Lavender Cookies

Spring is here!

Although for me, who lived most of my life in the northern hemisphere, October is synonymous of Autumn ... Spring is here! Swallows are already making their nests on the roofs, the trees are blooming, the weather is mild and I'm trying to overcome my seasonal confusion, cooking.

What about baking some small cookies with flowers ... Lavender Flowers?

Lavender is a plant natural from the Mediterranean and its use by man in cosmetics and medicine is historic. In the kitchen you can add lavender to both meat and fish dishes as well  as to sweets. Cultivated largely in Provence, is, along with hyssop, oregano, basil, rosemary, sage, thyme and fennel, one of the herbs of Provence.

With spring as inspiration, I adapted a recipe from the book 200 Recipes for Cakes and Biscuits, to create these fragrant flowers and butterflies cookies.

Ingredients:

100 g butter

2 eggs

175 g of wheat flour

25 g of rice flour

100g of demerara sugar

1/2 tablespoon of baking powder

1 tablespoon of lavender flowers (for food purposes)

Mix the flour and baking powder. Add butter, it should be at room temperature, and crumble until is well incorporated with the flour. Add lightly beaten eggs and sugar, mixing well. Finally add the lavender flowers. Extend the dough in a floured surface with the help of a rolling pin. Cut the biscuits with a cutter of your choice (in this case I used small cutters in the shape of flowers and butterflies). Bring to bake in oven at 180 º C on trays lined with parchment paper. When the cookies edges are lightly browned remove from oven for. Leave to cool in the tray for a few minutes and then move to a rack to cool completely before storing.

Bon Apetit!

Coconut and Passion Fruit Cookies

Today I bring some cookies that combine the holiday season with the tropical spirit of Brazil: coconut and passion fruit flowers!

The combination of coconut and passion fruit is very pleasant  and the passion fruit icing was quite a nice surprise. In fact, usually I just make simple cookies, but in this post I wanted to make something special, where the sugar was the star and the acid tang of the passion fruit pulp cuts any excessive sweetness that the icing may bring!

Ingredients:

150 g sugar

1 egg

100 g butter

300 g flour

1 tbsp baking powder

60 g grated coconut (unsweetened)

4 tsp passion fruit pulp

175 g icing sugar

2 tbsp passion fruit pulp

About 20 minutes before starting the preparation of the recipe, put all ingredients at room temperature. Prepare the passion fruit pulp, removing the pulp inside the fruit and process it in the blender, after which it must be strained to separate the seeds. If using sour passion fruit (big and yellow) one fruit would be enough. If using the sweet passion fruit (small and purple), will be needed two or three fruits.

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder, sugar and grated coconut. Break the butter into cubes and crumble along with the solid ingredients until you have a homogeneous mixture. beat the egg and add it the passion fruit pulp. Add it to the mixture and mix well, until became a smooth dough. Cover the bowl with film and store in the fridge for one hour. Then extend and cut the biscuits with the cutter of your choosing. Bake them in the middle zone of the oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. remove when they are slightly gold and cool on a rack. prepare the icing by mixing the icing sugar with the passion fruit pulp, stirring vigorously until it forms a thick cream. Spread on the cookies and let dry.

These cookies are delicious to give as a present or just to have at home to your family or friends, or to ourselves whenever we need something sweet!

Just let me which you a happy 2012 full of sweet moments!

A Xmas Cake Fit for a Queen

In this Xmas edition of Bread Baking Day, Cindy from Cindystar challenge us to bake a bread or a cake  that would reflect de Season or that would be tipical of our country in this time of the year. To any portuguese, to think of a cake that reflects the Xmas espirit, brings the King Cake (Bolo Rei) imediatelly to our mind. Nevertheless, my favorite is the Queen Cake (Bolo Rainha).  And is this cake, fit to crown a real queen, that I bring to you today!

These cakes are typical of Xmas Season, specially of Xmas Eve and of the Kings Day (January 6th). Both cakes are made of yeasted dough, with nuts, raisins and, in the case of the King Cake, candied fruits. Inspired in the french Gallette de Rois, is told that the recipe was brought from France to Portugal in the end of the 19th century. Traditionally, each cake have inside a dried  broad been and a small gift. The one who find the been in his piece of cake, would have good luck in the new year and should, in the following Xmas, offer a similar cake.

Ingredients:

100 g butter

150 g sugar

450 g flour

1bag of biological yeast

3 eggs

2 dl milk

2 dl orange juice

2 tbsp Port Wine

2 tbsp aqua vitae or brandy

1 lemon zest

1 orange zest

200 g of mixed nuts (whole nuts, almonds, hazelnuts) and raisins

Dissolve the yeast on the milk. Make a cavity in the center of the flour and add all the ingredients except the dried fruits. Work the dough until it becomes soft and elastic. Ad the nuts and raisins, making sure that they are evenly distributed. Leave the dough to rest in a worm place, for at least one hour. Then, work the dough again, in order to get the air out, and form a crown shaped cake. Decorate with more nuts and raisins. Cover and let raise for another 45 minutes. Swab with a egg yolk and take to the oven to bake until it gets golden brown.

Have a Nice 2012!