Fleurs de Geisha Tea Shortbread Cookies

A few weeks ago I was the happy winner of a contest organised by the blog " Le monde de Garance". I won a dainty "Washi Caddy of Fleurs de Geisha Tea" from "Le Palais des Thés" . Every spring, in Japan, the appearance of the cherry blossom is an eagerly awaited event. Inspired by the Japanese tradition of Hanami - the name given to the contemplation of these trees - Fleur de Geisha tea is a blend of green Japanese tea, subtly scented with cherry blossom.

To celebrate here is my recipe of Fleur de Geisha Tea Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients: 25 g of butter- 50g flour- 25g of corn flour- 50 g of icing sugar-  1 tsp of tea
Makes about 12

Preheat the oven at 350°F. In a food processor, mix together the sugar, flour and tea. Add the butter, diced and mix again until smooth. Flatten the dough on  a floured surface. Cut with your favorite cookie shapes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. You could place them in the fridge for about 30 minutes if you can't work the dough! Bake your cookies for about 12 minutes until they are lightly browned on the edges. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Chocolate and Chesnut Sparkle Cookies

Need an idea for a last minute homemade gift? Dark, moist, sensual, these truffle-like cookies are flourless. I was inspired by a recipe clipping from the Los Angeles Times. The journalist travelling to Vancouver, British Columbia fell in love with this cookie from the Senses Bakery created by Thomas Haas. I added ground chestnuts to the original recipe.

For about 36 cookies

1/4 pound dark chocolate
3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar for rolling
3/4 cup ground almonds
3/4 cup ground chestnuts
Powdered sugar , for garnish

-Melt the chocolate. Remove from the heat and add the butter cut into a few pieces and mix into the chocolate until melted.
-Beat the eggs with a food processor, gradually adding the sugar until ribbons form. Fold in the chocolate-butter mixture. Gently add the ground almonds and chesnuts. Cover and refrigerate over-night.
-Heat the oven to 325°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- With a spoon form 1 inch balls. Roll the balls in granulated sugar, place on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 9 to 12 minutes. When slightly cool, lightly dust the cookies with powdered sugar.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

The cookies came out of the oven smelling sensational! That evil scent of cinnamon I adore. I like them on the small side.Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean I eat less of them. When fresh from the oven, they're hard to resist...

So here's my favorite recipe of all times. Of course you could tailor them to your liking with chocolate chips,nuts, almonds, toasted pine nuts etc...


Ingredients:

- 60 g dried cranberries
- 60 g pecan nuts
- 125g of unsalted butter softened
- 125g of caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 125 g rolled oats
- 150 g plain organic white flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy and paler in colour. Add the egg, vanilla and oats. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and mix until evenly combined. Stir in cranberries and pecans.

Place dessertspoonfuls of the mixture on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them to allow room for spreading. Flatten slightly with the back of a fork.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes if you like them soft and a few minutes more if you want them more golden. They become firm as they cool. Don't be tempted to bake them until crisp.

Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Pistachios,Cranberries and Pecan Mexican Wedding Cookies

Why am I always a last minute person?. The deadline for the blog game"Deballe ton blog" is almost over, well I'm slightly exaggerating... I want to send these before Christmas, that's what I decided.These festive, nutty,buttery,tender cookies were inspired by a recipe saw on"Epicurious". I divided the proportions by 4 and replaced ground pistachios with pistachio paste and pecans.

For about 20 cookies you need:

1/2 cups (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon pistachios paste
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 teaspoon water or a bit more
Beat butter and powdered sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and salt, then pistachio paste and cranberries. Using spatula, stir in all flour (do not overmix dough) and pecans.Add water.Set aside in the fridge for at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet.
Shape dough by generous tablespoonfuls into football-shaped ovals. Place on sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until bottoms just begin to color, about 16 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets 10 minutes before coating.

Pour generous amount of powdered sugar into medium bowl. Working with 5 or 6 warm cookies at a time, add cookies to bowl of sugar; gently turn to coat thickly. Transfer cookies to sheet of waxed paper. Repeat to coat cookies with sugar again; cool completely. do ahead Can be made 4 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

Persian Cookies

These are the cookies mentioned in a previous comment concerning
my culinary contribution at a creative, inter-cultural "network party"
I was invited to.I selected the recipe from Sophie Brissaud and Isabelle Rozenbaum's fantastic cookbook"La table du thé",on how to accommodate teas to food.You could
serve these Persian cookies with Turkish or Persian tea.
I adapted the recipe by adding some pistachio paste instead of saffron to the dough and adding black sesame seeds for decoration.Beat 125 g of butter and 120 g powdered sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy.Add 1 egg,2 ts of cardamom ,1 ts pistachio paste and 2 Tbs of rose water.After a few minutes add 250g of rice flour,1/4 at a time.Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least 8 hours.The following day heat the oven at 180(T6).With a spoon display the cookies on baking sheet with parchment paper.Bake for 7 to 10 min.


