Peppermint Patties

Another chocolate mint recipe! Peppermint Patties are basically made of sugar dough with the addition of mint extract covered in chocolate...mmm

And there's no baking involved, simply make the dough, cut into shapes, cool, dip in chocolate, cool again and your done!

These are really yummy and refreshing, I eat mine straight from the freezer.

This recipe makes plenty. Half of my dough is still waiting for further usage, I wonder what else you could do with it...?

This is how the dough should look, kinda like fondant:

Punch out shapes with a mini cookie cutter or form little patties with your hands

Dip! The recipe calls for paraffin wax which I've never used and didn't even know where to start looking for it so I just thinned the chocolate with plain vegetable oil, just enough so the chocolate was thin enough to cover the patties evenly.

Ready Patties!

Feel like I'm being watched....

YUM!

For the full recipe and directions go to: Erin cooks

Scotch...Scotch...Butterscotch!

"The term butterscotch is also often used, such as in the names of recipes, for the flavours brown sugar and butter together where the actual confection butterscotch is not involved"

That is exactly what this cookie is all about! It doesn't actually have butterscotch in it but it sure tastes like it. Thanks to lots of butter, brown sugar and a little salt.

This is not the first time I made these, I decided to make them once again because last time didn't work out so well, I thought I maybe forgot something or copied the recipe wrong- nope. Even after freezing overnight I wasn't able to cut cookies from the frozen log because it was just too soft. So what I did was roll the dough into little balls and bake them, but even that was problematic, either they came out burnt or underbaked and wouldn't firm up after cooling.

My cookies also turned out very dark in comparison to the pictures in the original recipe.

I read the comments after this recipe of Baking Bites and some say they got great cookies and some say it just doesn't work. I guess I belong to those who weren't as enthusiastic, but I must say that the flavor is good and very butterscotchy and if it would have worked out better these would probably be absolutely great cookies....too bad.

Butterscotch Thins:

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter (unsalted)

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until mixture resembles wet sand. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, or working by hand, blend in flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Transfer dough, which will be very sticky, to a large piece of wax paper and roll it up into a log. Freeze for at least 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 175° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut dough into slices no more than ¾ cm (1/4-inch) thick and place on prepared baking sheet or shape onto little 2½ cm balls leaving plenty of room for the cookies to spread. Bake for about 10 minutes, until cookies just begin to turn golden around the edges. Cool for a minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies should be cooled completely before eating (otherwise they might stick to your teeth) and can be stored in an airtight container.

Makes 3 dozen.

Original from: Baking Bites

Spassiva Pavlova

I never made Pavlova before but I knew it was a safe success since I made meringues many times before and the rest was super easy.

In Israel we have lots of great fresh and high quality citrus fruits, vegetables, the best avocados and all cheap if bought at the market, but berries on the other hand are a real pain, hard to get, short seasons and really really pricey, so I had to make my Pavlova with frozen berries- not bad at all but of course fresh is the best.

This is a real easy dessert to make and the textures go very well together (crunchy sweet meringue with soft whipped cream and tangy berries...mmm)

Pavlova:

Meringue:

4 egg whites

340 gr (1½ cups) sugar

1 tbsp corn flour

2 tsp vinegar

Topping:

vanilla ice cream

250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream

Frozen or fresh berries

Preheat oven to 140°.

Whip the egg whites until soapy consistency, keep whipping slowly add sugar until thick and shiny meringue forms, add the corn flour and vinegar fold gently through meringue.

Pour meringue on parchment paper and with a spoon or spatula form one round meringue base, or make 6 mini pavlovas with a slight concave that later can be filled with a topping.

Bake for 1 and a half hours.

After meringues have cooled completely fill the concaves with ice cream, top with whipped cream and berries.

World Peace?

Yup, I did it. World Peace Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. I can't say how many blogs have baked and written about this recipe but I know for sure that a lot did- A LOT. I didn't really get the big fuss around this simple chocolate cookie everybody was raving about, so the only way to find out was to finally try them myself. These were meant to be another office treat like the recent pistachio buttermilk squares, but somehow they did not make it to the office that day... *gulp* OK OK! I ate them all by myself! Happy now??

Listen these are really good, And I am actually going to make them again (which doesn't happen often), the next time I'm gonna use even more sea salt, the recipe calls for a ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt next time I'll make it ½, this combination of dark strong chocolate with salt is simply genius.

World Peace Cookies:

I won't write the recipe and directions 'cause I'm kinda lazy and smittens kitchen wrote it down so clear and extended that I really couldn't have had written it any better.

