Sweet sick day with cookies and hugs

Today I stayed at home to care for my sick little girl. At least, it's a productive day in the sweets making and cuddling department.

I came up with these cookies while I was trying to find ways to use this big bag of almond flour I bought. I found a promising recipe on Anja's food for thought blog but my constantly multi-tasking self misread part of the recipes and I ended up with inadvertently delicious cookies. Here is my modified recipe for this almond sandwich cookies with a cherry filling:



Wet ingredients:
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 orange or lemon zest (optional)

Dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup cherry jam or any other kind. This recipe would also work well with nutella or lemon curd.

loosely inspired from:
http://www.anjasfood4thought.com/2011/05/vanilla-oatmeal-almond-cookies.html



Mix wet ingredients together. Add dry ingredients gradually. Spoon about 2 Tbs dough onto parchment paper.

Bake at 375F for 10 minutes.

When cooled down, place about 1-2 teaspoons of jam at the center of a cookie and assemble the sandwiches. Makes about 12 sandwiches.



These cookies are good by themselves too. The texture is cakey, a bit like a muffin or a cupcake. They would be perfect to make whoopie pies.

Do you have a favorite sandwich cookie?

crazy about liberty!

ideas to decorate a little girl's room at {cyrillus}


and also:
{this} French mama blog I just love.
{this} Moroccan inspired recipe for orange blossom almond milk and pistachio-date truffles. yum.

Recipe from Grid

I really love GRID MAGAZINE and this week-end I found myself with plenty of time on my hand because of a beautiful and unexpected snow day, so I tried one of GRID's vegan recipe for a pear tart tatin. It was incredibly easy to make and tasted delicious. I don't think this picture really does it justice (Edan called it 'pornographic') but it was really yummy!

Pistachio, Rose water and Cardamon... sounds like a cake made by Sheherazade!

In my quest for vegan baked goods, I have found this beautiful blog that enchanted me with a recipe out of an Arabian tale: pistachio and rose water cake with cardamon!

And here is my version of it: I made it into a cake sheet...


I also added a drop of pink food coloring. It was delicious. Moist, sweet with a lovely flowery flavor!

afternoon tea

I tried and adapted this great recipe for vegan thumbprint cookies. They are so delicious and can easily be made gluten-free, for the gluten free friends. Enjoy them with a cup of earl grey!
1/4 cup almond or macademia nut, ground
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 pinch salt
1/3 maple syrup
1/8 light oil (canola or corn)
1/8 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons preserve (I used cherry but apricot or raspberry would be great too)
11/2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients. Mix all wet ingredients. Mix both mixtures. Flatten cookies onto a pan. Put a little jam on each cookie. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the edges start to get golden brown.

Monday: eating tea

I always try to find ways to incorporate tea in my baking. My last attempt is this Matcha Tea Cake I made on a week-end. It was light and moist and of course I loved the delicate flavor of matcha tea powder. Click here for the full recipe.

Later, I used the same recipe but used rose petals and rose water instead of matcha powder. Here is the result:

Thursday: Chai-Coconut Smoothie

glass by designer Eleanor Grosh

1 banana
2 cups chai-infused soy milk (prepare chai tea using soy milk instead of water)
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 chocolate macaron cups by Smart Treat
1/2 cup maple syrup
Ice

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

I enjoyed this smoothie with an apple crumb bun from the Amish market. Yum!

Now I realized that this Shinzi Katoh 2 pieces mug is just what I need to enjoy my drink with a treat. It's available at online boutique three potato four.

pictures belong to three potato four

friday : favorite soundtrack to my gypsy tea

I have a real obsession for gypsy dance and music, hence the extended soundtrack.

This one is by Shantel, a new sensation in the Balkan. It's called 'Disko Partizani'


This one is the New York based band Gogol Bordello


And finally, my own personal attempt at Gypsy folk dance. Not so convincing but I'm still working on it!


And here is the recipe for homemade Gypsy Tea, enjoy!

Ingredients

2 Oranges                                          
3 Lemons                             
1 dozen Cloves        
1 Tbs. Ground Allspice                    
1/2 Cinnamon Stick                                     
3 Tbs. Black Tea                                     
2 Quarts Boiling Water                                     
1 & 1/4 Cups Sugar

Directions
                               
Squeeze juice from the oranges & lemons; set aside. Remove rinds & put in large
container. Add cloves, allspice, cinnamon sticks & tea. Pour boiling water over
the tea mixture & let stand for about 10 minutes. Strain & then return liquid
container. Stir in the juices & sugar. 

Tuesday: Vegan Red Velvet Cake

I am experimenting for Valentine's Day. I have always been intrigued by red velvet cakes. I love their deep crimson color and rich cocoa flavor. So I tried this recipe I found on a vegetarian Christian website.

The directions are a bit misleading so I had to change a few things. Here is my corrected version

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 cup soymilk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoon cocoa powder unsweetened
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 ounces vegan red food coloring (or beet juice)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a cake mold.

In a cup pour the milk and add the lemon juice (I used vinegar). Let sit. This makes buttermilk.

In a small bowl mix together cocoa and food coloring to form a slight paste.

Cream together the margarine, sugar and then add the the applesauce, vanilla flavor, vinegar and cocoa paste.

Mix the salt, baking soda and flour together and add it to the creamed mixture. Add the buttermilk.

Pour batter into a greased cake pans and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

...I am pretty happy with it. The texture is moist and it has a rich cocoa flavor. I decided to double the cocoa powder amount, this is why my cake is dark brown instead of a more reddish color.