The Daring Bakers bake well!

Yes, the Daring Bakers bake well and bake Bakewell Tarts!

Or in my case, Bakewell Tart Bites

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

This tradicional UK tart has 3 components: a pastry crust, a layer of jam and frangipane (an almond cream). I’m crazy about anything with frangipane (I’m a nuts girl after all) so I love Bakewell Tarts! I used to do it a lot when I was working in a hotel in the UK to serve with the afternoon teas. I can not tell you how many scraps from the borders of the tarts ended up on my hips…

For this DB’s challenge I decided to transform the tart into chocolate covered bites, because everything is better with chocolate, right? My frangipane had hazelnuts besides almonds and as for the jam I’ve used an homemade raspberry curd.

Raspberry Curd

BAKEWELL TART BITES

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

• 225g (8oz) all purpose flour
• 30g (1oz) sugar
• 2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
• 110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
• 2 egg yolks
• 2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
• 15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Almond & Hazelnut Frangipane

• 125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
• 3 (3) eggs
• 2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
• 125g (4.5oz) ground almonds (I’ve used half almonds, half hazelnuts)
• 30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

An inside look

Raspberry curd

• 100 gr (3.5 oz) fresh or frozen raspberries
• 120 gr (4.2 oz) sugar 2 egg yolks
• 60 gr (2 oz) butter cut into small cubes
• ½ lemon (juice)

Cook all ingredients on a bain-marie until it thickens and boils for about 5 minutes. Let it cool.

Assembling the tart

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatized for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter.

For the bites

Cut the cooled tart into squares and dip into semi-sweet chocolate. Decorate with slivered almonds or as you wish.

Bite me, bite me!

It was delicious! Much better than the scraps I used to eat...

It's a chocolate? It's a cookie? It's a chocolate cookie!

You know when you don’t know if you feel like having a chocolate bar or a cookie? Well, this might solve that problem!

It’s a chocolate bar made out of chocolate cookie dough!

This idea came to me when I had some sugar cookie dough left. I decided to add a bit of cocoa powder to the dough and shape it as a chocolate bar.

As for the sugar cookie recipe I like to use this or this, but your favourite recipe will work as great, just add a bit cocoa powder and you’re set!

To shape the cookies, roll out the dough and cut it in rectangles. Use a wood skewer to make the indentations that will form the typical squares of a chocolate bar. Bake them according to the recipe you’re using.

I’ve made them in 2 sizes: small ones (the size of normal cookies) and big ones (almost the size of a chocolate bar), and both worked out great. Next time I think I might cover them in actual chocolate or use royal icing to make a fake wrapper, just to add some charm but even “naked”, I think they’re quite cute!

It's the perfect chocolate bar to take to the beach, it doesn't melt in the sun!

From Italy with love...

Just a tease...

Just a small Italian tease...

My sister who lives in Rome came to visit this last week and I really had to share with all of you what she brought me. But hey, this is only a “virtual sharing”, I don’t plan to actually share my goodies with anybody! And I don’t think you can blame me!

Here’s what I got:

• Rosemary focaccia
• 3 bottles of Bellini (a cocktail from Venice made sparkling wine and peach)
• White chocolate liqueur
• A bag of tarallini (crunchy savory cookies from the south of Italy made with wine. These ones are pizza flavored)
• A bag of friselle (thick round toasts that look like half bagels, intended for making bruchetta)
• Gianduja hot chocolate
• White hot chocolate
• A chocolate-hazelnut spread (like Nutella) from Magnum

See that?! You can’t really blame me for not sharing, can you?

So have you ever tasted or heard of any of these? Witch one would you like to try the most?

Pooh cookies

A while ago I wrote a post about doing Hello Kitty sugar cookies without a proper cookie cutter and it turned out to be one of my most popular and visited posts. So I guess you will also be interested in knowing how to do Winnie the Pooh cookies the same way.

Here's some step-by-step pictures:

Start with a round shaped cookie.

Cut both sides at an angle, narrowing it at the top.

Use a small tear drop shaped cutter to cut half way on each side of the top, with the point of the drop facing down.

Use the same tear drop cutter to cut tear drop shaped pieces of cookie dough and place the on the holes you’ve made, kind of like a puzzle, creating the ears. Do it already in the baking sheet and don’t worry, while it bakes it will glue together. Press slightly with your finger on the fatter side of the ear.

They’re ready to go to the oven. I’ve also put sticks on mine.

Baked and ready for the frosting, mouth, nose and eyes.

And here it is, a happy Pooh ready to be eaten by a happy child (or adult).

