I’ve already shared one recipe in this series: my Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits, inspired by Rosamund and Posy Li, two of the new characters in Season 4. Today’s recipe is inspired by their mother: Araminta Gun, the Evil Stepmother-esque antagonist of the season, played by Katie Leung (whom you might recognise as Cho Chang from the Harry Potter films!).

Table of Contents

• The Inspiration
• Equipment
• Ingredients
• How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets
  • Making the Chocolate Shortbread Dough
  • Pressing the Shortbread into the Tartlet Tins
  • Baking the Shortbread
  • Making the Espresso Caramel
  • Making the Ganache
    • Microwave Method
    • Hob Method
    • Serving Instructions
• Recipe

The Inspiration

Araminta Gun is the archetypal ‘Evil Stepmother’; she’s twice-widowed, always wearing black and positively brimming with nefarious schemes. When it came to creating a sweet treat inspired by her character, I immediately thought of some sort of double-chocolate tart (I mean, with that all-black wardrobe, it was kind of a must!): chocolate pastry and a dark, chocolate filling for a super moody, but still sophisticated and elegant treat. I actually received some tartlet tins (these ones, from Lakeland!), for my birthday last year, so I decided to make mini tarts instead of one big tart (one of the best decisions I could have made, as it turns out— more on that in a sec!). I also love making my Bridgerton-inspired recipes feel like they could fit right in at a fancy afternoon tea, so tartlets seemed like the perfect choice.

I absolutely could have made a simple, dark chocolate ganache tart with a chocolate pastry, but I wanted something a little bit more unusual for this recipe. I toyed with a couple of different ideas, but eventually settled on something that I was really excited about: a Millionaire’s Shortbread-inspired, espresso-flavoured tart. If you aren’t familiar with Millionaire’s Shortbread, it’s a super popular treat here in the UK: it’s typically served in bar form (like a brownie or slice) and features a layer of shortbread, a layer of condensed milk caramel and a layer of chocolate.

Money plays a key role in Araminta’s storyline, so the whole ‘millionaire’ vibe seemed like a perfect fit. She’s by no means a sweet character though and Millionaire’s Shortbread is (perhaps infamously) a very sweet dessert, so I wanted something that, along with the darker, double-chocolate element, would tone that sweetness down and speak more to the bitterness of her character: enter, the espresso. Chocolate and coffee is such a classic pairing (it even has a name: mocha!), so this flavour combination isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the tartlets still feel pretty unusual and exciting (while still being absolutely delicious and very palatable)!

While you would usually use pastry for a tartlet, I’ve opted to use a shortbread base here for a few reasons. Firstly, I wanted to stick as closely as possible to a typical Millionaire’s Shortbread. Secondly, the added sweetness of the shortbread compared to a pastry actually works really well in this recipe, because both the espresso and chocolate are, well, not so sweet. Thirdly (and finally), I actually have a bit of a mental block about pastry: I just haven’t been able to master it yet! This shortbread base is SO much easier to work with than a classic shortcrust pastry: it’s really great!

So, in summation: my Araminta Gun-inspired, Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets feature a chocolate shortbread crust, an espresso caramel filling and a shiny, dark chocolate ganache glaze. All of these elements come together to make the slightly more refined, much less sweet cousin of the Millionaire’s Shortbread and, I have to say, they might just be one of my favourite treats yet!

Equipment

As I mentioned, I used these tartlet tins from Lakeland for this recipe. They’re 10cm in diameter, 2cm deep, non-stick and have fluted edges and removable bases.

If you’re able, I really do recommend making this recipe in tartlet form: I’ve tried it in a couple of different formats (bars, bigger tarts etc.) and the ratio of the different layers is just perfect in the mini form! Plus, they slice so beautifully and look so pretty: I might just have to start developing even more tartlet recipes so we can all justify the presence of specialist tartlet tins in our kitchens…

Ingredients

To make these Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets, you will need:

• Caster sugar

I use golden caster sugar here, as I do for most of my bakes, because I think it adds a deeper flavour. If you only have white caster sugar though, that will work absolutely fine!

• Butter

I’m using salted butter here, because the salt really enhances the chocolate flavour and helps to temper the sweetness of the caramel. If you only have unsalted butter to hand, that’s absolutely fine— just add a pinch or two of fine sea salt to both the shortbread and the caramel.

• Plain flour

Don’t be tempted to use self-raising flour here, or your shortbread will puff up too much and you won’t be able to fit the fillings into the tartlet cases!

• Cocoa powder

Cocoa powder is what turns regular shortbread into chocolate shortbread. It is quite a drying ingredient though, so the amount of butter in the shortbread is increased slightly to ensure the dough comes together perfectly.

• Condensed milk

Ah, condensed milk: love of my life, bringer of joy. This is a key ingredient in any Millionaire’s Shortbread and this recipe is no different! It is the main ingredient in the caramel layer.

• Dark muscovado sugar

Typically, Millionaire’s Shortbread recipes use a more neutral sugar in the filling (think light brown soft sugar, light muscovado or even golden caster sugar), but I’ve used dark muscovado here to really enhance the bitter espresso flavour in the caramel and bring a little more depth and darkness to the dessert overall.

• Golden syrup

A small amount of golden syrup is also added to the caramel filling. I find that this helps to give the caramel a smoother, more velvet-y texture.

• Instant espresso powder

Instant espresso powder is the key to getting a really intense, espresso flavour without adding to much liquid to the caramel filling (and it’s readily available in most supermarkets). It is different to instant coffee granules: a bit richer and stronger, so do make sure you get the right product!

• Dark chocolate

Use a high-quality dark chocolate here for the best results— the flavour will really shine through in the finished dessert! You can go as dark as you fancy: I’ve used a 54% chocolate, because I really love the taste, but a 70% one would make for an even more sophisticated flavour.

• Double cream

We’ll melt the cream together with the chocolate to make a rich ganache. If you’re in the US, use heavy cream.

• Glucose syrup (optional)

To make sure the final layer of ganache stays really shiny, even after it’s been refrigerated, I like to add a very small amount of glucose syrup. I have this on hand for a bunch of other baking purposes, but it is a bit of a speciality ingredient. You can substitute golden syrup for the same effect, but I do find that it adds a slightly more intense sweetness to the ganache layer, so you might want to consider using a darker chocolate to balance it out!

• Sea salt

You’ll need to add a little salt to both the shortbread and the caramel if you’re using unsalted butter, just to help all of the other ingredients really shine. I also like to sprinkle the finished tarts with a little flaky sea salt: it’s a really simple decoration but it looks very elegant (and tastes delicious!). I’ve used Fleur de Sel on these tarts, which is extra delicious, but regular sea salt would also be great. Just be sure to sprinkle the salt on just before you serve the tarts, as it can dissolve slightly if it’s left in the fridge, which doesn’t look quite so pretty.

How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets

These tartlets look complicated, and there are a few different steps you need to work through, but each step is super straightforward! The shortbread crust is SO much easier to work with than a typical pastry (and it’s made entirely in the food processor!), the caramel layer is incredibly forgiving and the ganache is truly just a melt-everything-together situation. Take it step by step and you’ll be absolutely fine!

Making the Chocolate Shortbread Dough

To make the shortbread dough, put all of the dry ingredients (caster sugar, plain flour, and cocoa powder) into a food processor and pulse to combine them. I’m using a mini food processor here, because I was making a smaller batch, but I’d recommend using a standard-sized food processor for the full batch!

This ensures that the cocoa powder is well incorporated and your dough is evenly chocolatey!

Add the cold, diced butter to the dry ingredients.

Then pulse again until a chocolatey dough forms. That’s it!

A couple of tips at this point:

• Make sure your butter is cold and diced.

The cold butter helps to make the shortbread really short (hence the name!) and flaky. Dicing it beforehand means that it will combine more quickly with the rest of the ingredients.

• Don’t be tempted to add water.

Because the butter is cold, the dough will take a bit of pulsing/processing before it comes together. You might start thinking that it’s too dry to form a dough, but it’s not! You don’t need to add any extra liquid/butter, just keep processing it and the dough will form. Trust me!

Pressing the Shortbread into the Tartlet Tins

Unlike pastry, this shortbread can just be pressed into the tartlet tins. No rolling out, no flouring the work surface: just pressing in the dough with your fingers.

Start by lightly greasing each of the tartlet tins with butter. This will help you get the tarts out of the tins later on!

Bring the dough together with your hands, then divide it into 9 equal portions: 1 per tartlet tin. This way, you’ll know exactly how much dough each tartlet requires and you won’t have to worry about over-filling one and under-filling another.