Pour les français:
Battez 125 g de beurre mou et 120 g de sucre glace en une crème légère.Ajoutez 1 oeuf,2 c à café de cardamone,1 c à café de pâte à pistache,2 c à s d'eau de rose.Quand le mélange est bien lisse,ajoutez 250g de farine de riz un quart à la fois.Ramassez la pâte en boule, enveloppez-la dans un film étirable et laissez reposer au moins 8 h au frigo.
Préchauffez le four à 180(T6).Cuire de 7 à 10 min.

Pistachio and Chocolate Amaretti Cookies

Here's my version of amaretti cookies! Such a treat yet so easy to make.

Preheat oven at 200F.Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
You need 2 cups of ground almonds and 2 cups of powdered sugar.Mix together and add gradually 2 egg whites.Then split the dough in two bowls.Add 1 ts pistachio paste in one part and cocoa powder in the second.Take about 1 ts of dough,leaving 2-3 inches between each cookie.Sprinkle sifted powdered sugar on top.Bake for 20- 25 min.

Pour les français:

Préchauffer le four T3.
Mélanger 300g de poudre d'amandes et 300g de sucre glace.Ajouter 2 blancs d'oeufs.
Séparer la pâte dans 2 bols.Ajouter 1 cuillère à café de pâte à pistache dans l'un et 1 cuillère à café de cacao(plus si vous aimez) dans l'autre.Parfumer avec de la liqueur d'amaretto.Avec une cuillère dresser les biscuits et saupoudrer de sucre glace.Ne pas oublier de bien espacer lorsque vous les dressez sur la plaque à patisserie.
Cuire 20-25 min.

Rasberry Apricot Energy Bars with Small Spelt Flour

Inspired by Tours et Tartines
blog,this recipe has been in my bookmarks for months...I modified by cutting down a little on the sugar and adapted the flour mixture to make it more healthy with some spelt flour.It's a mild-tasting fiber-rich whole grain, that provides more nutrients than its cousin wheat flour—it's high in vitamin B2 and manganese and is a good source of niacin, thiamin and copper. Spelt flour also contains special carbohydrates (mulcopolysaccharides), an important factor in blood clotting and stimulating the body's immune system. What's more, the nutrients in spelt flour are more easily absorbed into the body because of its high water solubility. Though it contains gluten, spelt is sometimes tolerated by those with gluten allergies.

Ingredients

-3/4 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup small spelt flour
-1/2 cup of T80 flour
-1 ts baking soda
-1 pinch of salt
-3/4 cup rolled oats
-2 pinches of cinnamon
-3/4 cup margarine
-3/4 cup rasberry apricot jam

Preheat your oven 350 F .In a large bowl combine sugar,flour,oats,cinnamon,salt and baking soda.Add margarine until combined.Tranfer half of the batter into parchment paper-lined square baking pan.Drop jam and then the other half of the batter,press lightly.Bake for 30-40 min.

Pour les français:

Inspirée par la recette de Mitsuko.J'ai juste reduit un peu le sucre et la quantité de confiture. Concernant la farine,j'ai modifié par un mélange de farine de petit epeautre et de la farine T80.

Fudgy Cocoa Cookies with Ricotta

I needed a quick and easy recipe for a gift.Not enough time to bake a cake.An irresistable dark,crunchy,fudgy cookie...not too heavy in calories.So, no butter in my batch.I replaced it by margarine and grounded almonds with some ricotta!

Ingredients for 12 cookies
-2 Tbs of unsweetened cocoa
-1 ts cinnamon
-1/4 cup margarine
-1 Tbs ricotta
-1/2 cup brown sugar mixed with Rapadura sugar
-1/2 cup grounded almonds
-1/2 cup flour
-1/2 ts baking soda
-pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour,baking soda, salt .
In a small bowl, whisk together sugar,cocoa,margarine,ricotta. Pour into flour mixture and stir until almost combined.Add cinnamon. 
Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350F, or until cookies are just set .
Cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pour les français:
conversion dosages pour 12 cookies:
-50g de Cacao type Van Houten(1 cuillère à soupe=25g)
-1 cuillère à café de cannelle
-30 g de margarine
-1 cuillère à soupe de ricotta
- 100g sucre(1/3 rapadura,2/3 sucre de canne blond)
-70 g d'amandes en poudre
-125 g farine
-1/2 cuillère à café de bicarbonate de soude
-1 pincée de sel