Cookies: Christmas reharsal

dicembre 6, 2009

Here I am after 2 days of work in Spello, Umbria: it’s amazing! As soon as my brand new car will arrive, I’ll put on a Bruce Springsteen cd and I’ll drive my Kia car towards Umbria, to discover old medioeval villages covered with fog and new delicious dishes. I bought  grass-peas: any suggestions on how to cook them?

Today was the first of three days off work, so I decided to make some Christmas reharsals, baking my first Christmas cookies, which contributed to make an happy tea time. The other goal was ti read until the last page my Cecilia Ahern book: so, don’t expect a long post, I must discover the mystery behind the castle!

Let me introduce you a new short pastry that comes directly from my last cooking lesson. I was sceptical at first, as my short pastry ingredients were different and I was fond of the result, since it was my warhorse! Howhever, you really must give a chance to this short pastry: it’s amazing, friable and your cookies will remain fresh and fragrant for days, if kept in an airtight container.

Ingredients:

• flour, 500 gr
• softened butter, 200 gr
• sugar, 200 gr
• baking powder, 15 gr
• grated orange peel
• egs, 2
• salt, 1 pinch

Put flour onto a flat surface and make a well in the middle. Crack eggs open into the flour and sieve sugar, baking powder and grated orange peel. Add a pinch of salt and diced softened butter. You need now cold hands or an iron spatula. Crumble all the ingredients and mix them well to make a compact dough.

I made three kinds of cookies: one with ground nutmeg, cinnamon and Tonka bean, one with dessiccated coconut and one with Nutella inside.

Sorry to leave you now, I must finish my book!

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Posted in Baked Good, Christmas, Cookies, Desserts