Use your fingers to press one portion of the shortbread into one of the tartlet tins. Aim for an even layer of shortbread across the base and up the sides of the tin, leaving a small amount of overhang at the top edge. This doesn’t need to be perfect, as we’ll smooth everything out later, once the tarts come out of the oven.

Use a rolling pin to roll over the top of each tartlet tin. This will remove the excess shortbread dough and leave a super neat, flat edge on the tartlet shells.

The final step before the tartlet shells can be baked is to prick them all over with a fork. The shortbread will still puff up a little in the oven, but this allows the steam to escape and helps to minimise the puffing, so don’t skip it!

Once all of your tartlet shells are filled with shortbread and ready to go, collect all of the offcuts and bring them together with your hands. These offcuts can be formed into a few little chocolate biscuits, which can be baked alongside the tartlets as chef’s treats. Don’t be tempted to press the offcuts back into the tartlets— you want that extra space for the fillings!

Baking the Shortbread

Arrange the tartlets (and the extra biscuits!) on a baking tray, then bake them in the middle of the oven at 175°C (conventional, not fan) for 12-15 minutes, until the shortbread is puffed and the surface looks dry. If you’re still waiting for your oven to preheat, I’d recommend putting the tartlets into the fridge to keep them nice and cold until you can bake them.

At this point, the shortbread won’t resemble a tart shell. However, while it’s warm, it will be soft enough to manipulate, so you can use a metal dessertspoon/cup measure to gently press down on the base to flatten it back down and against the sides to sharpen them up and make it resemble a tart shell once more. This sounds fiddly, but it’s actually so quick and easy to do (and I would still take it over rolling out pastry!).

Repeat this for all of your tarts, so that you’re left with perfect little cocoa shortbread tartlet shells, ready to be filled! Set them aside to cool slightly while you make the espresso caramel filling.

Making the Espresso Caramel

I know, I know, the word ‘caramel’ can send even the most confident of bakers into a spiral, but I promise, this one’s easy! No sugar thermometers, no convoluted temperature tests, just everything in a pot and a bit of light stirring.

I like to use a saucepan with a pouring spout for this, because it makes it super easy to pour the hot caramel into the tartlet shells when it’s ready. If you have one, I’d definitely recommend it.

Place the butter, condensed milk, dark muscovado sugar and golden syrup into the saucepan and set it over a low heat.

Stir the mixture every now and then until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

While this is happening, dissolve the instant espresso powder in a splash of hot water and set it aside, ready for later.

Once the mixture is smooth, turn the heat up slightly to medium-low and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. The mixture has a tendency to stick, so you need to stir more frequently at this stage to stop it from burning.

Allow the mixture to boil for a couple of minutes, until it’s nice and thick. I realise this is a little vague, but don’t stress about it: a minute or two of boiling and stirring and you’ll be absolutely fine!

Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the dissolved instant espresso powder until it is completely incorporated.

Adding the espresso at this stage ensures that the coffee doesn’t burn while the sugar boils, which would make everything a little too bitter (and much less tasty!).

With that, the caramel layer is ready! Pour it into the tartlet shells, filling each tartlet about 3/4 full (this is to leave space for the ganache layer later).

Set the tartlets aside at room temperature to cool completely (about 30 minutes to an hour) before making the ganache layer.

Making the Ganache

The final layer of the tarts is a simple, dark chocolate ganache, with the addition of a not-so-secret ingredient to make it extra shiny and help it slice really nicely when served. This ingredient is glucose syrup (also known as liquid glucose). If you can’t find glucose syrup, you can use golden syrup instead (though this has a slightly more intense, caramel-y sweetness, so I would recommend using a slightly darker chocolate to balance this out if you do).

You can make the ganache in the microwave or on the hob. I tend to use the microwave, because it’s so easy!

Microwave Method

Finely chop the dark chocolate, then put it into a microwaveable jug with the cream and the glucose syrup.

Heat this in the microwave on the lowest heat setting in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each burst, until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache.

Hob Method

Finely chop the dark chocolate and place it into a heatproof jug.

Place the cream and glucose syrup into a small saucepan, then set over a medium heat and bring to just below a simmer, stirring frequently to ensure that it does not catch.

Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and leave to sit for a minute.

After a minute, stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache.

Whichever method you use, once the ganache is ready, pour it over the caramel layer on each of the tartlets, filling them right up to the top, so that the ganache is level with the top edge of the shortbread crust. Give the tarts a gentle shake from side to side to smooth out the ganache layer and ensure that it completely covers the caramel layer below.

Transfer the tartlets to the fridge and allow them to chill for at least 2 hours (though they can be stored in the fridge like this for 2-3 days: the espresso flavour will get even more intense the longer they chill!) before serving.

Serving Instructions

When you’re ready to serve the tarts, carefully remove them from their tins. I find the best way to do this is to gently pull the sides of the tin away from the shortbread all the way around to loosen it, then set the tin on a small jar/tin and press down gently on the top edge to release it, making sure to apply any pressure as evenly as possible around the circumference of the tin. Then, hold the tartlet upside down and use a small, sharp knife to pry the base of the tin off the bottom of the tartlet.

Just before serving, sprinkle the tartlets with a little flaky sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel, for extra fanciness!). You can either slice the tartlets into tiny slices (SO CUTE!) or you can serve them whole for extra decadence. If you are slicing them, I recommend using a small, sharp knife and wiping it off in between each cut so that you can see the pretty layers.

Don’t be tempted to sprinkle the tartlets with salt ahead of time, while they’re still in the fridge, because I find that the salt starts dissolving and looks a lot less pretty if you do this.

Recipe

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Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets

Inspired by the character of Araminta Gun in Bridgerton: Season 4, these tartlets feature a chocolate shortbread crust, an espresso caramel filling and a shiny, dark chocolate ganache layer, all topped off with a sprinkling of sea salt.

Course Dessert

Keyword Caramel, Chocolate, Espresso, Millionaire’s Shortbread

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 9 tartlets

Equipment

• 9 x 10cm diameter tartlet tins

Ingredients

For the chocolate shortbread:

• 75 g caster sugar
• 225 g plain flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 180 g salted butter, cold and diced, plus extra for greasing (see Note 1).

For the espresso caramel layer:

• 100 g salted butter (see Note 1).
• 1 x 397g can condensed milk
• 100 g dark muscovado sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tbsp instant espresso powder, dissolved in a splash of hot water.

For the ganache layer:

• 90 g dark chocolate, finely chopped (see Note 2).
• 180 ml double cream
• 1/2 tsp glucose syrup (see Note 3).

To finish:

• Flaky sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel, but any sea salt would work).

Instructions

Make the chocolate shortbread tartlet shells:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C (conventional oven, not fan). Grease 9 tartlet tins lightly with butter and set aside.
• Place all of the shortbread ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a dough forms (this will take a bit of time— just keep processing and it will come together! Don't be tempted to add any water.).
• Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface and finish bringing it together with your hands. Divide the dough into 9 equal portions, one for each tartlet tin.
• Press a ball of dough into one of the tartlet tins, aiming to get an even layer of shortbread right across the bottom and up the sides of the tin. Leave a small amount of overhang at the top of the tin, then use a rolling pan to roll over the top of the tin to remove the extra dough and leave a super neat edge. The dough offcuts can be used to make a few little chocolate biscuits that can be baked alongside the tartlets.
• Prick the dough on the base of each tartlet all over with a fork, then bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until the surface looks dry (the shortbread will still puff up quite a bit, but that's okay— we'll fix it in the next step!).
• As soon as the tartlet shells come out of the oven, use a dessertspoon/metal cup measure to gently press the shortbread down on the base and around the sides. The shortbread will still be quite soft when it's warm, so you can easily reshape it to make the perfect little tart shells.
• Leave the tarts to one side to cool slightly while you make the caramel layer.

Make the espresso caramel layer:

• Place the butter, condensed milk, dark muscovado sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan (preferably one with a pouring spout, if you have one). Set over low heat and stir every now and then until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
• Turn the heat up slightly to medium-low and allow the mixture to boil, stirring frequently, for a couple of minutes, until thick.
• Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the dissolved instant espresso powder until completely incorporated.
• Pour the hot caramel into the tartlet shells, filling each tartlet about 3/4 full (you need to leave room for the ganache layer). Set the tartlets aside at room temperature to cool completely (about 30 minutes to 1 hour).