ButterMilkShake

It is sooo hot right now!!! I just checked the weather forecast and we have 32°c-34°c (around 90°F) with 70% humidity!!!! OMG! I think that calls for a refreshing drink!

Peach Mint Summer Shake:

1 ½ cups buttermilk

1 ripe peach

5-8 mint leaves

1 tbsp vanilla sugar or honey

Blend everything together and throw some ice in if you like.

If you want to make a large amount calculate about 1 ½ cups of buttermilk per fruit.

Co(okies)Worker

Here again trying to make excuses to bake, I made some cookies for my boyfriend's colleagues at work, the founders of LabPixies web gadgets. It actually started when they saw my blog and ordered a batch of my Oatmeal cranberry cookies, but I try not to make the same recipe twice so I came up with something else.

This recipe is from a German baking book that has 888 recipes. I felt it needed a few minor changes, I added some lemon zest and also would add some more sugar next time (my recipe has the addition of sugar already in it).

I don't know if it was the amount of butter or the buttermilk that made these cookies very flaky and moist almost like a pie crust but softer. One negative these cookies have is that the dough is quite problematic, it is very soft and sticky even after resting in the cold (that could also be because I halved the recipe), But after all I made use of the whole mass of dough so it's doable.

I hope everyone at work enjoyed them although they weren't as sweet as I hoped them to be.

Buttermilk Pistachio Squares:

400 gr (3 2/3 cups) flour

400 gr butter

pinch of salt

125 ml (½ cup) buttermilk

150 gr (2/3 cup) sugar

2 egg yolks

150 gr (¾ cup) chopped and peeled pistachios

zest of half a lemon

Sift flour into a large bowl. Cut the butter into flour in small bits, add the salt, buttermilk, sugar and zest. Mix together with a wooden spoon, then knead so it comes together (this can also be done in a mixer, just put all the ingredients in together and mix until dough forms).

Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in refrigerator for 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 200°c, prepare baking tray with a double layer of parchment paper.

Roll out the dough in portions, about ½ cm thick. Cut dough into squares with a knife or use a cookie cutter. Lay cookies on baking tray, they can be placed very close together. Make egg wash by mixing the egg yolks with two tablespoons of water, then sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

Bake for 12 minutes until golden and pistachios have toasted.

After baking let cookies cool on wire rack.

Makes 120.

π = 3.14159

What a Saturday! I for sure wasn't resting, unless you call making two pizzas and one huge apple pie relaxing. The pizza I won't post about cause I like to keep the focus on the sweet stuff. The overall process went pretty smooth I would say, the only thing that made me panic was that while making the dough it became way to wet for a pie dough so I added some more flour and it was fixed, so be careful and add your water slowly.

The crust has no sugar in it and I really enjoyed the subtle sweetness of the pie, what it does have is an addition of vinegar which makes it bake flaky and crunchy.

Another thing great about this crust is it does not use any shortening or lard which I think are quite revolting (why would I want pig fat in my pie?) Oink!

I used a variety of apples, but you can use whatever you prefer

Apple Pie:

Crust:

2 2/3 flour

1 tsp salt

250 gr butter, cut into pieces

2 tsp white vinegar

½ cup ice water

Filling:

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

7-8 medium apples (peeled, cored and sliced)

2 tbsp lemon juice

50 gr butter, cut into pieces

Topping:

¼ cup milk

2 tbsp white sugar+ 1 tbsp cinnamon

In a food processor or standmixer combine flour, butter and salt to a crumbly mixture. While mixing add the vinegar and water (you don't have to use the whole amount of water) stop mixer the a ball of dough forms. Divide into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take out one disc and roll it out to about ½ cm thick slightly larger than your pie dish, make wholes in the center with a mini cookie cutter or a knife. Place in refrigerator until needed.

Take out the second disc and and roll it out as mentioned before. Place it in your pie dish and lightly press down the dough and up the edges of the pan, leave about a 2 cm to hang over the pan and trim the rest. Use a fork to dock (make wholes) in the bottom, then place pie dish with in freezer until needed.

Preheat oven to 210°

For the filling, mix sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Place the apples in a large bowl and add the lemon juice. Mixing with your hands add the sugar mixture to the apples until all of the apples are coated.

Take out your pie dish from the freezer and pour the apples into it, now scatter some butter pieces on top and cover with second sheet of dough, trim off any access dough and pinch the two doughs together with a fork. Brush pie with milk and sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon.

Bake for 15 minutes, after that reduce heat to 180° and bake for another 40-45 minutes.

Let pie cool for 20 minutes before serving.