SUGARPRISM PAINTED LINZER COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

Linzer Cookies are one of my favorites and this recipe starts by toasting hazelnut flour. Do not skip this step, because it is a huge flavor boost to your cookies. Traditionally, they are finished with a dusting of powdered sugar, making them a little messy to eat. Inspired by Michele, the very inventor of Sugarprism, I skipped that and coupled Sugarprism in Red Lipstick color with a few stencils for a totally different look. I also used some air-brush gold from Chefmaster to create contrast, as my cookies were a little dark to start with.

SUGARPRISM PAINTED RASPBERRY LINZER COOKIES
(adapted from Food Duchess)

75 g hazelnut flour
160 g all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
100 g granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
25 g egg yolk (about 1 large)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

Sugarprism diluted to air-brush consistency in Lipstick Red (optional)
Chefmaster air-brush gold (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F. Cover a baking sheets with parchment. Evenly spread hazelnut flour onto the paper and bake for 5 to 10 minutes, moving it around often so that no spots get overly roasted. Remove the toasted flour from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the cooled hazelnut flour, all purpose flour, and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar, and cinnamon, until light and fluffy – about 3-5 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla, then beat again until well-combined. Add flour mixture to the stand mixer and beat until just combined and a crumbly looking dough has formed.

Remove dough from stand mixer and lightly form into a disk shape with your hands. Place dough-disk onto a heavily floured surface, and roll the dough out to about ⅛-¼” thick. Cut the cookies in you desired shape and size, cutting a hole in the center of half the cookies. Those will be the top. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges start to get darker. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before proceeding.

Use a stencil to add a pattern to the cutout cookies. Spread jam on the cookie base, top with the decorated cookie.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I used 4 different stencils and coupled them either with a single color (Sugarprism Lipstick Red or Chefmaster gold) or with both combined, by moving the stencil to expose adjacent regions. It is hard for me to pick a favorite, but I might go with the one below…

It was fun to play with different patterns…

Another very easy way to give Linzer a new face, is simply spraying the top cookie with PME or Wilton pearl spray right on the baked cookie, before assembling.

The spray leaves no after-taste, so it won’t interfere with the cookie flavor. The possibilities of decoration are endless, so stay tuned for future important experiments on this subject…

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23Jan2023

ALMOND-RASPBERRY SANDWICH COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

THIS IS MY 1,600^th POST!

These are fun to make and even more fun to share, as they will bring a smile to those on the receiving end. Sprinkles are optional, but how could I think of skipping them?

ALMOND-RASPBERRY SANDWICH COOKIES
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

for cookies:
240 grams all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
75 grams sugar
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
raspberry jam to fill the cookie sandwiches

for chocolate coating:
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoons unrefined coconut oil
Sprinkles, for decorating

Heat oven to 350F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Reserve. Cream the butter with the sugar in a KitchenAid type mixer with the paddle attachment in low-speed. Add the agave nectar and incorporate. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extracts and beat until light and smooth. Add the flour mixture. Beat until just combined.

Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip. Pipe the dough onto the prepared baking sheets in 2-inch lines, spaced 1-inch apart. If the dough is too stiff to pipe comfortably, protect the metal tip with a paper towel and microwave the whole bag in increments of 10 seconds, until it is soft enough to pipe, but be very careful and do not allow any of the dough to melt. It might be safer to use the microwave at 50% power. Bake until the cookies are set on top and golden around the edges, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool completely, match cookies of similar size and fill with a small amount of jam.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a microwave in 15 second increments. Dip the lower part of the cookies in the chocolate letting the excess drip back into the bowl. Sprinkle with the sprinkles. Lay back on a parchment lined baking sheet and place the cookies in the refrigerator to let the chocolate fully set, which will happen quite quickly.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Let me just reinforce what is the most important thing to consider in the recipe: if you try to squeeze the bag and it is too hard, STOP. Cover the metal tip with a paper towel and place the whole thing in the microwave, 50% power, for 10 seconds. Massage the bag, test to see if it is easier to pipe, if it isn’t do it again. Do not give yourself grievance and a sore hand. Just make sure you don’t warm the dough too much, and all will be fine. It must be easy to pipe, but still form the ridges of the open star tip.

