Orange Fingers

Ingredients:

Baking sheet 

Parchment paper 

For the batter:

300 g soft butter

150 powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar 

1 pinch of salt 

1 teaspoon ground orange peel 

4 egg yolks 

300 g all-purpose flour 

3-4 tablespoons orange juice 

Filling:

100 g Nutella

and/or orange or apricot jam

100 g semisweet chocolate 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F). Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Using an electric hand mixer whisk butter until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla extract or vanilla sugar, salt, and orange peel. Whisk until batter is smooth.

3. Add egg yolks, one at a time. Whisk each egg yolk in for 30 seconds. Sift flour and add in two portions, alternating with the orange juice.

4. Add batter to a piping bag and squeeze fingers of 5 cm (2 inches) onto parchment paper. Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350F).

5. Remove cookies from oven, remove with parchment paper from hot baking sheet, and let cool down.

6. Spread Nutella or jam on the flat side on one cookie, then add a second cookie with the flat side on top.

7. Melt semisweet chocolate, and dip cookies with one end into chocolate. Let cookies dry on parchment paper.

Coconut Mountains

These coconut cookies very much remind me of store bought coconut macaroons. Tasty, and very easy to make.

Ingredients:

Baking sheet

Parchment paper 

For the batter:

2 eggs

1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground coriander and ground cardamom (optional)

150 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar 

300 g shredded coconut 

Optional:

Semisweet chocolate for decorating 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

2. Whisk eggs, spices, sugar and vanilla extract or vanilla sugar for 2 minutes on high with an electric hand mixer. Stir in shredded coconut on lower setting.

3. Using two teaspoons form little coconut mountains on parchment paper. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

4. Remove cookies from oven, remove with parchment paper from baking sheet, and let cool on parchment paper.

5. Melt some semisweet chocolate and sprinkle some over the coconut mountains or glaze the bottom 1/3 with chocolate.

Cranberry Bar

I came across this recipe and was intrigued by its simplicity. So what could be better to start of 2015 with an easy recipe that uses seasonal cranberry sauce.

A Pyrex dish or deep baking dish (40x30 cm or 9x13 inches)

Some grease

Yeast dough:

125 ml milk

1 package dry yeast 

40 g sugar

Some vanilla extract 

A pinch of salt 

250 g all-purpose flour

Filling:

1 can of cranberry sauce (whole cranberries)

Custard:

500 ml milk

2 tablespoons sugar (don't add when using JELL-O)

1 package vanilla pudding powder or cook&serve JELL-O

100 g marzipan, finely grated

100 g slivered almonds 

Preparation:

1. Prepare yeast dough: Sift flour into a bowl. Heat milk until lukewarm, stir in sugar, salt, vanilla extract and yeast. Add milk to flour and stir until a dough has formed. Cover bowl and let sit in a warm place until dough has visibly risen.

2. Prepare custard: Prepare custard according to the manufacturer's instructions. Remove custard from oven, then stir in grated marzipan. Let custard cool down stirring occasionally to prevent a milk skin from forming.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). Grease baking dish. On a floured surface roll out yeast dough, then transfer to greased baking dish. Stretch dough into corners until the entire surface of the baking dish is covered.

4. Spread cranberry sauce on top of yeast dough. Then spread vanilla custard on top of cranberry sauce. Lastly, spread slivered almonds on top. Let cake rest for 15-20 minutes.

5. Bake cake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 30 min. Remove cake from oven, cut into bars and serve.

Comments:

1. The original recipe uses "Preiselbeermarmelade", a kind of lingonberry jam. I've been substituting it in all recipes for cranberry because both are tart and sweet.

2. The original recipe adds an egg to the yeast dough and two eggs to the custard (stirred in after removing it from heat). To make this recipe suitable for people with allergies to eggs I did not use any eggs.

3. Don't get me wrong, it's tasty, but I think that I'd prefer it with a pastry dough instead of a yeast dough. It'll be more delicate.