Make the ganache layer:

• Once the tartlets are completely cool, make the ganache layer. Place all of the ganache ingredients into a microwaveable jug and heat on the lowest setting in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each burst, until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache. If you don't have a microwave, bring the cream and glucose syrup to just below a simmer in a saucepan, then pour over the chopped chocolate, leave to stand for a minute, then stir until smooth.
• Pour the ganache onto the cooled tartlets, filling them right up to the top, so that the ganache sits level with the top of the shortbread crust. Give the tarts a gentle shake from side to side to make sure the ganache layer is smooth and completely covers the caramel layer below.
• Transfer the tarts to the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. The tarts can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days, so you can make them ahead of time (the espresso flavour will also get more intense as they chill).

To serve:

• Carefully remove the tartlets from their tins. Sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt and serve.

Notes

1. You can use unsalted butter instead: use the same amount but add a pinch or two of fine sea salt.
2. I used a 54% dark chocolate, which isn’t super dark, but works really well with the other flavours. If you want a slightly more bitter, intense flavour, use a darker chocolate (a 70% would work well!).
3. Adding a small amount of glucose syrup to the ganache makes it super shiny and helps it slice really nicely. Glucose syrup is a bit of a specialist ingredient though so, if you don’t have it to hand, you can use golden syrup instead. Golden syrup has a slightly more intense, caramel-y flavour and sweetness, so, if you do this, so you might want to consider using a darker chocolate to balance it out.

The first recipe in this series is for these Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits: my tribute to the Li Sisters, Rosamund and Posy, who made their debuts in Season 4.

Table of Contents

• The Inspiration
• Ingredients
• How to Make Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits
• Recipe

The Inspiration

Season 4 of Bridgerton is, at its heart, a Cinderella story. As part of that, it follows the oft-used approach of having one of ‘Cinderella’s’ stepsisters be, well, nicer than the other: in this case, Posy is an absolute sweetheart and Rosamund is… I guess, whatever the opposite of that is.

Do you guys remember that old nursery rhyme that says something about girls being made of “sugar, spice and everything nice”? These two characters really remind me of it: Rosamund feels very spice and Posy feels very sugar. The official Bridgerton Instagram account ALSO referenced sugar and spice with regard to these characters (you can see the post here!), which made me feel extremely validated, so I figured that the whole sugar & spice thing would be a great concept for this recipe.

Last Christmas, I made Swedish Schackrutor for the first time as part of my Baking Around the World series. These tiny shortbread biscuits have a 2×2 checkerboard pattern, made with a combination of vanilla and chocolate dough. I thought these checkerboard biscuits would be a perfect base for this recipe: two sisters, two completely difference personalities and two doughs, all coming together to make one (delicious) biscuit!

When it came to deciding on the flavours, I was partially influenced by the whole sugar-and-spice vibe, but also partly by colour. In much of the promotional media for Season 4, Rosamund and Posy are seen wearing pink and green floral-print dresses: both fabrics feature the same pattern, but the colours are inverted. This fit so well with the checkerboard biscuit idea, I just had to make these biscuits pink and green, which heavily inspired the resulting flavours. I also love that these biscuits feel super Bridgerton: they’re colourful and fun, but they’re also fancy and delicate.

I’m not opposed to using food colouring, but, if I can, I prefer to use more natural alternatives. These biscuits are food-colouring free, tinted pink and green by the freeze-dried strawberry powder and matcha powder, respectively. Strawberry and matcha not only fit the pink-and-green colour palette perfectly, but they’re also a really delicious pairing, as evidenced by the strawberry matcha lattes that went viral over the past year (or two years? Or five years? I’m not even sure…)! I really liked the idea of these biscuits referencing the time period in which Bridgerton: Season 4 was released, as well as being inspired by the Regency setting of the show, so I ran with the flavour combo.

I did, however, want to incorporate a spicy element into the biscuits, so I opted to pair the strawberry flavour with pink peppercorns. I’ve actually heard of people pairing strawberries with black pepper before, so I figured pink peppercorns weren’t too much of a stretch: they’re milder (though they still bring a little bit of warmth to the dough), with a slight citrus-y note, and fit the pink colour palette perfectly, so I figured they’d be a great option here!

Honestly, I’m not usually the biggest fan of matcha (sometimes I just find it a little too earthy?), but I had a matcha panna cotta once that I absolutely loved and I think the difference was the presence of vanilla in the recipe: it really brings out the sweetness of the matcha without overpowering its flavour. Therefore, I opted to include a small amount of vanilla bean paste in the matcha dough, to make it a little more sweet and a little more delicious (for me, at least!).

Ingredients

The basic biscuit dough is a simple shortbread, using the classic 1-2-3 ratio of caster sugar-butter-plain flour (the same base that I used for my Schackrutor recipe). I’ve used unsalted butter here, but you can use salted butter if you prefer.

This recipe doesn’t make a huge batch of biscuits (they’re pretty tiny!), but you can easily scale it up to make more if you want.

To flavour the doughs, I used the following 4 ingredients:

• Freeze dried strawberries

It turns out that freeze dried strawberries aren’t as readily available as freeze dried raspberries in the supermarkets near me (who knew?), so I purchased mine on Amazon. They’re a great way of getting loads of strawberry flavour into bakes, particularly ones like shortbread that can’t handle too much additional liquid.

I bought freeze dried strawberries slices and ground them into a fine powder myself, using a mortar and pestle. If you can find them in powder form, you can absolutely buy them like that instead.

• Pink peppercorns

Surprisingly, pink peppercorns are not related to the classic black peppercorns we know and love (I’m lying, black pepper and I do not see eye to eye). Pink peppercorns are actually a dried berry! However, because they have a pepper-y flavour, they’re often grouped together with the other peppers of the world. Along with their relatively mild, but still warming, pepperiness, they have an almost citrus-y flavour, which works really well with the fruitiness of the strawberries and the earthiness of the matcha powder.

You can of course leave the pink peppercorns out to make these into Strawberry Matcha biscuits. I’d probably still keep the vanilla in if you do this, just to really highlight the matcha flavour.

• Matcha powder

Make sure you get a high quality, pure matcha powder (not one of the flavoured alternatives) for this recipe. It can be quite expensive, but you don’t need much at all for this recipe.

• Vanilla bean paste

I like to use vanilla bean paste in these biscuits because it adds plenty of vanilla flavour without adding as much liquid as regular vanilla extract would (and without the faff of dealing with a vanilla bean). As I mentioned earlier, I find that adding vanilla to matcha desserts really brings out the sweetness of the matcha, so I definitely think it’s a worthwhile addition to this recipe!

How to Make Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits

Making the base dough for these checkerboard biscuits is super easy: you just put the ingredients (sugar, butter and flour) into a food processor (I use a mini one) and pulse/process until everything comes together. That’s it!

Things get a little more complex when it comes to flavouring and shaping the biscuits, but it’s still pretty straightforward once you know what you’re doing.

First things first, split the dough into two equal portions. I like to use a weighing scale for this to make sure that both halves of the dough are exactly the same size.

Add the matcha powder and the vanilla bean paste to one half of the dough. To the other half, add the freeze-dried strawberry powder and the ground pink peppercorns.

Working with one dough at a time, knead in the flavourings until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough and the colour is even.

Once you have both doughs ready to go, you need to split both of them up into smaller portions. Again, I like to use a weighing scale for this to ensure the portions are all the same. Start by dividing each ball of dough into 3 equal portions.

Then, divide 2 of each of those 3 portions in half again. You should be left with 1 large ball and 4 small balls of each dough flavour. The smaller balls will form the checkerboard body of the biscuits, while the larger ball will be rolled out and wrapped around the biscuits to form the border.

Use your hands and a bench scraper (or a clean, metal ruler: anything that will help you to really square off the edges of the dough) to shape each of the smaller balls into rectangular logs (you want the cross section of each log to be approximately 1 cm x 1 cm), making sure the logs are as equal as possible in length. You should end up with four green logs and four pink logs.

Carefully press each green log up against one of the pink logs, making sure they are stuck together, but being careful not to squish the dough out of shape too much.

Place one pair of logs on top of another pair of logs, positioning it so the top green section sits on top of the bottom pink section and vice versa. This creates the checkerboard pattern. Again, press them together, but try not to distort the shape too much. Repeat this process for the second pair of logs, so that you have two short cuboids featuring a 2×2 checkerboard pattern.

Now, it’s time to wrap the biscuits in their final dough layer! This gives the biscuits a really pretty border and makes them feel that little bit fancier (if you’d prefer to make the biscuits sans border, follow the instructions on my Swedish Schackrutor post instead— the dividing of the dough is a little less complicated if you do it that way too!).