These cookies are a little bit of work, but not too bad, and the pay-off is huge! The delicate almond flavor pairs well with the raspberry jam, and of course…. chocolate! Make it on a weekend when you are in that great Zen mode, and you will thank me later…

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21Jun2022

PRIDE MACARONS

Posted in macarons by sallybr

With Pride Month in mind, I made a batch of colorful macarons, filled with raspberry jam and lemon-flavored buttercream. The universe conspired so that in that exact week I had a maintenance appointment with my orthodontist. And to my surprise, they were “wigging it”: every staff member, orthodontists included, went to work wearing a colorful wig. They asked the patients to do the same, if they were so inclined… I was more than happy to comply (see the end of this post).

For the macaron shells, follow this recipe (I added 1/4 tsp egg white powder to the granulated sugar, whisked very well, before incorporating into the meringue, because humidity was at 58% the day I made the macarons)

LEMON-BUTTERCREAM MULTICOLOR FILLING

120g butter, softened
320g powdered sugar
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
heavy cream to adjust consistency

Whisk the butter for 30 seconds or so, then add all other ingredients except the heavy cream. Whisk until the sugar is fully dissolved, then adjust the consistency with heavy cream. Divide the buttercream in 5 or more little bowls, add gel color to each bowl. Place lines of buttercream in different colors over plastic wrap, then roll them together as a little sausage. Cut one end, and place the roll inside a piping bag with a star tip. To assemble the macarons, add a circle of buttercream and a small dollop of seedless raspberry jam in the center.

ENJOY!

to print the buttercream recipe, click here

Comments: These were a lot of fun to make. After the shells were assembled, I used different luster powder colors diluted with vodka to pain a stripe for a simple, but effective decoration. They were delivered to the staff at Hayden and Kholmeier office with proper wig, as required…

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13Jun2021

RASPBERRY BRIGADEIROS

Posted in Brazilian cooking, Desserts, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

A departure on the Brazilian classic, I love the way these turned out. The raspberry cuts through the sweetness and gives them a little sharp bite I find quite pleasant. If brigadeiros are new to you, I urge you to make a batch. You can start from the traditional version, or go straight for this dressed up variation.

RASPBERRY BRIGADEIROS
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

1 can (14 oz) condensed milk
1 tablespoon butter
100g white chocolate, cut in pieces
dash of salt
1/4 cup raspberry jam, seedless
1 tsp Amorettti raspberry flavor (optional)
nonpareils, white and pink
gold air-brush color (optional)

Grease a small baking dish with butter and set aside.

In a medium non-stick pan, combine the butter, sweetened condensed milk, and salt over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Once the brigadeiro mix is warm, add the chocolate pieces, the jam and continue stirring.

The mixture thickens after about 8-10 minutes, and once you can run your spoon through the middle of it without it running back together for 2-3 seconds, it is done. When it starts to thicken, add the raspberry flavor, if using.

Pour the mixture into the greased plate, and let it chill until you can handle it with your bare hands. Form little balls and roll on nonpareils to coat. If desired, add a little gold color with an air-brush. Place them in small candy cups.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Brigadeiros are very sweet by nature (reducing condensed milk leaves you no way out of it), but even those who are against overly sweet goodies will enjoy this version. The raspberry does its magic.

I went with two colors, pink and white, and added a touch of gold because these brigadeiros had to be dressed for a special party. Have you heard that a certain food blog will turn 12 years old very soon? I say no more for the time being…

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5Dec2019

SANTA HAT MINI-MOUSSE CAKES

Posted in Cake by sallybr

In case you’ve missed my big announcement:
7 days to showtime!

