Almond Lemon Shortbread Cookie

This recipe was made up one day. I was trying to do something different to the shortbread cookie that I usually bake. So I rolled in different ingredients and tried a different shape.  The new recipe turned out really delicious. The cookies are comparably thicker, hence more moist and soft inside. It has crushed almonds in the dough. If you are a fan of almond/lemon/shortbread cookie, it is worth a try!

Almond Lemon Shortbread Cookie

Serving: 25 cookies

Prep time: 30 mins

Cooking time: 12 mins

Ingredients

- 1 cup butter, softened

- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 1/2 cup crushed sliced almond

- 1 tbsp grated lemon peel

- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Steps

- In a medium bowl, soften the butter. Use a electric mixer to mix together butter with sugar until smooth. 

- Mix in vanilla extract and flour. Gently knead the dough until it comes together.

Put sliced almonds in a closed zip-log bag, crush the almonds. Add the almonds to the dough. Knead the dough until the almonds are evenly distributed. 

- Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (I used a 1-tbsp measuring spoon to scoop out the dough, so the cookies have the same size).
- Place the dough balls on ungreased cookie sheets. Keep the distance between cookies about 2 inches.
- Put a sprinkle of crushed almonds on top of the dough for decoration.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake for 12-15 mins or until the edge of cookie is lightly brown.
- Cool off the cookies on a rack.

Lemon Walnut Biscotti

This is the best biscotti recipe I tried so far.  By best, I mean I at least made 8 batches of biscottis with this recipe in the past 10 months.


I like making biscottis more than baking cookies. For some reason, the twice baking method reminds me more of cooking rather than baking.  The loaf of dough is baked first, cut in small pieces, then baked again. 


Yes, biscotti takes some time to make. But this recipe is absolutely worth it.  


Lemon Walnut Biscotti
(original recipe is from here)
Yields: about 40

Ingredients- 3 cups all purpose flour- 1 teaspoon salt- 1 teaspoon baking powder- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda- 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature- 1 1/3 cups sugar- 1 1/2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel- 2 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
- 1 egg, beaten (for glaze)


Steps
- Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in medium bowl.

- Using electric mixer, beat butter, 1 1/3 cups sugar, and lemon peel in large bowl until blended. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating just to blend after each addition. Beat in lemon juice, then flour mixture. Stir in walnuts and mix well.

- Divide dough into 3 equal pieces. Place each piece on sheet of plastic wrap. Using plastic wrap as aid, form dough into 8-inch-long logs. Press logs slightly, flattening to 2 1/2-inch-wide logs. Enclose in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until firm, at least 3 hours and up to 3 days.

- Position rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 325°F. Line heavy large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap logs, leaving on plastic. Brush top of logs with egg glaze. Lift logs from plastic and transfer to prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly. Bake until golden brown and just firm to touch, about 40 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.

- Line 2 heavy rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Using long serrated knife, carefully cut logs crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick slices. Arrange biscotti, cut side down, on prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies until golden brown around edges, about 20 minutes. Cool completely (biscotti will crisp as they cool). 

Rainbow Cookies

It's been a while since I updated the blog. I had a 2-week vacation in Asia in April, then was busy moving into the city. Now I am all settled down, it's time to write about food!


Spring time is the perfect season to make some rainbow cookies: colorful and delicious. It was my first time making rainbow cookies, and to be honest, I was a little intimidated when I was mixing the dough. The result was better than expected. Yes it requires some work, but it yields a lot of deliciousness.


This original recipe is from here.


Rainbow Cookies
Prep time: approx. 2 hrs (allow overnight for refrigeration)
Yields around 50 cookies

Ingredients
- 10 oz almond paste
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- red food coloring (4-6 drops)
- green food coloring (4-6 drops)
- 1/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam
- 1/4 cup apricot jam
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
- Separate egg whites and yolks.
- In a large bowl, break apart almond paste with a fork. Add in butter, sugar and egg yolks. Mix until fluffy and smooth. Stir in the flour. 
- In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Then fold egg whites in the dough mixture. 


- Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Mix one portion with red food coloring and one other with green food coloring. Gradually mix in the food coloring. (The amount of food coloring depends on the food coloring you are using.)
- Line three 9x13 inch baking pans with parchment paper.
- Spread each portion of dough on the baking pan.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Bake 10-12 mins until the edge is lightly browned.  Cool completely on wire racks. Be careful when moving the baked dough from the parchment paper to the cooling rack.
- Cut out a piece of plastic wrap large enough to wrap all three layers. Place the plastic wrap on top of a baking pan. Place green layer on  the plastic wrap. Spread raspberry jam on the green layer and place the uncolored layer on top. Spread with apricot jam and top with pink layer. 
- Wrap all three layers with plastic wrap. Place a heavy pan on top of the wrapped layers. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.


- In a small pot, melt chocolate chips. Spread the melted chocolate on top of the layered cookie. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until chocolate is firm.
- Cut the layered cookie sheet in small squares.

Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

Those raspberry cookies are very popular - buttery and sweet. I have made those cookies for a few times now, and each time it came out great.  I got the original recipe from here.

Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

Serving: 25 cookies

Prep time: 30 mins

Cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients

- 1 cup butter, softened

- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar

- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

- 1/2 cup raspberry jam

Steps

- In a medium bowl, soften the butter. Use a electric mixer to mix together butter with sugar until smooth.

- Mix in almond extract and flour. Gently knead the dough until it comes together.

- Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (I used a 1-tbsp measuring spoon to scoop out the dough).

- Place the on ungreased cookie sheets. Press a small hold in the center of each ball (I used the back of a 1-tsp measuring spoon to make indentation).

- Fill the hole with raspberry jam (about 1 tsp).

- Place cookie sheet in the fridge for about 20 mins. So that the jam and cookie dough have the same temperature before going in the oven.

- Preheat oven to 350F.

- Bake for 15-18 mins or until the edge of cookie is lightly brown.

- Cool off the cookies on a rack.

Almond Crisps - A simple yet delicious snack

Happy 2011.

One of my new year resolutions is to write more recipes on the blog. After all, cooking is what I truly enjoy doing. I hope you can share your experiences here and try some recipes for fun.

Ok, here is the first recipe- Almond Crisps. They are very easy to make, great for a light snack and healthier than cookies.

The original recipe uses 2 tbsp of butter. I realized that I forgot to add in the butter when the crisps were already done. They taste so good that you can't even tell it doesn't have butter!

ALMOND CRISPS (non-fat version)

Ingredients

- 2 egg whites (about 1/2 cup)

- 1/2 cup of flour

- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar

- 1 pinch of salt

- 1 cup of sliced almond

Steps

- In a medium bowl, gently mix the egg whites with sugar and salt. 

- Sift the flour and add flour to the mixture. Mix well.

- Only mix, do not beat the egg whites. (add butter at this step if you do wish to use butter)

- Mix in the sliced almond.

- Line parchment paper on a large cookie sheet. Use a 1tsp measuring spoon, scoop the mixture on the cookie sheet. The space between the scoops is about 1 inch.

- Use a silicon spatula, spread the scoops on the parchment paper. Spread so that the almond slices are not on top of each other and the mixture is thin enough. 

- Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the crisps for 10mins or till half of the crisps are golden.

- Use a flat spatula to scrape off the almond crisps. Cool them on a cookie rack (be gentle!) for a few minutes.

- Store in air tight container for up to a week.

P.S. With some left over egg white mixture, I made a few more crisps using pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. They are also really good. You can try this recipe with lemon peel, poppy seeds, pine nuts, etc. ...

Photos by steps -