Take one of the large dough balls and roll it out between two pieces of baking paper (you don’t want to use flour at this stage, because it will prevent the dough from sticking to the biscuit logs, so the baking paper is there to stop it from sticking to your work surface/rolling pin!). Aim for a rectangle the slightly wider than the length of one of your checkerboard logs, and long enough to wrap around the whole thing (approx. 8cm). Try to keep the thickness as even as possible, so that the border looks super neat.

Peel off the top layer of baking paper, then place one of the logs onto the dough, positioning it at one end.

Use a sharp knife to trim along the back of the log, as well as down both sides, flush with the edges of the log. This will make the final dough layer really neat.

Use the baking paper to help you roll the log down the length of the dough, wrapping it up in the dough as you go and pressing the edges gently to ensure the dough sticks to itself, until you’ve covered the whole thing like a little Battenberg. Trim off any excess dough at the end.

Repeat this process for the second log, using the other dough flavour (the final ball!) to cover it. Wrap both of the biscuit logs tightly in clingfilm, then place into the fridge to chill for 2 hours. This will firm the dough up, so that you can slice the logs without distorting your hard-earned checkerboard pattern.

There’s no need to throw away the dough offcuts— roll them all together and form them into a couple of round biscuits (top left in the photo above!). Aim to make these biscuits a similar size to the cross section of your biscuit logs (approx. 3-4cm in diameter). You can bake them alongside the ‘official’ biscuits as little chef’s treats later!

Once the logs have chilled, unwrap them and use a sharp knife to cut them into slices, approx. 5-7mm thick.

Space the biscuits out on a baking tray, lined with baking paper (they won’t spread too much, so just leave a little gap between them). Bake them at 180°C (conventional oven, not fan) for 6-8 minutes, until they’re just turning golden around the edges (this is usually easier to see in the strawberry-flavoured sections than the matcha ones!).

Allow the biscuits to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before enjoying.

Leftover biscuits can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days before they start going a little soft.

Recipe

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Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits

Inspired by the Li Sisters in Bridgerton: Season 4, these shortbread biscuits are the perfect blend of sugar and spice. Two doughs, one flavoured with matcha and vanilla, the other with strawberry and pink peppercorns, come together to make a delicious, checkerboard-pattern treat

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Matcha, Pink peppercorns, Shortbread, strawberry, Vanilla

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 8 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours

Servings 16 biscuits

Ingredients

• 25 g caster sugar
• 50 g unsalted butter, diced and softened.
• 75 g plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder (see Note 1).
• 1/2 tsp pink peppercorns, finely ground.
• 1/2 tsp matcha powder
• 1/8 tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions

• Place the sugar, butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor (I use a mini one). Pulse/process until a dough forms.
• Use a weighing scale to divide the dough in half, then place each half into a separate bowl. Knead the freeze dried strawberry powder and ground pink peppercorns into one of the dough halves, then knead the matcha powder and vanilla bean paste into the other.
• Divide each ball of dough into 3 equal pieces. Then, divide 2 of the 3 balls in half, so that you are left with 1 large ball and 4 smaller, equal balls of each colour.
• Use your hands and a bench scraper (or a clean metal ruler/anything that can be used to square off the edges of the dough) to form each of the smaller balls into short, rectangular logs (the cross section should be about 1 cm x 1 cm) of the same length. You should end up with 4 green logs and 4 pink logs.
• Press one pink log alongside one green log. Make sure they are stuck together, but try not to distort the shape too much. Repeat this for the remaining logs.
• Press one pair of logs on top of another, positioning them so that the top green section sits on the bottom pink section and vice versa. Repeat this for the second pair of logs, so that you end up with two larger, rectangular logs with a 2×2 checkerboard pattern.
• Roll out one of the larger dough balls between two sheets of baking paper. Don't add any flour at this stage. Aim to roll the dough into a rough rectangle, slightly wider than the length of one log and a little over 8cm long, so that it can be used to wrap all the way around one of the logs.
• Peel off the top sheet of baking paper, then place one of the logs on top of the rolled out dough, at one end. Use a sharp knife to trim off the excess dough along the back of the log and down both sides, flush with the edges of the log.
• Using the baking paper to help you, roll the log down the length of the rolled out dough, pressing gently to help the dough stick to itself, until it is completely covered, like a Battenberg. Trim off any excess dough, then repeat the process for the second log with the final, large ball of dough (in the other colour).
• Any offcuts can be rolled together and pressed into little round biscuits to be baked alongside the checkerboard biscuits later.
• Wrap both biscuit logs tightly in clingfilm, then place them into the fridge to chill for 2 hours. This will firm them up, so that you can slice them without distorting the checkerboard pattern.
• After 2 hours, preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional oven, not fan). Slice each log into biscuits about 5-7mm thick, then space them out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. The biscuits won't spread very much, so you don't need to leave heaps of room between them.
• Bake the biscuits for 6-8 minutes, until just starting to turn golden around the edges. Allow them to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling before serving. The biscuits can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days before they start going a little soft.

Notes

1. If you buy the slices of freeze dried strawberries, this works out at approximately 2g (or 5ish slices). Grind the slices into a fine powder using either a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. 

And welcome to the latest, festive instalment of my Baking Around the World series, where I (attempt to) bake delicious, sweet treats from around the globe, in an effort to broaden my foodie horizons!

This time, we’re heading back to Sweden! I’ve already made one bake from Sweden (jordgubbstårta, a light and airy cake filled with pastry cream and strawberries), but I love making festive cookies from around the world this time of year, so I decided to try out these schackrutor (‘chess squares’) too.

A quick Baking Around the World disclaimer before we get into the recipe:

While I have done/will do extensive research for each of the recipes in this series, the recipes are unlikely to be 100% authentic because of differences in ingredient availability, variations within families/regions and multiple other reasons. I'm so sorry if I absolutely butcher your favourite childhood treat (and please let me know in the comments if I have made any unforgiveable errors), but please do give me the benefit of the doubt here- I am just a baker with a serious sweet tooth, trying to broaden her baking (and cultural) horizons through tasty snacks :)

Table of Contents

• Schackrutor: Explained
• Ingredients
• Making the Dough
• Shaping the Dough
• Slicing and Baking the Cookies
• Storage Instructions
• Final Thoughts
• Recipe
• Sources Used

Schackrutor: Explained

Schackrutor are bitesize, shortbread-style biscuits that are made with two flavours of dough (vanilla and chocolate), which are pieced together to create a (typically) 2×2 checkerboard (hence the name, which means ‘chess squares’). Checkerboard cookies are popular all over the world, but it seems that schackrutor were where it all began!

These cookies aren’t restricted to being a ‘Christmas cookie’, but I think they make such a lovely festive treat, especially if you have any friends/family members who aren’t a fan of the more traditional Christmas flavours (think nuts, oranges and dried fruits!).

Schackrutor are often served in Sweden for fika (a social coffee break steeped in rich tradition), sometimes are part of the ‘sju sorters kakor’ (‘seven types of cookie’) custom. Apparently, seven is considered the ideal number for cookies at a gathering, because any less would be ‘stingy’ and any more would be ‘over the top’! To save time, one dough is often used to make multiple different types of biscuits, sometimes called ‘1-2-3 Cookies’, (because of the proportions of the ingredients in the dough: 1 : 2 : 3 of sugar : butter : flour!) and this is the dough we’ll be making today.

Ingredients

You only need 5 ingredients to make schackrutor. The basic dough itself only requires 3 ingredients, while the 2 remaining ingredients provide the chocolate and vanilla flavour.

• Caster sugar

I used golden caster sugar, but white caster sugar will also work.

• Salted butter

I discovered in my research for the jordgubbstårta that the majority of the butter available in Swedish supermarket tends to be salted, so I’ve used salted butter here in an attempt to be more authentic! It’s great, because then you don’t have to worry about adding any salt yourself! If you only have unsalted butter, I’d recommend adding a generous pinch of fine sea salt to your flour at the beginning of the recipe. Your butter needs to be at room temperature (or slightly softened, if your house is chilly!).

• Plain flour

It’s important to use plain flour (not self-raising) for this recipe, because you don’t want the biscuits to rise— you want them to be short and crumbly!

• Vanilla bean paste

In Sweden, vanilla flavour is usually imparted via the addition of a store-bought product called vaniljsocker (‘vanilla sugar’). This ingredient is not readily available here in the UK, so I’ve used vanilla bean paste instead. I like using the paste because it imparts a lovely vanilla flavour without adding too much liquid to the dough (and you can see all the tiny vanilla bean specks in the cookies!).

• Cocoa powder

A small amount of cocoa powder is added to half of the dough to give it a chocolate-y flavour and a deep brown colour, which contrasts nicely with the vanilla dough and helps the checkerboard design to really stand out.

