14 Dec 2013
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Felt stars

Filzsterne8A lovely accessory for Christmas which is quickly done and can be used hanging in fir twigs, spread on your table or attached to little gifts. You can buy all necessary tools in crafting shops or online. Simply search for Needle Felting Supplies and you will find all you need. Besides wool you’ll need felting needles and felting foam. If you don’t want to avoid this investment you may simply use a piece of styrofoam which you should place on a thick cardboard. The tips of all felting needles are furnished with barb hooks and therefor are rather sharp so that I prefer working with a kind of “frame”, i.e. in this special case a cookie cutter. Take some wool, place it in the middle of your cookie cutter and start pricking into the wool with your needle. If you have a motive with tips like our star you should carefully prick along the edge and the tips of your cookie cutter. If the wool flattens remove the frame, lift the wool from your mat and turn it. Place the cookie cutter around the wool and start to prick on second side. The more you prick along the edge the better you’ll work out the outlines. Such a felt star is finished within 5-10 minutes.
You may leave it like it is for decoration or just embellish it with some little pearls or sequins. That depends on where you want to place them.

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  • Filzsterne – Felt stars
12 Dec 2013
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Easy Holiday Table Ideas I

Weihnachtenbraun1

Not even two weeks left until Christmas Eve. Time to think about your holiday table. My device for these occasions “Less is more” because the nice and delicious food should attract our attention. In a book called “Dekoideen für Weihnachten” from GU I found this lovely idea about using Christmas balls as a candle holder. You’ll need the big Christmas balls, a foambrick, Christmas tree candles, ribbon, boxtree tips and little flower pots. First remove the hanger of your Christmas ball and cut out a hole with a nail scissors so that the Christmas tree candle will fit in. Now place the hanger again and fix with hot glue. Place some foam in your flower pot and glue Christmas ball on top. Now take the boxtree tips and stick them between ball and edge of the pot. This makes a nice rim that covers the foam completely. Now stick your Christmas tree candle into the little hanger hole and decorate with a small ribbon.
I placed my candleholder in the middle of some conifer twigs, twisted a brown and golden ribbon around and added some sparkling little stars. This way I’m using the decoration already now and for Christmas I’ll add two further Christmas ball candle holders for the large table. A suitable place setting and further decoration ideas in different colors will be posted within the next few days.

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  • Weihnachtliche Tischdekoration
11 Dec 2013
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Little assistants

Backformen

A picture of my Santa Claus cookies gallery shows the plastic bars at work. They help to roll out pastry evenly. My set contains three thicknesses, 0.098/0.138/0.177 inches. Since the start of baking holiday cookies I’m a convinced follower of these bars. All cookies are of the same thickness and they all need the same baking time to get ready. Also pastry plates for fancy cakes don’t have bruises any more. My bars are made of food safe plastic but you can get them made of beechwood too. They’re about 8 inches long but can be prolongated with further bars. For jam or jelly filled cookies you can take two different bars, the thinner ones for the bottom  and a thicker one for the upper cookie. That allows to take some more jam.
As shown on above picture you can use the cookie cutters to make some nice party snacks too. Cut out white and dark bread, put cheese or anything else between two layers and decorate with the mini motive on top.

Don’t know how precisely these bars are called that’s why I can only place a link for buying them here in Germany.

 

09 Dec 2013
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Brownies

Brownies – delicious the whole year through. This recipe coming from my mum is with lots of chocolate. I tried it at home, found it brillant and asked for it directly. It’s a must for all chocolate fancier!

Brownies
Here the ones with icing sugar.
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Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
50 min
Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
50 min
Dough
  1. 0.4lb dark chocolate
  2. 5.3oz butter
  3. 6 egg yolks, 6 egg whites
  4. 5.3oz sugar
  5. 1 dash salt
  6. 2.7oz wheat flour
  7. 1oz cocoa
  8. 3.5oz hashed walnuts or almonds
Decoration
  1. melted chocolate
  2. hashed walnuts and almonds
  3. alt. icing sugar
Preparation
  1. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper or butter well
  2. Preheat oven at 350°F
Dough
  1. Hack chocolate and melt with butter in bain-marie. Batter egg yolks with sugar until creamy. Batter egg whites with dash of salt too. Then give melted chocolate to the egg yolk cream and stir in flour and cocoa. Then fold in beaten egg whites and hashed walnuts or almonds. Pour dough on baking sheet and bake at 350°F for about 25-35 minutes. (The dough is only for half a baking sheet. I took some aluminium foil to form a rim.)
  2. Remove from oven and cover with melted chocolate or icing sugar. Spread some further hashed walnuts or almonds on top. Cut into 1.5inch squares before chocolate becomes firm.
Remarks
  1. I didn't have walnuts at home so that's why I took almonds instead. That's delicious too.
  2. Kept in airtight containers they linger several days.
Bastelesel http://www.bastelesel.de/
 
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  • Schoko-Brownies

08 Dec 2013
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Roast apples

Delicious dessert or to be savoured with a nice cup of tea or coffee. The filling with curd cheese, egg yolk and almonds makes it really rich.

Roast apples
Delicious apples filled with curd cheese and almonds.
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Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
35 min
Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
35 min
4 portions
  1. 4 big apples
Filling
  1. 4 tsp currant jelly
  2. juive of 1/2 lemon
  3. 3.5oz curd cheese
  4. 2 egg yolk
  5. 2 tbsp sugar, 1 bag vanilla sugar
  6. 4 tbsp ground almonds
  7. 1 bag vanilla sauce (instant powder)
  8. 0.5liq.pt. milk
Apples
  1. Cut out a thin cover, remove core and hollow out all apples so that filling fits well.
Filling
  1. Stir in lemon juice in currant jelly.
  2. Mix curd cheese with egg yolk, sugar, vanilla sugar and ground almonds.
  3. Place apples in a buttered casserole or in little ramekins. Give jelly and cheese in cavities, close with cover and bake apples on lowest rack in preheated oven at 390°F for 15-20 minutes.
  4. Remove from oven, cover with some powdered sugar and serve with vanilla sauce.
Remarks
  1. They're also very delicious with some whipped cream.
Bastelesel http://www.bastelesel.de/
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