I believe that once Thanksgiving is over, we are allowed to go deep into all sorts of end of the year festivities. Christmas included. Having said that, I am ready to share little mousse cakes I’ve been flirting with for a couple of years. As I stumbled on cute examples on Pinterest, Instagram, and food blogs, I kept telling myself I had to give them a go. My version pairs white chocolate mousse (plus a touch of yogurt) with raspberries. I had a lot of fun making them, and even more fun sharing with our colleagues from the department.

SANTA HAT MINI-MOUSSE CAKES
(adapted from several sources, main inspiration from Lilicakes)

For the sable base:
100g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla paste
150g unsalted butter
50g egg yolks
50g almond meal
250g all-purpose flour

Place the icing sugar, vanilla bean paste and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until there are no lumps of butter left. Add in the egg yolks and combine before adding the almond meal and plain flour. Continue beating until it just comes together. Remove the dough from the stand mixer and place on top of a silicone mat, press it gently in a rectangle shape.

Add a very small amount of flour on top of the dough, add a piece of parchment paper on top and roll it to 3mm thickness. Cut circles slightly bigger than the size of your dome cakes. Freeze for 10 min. Bake in a 350F oven for around 8 minutes, until you get a slight golden color on the edges. Let it cool completely on a rack. Can be prepared a couple of days in advance.

for the raspberry insert (make the day before assembling):
175g raspberry puree (I used frozen, processed and sieved)
15g maple syrup
3 sheets gelatin (Platinum grade)

Soak gelatin leaves in cold water for 10 min. Bring the raspberry puree and maple syrup to a gentle boil, remove from heat, let it stand for 5 min to cool down slightly. Add the drained gelatin and mix well. Place the mixture in semi-sphere molds appropriate to place in the center of your dome cakes. Freeze overnight or for at least 4 hours.

for the white chocolate mousse:
110 grams of cream cheese at room temperature
200 grams of Greek yogurt at room temperature
225 grams of white chocolate
6 grams of gelatin leaves
50 grams of milk
180 grams of whipping cream
1 T sugar

Hydrate the gelatin leaves in very cold water for 10 mon. Mix the cream cheese and yogurt with in a KitchenAid type mixer with a paddle attachment until homogeneous. Reserve. In a saucepan boil the milk and add the previously hydrated jelly leaves, mix and add to the yogurt-cream cheese mixture. Mix for a minute or so to disperse the gelatin through.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave and add to the yogurt mixture. Reserve. Whip the cream until it gets the consistency of melted ice cream. Fold gently into the yogurt mixture.

Assemble the mini-cakes:
Place mousse in six semi-sphere molds, filling a little more than half its volume. Place the frozen raspberry jelly in the center, fill with mousse and level the top with an off-set spatula. Freeze overnight.

for the marshmallow decorations.
9g powdered gelatin (I used fish gelatin, 250 bloom)
50g very cold water
60g egg whites at room temperature
17g + 165g superfine sugar (divided)
50g water
35g glucose syrup or light corn syrup (light)
1 tsp Chambord (optional)

Bloom the gelatin in cold water for 10 min. It will form a thick paste.

Whisk the egg whites with 17 g of sugar until it foamy. Add the gelatin, whisk for another minute and turn the mixer off.

In a heavy saucepan, bring 50g of water, 165g sugar and glucose to a boil, making sure the sugar dissolves fully. Heat the mixture to 250F, when it gets to that point, turn the mixer on full speed and drizzle the hot syrup on it while whisking. Whisk at full speed for 3 minutes, add Chambord, continue whisking for 2 more minutes.

Add the marshmallow to a piping bag with an 8mm round tip. Pipe lines long enough to circle the diameter of your mold. Pipe little molds for the hats. Sprinkle dessicated coconut all over. Reserve at room temperature for about 3 hours.