Making the Dough

Schackrutor dough is really easy to make: I do it in the food processor (because the cookies are so tiny, you only need a small amount of dough, so I do it in my mini food processor. You could easily scale the recipe up and make loads of biscuits, though!).

Place the caster sugar, softened butter, plain flour and vanilla bean paste into the food processor.

Pulse everything together until it comes together into a dough… and that’s the dough made!

Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface.

Then give it a little knead to bring it together into a smooth ball.

At this point, you need to weigh the dough, so that you can split it in half evenly. You can eyeball this, but you’ll get the neatest, most even cookies if you weight it! Weigh the whole ball of dough, then divide that number by 2 and split the dough into two equal balls, each weighing that final amount.

Now you need to add the cocoa powder to one of the dough balls. I like to knead it in by hand, until no streaks of vanilla dough remain, so that I can make sure it’s really well incorporated! It’s a little messy, but all the best things are.

Once you have two balls of dough: one chocolate and one vanilla, you’re ready to shape the dough into the classic checkerboard design!

Shaping the Dough

Now it’s time to make the schackrutor log (though it’s really more of a cuboid, which is what gives these biscuits their classic, square shape when sliced!).

The log is made up of four smaller logs (also cuboids): two vanilla and two chocolate, which are pressed together to form the checkerboard design.

Take one of your dough halves (I’m working with the chocolate dough first here) and divide it in half again, so you have two equal balls of dough (it helps to weigh and divide the dough by 2 here, just like last time, to ensure they’re perfectly even!).

Take one of the dough balls and form it into a thin, rectangular log. The aim is for the cross section of the log to be a 1 x 1 cm square (mine ended up about 17cm long). I used my hands to press the dough into a rough log, then tapped all of the sides with a bench scraper, turning the log as I went, to get those square edges.

Repeat this process for the second dough ball, making a square log as similar to the first as you can! Things might be getting a little sticky at this point, but it’s important that you don’t add any extra flour/cocoa powder, because the logs need to be tacky enough to stick to each other later on. If things get unbearably sticky, I’d recommend just washing down your work surface and utensils before getting going again (almost like a stickiness reset!).

Once you have your two chocolate logs, repeat the whole process for the vanilla dough. I’d recommend wiping down your work surface before you do this, to make sure you don’t get any streaks of cocoa in your vanilla dough. Because of the added cocoa powder in the chocolate dough, you might find that the vanilla dough is slightly softer/stickier, but don’t worry— it’ll bake up perfectly!

Once you have all four of the logs ready to go, you can form the checkerboard design.

Place one vanilla log alongside one chocolate log and press them together, being careful not to distort the shapes too much.

Then, add the second vanilla log on top of the chocolate log and the second chocolate log on top of the bottom vanilla log, pressed against each other along the middle so that you have a 2×2 design, with the logs of each colour in opposite quadrants. Gently press all of the logs together so that there are no gaps between them.

Wrap the log tightly in clingfilm, then use the bench scraper again to press gently on each of the sides a few times to really square them off.

Transfer the log to the fridge and allow it to chill for at least 2 hours before slicing. This ensures that they are firm enough to slice without disturbing the checkerboard pattern (and means that the cookies won’t spread too much during baking!).

Slicing and Baking the Cookies

Once the cookie logs have chilled, it’s time to slice & bake them!

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C (conventional oven, not fan) and lining a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Remove the schackrutor log from the fridge and use a small, sharp knife to cut it into slices, about 5-7mm thick (don’t worry too much about getting them perfect, just try your best so that they bake pretty evenly!).

Space the cookies out onto the prepared baking trays (they won’t spread too much, but it’s best to leave a little space between them, just in case!).

Then, it’s time to bake the schackrutor! They’ll need about 6-8 minutes in the preheated oven, just until the edges are starting to turn golden.

Once baked, leave them to cool for 5 or so minutes on their trays, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Storage Instructions

The schackrutor need to be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll keep for about 3 days before they start going a bit soft (still tasty, just not quite as crisp!).

Final Thoughts

I LOVE these little checkerboard cookies! They dough itself is very similar to the one I use for my 5-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits, but it really shows how versatile it is, because the two cookies have such different vibes.

Also… these cookies are SO much smaller than I expected them to be! As in, they really are bitesize. You could definitely make them bigger if you wanted to (by making taller/wider logs, or even stacking more logs together, which I’m very interested in having a go at), but I do kind of love how tiny they are, it makes them feel so cute and dainty.

These are a simple cookie, elevated to something surprisingly impressive by just a little cocoa powder and a bit of shaping, which I think is pretty magical! I also like that you can form the log, get everything ready, then slice and bake the cookies when you want to serve them, so your family/friends can enjoy some delicious, fresh biscuits.

Recipe

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Swedish Schackrutor

Bitesize vanilla and chocolate shortbread cookies with a checkerboard design.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Swedish

Keyword 5 ingredient, Biscuit, Chocolate, Vanilla

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings 25 cookies

Equipment

• Baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
• Bench scraper/clean metal ruler, for squaring off the biscuit dough.

Ingredients

• 25 g caster sugar
• 50 g salted butter, softened.
• 75 g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

• Place the sugar, butter, flour and vanilla bean paste into a food processor. Pulse until a dough forms.
• Weigh the dough and divide it in half evenly.
• Knead the cocoa powder into one half of the cookie dough until no streaks of vanilla dough remains.
• Divide the vanilla dough into two equal balls. Form each ball into a square log (use a bench scraper/clean metal ruler to really square off the edges), about 1 x 1 x 17cm. Set aside, then repeat with the chocolate dough, so that you have four logs. Do not add any extra flour/cocoa powder at this stage— you need the dough to be slightly sticky.
• Press one vanilla log against one chocolate log. Place the second vanilla log on top of the first chocolate log, then the second chocolate log in the remaining space, on top of the first vanilla log. Press the logs together gently so they stick.
• Wrap the log tightly in cling film and use a bench scraper to press up against the sides and make it super square. Place the log into the fridge to chill for 2 hours before slicing and baking.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional, not fan).
• Cut the log into approx. 5-7mm slices. Space the cookies on lined baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until just starting to turn golden around the edges.
• Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before enjoying. The cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days before they start going soft.

Sources Used

Books:

Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World, Ben Mims.

ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge, Bronte Aurell.

Websites:

Daily In-A Kitchen: 3×3 Checkerboard Cookies

Totally Swedish: Brysselkex and Schackrutor

True North Kitchen: Swedish Checkerboard Cookies

Swedish Spoon: Schackrutor—Swedish checkerboard cookies

Visit Sweden: Chessboard Cookies (‘Schackrutor’) – Recipe

As I mentioned in the other Wedding Cake Week posts, the decoration on these cakes was really clean and minimal: just a handful of pressed, edible violas on the top of each cake and two gingerbread bride & groom toppers on the middle, coffee tier.

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing how I made these gingerbread toppers, including the full gingerbread recipe that I used (which is a great recipe for a purpose like this, because it lasts for so long: no stale gingerbread here!).

A little gender-related disclaimer at this point: throughout this post, I have referred to the gingerbread figure with trousers as the ‘gingerbread man’ and the gingerbread figure with a skirt as the ‘gingerbread woman’: this is just for clarity, because, at the wedding that this cake was for, that is an accurate representation of the bride and groom and what they wore! Obviously, you can make a bride wearing trousers, a groom wearing a dress, two grooms, two brides, or just two gingerbread people wearing whatever you’re capable of recreating in icing!

Table of Contents

• The Idea & Design
• Making the Gingerbread Dough
• Baking the Gingerbread People
• Decorating the Gingerbread Toppers
  • Making the Bouquet
  • Piping on the Decorations
• Assembling the Toppers
• Attaching the Toppers to the Cake
• Recipe

The Idea & Design

Though not particularly in vogue these days, traditional wedding cakes often feature a little pair of bride & groom figurines sat on top (though I believe this is more of an American tradition than a British one?). I guess this was just to remind guests that they were, in fact, at a wedding.

When I first started sketching out some designs for this cake, I had the random idea to replicate this tradition using edible figurines made of gingerbread, instead. Lucky for me, the bride & groom in question (my brother and new sister-in-law) loved the idea, so I got to run with it!

I really wanted to lean into the gingerbread man aesthetic, rather than the bride-and-groom aesthetic, with these toppers, so, while both have a little nod to the occasion in their individual decoration, I knew I wanted to keep the icing pretty minimal and gingerbread-esque. In the end, I gave them both basic little faces (two eyes and a mouth, standard stuff), then gave the groom a little bow tie and some buttons, and the bride a bouquet of flower paste daisies (the easiest of the flowers to make out of sugar paste).

