Posts Tagged ‘flower’

 

 

 

By now we have certainly reached the point where we have to bid farewell to the cherry blossom season. But even though we can’t gawk at the pretty trees blooming in pink anymore, we can still bake cherry blossom cookies! You won’t even need to buy a new cookie cutter. A regular circle one works just as fine after a little tampering.

These cookies owe their bright pink colour and intense strawberry aroma to a special natural ingredient: freeze-dried red berries! You might remember my instructions for making delicious pink berry chocolate with this ingredient from this post. Your local supermarket may sell freeze-dried berries (such as Coop in Switzerland), otherwise try looking for them in specialty stores or simply buy a box of cereals that contain freeze-dried berries and pick them out by hand :-D

I suggest serving the cherry blossom cookies with a cup of hot vanilla-scented black tea, for example Twinings’ Vanilla Black Tea. Enjoy!

Recipe for Pink Cherry Blossom Cookies with Strawberry Yoghurt Flavour

(makes 2 baking trays full of cookies)

Based on this recipe for Coffe Glazed Yoghurt Cookies

  • 125g butter, room temperature
  • 100g sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 4 Tbs strawberry yoghurt
  • about 30g whole freeze-dried berries or 20g freeze-dried berry powder (I used a mixture of strawberry, raspberry and red currant sold at Coop)
  • 300g all-purpose flour
  • 25g cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • a round cookie cutter squished to an almond shape
  1. Preheat oven to 150°C.
  2. First, beat butter and sugar. Then add the egg and yoghurt and beat well.
  3. If you are using whole freeze-dried berries, grind them and sieve the powder to remove the seeds.
  4. Combine freeze-dried berry powder, flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt and sift everything into the butter mixture. Knead well. At this point you’re supposed to notice a fruity fragrance. Divide the dough in tw0 and refrigerate for about an hour.
  5. Roll the dough to a thickness of 0.5cm.
  6. Cut out cherry blossom petals with your cookie cutter by overlapping the pattern like shown in the pictures.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
  8. Voilà, pink cherry blossom cookies! Let them cool down before serving.

 

Have a nice tea party.

 

 

 

Do you have empty PET bottles at home? Don’t discard them! Instead, use their bottom parts as a mold for pretty gelatin or agar agar based desserts: the shape looks like a flower!
Since spring is blossoming at the moment, I suggest trying this easy recipe for delicious d strawberry panna cotta. Panna cotta is a popular Northern Italian sweet that literally translates to “cooked cream”. mycentraljersey.com It’s served chilled and is therefore a perfect dessert for warmer seasons. The classic flavouring is cream and vanilla, but in this rendition I opted for coconut milk and strawberry instead.

 

Recipe for Strawberry Coconut Panna Cotta in a PET Bottle Mold (serves 6)

  • 6 empty 500ml PET bottles with a flower shaped bottom, for example Schweppes
  • 250ml coconut milk (Not to be confused with coconut water! Can be substituted with cream and vanilla essence to get a more classic panna cotta.)
  • 4 Tbs sugar
  • 9g sheet gelatin = 5 sheets
  • 1 cup finely pureed strawberries, sieved
  • optional: milk
  1. First, prepare the molds. Cut away the bottom part of the bottles and wash them thoroughly.
  2. Heat coconut milk and sugar in a pan and stir.
  3. Meanwhile, soak the gelatin sheets in a bowl with cold water for 3-5 minutes.
  4. When the sugar has dissolved, turn off the stove and add the drained gelatin. Stir until it melts down.
  5. Add the mixture to the pureed strawberries and whisk together until it’s well incorporated.
  6. Pour the liquid  into the prepared PET bottle molds. Cover the molds and let the panna cotta set in the refrigerator overnight.
  7. To unmold, loosen the edges with a knife and then dip the mold in a bowl with warm water for a few seconds. Be careful not to dip in for too long, the panna cotta melts easily.
  8. Turn the mold over and place it on the serving plate. Shake gently until the panna cotta releases.
  9. Panna cotta is commonly served with fruit coulis, but since this version is already quite sweet in itself I decided to add plain cold milk. It complements the flavour and acts as a nice colour contrast.

 

Buon appetito!

 

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