I've also made a cake with a Pooh face to go with the cookies:

Winnie the Pooh and friends cake

Heffalump (don't you just love his name?)

Tigger and Piglet

And as Pooh loves honey so much, I wish you a week as sweet as honey!

DB's Apple Strudel... ice cream?

It's DB time: The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of Make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Apple Strudel

Great, I thought! I had never made a Strudel at home, so although we had the option to be creative with the filling I decided that I would keep it simple. I decided to do just the classic Apple Strudel. Yeah, right….

Apple Strudel Ice Cream

As far as the Strudel goes, yes I did keep it simple and classic. But I couldn’t help myself and also transformed into an ice cream. Oh yes, I’ve made Apple Strudel Ice Cream!

Ok, but let's start with the Strudel itself:

Strudel dough + toasted bread crumbs

APPLE STRUDEL

• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
• 1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
• strudel dough (recipe below)
• 1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

Filling: apples, walnuts, cinnamon, sugar, rum and raisins

Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Tradition says the dough should so thin that you should be able to read a love letter thru it!

STRUDEL DOUGH

• 1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
• 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

Rolling the dough

Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary. Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally. Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can. Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Yummy!

Ok, now that the strudel is done it’s time to move on to the ice cream!

To transform the apple strudel into an ice cream I’ve used all the flavours that went into the filling. I started with a cinnamon ice cream base and then added caramelized apples, toasted walnuts and rum soaked raisins.

A sprinkling of baked crunchy strudel dough doesn’t hurt!

APPLE STRUDEL ICE CREAM

• 250 ml cream
• 250 ml milk
• 60 gr (2 oz) glucose
• 100 gr (3.5 oz) sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 3 apples (sliced and caramelized in 1 tbsp butter and 1/8 tsp cinnamon & 2 tbsp sugar)
• ¼ cup toasted walnuts
• 2 tbsp raisins
• 1 tbsp rum
• Baked crunchy dough

Heat the cream, milk, glucose and cinnamon almost until boiling point. In a bowl mix well the yolks and sugar. Slowly add the milk mixture to the yolks, always mixing so the yolks would curdle. Transfer everything to the pan again and heat on low, always mixing, until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon but don’t let it boil. Pass thru a sieve and cool completely (preferably in an ice bath). Churn only when it’s fully chilled. Meanwhile prepare the other ingredients: soak the raisins in the rum, toast the walnuts in the oven (10-12 minutes ate 170ºC/ 325ºF) and caramelize the apples with the cinnamon sugar and butter in a pan. Let all cool completely. Churn the cinnamon ice cream and when it’s almost ready to take out of the ice cream maker add the apples, nuts and raisins and let it all be well incorporated. Take to the freezer to fully harden for about 3 hours. You can serve it with crushed baked strudel dough.

Apple Strudel AND Apple Strudel Ice Cream

I can’t decide witch one I prefer… While I think about it I’m going to check all the other strudels that my fellow Baring Bakers did.

A banana bread that will swirl you around

Yes, I'm still here. And I’ve brought you Banana Bread!

Life has been swirling me around lately. A lot of work came my way but I don’t complain cause it’s all fun stuff. I swirl happy thru it!

So much swirling around that I ended up swirling some dulce de leche in my banana bread batter. And just for fun I also added toasted coconut and pecans. Yes, I’m crazy like that.

"SWIRL ME AROUND" BANANA BREAD

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 cup butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup toasted coconut*
• 1/2 cup peacans
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp cream cheese
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1/3 cup dulce de leche (or to taste)

*Toast your coconut in a pan, mixing all the time until is golden. Remove immediately from the pan as soon as it's ready.

Beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, mixing well. Then add the mashed bananas, cream and cream cheese and beat until incorporated. On the side mix the flour, baking soda, toasted coconut and pecans. Add these dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until it all comes together. Flour and butter a loaf pan dump 1/3 of the batter. Add dollops of 1/3 of the dulce de leche and swirls with a knife cutting thru the batter. Repeat with the rest of the batter and dulce de leche, making a swirl on top. Bake in a 180ºC (350ºF) preheated oven until it’s nice and golden and when you insert a toothpick (or knife) and it comes out clean.

This banana bread will swirl you around! And as for me all this swirling will stop at the end of the month, but until now I’ll leave you with a nice slice of bread! Enjoy!

Oops, I couldn’t help but bite it! But can you see that dulce de leche in the middle? It was really calling my name…

DB + Cheesecake + Ferrero Rocher = Happiness!