I was also aware that, at the venue, the cake could be viewed from all around, so I didn’t want the back of the gingerbread people to look ugly. In the end, I opted to sandwich two identical gingerbread bride/grooms together (much like an Oreo), so that the cake looked the same from the front and the back.

Making the Gingerbread Dough

I decided to use the ‘gingerbread’ dough recipe that my family has used every year for our gingerbread house, because I know that it holds up really well over time and can sit out at room temperature for as long as needed without going stale. I say ‘gingerbread’ in inverted commas because the recipe we use isn’t actually gingerbread, but this Finnish Spiced Biscuit recipe. I did want the biscuits to have more of a classic, ‘gingerbread’ flavour though, so I adapted the base biscuit recipe to use a different combination of spices, so that we could have the best of both worlds.

I actually made a lot of gingerbread dough, because I was making loads of gingerbread people as the wedding favours, as well as the cake toppers! (If I’m being completely honest, I currently still have a double batch of dough in the freezer after a little… quantity miscalculation… so, if anyone fancies some gingerbread men, hit me up, I guess?). For the toppers themselves, you actually need very little dough: just enough to cut out 4 people (2 brides and 2 grooms), though I recommend making extra to practise your decoration on!

Baking the Gingerbread People

For the gingerbread grooms, I just used a regular, gingerbread man cookie cutter and baked them as they were.

For the gingerbread brides, I had to get a little creative. I went back and forth over how to decorate the gingerbread brides, because I knew I didn’t want anything too fussy or elaborate and I also knew that, every year, when I decorate the gingerbread people for our Christmas gingerbread house, it’s decorating the gingerbread women that causes me the most grief! I guess it’s just very hard to make a gingerbread dress look good. Eventually, I decided to skip the dress and give the gingerbread bride a bouquet of flowers, instead, which felt much more achievable!

I did, however, quickly realise that the gingerbread bride’s arms would be in the wrong position for holding a bouquet of flowers. After a successful trial, I found that I could gently bend the arms of the cut out gingerbread cookies inwards before baking them. They come apart slightly when baked, so you can afford to press them quite close together in the middle, but they do bake in that position, which was exactly what I needed.

The only thing you have to be slightly mindful of is that, if the gingerbread dough is a bit dry at this stage, it can break/crack as you bend it inwards. This isn’t the end of the world: the cookies will still keep the shape, they’ll just have slightly messier edges. I recommend doing the gingerbread women first, while the dough is still at its most pliable, and bending the arms of each one immediately after cutting them out, to minimise the likelihood of this happening.

Decorating the Gingerbread Toppers

Making the Bouquet

Making the daisies for the bouquet was super easy: I just rolled out some sugar florist paste super thinly, then used a small, flower-shaped cutter to stamp out some little flower shapes. I used these plunge cutters for this (specifically, the second smallest one), because it makes getting the tiny flowers out super easy and the little pointed plunger helps to give the flowers some definition.

I then tinted a small amount of royal icing yellow using Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend formula in the shade Yellow (if I’m being honest, I was aiming for a slightly more subtle shade of yellow, but we live and learn), put it into a piping bag, fitted with a very fine, round tip, and piped little dots of colour into the centre of each daisy. Royal icing doesn’t contain oil, so I find that the Aqua Blend formula gives the best, most even colour.

I let the flowers dry out and harden up overnight at room temperature, then I was ready to use them in my decoration!

Piping on the Decorations

I used royal icing to decorate (and assemble) these gingerbread toppers, because it hardens up completely once set, so there was less likelihood of any unwanted smushing in transit. Royal icing is deceptively easy to make: you literally put the icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice in a bowl and whisk (using an electric mixer, if you value your arms), until its smooth and thick. That’s it!

Once the icing was made, I put it into a piping bag fitted with a small, round piping tip, ready to pipe on the little gingerbread faces and accessories.

If you have a piping tip coupler, I’d recommend using it for the white icing here. You’ll need to use two different tips for the white icing on these cookies: a fine round tip and a slightly wider round tip, so a coupler makes things much easier! If you don’t have one, you can just use two piping bags instead.

I definitely recommend having a few gingerbread people to hand to practise on, so that you can make sure you’re happy with the technique and your designs before you get to work on the real ones.

For the gingerbread grooms, I piped a simple face (as I said, just two dots for eyes and a curved line for the smile), then added a little bow tie (though my brother didn’t wear a bow tie, so I suppose this was just artistic license) and three dots for buttons.

For the gingerbread brides, I piped the same face, then added a generous splodge of icing to the space between the two bent arms and carefully pressed three of the little sugarpaste daisies into that, to make the bouquet. That was it! Simple, but I think it was very effective.

I let the gingerbread people sit out overnight, so that the icing had a chance to harden before I attempted to stick the two halves together (again, to limit the risk of any unwanted smushing). I sealed the piping bag up using some food clips and placed it into a resealable bag (with the extra air removed before sealing), so that it wouldn’t dry out overnight and I could use it again the next day.

Assembling the Toppers

To ensure the toppers stayed upright on the cake, I decided to sandwich a cake pop stick between the two cookie halves, which I could push into the cake at the venue to keep everything secure. Ironically, this time around, the process was super easy for the gingerbread bride and… less straightforward for the gingerbread groom!

For the bride, I just placed a single cake pop stick down the centre of her body, because her skirt conceals it at the bottom. For the groom, I had to place two separate cake pop sticks, one down each leg. It’s important that the cake pop sticks are parallel, to distribute the pressure evenly, so I lined them up from the bottom point of each foot to the corresponding shoulder. With the cookie cutter I used, there was just enough space for this, so it worked out well.

To assemble the toppers, I started by piping a (pretty) thick outline of icing just inside the perimeter of one half of the gingerbread bride/groom (on the undecorated underside, of course), being careful not to go too close to the edge, as the icing does squish outwards a little as you sandwich the cookies.

To protect the icing decorations on the other side, I set the gingerbread cookies face down on some gently crumpled kitchen paper while I worked.

I then filled in the outline with more icing, before inserting the cake pop stick(s), swivelling them gently to ensure they were completely coated in icing and sandwiching the other gingerbread half on top, making sure they were nicely aligned. Again, I set them aside overnight (still sitting on the crumpled kitchen paper), to give the icing a chance to harden up and set.

Attaching the Toppers to the Cake

As I mentioned, I placed the toppers on the cake at the venue, just so that it was one less thing to worry about on the journey down.

I transported the toppers in sealed plastic food containers (leftover from the copious takeaways I needed to get me through the past few months). I lined each container with the gently crumpled kitchen paper, then placed the toppers inside, followed by another layer of kitchen paper, making sure that no pressure was placed on the toppers when the lid was shut. The kitchen paper protected the decorated surfaces and also prevented the toppers from moving around too much during transit.

At the venue, after I had transferred the coffee cake to its stand, I lined the toppers up on the surface, pressing down gently so that the cake pop sticks made slight indentations in the crusted buttercream beneath them. I then used a wooden skewer to poke holes where the cake pop sticks would go, before gently pushing the gingerbread toppers in.

The reason I used the skewer first was to minimise the force I needed to apply on the gingerbread toppers: they’re pretty sturdy, so I don’t think they’d break, but I wasn’t about to risk it!

I pushed the gingerbread toppers right in, so that you couldn’t see any cake pop stick (or, at least, this was the intention— the photos beg to differ!) and so that it looked like the gingerbread bride and groom were just stood right on top of the cake, then I exhaled forcefully and thanked the gingerbread gods that everything had gone successfully.

And that, everybody, is the story of how I made the bride and groom gingerbread toppers for this wedding cake (and ended up with a ridiculous amount of gingerbread dough in my freezer). Hope you enjoyed it!

Recipe

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Gingerbread Wedding Cake Toppers

A classic, long-lasting gingerbread man recipe, adapted into cute little toppers for a wedding cake.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American, Finnish

Keyword Gingerbread, Royal icing, Wedding cake

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 8 minutes minutes

Chill time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 14 biscuit sandwiches

Equipment

• 1 gingerbread woman cookie cutter
• 1 gingerbread man cookie cutter
• 2 baking trays lined with greaseproof paper.
• 1 plunger flower cutter (see Note 1).
• 2-3 piping bags (see Note 2).
• 1 very fine, round piping tip (see Note 2).
• 1 small, round piping tip (see Note 2).
• 1 medium round piping tip (see Note 2).
• Cake pop sticks

Ingredients

For the gingerbread dough:

• 140 g unsalted butter, softened.
• 100 g golden caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100 ml golden syrup
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 1 lemon, zest only.
• 450 g plain flour, sifted.