For the mirror glaze:
3 sheets Platinum grade sheet gelatine
120ml water
150 g liquid glucose
150 g granulated or caster sugar
1 tsp agar-agar
100 g condensed milk
150 g white chocolate, chopped fairly small
red gel food coloring

Put the water, sugar, liquid glucose and agar-agar in a small pan and bring to simmering point, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and let it stand for about 5 minutes. This is the base syrup for the glaze. Meanwhile, soak the gelatin in some cold water for about 5 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water and stir into the hot water, sugar and liquid glucose mixture to dissolve. Stir in the condensed milk.

Put the chocolate in a medium bowl and pour this hot mixture slowly over the chocolate, stirring gently to melt it, avoid making bubbles. A stick immersion blender works great, but you must keep the blades fully submerged at all times. If bubbles are present, pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

Leave the glaze uncovered for an hour at room temperature for the glaze to cooled and be slightly thickened: if it is too runny you will get too thin a layer on top, colors will not blend well and less glaze will cling to the sides of the cake. The ideal temperature to pour the glaze is 92 to 94 F.

Remove the cake from the freezer, place on a rack over a baking sheet. If you like to make it easier to save leftover glaze, cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, so that you can lift it and pour easily into a container.

Glaze the cakes, place them over the reserve sable cookies and decorate with the marshmallow.

Defrost in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I know, I know, the recipe is a mile long. Let me focus on a couple of points about it. First, I am kicking rules to the side and confessing to you that I will never chill my sable dough before rolling it out. It is a bit on the soft side once it comes out of the mixer, but trust me, it will be fine. Place it gently over Silpat. Roll it under parchment paper to the thickness you need, in this case 3mm. If you have those plastic pastry rolling guides, now is the perfect time to use them. The more uniform the thickness, the better they will bake. Roll, cut and freeze. I actually made two batches of bases, one of them pistachio-based, but used the almond, lighter ones for this dessert.

One of the benefits of being in “that show”, is that I had to learn to work very fast and save time at every opportunity. I realized that as long as you protect the pastry dough either with plastic wrap or parchment paper (it truly depends on our goal, for pie crusts plastic wrap is the best way), it rolls pretty nicely as soon as mixed. Much better than cold dough does. Ten minutes in the freezer is all you need before baking. There, I saved you at least one hour of work!

Second point I want to make: I adore mirror glazes but don’t care for their texture. Colette Christian has a beautiful macaron cookbook in which she advises using a bit of agar together with gelatin for macaron fillings, particularly if they will sit at room temperature for a while. I immediately thought about incorporating that trick into mirror glazes. And I am thrilled to tell you that the texture got a lot better. I will play with it in the near future to optimize it, but if you also like the look of mirror glazes but would prefer a more sturdy texture, think of adding a bit of agar. The only thing is that it needs to be boiled, so add it together with the sugar/glucose mixture.

These cakes turned out exactly the way I wanted them to, the only tricky part was placing the decorations, as marshmallow is super sticky. Just work slowly and keep in mind that wherever it sticks first, that’s where it will be… Be careful with the positioning of the string in the beginning, so that the angle is right to wrap it around keeping it nicely on the same level all the way.

I cannot resist posting one more photo of the little Santa Hats, as the light bulb of my light stand made a cool effect on the mirror glaze…

The inclusion of agar-agar in the mirror glaze did a nice job improving the texture. Since my mousse cakes always sit in the fridge overnight before they are shared with our colleagues, the gelatin-based glaze suffers a bit. Whenever I slice them, there is some bleeding and sliding of the glaze. This time it behaved a lot better, so thank you Chef Colette!

I hope you consider making some Santa Hats for your holiday get-together. As usual, this type of dessert can be prepared over several days, with very little hands-on work each day. As for the molds I used, the large ones are here, the small ones here. I had a little leftover mousse, which I froze into a pretty cute Silikomart mold, and served over a sable base, with a little spray of white chocolate velvet.