Italian Chestnut Flour Madeleine's (gluten free) But Sinfully Delicious!

Sweet little delicate morsels

The sun is shining and I am home with lilla A. I am now no longer a Madeleine's virgin. Yep, I have joined the baking pack and whipped up my first batch of these bourgeois cookies.  I love to try anything once, and since I have read so much about chestnut flour lately on the web. I thought  I would give these very lovely Madeleine's a try and even better they are so easy to put together. All you need is a little time in your day to wait for the resting mixture to "rest" and then your well on your way to oh la la cookie heaven.
I am a shopping beast when it comes to baking equipment and ingredients. I search the web most days for new and I must have items. This Friday Leila Lindholm's- leila's Generalstore is opening for business and I intend to be one of the first to shop in her lovely new store. So excited! www.leilasgeneralstore.se  Please check out Leila's homepage here to get acquainted with Sweden's leading baking queen www.leila.se  it is in both Swedish and English. Now, with that said let's get baking.

Ingredients


1 cup (128 grams) plus 4 tablespoons of Italian Chestnut flour, sifted
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
½ cup (64 grams) plus 1 tablespoon of sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon honey

The batter waiting for you to bake

Special equipment needed: Madeleine mold pan




Directions:
Melt the butter in a pot and let cool slightly at room temperature. Sift the flour with the baking powder and set aside. Place the eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat. (You can also use a hand mixer if you desire.)Add the sugar and the honey and beat until white in color and light.  In a separate bowl sift the Chestnut flour and the baking powder together. When sifted, add the flour and the baking powder and mix until incorporated.
Add the cooled melted butter to the dry mixture and stir until well combined. Cover your batter with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Preheat your oven to 420 F-210 C. Grease your Madeleine molds and fill each mold 3/4  full with the chilled batter. The batter is quite thick, and so make sure you start out with a little batter in each mold so you have uniformity in your cookie size.

Ready for the oven

Baked and cooling. Oh ,so nice.

bake your cookies for 6 minutes to get the  traditional "Madeleine's "bump"- then reduce the heat in your oven to 350 F-175 C. Continue to bake for around another 4-5 minutes. Remove from the oven and gently remove the Madeleine's from the mold and let them cook on a rack .NOTE: Make sure your cookies are around the same size to ensure equal baking. You do not want half baked and half gooey inside. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes before you turn out onto a rack, so the tops have a chance to set, and not get stuck on the drying rack.


I was so surprised how delicious and dainty these Madeleine's were. I hope that these make it into your baking wishlist. Please let me know what you think. I found my chestnut flour at a heath food shop in the city. There are many sites on the web that also sells the chestnut flour. Be warned it is pricey. I paid around 18 dollars for a kilogram on sale, and I live in an very expensive country. Good luck and happy baking. Leila here I come. See you Friday...

My Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Got Milk?

I have a theory. When bored do bake. It is amazing what you can come up with in the late hours of a friday night. I am trying to add as many posts as I can for all my readers, and perhaps I have been a little heavy on the chocolate posts, but really. Who can ever have enough chocolate? I am grateful to my kind friends and neighbors who let me supply them with all my baking goodies. It is so comforting to have the opportunity to be able to share my passion of baking with all of you. I am a newbie at this blogging thing, so please bare with me and I hope that I can continue to inspire other's and to learn. 

How to Chocolate Chip Cookie:

oh my goodness!

2 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3/4 cups unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar ( I used light muscovado brown sugar)
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips or 300 g of a good baking chocolate chopped.

1. Preheat your oven 180 degrees C or 360 degrees F
2. Line your baking trays with parchment paper
3. Sift together, flour, salt,baking soda; set aside
4. Melt butter 
5. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well mixed
6. Mix in the vanilla
7. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, until light and creamy
8. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended
9. Stir in the chocolate chips. I usually use a wooden spoon or my hands, but try not to over work the dough. Just enough to fully incorporate. 
10. Drop cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. I used 1/8 cup which  gave me large cookies. 

makes about 25 cookies or 15 very large ones

Cookies should be 3 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes or until done to your likeness. I like mine a little under cooked, so I took them out at 15 minutes, but if you like a crunchy cookie bake for 18 minutes.The edges should be lightly golden, but not overly dark. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let them completely cool before storing in an air tight container. They freeze well....If they last that long.

Shortbread Sandwich Cookies With Blood Orange Filling For Anna-Karin and Smilla

oh so pretty and comforting

Have you ever mindlessly wanted to bake till you drop? Well that is a constant desire in my little pea sized brain. I have visions of baking from dawn to dusk, and it is even worse with cooking. I am sure it is to compensate when I am feeling low or the weather has been crappy outside.
I was on such  a good pace with my blog. Adding entries regularly and enjoying it. Work was well, and my time in my Swedish language internship had not started yet, and I was feeling confident. Then.... we got the news....
A friend from Goat's past and (lilla A's godfather) S. good friend C, died in a horrific car accident that left two dead and one walking away from the scene physically unhurt, but scared for life.(He was wearing a seat belt)

I was all set to make an entry then I just couldn't it was so hard to be up beat and cheery. I never really had a relationship with the deceased but the people who mean the most to me did. It is a strange place to be. It is like grieving through osmosis. I wanted to post something for my pal A-K.Who like me loves, loves and loves baking even more than me, and something that perhaps would give her some sort of pleasure in her time of need. This is for S&A.K and the true meaning of friendship and food. It is like bread and butter they are hardly separated

try to make then the same size you want to sandwich these babies .