For the royal icing:

• 200 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp lemon juice

For the sugar daisies:

• 10 g white sugar florist paste (see Note 3).
• Yellow food colouring (see Note 4).

Instructions

• Cream the butter and 50g of the sugar together until pale and fluffy.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with the remaining 50g of sugar until thick and pale (the ribbon stage).
• Mix the bicarbonate of soda into the golden syrup, then pour into the butter mixture and mix well. Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture and mix again.
• Add the spices, salt, lemon zest and flour and mix thoroughly to form a dough.
• Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Cut out and bake the gingerbread people:

• Preheat the oven to 190°C (conventional oven, not fan).
• Cut the chilled dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough out to the thickness of a £1 coin.
• Start by cutting out the women. Stamp out the shapes using the cookie cutter, then gently bend the arms inward, pressing down gently where they meet the centre of the cookie to secure them. Carefully transfer to a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper.
• Bake the gingerbread brides in the preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
• Roll out the remaining half of the dough and use to cut out the men, leaving the arms as is this time around. Bake and cool in exactly the same way as the brides.
• Gingerbread people can be made in advance. Store in airtight container until ready to decorate.

Make the royal icing (see Note 5):

• Place the icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice in a large bowl. Whisk with an electric mixer until thick and smooth.

Make the sugar daisies:

• Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar. Roll out the florist paste as thinly as you can, then use the plunge flower cutter to cut out lots of little flowers.
• Tint a small amount of the royal icing using the yellow food colouring, then transfer to a piping bag, fitted with the smallest round tip.
• Pipe a small dot of yellow icing into the centre of each flower, then set aside to dry and harden overnight.

Decorate the gingerbread toppers:

• Place the white royal icing in a piping bag fitted with a piping tip coupler (see Note 2) and a small, round tip.
• Pipe smiley faces on all of the cookies, then a bow tie and three buttons on the grooms. On the brides, add a generous amount of icing to the space between the hands, then gently press three of the dried sugar daisies onto the icing, to form a bouquet.
• Set the gingerbread people aside at room temperature to harden before assembling.

Assemble the gingerbread toppers:

• Place half of the gingerbread people, decorated side down, on some lightly crumpled kitchen paper (this will help to protect the decorated surface).
• Switch out the piping tip on the bag of white royal icing to a slightly larger round tip (see Note 2), then use to pipe a neat outline just inside the perimeter of the shape (don't go too close to the edge, as the icing will squish out a little when you sandwich the cookies).
• Fill inside the outline with more icing, then add one cake pop stick down the centre of the brides and two down each leg (making sure the two sticks are parallel to each other) of the grooms. Gently rotate the sticks to cover them in the icing.
• Gently press another cookie, decorated side up this time, on top of the icing, to make a gingerbread sandwich. Leave the cookies on the kitchen paper overnight (at room temperature) so that the icing sets and hardens.

Attach the toppers to the cake:

• When you're ready to attach the toppers to the cake, line them up on top of the cake and press down just enough to make indents of the cake pop sticks in the buttercream.
• Use a skewer to pierce the cake, using the indents as a guide, then gently push the toppers into the cake, until the gingerbread people are sitting flush with the top of the cake and you can't see the cake pop sticks.

Notes

Notes:

1. I used the second smallest size from this pack.
2. If you have a piping tip coupler, I would recommend using it here for the white royal icing. You’ll need to pipe the white icing using two sizes of round tips, so a coupler makes it really easy to switch out the tips. If you don’t have a coupler, just use two separate piping bags: I would suggest putting about 1/3 of the icing in the bag with the smaller tip and 2/3 in the bag with the larger tip.
3. Sugar florist paste works really well for delicate flowers like this, because it’s extra stretchy and dries extra hard. I used this brand.
4. I used Colour Mill Aqua Blend in the shade Yellow. Water-based food colourings give the best results when working with royal icing.
5. You’ll need this batch of royal icing over the course of a few days (the decorations need to set in between stages!). You can keep the icing from drying out by sealing it inside the piping bag and/or a resealable food bag. Just make sure to clip the ends of the piping bag, using a food clip and remove any excess air from the food bag. 

Anddddd we’re back with another instalment of my Baking Around the World series, where I (attempt to) bake delicious, sweet treats from around the globe, in an attempt to broaden my foodie horizons! This time, we’re off to Iceland, with these Marens-Kornflexkökur.

A quick Baking Around the World disclaimer before we get into the recipe:

While I have done/will do extensive research for each of the recipes in this series, the recipes are unlikely to be 100% authentic because of differences in ingredient availability, variations within families/regions and multiple other reasons. I'm so sorry if I absolutely butcher your favourite childhood treat (and please let me know in the comments if I have made any unforgiveable errors), but please do give me the benefit of the doubt here- I am just a baker with a serious sweet tooth, trying to broaden her baking (and cultural) horizons through tasty snacks :)

Table of Contents

• Marens-Kornflexkökur: Explained
• Ingredients
• Making Marens-Kornflexkökur
• Final Thoughts
• Recipe
• Sources Used

Marens-Kornflexkökur: Explained

These Icelandic treats are really super simple— they’re just regular meringues, flavoured with a little vanilla extract and studded with chopped dark chocolate and cornflakes. I realise that sounds a bit wacky, but they actually taste really good! You don’t bake them in quite the same way as you would a normal meringue, so they don’t fully dry out and stay nice and chewy on the inside, but crisp on the outside, so you can eat them on their own, like a cookie!

I’ve had meringues containing chopped dark chocolate in in the past, so I wasn’t too fazed by that part, but I have to admit, the cornflakes were a little bit of a curveball (and the thing that drew me to this recipe in the first place)! They go quite chewy in the meringue and add a nutty (corn-y?) taste. They’re not for everyone (not all of my family members were on board with this particular bake), but I really like them!

Strangely, it’s quite hard to find information about these cookies (from authentic, Icelandic sources) online. I wonder if, because they’re so simple (only 6 ingredients!) they’re more of a passed-down-through-families kind of recipe, kind of like how we have chocolate cornflake cakes in the UK? I’m not sure, but I do know that I ended up in the deepest depths of the Icelandic baking forums in my attempt to confirm that these were, in fact, a classic, Icelandic cookie (and they are! Though, like most traditional cookies, they seem to come in various different forms).

Traditionally, Marens-Kornflexkökur are made using the French meringue method, which is the simplest of the meringue-making styles. In this method, you add the sugar to the egg whites gradually, whisking all the time, until fully incorporated and the sugar has dissolved. I, however, seem to have a curse that prevents me from being able to make French meringue successfully, so I have adapted the process ever so slightly, taking inspiration from the meringue-making method created by the Meringue Girls. The only difference is that you warm the sugar slightly before adding it to the egg whites, which helps it to dissolve more quickly and create a stable meringue. It is a little extra step, but it’s really changed the meringue game for me!

As you can see, the Marens-Kornflexkökur do still bake up with some pretty dramatic cracks, but I think that’s inevitable with so many extra ingredients mixed in (or at least, I’ll tell myself that to avoid yet another French meringue-induced breakdown…)! Anyway, I think it kind of adds to their charm, so I’m not mad about it.

Ingredients

Marens-Kornflexkökur only require 6 ingredients, which is part of what makes them so simple and easy to make! You will need:

• Caster sugar

It’s important to use caster/superfine sugar, so that it dissolves quickly and evenly into the meringues.

• Egg whites

Make sure that you don’t get any yolk in your egg whites when you separate them, or you’ll have to start over. As always, I use large eggs.

• Salt

A small amount of fine sea salt is added to the egg whites as they whip, to help give them structure. I also like to sprinkle a small amount of coarse sea salt onto the meringues, once they’re baked (and drizzled with chocolate). However, if you plan to store the meringues for a while, I would skip this step, as the salt crystals do have a tendency to leave weird, salty, water-y droplets on top of your cookies over time!

• Cornflakes

Just regular old cornflakes! Use your favourite brand (or whatever’s on offer…).

• Dark chocolate

Use a good quality dark chocolate for the best results. I use this in two ways: firstly (and more traditionally) chopped into chunks and mixed into the macarons, then secondly (less traditionally, but very deliciously) melted and drizzled on top of the finished cookies. I took inspiration from Kate from veggiedesserts.com for this step!

• Vanilla extract

As with the dark chocolate, good quality vanilla extract will give the best flavour. You only need a small amount.

You will also need a small amount of vinegar (I use white wine vinegar) to wipe down the bowl/whisk attachment of your stand mixer. This is an important step, because it removes any little traces of fat in your machine, which might otherwise prevent the egg whites from whipping up properly!

