Lemon Easter “Egg” Cookies

Happy weekend everyone!

After an other taste of spring weather craziness, we are hopefully done with snow until next winter! I am really looking forward to warmer temperatures and some more spring flowers blooming in our garden, for now only crocuses are blooming.

I found these fun “egg” cookies on the chefkoch.de website and just had to give it a try!!

These are so cute:) I really like the lemon curd filling that I found on texanerin.com, it is so refreshing! You could also fill these with apricot jelly.

My kids are maybe a little to old now for Easter egg hunt and such, but we are never to old for some little treats;)

 

Makes about 5 big and 10 small cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

 

Lemon Easter Egg Cookies 

• 150 g butter, soft
• 1 tsp organic lemon zest
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 75 g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 150 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 75 g cornstarch

-Whisk together butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest. Add flour, cornstarch, milk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

 

Lemon Curd (Paleo) 

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup refined coconut oil or unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup+1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

-Mix together eggs, honey and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat stirring constantly until it thickens, about 5-10 minutes.

-Strain and let cool completely. Store in airtight container (I used a mason jar) in the fridge for up to 1 week.

 

-Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

-Roll out the dough 2-3 mm thick, they will rise a bit. Cut out a even amount of egg shape cookies. I had one left over which I baked just like that and then was gobbled up by my daughter for “testing” of course:) Half of the cookies need a small hole, you can do that by taking a small circle cookie cutter or the round part of a piping tip.

-Bake in a 200C/390F preheated oven for about 11 minutes or light brown. Let cool completely.

-Spread lemon curd on half of the cookies. Dust the cookies with the hole with icing sugar or a cookie icing (lemon juice and icing sugar mixed together). Place two cookies together. Store in fridge.

 

–I used 1/4 cup honey for the dough instead the icing sugar–

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Thank you so much for 200 followers!!! It was amazing to get to know so many amazing bloggers and looking forward to many more:)

 

You can find me on Instagram #littleswisslittlecanadian

 

Ursula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chocolate Squares (Studentenschnitten)

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year!!

It can be very tricky to translate a German word/sentence, because if you do translate word by word it often does not make any sense. This cake is called Studentenschnitten, which means student slice. This does not sound so great, therefore I will call it simply, Chocolate Squares. You can buy it ready made in Switzerland, and that is what my Mother and everyone else I know used to do-we never made it ourselves…

This recipe is a great way to use up any leftover Christmas cookies and chocolate. I used a simple recipe from a Swiss chef, Annemarie Wildeisen. The base crust, which is similar to a pie crust, is from my Tiptopf cookbook. (She is using a store bought dough)

 

Chocolate Squares

 

Base crust (Pie crust):

• 150g flour
• 1/4tsp salt
• 90g butter, cold
• 2tbsp sugar
• 1 egg

-Mix together flour and salt. Add butter and with a fork or pastry blender mix until it resembles fine crumbs.

-Add whisked egg and mix dough only until it holds together. Wrap in plastic foil and chill for 30 minutes.

 

Filling:

• 300g cookies, finely ground
• 6 eggs
• 175g sugar
• 100g bittersweet chocolate or milk chocolate
• 175g butter
• 100g flour
• 150g hazelnuts or almonds, ground

 

Chocolate Icing:

• 150g dark chocolate
• 40g butter
• 3tbsp icing sugar

 

-Whisk together eggs and sugar. In a double boiler melt together chocolate and butter, add to egg mix.

-Combine flour, nuts and cookie crumbs. Add slowly to wet ingredients.

-Roll out base crust to fit into a 30cm square or round pan.

-Cover with the filling. Bake in a 350F/180C oven for 40-50 minutes.

-In a double boiler melt dark chocolate, add butter. Sift the icing sugar and mix well. Spread onto the cooled cake.

-Cut into squares.