Looking  forward to seeing you both on sunday. Vad blir det för mat?.(what kind of food is it going to be)?  

Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2
Melting Moments a.k.a. Shortbread with Blood orange filling sandwich cookies.

175g butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour all purpose(sifted)
1/4 cup (cornstarch) corn flour(sifted)

Directions: Preheat oven to 180C or 350F
Place butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat with mixer until light and creamy.

shortbread!

Stir in the flour and the cornstarch until combined. 

baked until just golden!

look at that color, can 't go wrong with a blood orange!

a cookie spatula is a great investment  

Place mixture into a piping bag with a star or fluted nozzle and pipe them in rounds about 3cm, 1 inch onto a baking tray lined with baking paper or silicon sheets. Allow room for some spreading. Mine spread quite a lot, and I think I should of chilled them prior to baking. They are a real super tasting shortbread cookie. DELICATE so be gentle when you ice them and sandwich them. You should get 16 pairs out of this recipe, but I only got 13. I think mine where too big?? Let the cookies cool completely on their trays and then remove the icing from the fridge and ice them with about a couple of small teaspoons of the blood orange filling. Find two some what matching shapes and sandwich them together. Let chill in fridge to stiffen the filling, but let them rest 10 minutes before serving. A good cup of Earl Grey tea would go so nicely with these! 


Filling
60 g butter softened
1 cup icing sugar(confectioner's sugar)
2 teaspoons or one whole blood orange(small one)
2 teaspoons blood orange grated orange peel.

Melting moments shortbread cookies with blood orange filling sandwich cookies for those times of need

To make the filling, place the butter, icing sugar,blood orange juice and rind in a bowl and whip with electric mixer until fluffy and creamy. I set it in the fridge for at least 10 minutes prior to icing. A little firmer to work with. May these little comforting cookies find a place in your kitchen as they are super fast and easy to make.Enjoy, and thanks Donna for the inspiration!

Ralston* Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

yes, that is the melted white chocolate oozing out 

The other day. I watched the new film 127 Hours with the goat. It was a  film that I really wished I had read the book first. Would I have the courage to last almost a week in the same situation? I don't know, and let's hope if I do, I have a bag of these cookies along for the ride. These little feller's are packed with ewe, dewy goodness. Roasted hazelnuts, organic oatmeal,,butter, white chocolate organic sultans, golden raisins, cinnamon and butter!  One bite and I am sure you would agree these are for keepers.

To toast the nuts: Chop up one cup of your favorite nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts work best here. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and toast nuts for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned and fragrant.Let cool.

Line two baking sheets with baking paper or silicon sheets

for Aron..

1 cup of nuts roasted, and chopped
3/4 cup butter room temperature( I used salted and omitted the salt in recipe)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup of  all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt ( if your using unsalted butter)
1 teaspoon of good quality cinnamon
3 cups of organic old- fashioned rolled oats
1 cup of good quality white chocolate  ( I use Chocovic Spanish chocolate) from http://www.mumsigt.se
1 cup of organic sultanas
1/2 cup golden raisins

In a large mixing bowl use either a hand mixer or a stand mixer, and add the butter and sugar. Mix  until creamy.About 2-3 minutes.Add the egg and the vanilla and mix again until incorporated.In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda. Add to the wet mixture and beat until combined. Stir in nuts,oatmeal, white chocolate, sultans,golden raisins and mix well.Add a splash of water if it  seems a little dry, but just a splash.

I like a larger cookie so I usually shape them like if i was making a burger. About the palm of your hand and flatten slightly on your prepared baking sheet.Space about 2-3 cm apart and bake for 10-13 minutes. The edges should be nice and golden with chocolate starting to ooze out. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer to cooling rack. Makes 12-15 large cookies. To prevent cookies sticking to your hands wet your hands with water and this should help to flatten and mold them into shape.

Monster Cookies are the bomb

I think these speak for themselves....

                                                     Monster Cookies


1 cup of soft butter organic or non salted is best
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1tsp.vanilla
2tsp.baking soda 
1 3/4 cup of flour 
3 eggs room temperature
1 1/2 cups peanut butter

3 cups quick oatmeal
1 1/2 cups of chopped up good quality dark baking chocolate or your favorite chocolate bar such as diam etc...

milly lilly's

1 1/2 cups of Milly lilly's or smarties, m&m's, non stop's.


Mix in bowl in order given. Drop by large tablespoon or ice cream scoop and flatten with hand. Bake 
at 175  degrees C or 350 degrees F. bake for 12 minutes but everyones oven is different. I usually take them out around 9-10 minutes as i like a much chewier moist cookie. If you like them crunchy or with a snap bake the full 12 or so minutes. Let them cool on the baking tray for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. 

For those about to rock........

I choose to use mostly organic products. Here in Sweden most large grocery stores have a wonderful selection of organic products. I buy the Milly Lilly's, organic flours, Cornwall sea salt,organic oatmeal, chocolate  at Systrana Jonssons skafferi in Lanvetter. brattåsvägen 58  031 91 88 30. Peanut butter is easily found in Sweden. Does not really make a difference to  which brand just any one will do. crunchy or smooth.