I'm happy to introduce you to my Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake!

It's Daring Bakers time! The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Jenny provided us with a wonderful cheesecake recipe from her friend Abbey and told us to use it as a blank canvas and be creative with flavours. What a great idea!

I love Ferrero Rocher chocolates (who doesn't, really?) and I wanted to use it in baked goods for a while so this seamed like the perfect opportunity!

Here's the recipe with my changes in italic:

ABBEY'S INFAMOUS CHEESECAKE

Crust:

• 2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (I’ve used Digestive biscuits)
• 1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
• 2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder

Cheesecake:

• 3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
• 1 cup / 210 g sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice (I didn’t use it)
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
• 1 tbsp liqueur, optional (I’ve used Frangelico)
• ½ tsp salt
• 10 Ferrero Rocher chocolates cut into large chunks
• 3/4 cup Nutella
• 2 tbsp chopped roasted hazelnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, and Frangelico and blend until smooth and creamy. Lastly add the chopped Ferrero Rocher.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water. 5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Then playing a little bit with the Ferrero Rocher theme, I covered the top with Nutella (softened a bit in the microwave) and chopped roasted hazelnuts.

I've also baked 4 little cheesecakelets, with a whole Ferrero Rocher inside. They weren't bad either...

They got the same Nutella and hazelnuts treatment on top.

Look at the whole Ferrero Rocher inside!!! You get crunchy, then creamy, then crunchy again, the chocolate, the hazelnut, and creamy again... You know, the kind of thing that makes me happy!

Saying this was good, is a complete understatement.

Ok, take this last bite and go check all the other creative cheesecakes from my fellow Daring Bakers.

And so this is Easter...

...and what have I done?

A chocolate egg filled with dulce de leche pannacotta!

The pannacotta is awesome on its own, so you don't have to go to the trouble of filling chocolate eggs, but it's a cute idea for an Easter dessert.

DULCE DE LECHE PANNACOTTA

• 100 gr (3.5 oz) sugar
• 100 ml milk
• 600 ml cream
• 1/2 cup dulce de leche
• 6 sheets of gelatine

In a large pan that will fit all the ingredients, start by caramelizing the sugar until it's golden brown. Meanwhile boil the cream and milk together and add to the caramel as soon as it has the desired color. Be careful because it will boil up, turn the heat down and whisk. Part of the caramel will become hard, but that's fine, because it will melt again. Keep whisking until all the caramel is dissolved. Take the pan out of the stove and add the dulce de leche mixing well. Add the gelatine as well. When working with sheets you need to soften them in cold water first, so make sure you don't skip this step. Pass the mixture through a sieve and put into glasses or moulds and refrigirate. If you're going to fill the chocolate eggs wait a bit!

To fill the chocolate eggs with the pannacotta you first need to cut one small cap on the eggs, do that cutting very carefully with a hot knife. Then you need to stabilize the eggs, you can do that by putting each egg inside a small espresso cup with pieces of kitchen towel. Last you need to cool down your pannacotta, otherwise it will melt the chocolate, just leave it at room temperature and mix it every once in a while. The trick is filling the eggs while the mixture is not hot anymore but it's still not as cold that it starts getting hard from the gelatine.

Why have just hollow eggs when you can have this caramelly creamy filling? Really, why?

I have a sweet tooth!

I swear to you these are not my gradma's! They're made out of white chocolate!

Have you ever seen these silicone moulds? They're originally made to put ice in, but ever since I saw them (here) I knew I wanted to try with chocolate. Because I have nothing against ice, but hey, chocolate tastes much better!

Can you believe I've actually made this to my dentist? Can you imagine his face? He really loved it!

Here's how I've made them:

After filling the teeth part with just white chocolate I've colored the rest with an oil based red food coloring. Only oil based food colorings will work when coloring plain chocolate, but instead of doing this step you could use pink candy melts.

Then I've filled the rest of the moulds with the pinkish chocolate and let it set.

Are they cute or what? You almost could use them to play a joke for April Fool's Day!

Ouch!

I'll have to bite it next! Oh sweet revenge!

These sweet teeth really put a smile on my face!

Foodbuzz 24 24 24: 24 hours eating cookies

I love cookies so much that I often think I could spend a whole day just eating them. What about you? Ever wonder if you could spend 24 hours eating just cookies?

And why not? You just have to get a meal and "cookie-it"! Just get everything you would eat for breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack or dinner and transform it into a cookie! You can think of it as portable meals!

Ok, let's start with Breakfast! You're having a bowl of cereal with milk and banana slices? Yes, it does look good, but let's "cookie-it"!