(You could spread some Strawberry jelly onto the cake first, and then add the chocolate icing)

Can be kept in refrigerator for 3-4 days

 

 

Love, Peace and Happiness!!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Marinated Oranges with Meringue topping

After all the holiday meals this dessert is light and refreshing. Citrus fruits are a great source of vitamin C, that is for sure useful during the cold winter month. The meringue reminds me of the beautiful mountains in Switzerland. I grew up surrounded by hills and on sunny days you could see the mountains in the distance. We spend many vacations renting a Chalet in the mountains and hiking every day in a still almost untouched surrounding. Whenever we visit my family, I soak in all that beauty, and make lots of pictures too:)

Here in Canada we have the beautiful Rocky Mountains but they are far away from Ontario where we live. The landscape here is pretty flat.

Marinating the oranges gives it a special touch, but it also tastes great without alcohol. I dusted the meringue with a little bit of icing sugar to mimic the snow covered mountain tops;)

 

 

 

Marinated Oranges with Meringue topping

• 3 Oranges; blood oranges, Grapefruit…
• 2 Mandarins
• 100ml Orangejuice
• 2tbsp Cointreau, Rum, Schnapps…

• 4 eggwhites
• 1pinch of salt
• 3tbsp honey, or sugar
• 1tsp orange zest

 

-Cut oranges and mandarins in thin slices, remove white skin. Layer in a baking dish and cover with the alcohol and orangejuice. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

-In a medium bowl whip eggwhites with the salt until soft peaks form then add honey and whip until stiff and shiny. Add orange zest and fold it gently under the eggwhites. Cover the fruit with the egg mixture and bake immediatly in a 200C preheated oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

-Dust with some icing sugar and serve warm.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Christmas Baking

Here are some of the Christmas Cookies I have been making this year. Most of them are old European (Swiss/German) recipes that my Grandmothers and my Mother used to make.

 

Nusshaufchen, Zimtsterne, Maple Cookies, Spitzbuben and Domino Stones (you can find the recipe here Sweet Domino Stones). I also made a fruit cake-with raisins soaked in Kirsch Schnapps overnight-amazing:)

 

 

I also made some Truffles (made with dark Chocolate and Coconut milk, no added sugar)-these were delicious!!

 

My favorite: Spitzbuben with homemade red currant jelly-so delicate:) My mother gave my those cute cookie cutters years ago when my kids were still little.

 

Most of the cookies are already gone! I had to actually hide some of the Spitzbuben because I was not able to eat (chew) cookies after my surgery. So they are waiting for me in a special hiding place;)

I decided to make some more cookies. I found two great recipes that are slightly healthier-without white refined sugar-great!

If you like Walnuts, Almonds, Hazelnuts, Dates and Honey-you will LOVE these cookies!!

Found the recipe in a German magazine.

 

Date-Nut Cookies

For the dough:

• 200g whole wheat flour
• 100g white flour
• 50g hazelnuts, ground
• 1 egg
• 100g honey
• 160g butter, cold

For the filling:

• 200g dates, finely chopped
• 50g almonds, finely chopped
• 50g honey
• 1tsp cinnamon
• dash cloves
• dash cardamom

-Combine flour and nuts, add egg, honey and butter. Mix together (like a pie dough) until it holds nicely together. Wrap in plastic foil and refrigerate for 1 hour.

-Mix together dates, spices and honey.

-Roll half of the dough out to fit into a square or rectangle baking dish (30cm length). Spread filling evenly onto dough. Roll out remaining dough and cover filling. Gently press down a bit.

-Bake in preheated 350F/180C oven for 20 minutes.

-Let cool. Cut into triangles. Decorate with almonds, icing or chocolate.

-Yields: about 20

 

 

Following recipe adapted from a Martha Stewart magazine. I used coconut sugar.

 

Honey-Walnut-Coins

• 2 1/2c white flour
• 3/4tsp sea salt
• 3/4cup finely chopped (toasted) walnuts, plus 48 walnut halves for decorating
• 1cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4cup coconut sugar
•  1/3cup honey, (orange blossom or regular)
• 1/4cup honey for brushing

-Combine flour, salt and walnuts. Beat butter until fluffy, add sugar, beat until pale and fluffy. Beat in honey. Add flour mixture and beat just until combined. Halve dough.

-On parchment paper, shape each portion into a round log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 6 1/2 inches long. Wrap tightly in plastic foil and chill 1 1/2 hours.

