Wednesday, 31 December 2008
'Twas Christmas eve and after a casual family dinner and a spontaneous bout of bowling at Strike Bowling Bar, Mr S. and I arrived home with a severe case of the sweet munchies.
Now I was one of those children that insisted on leaving milk and cookies to tide Santa Claus over on his annual festive mission so in an act of childhood nostalgia, I thought a similar theme was appropriate on this night. It's not milk and cookies but it's so much more better.
These quaint almond crescents are almost like shortbread in its melt-in-your-mouth goodness and the dusting of vanilla icing sugar gives it that Christmassy look. The hot chocolate is also the ideal pool to dunk these sweet gems in and also to gently lull us to sleep. The leftover batch of cookies also proved popular the next day as a pre-dinner snack and as an accompaniment to tea and coffee after the Christmas feast.
Better than ye olde milk and cookies, I'm sure Santa would've appreciated these as much as we did....if we left some for him of course!
Ok we did and he must've been happy because I got what I want in my stocking on Christmas morning...an Apple iPod Touch for my ginormous collection of music and a new Garmin GPS. I also wanted a new Kitchenaid but I think I've been spoilt enough!
On another note, this will be my last post of 2008. This blog has been up for about 2.5 months and it has far exceeded any expectations. A big thanks to Mr S. for his support and also to the Sydney food bloggers who welcomed me with open arms (they really are a nice bunch of people!). More importantly, a big thanks to you, the readers, for your kind messages and comments. It's nice to know that people out there appreciate what you do. Happy new year everybody and a big cheers to 2009!
Vanillekerpfil (Vanilla Crescents)
Ingredients
200g butter - softened
60g icing sugar
100g ground almonds
280g plain flour
To dust:
icing sugar
vanilla sugar
Hot Chocolate
25g of couverture dark or milk chocolate (approximately per person)
cream or milk
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C and lightly greased a non-stick baking tray or line with baking paper.
Cream the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy.
Stir in the ground almonds, then gradually stir in the flour until it forms a dough.
Roll walnut-sized pieces of dough into balls then form it into crescent shapes and place on baking tray.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until just beginning to colour. Do not overbake as the cookies will continue to bake and brown out of the oven.
Cool cookies on a wire rack.
Sift some icing sugar together with the vanilla sugar and dust over cooled cookies. Store cookies in an airtight container.
To make hot chocolate:
For each person, melt the dark or milk couverture chocolate with some cream or milk in a saucepan over a low heat. Add more milk or cream for a hot chocolate drink or add more chocolate for a thicker chocolate consistency for dipping.
Vanillekerpfil (Vanilla Crescents)
Ingredients
200g butter - softened
60g icing sugar
100g ground almonds
280g plain flour
To dust:
icing sugar
vanilla sugar
Hot Chocolate
25g of couverture dark or milk chocolate (approximately per person)
cream or milk
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C and lightly greased a non-stick baking tray or line with baking paper.
Cream the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy.
Stir in the ground almonds, then gradually stir in the flour until it forms a dough.
Roll walnut-sized pieces of dough into balls then form it into crescent shapes and place on baking tray.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until just beginning to colour. Do not overbake as the cookies will continue to bake and brown out of the oven.
Cool cookies on a wire rack.
Sift some icing sugar together with the vanilla sugar and dust over cooled cookies. Store cookies in an airtight container.
To make hot chocolate:
For each person, melt the dark or milk couverture chocolate with some cream or milk in a saucepan over a low heat. Add more milk or cream for a hot chocolate drink or add more chocolate for a thicker chocolate consistency for dipping.
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5 Coffee Breaks:
Ooh i always say i will make Greek almond cookies one day. These look great (and sound totally decadent dipped in hot chocolate!).
Happy New Year to you and congrats on making it past the 2.5 month mark with foodblogging! Look forward to reading much more!
Hee hee yuummmmmmm poor Santa, you guys didn't leave him any! But I guess if I had these I wouldn't either ;)
Merry Xmas and see you next year ^^! whhheeee
These almonds shortbreads are one of my favourite biscuits ever! I love the blanket of icing sugar on them too :P I was the same, always insisting that Santa had his snack. I think my parents, being hygiene freaks, just chucked out the biscuits after I went to bed. Some other friend's parents used to take a bite and pretend that Santa had bitten into them :P Happy 2009 Karen! :D
I love almond flavored anything, and these look amazing! Thanks for the post, and Happy New Year!
Hi Helen - everything is decadent dipped in chocolate :) Thanks for your kind wishes Helen. I look forward to reading more of everybody in 2009!
Hi FFichiban - I left Santa one...it was enough to get the presents I want though! So we're both happy :) See you in 2009!
Hi Lorraine - I think my parents ate my cookies as they wrapped our presents while we slept. My sister actually caught them red-handed once! Their story? They were helping a very busy Santa out! Happy new year to you too :)
Hi Hayley - Almond and cookies go hand in hand. I love the combination too! Happy new year Hayley :)
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