Bowl of milk + cereals + banana = Breakfast Bowl Cookie

BREAKFAST BOWL COOKIES

• 2 ¼ cups flour
• 1 cup powdered milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ cup butter
• 1 ripe banana (mashed)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup wheat cereal (crushed)

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the powdered milk, egg, banana and vanilla and mix well. Incorporate the rest of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt). At last add in the crushed cereal. Scoop portions of the dough into a baking sheet and bake until golden brown (about 10-12 minutes).

Serving them in a bowl is obviosly optional, but it does add a bit of charm!

Now say good morning to my mom! She really approved the breakfast cookie! Again, eating with a spoon is optional!

The morning goes by so fast it's already time for lunch! What do you think if we have Pizza? Or, even better, pizza cookies?

Bacon & Mushroom Pizza = Pizza Shortbread Cookies

PIZZA SHORTBREAD COOKIES

• 250 gr (9 oz) flour
• 125 gr (4.5 oz) butter
• ¼ cup tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp oreganos
• 1/8 tsp ground pepper
• ¼ cup small chunks of fried bacon (cooled)
• ¼ cup small chunks of cooked mushrooms (cooled)
• 1/8 cup grated cheese (plus more for topping)

In a food processor place all dry ingredients (flour, salt, garlic, oreganos and pepper) with the cold butter cut into medium chunks. Pulse a few times until it has a course consistency. Mix the tomato sauce with the water and add to the flour-butter mixture and pulse a few more times until the dough forms a ball. Transfer the ball of dough to a lightly floured table and incorporate the cheese, bacon and mushrooms. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Roll the dough and cut into shapes. Bake in a 180ºC (350ºF) preheated oven until golden brown. On the last minute of baking put a little bit of grated cheese on top and let it melt before taking out the cookies from the oven.

You can make them round...

... or in the shape of pizza slices! For that cut big circles of dough (use a plate over the dough and cut arround it with a knife). Score the slices slightly before baking and finishing cutting them with a serrated knife after they've cooled down.

You're hungry again? Ah, you feel like having an afternoon snack, don't you? Ok, let's be healthy and have a cup of tea and an apple. You want a bit of chocolate as well? Sure. Not satisfied yet? Maybe some nuts will help. Ok, just give me all that, I'll transform it in a cookie for you!

Tea + Apple + Chocolate + Hazelnuts = "I feel like a snack" Cookie

“I FEEL LIKE A SNACK" COOKIE

• 115 gr (1/2 cup) butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 apple (grated)
• 60 gr (2 oz) melted dark chocolate
• 2 black tea bags*
• ½ cup toasted (and skinned) chopped hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Add the melted dark chocolate and then incorporate the rest of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt). Open the tea bags and add the tea as well. At last add in the hazelnuts and the grated apple. Scoop portions of the dough into a baking sheet and bake for about 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies, making sure you don’t over bake them. They should come out of the oven when they still look slightly under baked. * The tea bags I’ve used had almost pulverized tea, but if you have only leafs, you should grind them to a powder before adding to the dough.

And here they are!

And a look at the moist interior. They were delicious!

Just ask my neighbour Mónica! Or do you think that's a fake smile on her face?

This is being a lot of fun, but the day is finishing! It's time for the last meal for today! I think we should have a nice dinner: Chicken breasts with mustard, white rice and steamed broccoli. I bet you want to see the cookie version of it!

Chicken with mustard + Rice + Broccoli = Chicken & Broccoli Biscotti

CHICKEN & BROCCOLI BISCOTTI

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp mustard
• ½ chicken breast (cooked and cooled)
• 2 small pieces of broccoli (cooked and cooled)

Mix olive oil, egg and mustard. In another bowl mix all dry ingredients (flours, salt, baking soda and baking powder). Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with your hands. Dice in small chunks the chicken and broccoli and incorporate them into the dough, carefully, because the broccoli is very delicate. Shape the dough into a log and bake in a preheated 180ºC (350ºF) oven until it starts to appear baked but it’s not golden brown yet. Remove from oven and let it rest for 15 minutes and lower the oven to 150ºC (300ºF). Then slice into diagonal pieces and put the pieces cut side down into the baking sheet. Bake for until golden, the time will depend on the thickness of your biscotti.

They're great plain...

... or to dunk in your soup, as you would dunk your sweet biscotti into your coffee or tea!

Ok, we're done, you can have a cookie for dessert!

Cookies make people happy! Eat cookies!...

... And go from a) to b) in just a few bites!