-Preheat oven to 325F. Let dough stand at room temperature 10 minutes. With a sharp knife, cut dough into 1/4-inch-thick slices, rotating log as you go to keep it from flattening. Place round on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Spacing 1 inch apart. Press a walnut half into each round.

-Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are pale golden, about 18 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks; brush cookies with honey. Let cool completely.

-Can be stored in a airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

 

Merry Christmas!

Toblerone Tart

Happy 4th Advent! Only one week till Christmas-my kids are very excited:) It also looks like we will be having a white Christmas this year, with all the snow squalls we had so far I can say we do have enough snow for the rest of the winter;)

I have not been posting recipes for the last two weeks because I was not feeling so well. First I had a gum graft surgery done which left me with eating only soft foods (pureed foods actually) and then we had the FLU visiting our house…I have been making cookies and posting them on Instagram. That must have been funny to watch me baking, I had one cheek very swollen and when I am on medication I am not really myself;) That might explain why I can not find my measuring cup anymore…

I found this Toblerone Tart recipe in a older German Magazine. I kept a few of those Magazines because they have really nice Christmas/Holiday recipes in it. Toblerone chocolate always brings back one specific memory from my teenage years. When I went to college I had to take the streetcar in Bern, Switzerland. On the way there was a stop at the Tobler Factory. It always smelled so good there…:)

Toblerone was created by Theodor Tobler and his cousin Emil Baumann in Bern, Switzerland, in 1908.

 

Toblerone Tart

For the dough:

• 1 organic orange, zest
• 125g butter
• 100g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 50g almonds, ground
• 200g flour
• 1/4tsp baking powder
• 2tbsp whipping cream

For the Mousse filling:

• 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
• 200g Toblerone, chopped
• 70g butter
• 300ml whipping cream
• 2 eggs, fresh
• 2tbsp honey, liquid

 

-Whisk together butter, sugar, egg and orange zest until foamy. Add almonds, flour and baking powder mix well. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

-Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease a 28cm tart/pie dish.

-On a floured surface roll out dough. (it is a very soft dough, so I ended up rolling it in the dish). With the rest roll out and cut out stars in different sizes if you have, then place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Mix together egg yolk and cream and brush cookies. Bake for 5 minutes.

-The tart shell has to bake without the filling. Place a parchment paper on the tart and fill with dried beans/legumes, (or put a slightly smaller dish on the parchment paper). Bake for 15 minutes, Remove paper and beans and bake for another 5 minutes. Let cool.

-In a double boiler melt chocolate, Toblerone and butter. Brush cooled tart with 3 tablespoons of the chocolate mix.

-Whip whipping cream only halfway, not completely stiff. Whisk eggs and honey until foamy.

-Fold chocolate mix and cream gently under the egg/honey mix until well combined. Fill into the tart shell. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Decorate with the star cookies.

(If concerned about the use of uncooked eggs in the filling, it might be possible to leave the eggs out, just using the honey. We have our own chickens, so we have very fresh eggs indeed:)

 

 

 

The filling is perfect for my post surgery diet;) So smooth!!

 

 

 

 

Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

Sweet Domino Stones

We bake every year several kinds of Christmas cookies. Most of them are traditional Swiss and European cookies that I know and have liked since my childhood. I find most of the recipes in my old Swiss baking book that my mother had already before I was born.

A few weeks before I start baking, I take out my books and magazines and look through all the yummy cookies…and then all the amazing recipes online! If we could only eat that much, I would definitely like to bake way more varieties:)

So I settle on my usual ones and then I will add one or two new cookies. I found these Domino stones in an older German Magazine.  With European recipes I sometimes have to change things up a bit, just because I can not find the exact ingredient here.

Let your kids help with the decorating;) These are also cute just plain without the chocolate icing.

 

Sweet Domino Stones

• 125g          butter, soft
• 100g         sugar
• 1tsp          vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
• 2                eggs
• 50g           corn starch
• 150g          flour
• 3tsp          baking powder
• 1tsp          orange, zest
• 30g           almonds, ground
• 50ml        milk
• 3tsp          cocoa powder

Almond filling:

• 150g         almonds, ground
• 150g         sugar
• 1                organic orange, zest
• 1-2            orange, juice

 

• 500g        dark chocolate
• 50g           icing sugar
• 1-2tsp     lemon juice

 

-Preheat stove to 350F/180C. I used a 12×8 inch (30x20cm) baking dish.

