It's Snowing!

We thought Winter was over and Spring was in the air. 
Were we ever wrong! Snow came tumbling down and we had to switch back to boots :(


Ischl Tarts

For these cookie sandwiches, there are 2 doughs. The bottom cookie is a spiced dough and the top is a normal sugar cookie dough.


Ingredients: 
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2-1/4 cup all purpose flour
Jam


Spiced Dough


In a small saucepan, melt 1/2 cup of butter over medium heat until butter turns light brown (about 12 minutes). Remove from heat and poor into a medium mixing bowl.
Chill until butter solidifies (45 min)
Then, beat the chilled butter with an electric mixer for 30sec. 
Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar + 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp Vanilla + Cinnamon + ground cloves + 1/8 tsp salt.
Beat until combined and then add 1 cup of the flour and mix until combined.
Cover dough and chill for 1 hour.


Plain Dough


Meanwhile, beat 1/2 room temperature dough with an electric mixer for 30sec.
Add remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar + 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp vanilla + 1/8 tsp salt.
Beat until combined and add 1-1/4 cup of remaining flour and beat in until combined.
Cover dough and chill 1 hour.




Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll each dough to 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.
Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and for the Plain Dough, Cut out 1/2 inch shapes in the cookie (So you will be able to see the jam once you assemble the cookies). 
Do not cutout those shapes in the spiced dough.


Place the cutouts on cookies sheet about 1 inch apart.
Bake about 8 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread about 1 tsp of jam on the bottom of each Spiced cookie and top with plain cookie. 
Sift powdered sugar on cookies before serving.

A little sweetness to cheer us up.

It's cold and dark out so early now. You feel like a mole trapped inside with only the dark night surrounding you. (Well, I do)
Not a cheerful thought...


So here are some delights to make us forget about the long winter to come.


(I haven't actually baked anything this week since it's midterm time but here is a desert that I've made in the past with a very good friend of mine.)

Apricot bow ties

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I made these with my friend when she came out to visit me in the country. They are really easy to make. We cheated by using apricot jam bought from the store but it tasted just as good as homemade jam. The recipe was from a Fine Cooking Magazine. It was a special edition all about cookies. Yum!

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened 

1 cup unsalted butter, softened 

2-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted; more for rolling 

3/4 cup apricot preserves

One large egg, beaten

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting 

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and the butter until light and fluffy.

On a low speed, gradually mix in flour until a smooth dough forms.

On a lightly floured surface, kneed the dough into a ball and divide the ball in 3 equal pieces.

Wrap each piece in wax paper and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. 

Preheat oven too 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Remove one piece of dough from the fridge and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Then cut about 2-inch squares (Works better with a pizza cutter)

Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of apricot jam/preserve in the center of the square. Fold one corner into the center, dab with the beaten egg, and then bring the opposite corner into the center and pinch firmly together to seal the corners.

Repeat with the remaining dough...

Bake until golden and puffy. It will take about 10-12 minutes.

Let the cookies cool and then sprinkle with confectionners' sugar.

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This cream cheese dough can also be used for another kind of cookie. 

This one...

Cardamom Palmiers

You only need some sugar and spice.




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