or tortiglioni, but with a difference: the paccheri tubes flatten once they are cooked. Usually the have very rich sauces, but I am one for 'less is more' these days, and so here I just warmed up a ready made Italian tomato passata ( a good one ). Once the passata was hot I added some salt, extra virgin olive oil and finely chopped Italian parsley with garlic. These days I am chopping a lot of parsley and garlic together, it is too early for basil, and parsley taste really good in Italy! Also, I like the idea of having a cooked sauce but with raw herbs and garlic in it: the taste changes completely. Simple but really effective!!! If you are not vegan you can add some ricotta to this. Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©

Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Search This Blog