-In a bowl mix butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, eggs until creamy.

-Mix in corn starch, flour, baking powder, orange zest, almonds and milk. Mix well.

-Divide batter into two. In one bowl mix in cocoa powder until well blended.

-In a third small bowl mix together almonds, sugar and orange zest. Add orange juice until mixture is moist.

-Spread vanilla mix into prepared dish, top with almond mix and last add the cocoa batter, spreading evenly.

-Bake for about 15 min. or tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool.

-Cut into domino stones.

-In a double boiler melt the dark chocolate. Carefully dip in dominoes, (or only the top).

-Mix together icing sugar and lemon juice and decorate with dots.

 

The almond filling tastes like Marzipan!

Aren’t they cute…

 

Happy baking!

 

 

 

 

Gingerbread Latte

A Latte sounds a little fancier then a Coffee Creamer, but that is what I am using this recipe for. I do not buy flavored Creamers at the store, simply because they are full of sugar and artificial flavorings-does not taste so yummy after all if you think of it.

Since my family I have been a little sensitive to milk products I switched to nut milks. There are some good products out there, but you really have to read the ingredients. I have been making my own nut milks before as well, but I found a good brand and I find it is cheaper and easier like that.

For my coffee I like something a little creamier so I have been looking for the perfect coconut milk. That was pretty annoying…I was looking for canned versions but most brands contain stuff that I just do not want in my milk. After searching in different stores I found one brand that contain only two ingredients: 60% coconut extract and water and they also have a Tetra Pak with 85% coconut extract and water. I really like that:)

The Latte/Creamer is infused with spices and molasses to taste and smell like Gingerbread. If you’re using it as a creamer the recipe is perfect with just the coconut milk, but if you would like to use it as a Latte, usually a Latte contains coffee, but here it serves as a fancy word for a milk drink;) I would suggest mixing it with almond milk, to lighten it up a bit.

 

Gingerbread Latte/Creamer

• 2cups            coconut milk (full fat)
• 4tbsp            molasses
• 1                     cinnamon stick
• 5                    cloves
• 3                    star anise
• piece            ginger, peeled

 

-In a medium saucepan combine milk and molasses, bring to a boil, mix well. Reduce heat, add spices and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for at least 30 minutes. Remove spices.

-Store in fridge for 1 week.

-Use cold or warm as a coffee creamer or warm it up and mix with some almond milk or milk of your choice for a latte. Also great for kids:)

 

Love the smell of these spices!

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Gingerbread Brownies

This morning I started decorating our house for Christmas. Hanging up lights on the windows and bringing out Candles…I know I am probably late compared to most people…I saw lots of decorated Christmas trees and such in November but that is just a little to early for me. Now it is December and I am finally getting into the spirit;)

I just love the smell of spices, especially Cinnamon. It is such a warming comforting smell! I do use it every day, all year-in my muesli, tea, coffee… Cinnamon is a very healthy lovely spice.

What better way to get into the holiday spirit then with some Gingerbread smell in the air:-)

 

Gingerbread Brownies

• 1/4cup    butter
• 1cup        dark chocolate, chopped or bittersweet choc. chips
• 1/3cup     molasses
• 1cup         brown sugar (the recipe calls for 1c sugar and 1/4c brown sugar)
• 2 large    eggs
• 1cup        flour (I used spelt flour)
• 1/2tsp     sea salt
• 1tsp         cinnamon
• 1tsp         ginger, freshly grated

 

-Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease a 9×9 inch baking dish, or line with parchment paper.

-Melt butter and chocolate, remove from heat.

-In a bowl whisk molasses with sugar, whisk in eggs. Add butter and chocolate, mix well.

-Add flour, salt, cinnamon and ginger until just incorporated.

-Pour in prepared dish and bake for 20-30 minutes.

-Let cool in dish. Cut into squares and dust with some icing sugar.

 

 

 

 

(recipe adapted from ihearteating)

 

 

Happy Holidays!