Bastelesel

02 Feb 2014

I love them – the big ones as well as the small ones. Though if I’m honest I prefer baking the small cookies. It’s much easier to store and to eat them because they disappear in your mouth with one or two bites and their chocolate doesn’t stick on your fingers. I found the following recipe on lecker.de and tried it immediately. It’s hard to close the box and put it back to the kitchen cabinet. Try it yourself – it’s quite easy!

Hazelnut Cookies

2014-02-02 17:20:10

Serves 70

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Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

25 min

Total Time

1 hr 20 min

Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

25 min

Total Time

1 hr 20 min

Pastry

7.3 oz wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking-powder
3.6oz sugar
1 bag vanilla sugar, 1 dash salt
4.4oz cold butter
1 egg size M

Topping

3.6oz marzipan paste
7.3oz ground hazelnuts
3.6oz each chopped and slized hazelnuts
7.3oz Crème fraîche
3.6oz sugar
2 bags vanilla sugar
about 3.6oz dark chocolate coating

Instructions

Cover baking sheet with parchment paper
Preheat oven at 350°F
Pastry
Blend flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, butter cut in bits and egg with the kneading hooks of your kitchen machine.
Remove pastry from bowl, shortly knead with your hands and roll out on lightly floared surface until size of baking sheet reached. Place pastry on baking sheet carefully und then pierce several times with a fork.
Topping
Pluck marzipan paste into a bowl, add nuts and mix well.
Make Crème fraîche, 3.6oz sugar and 2 bags vanilla sugar boil in a small pan, pour over nuts and stir in thoroughly with kneading hooks.
Spread nut paste on top of the pastry and put in the oven at 350°F for about 25 minutes.
Cut cookiesstill warm into 35-40 squares first. Then cut out triangles with a small knife. Leave them on parchment paper while cooling.
Melt chocolate in a bain-marie and dip one corner of each cookie into it. Let dry on a baking grid

Notes

If you like, you can spread some apricot jam on your pastry before adding the nut paste
In some regions these cookies are cut in hash keys and you may dip them into white chocolate as well.
Without coating you may freeze your cookies and dip them into chocalte before serving then.

Bastelesel http://www.bastelesel.de/

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Nussecken/Hazelnut Cookies/ Carrés aux noisettes

31 Jan 2014

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by Elke

Deco-Spoon

Who can resist this wonderful plate with fruit? I’ve made it to try my new decospoons. I saw the corresponding video more than once and doubted if it was really that easy for someone not being a professional. I admit it’s not as perfect as shown but the result meets my demands as an amateur cook. We had finished eating for the day. That’s why I only decorated some fruit with raspberry- and vanilla cream.
This kind of decoration can also be done with a gravy or some tomato or vegetable froth. Success-deciding is the consistency of your sauce.
There’s a big and a small spoon in the set for larger and small, filigree garnishments. It’s quite easy to mix different colors because the spoons will glide smoothly on nearly all surfaces.
So with one or two sweeps you’ll create a lovely dessert that will surely enthrall you. A tool, absolutely necessary for every amateur cook.

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Decospoon

28 Jan 2014

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by Elke

Table Setting – natural

We appreciated the nice weather on Saturday and had a really long walk through the woods. On this occasion I mostly stumble on unimpressive odds and ends which are perfect for a table setting. That’s why today I want to show a quite natural setting for tea-time. A lot of birch trees have been chopped during the last days and every now and then a white piece of bark pops up throught the wet, brownish grass. One of them rolling up in a nice way I took home together with some meadow-grass. The fern, ivy and green stems I found in our garden.
After cleaning and drying the bark I decorated it with fern, two green stems and an ivy butterfly. Besides I placed a small tea light in a clear holder. Two smaller butterflies fixed to a small twig are tied to a papernapkin. The butterflies are made with ivy leaves and points of twigs glued to the bottom of the leaves so that they just stick out a little bit. They can be glued to the leaves either with a Scotch tape or a bead of glue. I’ve varnished my leaves to see how long they’ll keep this way. After three days they’re still looking fresh so that you can prepare them even 1-2 days before your event.
The grass was placed in a plain vase decorated with a large felt ribbon that is fixed with double sided adhesive tape.
All things considered we have a nice but cheap decoration making you feel comfortable.

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Tischdekoration – natürlich/Table Setting-natural/Décoration de table – naturelle

26 Jan 2014

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by Elke

Dancing on Broken Glass

This is the debut novel of Ka Hancock, a nurse living in Seattle. According to her own words she loves stories effecting strong feelings. In that she succeeded with her debut feature. I’m appreciating nice stories but don’t feel concerned very often. Reading the story of Mickey Chandler, Lucy Houston and her family I felt affected more than once. Specially for the second part of the novel there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
Lucy meets Mickey on a party for her 21st anniversary. Her sister booked the comedian as a surprise for her. She wants to learn more about him but Mickeay stays rather reluctant though he’s developping feelings for Lucy too. They’re both afflicted with more or less complicated diseases but Lucy’s steadfast courage to face life enables their marriage. They enjoy marital life with ups and downs like others do until a really dramatic incidence confounds everything and puts their partnership to the test.
A haunting story resembling reality so much that I read porlogue, epilogue, acknowledgements and all blurbs to find a hint on the persons being the basis for this novel. The know-how of a psychiatry nurse surely has a share in Hancock’s realistic descriptions of many situations.
A novel you should really buy and read because besides all sadness there are a lot of wonderful touching moments in Lucy’s and Mickey’s life. Perfect reading pleasure you don’t find that often.

24 Jan 2014

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by Elke

Foolproof Loop

The instruction for a cardigan with a loop collar made of chain stitches and a single ravel of fluffy wool inspired me to make these foolproof loops. The chains are finger crocheted because that makes them fluffy and you don’t even need a crochet hook. The wool that works best should be rather thick, fluffy or fringy. Make a long string of chain stitches out of the whole ball. Chose a book as large as the diameter of your loop should be, at least 26 inches for adults and for children a bit less. Simply take one end of your chain around your neck to find the necessary length to be taken off easily. Then twist the crocheted chain carefully around your book until only 10-12 inches are left over. Make a knot with both ends and then twist them around your loop until depleted. Fix it with a few stitches of sewing thread. This way your loop is fixed and can’t fall apart any more.
These loops are wonderful for in- and outdoors and I’m a proud owner of several of these. We did them with 6-10 years old children too and they’re always happy to wear what they’ve done with their own hands.
If you didn’t wear them for some time simply grab their knot and shake them a once or twice. They’ll be all fluffy again.