Making Marens-Kornflexkökur

To make the Marens-Kornflexkökur, start by preheating the oven to 135°C. Line a tray with baking paper and set aside.

As I mentioned, I used a slightly adapted version of the French meringue method for this bake, so stay with me on this one! The first thing you want to do is to put the caster sugar into a frying pan. Shake it out into an even layer, then set over a low heat to warm gently.

You don’t want the sugar to melt, you just want to warm it slightly so that it dissolves into the egg whites more easily. Let it warm while you get everything else ready and it will be perfect. If you give it a shake, you might notice it sticking to the pan ever so slightly, like in the photo above.

With the sugar warming, you can get on with preparing the chocolate and the cornflakes. Finely chop the chocolate. Aim for small chunks— you want pockets of chocolate-y goodness, but you don’t want the chunks to be so big that they sink in the meringues.

Then, lightly crush the cornflakes. I just used my hands, but you could also do this with the back of a spoon, the end of a rolling pin, or even in a mortar and pestle! You just want to break them up a little bit, so that they can be distributed more evenly throughout the meringues and don’t get too chewy (you want them to be chewy, but not unswallowable).

With those ingredients prepared, it’s time to get on with the meringue.

Start by wiping out the metal bowl and the whisk attachment of a stand mixer with a little vinegar (I use white wine vinegar). This helps to clean the utensils by removing any traces of fat, which will prevent the egg whites from whipping up properly. It’s important to use a metal bowl, because that helps the egg whites whip up too!

Place the egg whites, along with a pinch of salt, into the mixer bowl and fit the whisk attachment.

Whisk on high speed until the egg whites reach soft peaks.

At this point, remove the frying pan from the heat and begin adding the warm sugar to the mixer bowl, a little at a time, while whisking on high speed.

Once all of the sugar has been added, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl, so that all of the sugar crystals are in the meringue mixture.

At this point, the meringue will be very shiny and glossy, but not overly stiff, so keep whisking on high speed until the meringue holds stiff peaks.

Once the meringue has reached stiff peaks, it’s ready! If you rub a small amount of the mixture between your fingers, you shouldn’t be able to feel any sugar crystals.

Now, you can mix in the other ingredients. Start by folding in the vanilla.

Then, add the crushed cornflakes and the chopped chocolate.

Fold through again, and the mixture is ready!

Drop tablespoon-sized dollops of the mixture onto the lined baking tray. Don’t worry about getting them perfect— they’re supposed to look rustic, like snowy mountains!

Once you’ve used all of the mixture, place the tray into the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the surface of the meringues is crisp and the cookies are holding their shape.

Allow the Marens-Kornflexkökur to cool completely on the trays, then serve as they are, or decorate them by drizzling with a little melted dark chocolate and sprinkling with coarse sea salt. Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature before serving.

Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the cookies will keep for about 2 weeks. If you plan to make these in advance, I would recommend not sprinkling them with the coarse sea salt, as it can cause little droplets of water to form on the chocolate if left for too long!

Final Thoughts

These Marens-Kornflexkökur are made with a combination of ingredients that I would never have thought to combine, but I actually really like the results! The cookies are chewy, crispy and super tasty. They also taste super festive, despite not containing any of the classic Christmas spices I associate with ‘tasting festive’.

They’re super easy to make, but it did take me a few tries to nail this recipe (mainly as a result of my French meringue curse)! You want to bake them for a short enough time that they stay nice and chewy, but it is also easy to underbake them, which can lead to squidgy cookies that don’t hold their shape. I’m glad I stuck with them though, because I think I’m finally making a breakthrough with meringue!

As I mentioned, these probably aren’t for everyone. The texture of the cornflakes is quite unusual and, overall, they are a pretty sweet cookie (even with the dark chocolate!), which makes them perfect for me, but not so perfect for those who don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I liked them, but, much like the Indian Kulkuls, I’m not sure they live up to the dreamy, almond cookies of last year’s festive, Baking Around the World instalments!

Have you ever had eeMarens-Kornflexkökur before? Or have you ever tried meringues with cornflakes mixed in? Let me know!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Marens-Kornflexkökur

These Icelandic, festive meringue cookies are flavoured with vanilla and studded with chopped dark chocolate and crushed cornflakes. They're crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and super easy to bake, making them a perfect sweet treat.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Icelandic

Keyword Cornflakes, Dark Chocolate, Meringue, Vanilla

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 12 cookies

Ingredients

• White wine vinegar, for wiping down the bowl/whisk.
• 150 g caster sugar
• 2 egg whites (I used large eggs).
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 1 splash vanilla extract
• 60 g dark chocolate
• 30 g cornflakes

To decorate (optional):

• 15 g dark chocolate, melted
• Coarse sea salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 135°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
• Place the sugar into a frying pan, shaking it out into an even layer. Place over low heat and leave to warm while you prepare the other ingredients. You don't want the sugar to melt, just to warm up slightly so that it dissolves into the egg whites more easily.
• Finely chop the dark chocolate and lightly crush the cornflakes.
• Wipe down the metal bowl and whisk attachment of a stand mixer with white wine vinegar to remove any traces of fat. Place the egg whites in the bowl, along the fine sea salt.
• Whisk the egg whites on high speed, until they reach soft peaks.
• Once all of the sugar has been added, turn off the mixer and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then turn the mixer back on to high speed and whisk the meringue until stiff peaks form. When it's ready, you should be able to rub a small amount of the meringue between your fingers without feeling any sugar crystals.
• Fold the vanilla extract into the meringue, then add the chopped dark chocolate and crushed cornflakes and fold again, until evenly distributed.
• Place tablespoon-sized dollops of the meringue mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Once you have used up all of the mixture, place the tray into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the surface of the meringues feels crisp and the cookies hold their shape.
• Allow the meringues to cool completely on the tray before serving/decorating. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

To decorate (optional):

• Drizzle the cooled meringue cookies with the melted dark chocolate, then sprinkle with coarse sea salt (see Note 1). Allow to sit at room temperature until the chocolate has set, then serve.

Notes

1. If you are decorating the cookies in advance, I would recommend skipping the coarse sea salt. The salt crystals can cause little droplets of water to form on the surface of the chocolate if left for too long, which, while they don’t affect the taste, don’t look super pretty!

Sources Used

Saveur: Christmas in Iceland

Saveur: Icelandic Chocolate Cornflake Cookies

Guide to Iceland: Icelandic Sweets and Confectionery

Artic Adventures: Traditional Icelandic Christmas Food

Bland: Marengs Kökur

Gulur Raudur Grænn & Salt: Kornflex smákökur

Veggie Desserts: Icelandic Christmas Meringue Cookies

Baking with Nessa: Icelandic Christmas Cookies “Marens-Kornflexkökur”

Arctic Adventures: Icelandic Christmas

Roaming Taste: Marens-Kornflexkökur

Today’s post is all about these super easy, 5-ingredient Lavender Shortbread Hearts. They’re quick to make, perfect for this time of year and super delicious- what’s not to love?

Table of Contents

• Inspiration
• Ingredients
• How to Make Lavender Shortbread Hearts
• Tips & Tricks for Perfect Shortbread
• Lavender Shortbread Hearts Recipe

Inspiration

I knew that I wanted to include some sort of biscuit on my dessert table and shortbread felt like the perfect choice! Not only is it delicious, it’s also a great, neutral base for incorporating other flavours. As well as this, from the promotional content I’ve seen so far, it looks like the newly recast Francesca Bridgerton will be playing a significant role in this season, after taking a bit of a backseat over the first two seasons. While I haven’t actually read the Bridgerton books by Julia Quinn yet (I’m all confused because I usually read books before watching the tv/film adaptations, but I didn’t know these books existed at first and now I don’t want to ruin the series for myself by reading the books- especially because I’ve heard the show changes a lot? So I’m very much all in a pickle), from what I gather, Francesca ends up living in Scotland, so my Bridgerton-inspired spin on this classic, Scottish biscuit is my little ode to her character (and her new actress: Hannah Dodd!).

One of the things I love about Bridgerton is all the flowers. I know there’s a lot of artificial blooms and rather scandalous out-of-season situations (it drives my botanist parents INSANE), but I just love the whole flower-y, OTT vibe. I wanted to include some sort of floral flavour in this series, so I opted to flavour my shortbread biscuits with lavender. I associate lavender with the eldest Bridgerton sister, Daphne, mainly because of her gorgeous lilac dresses in Seasons 1 and 2 (I loved her purple outfits so much so that I actually knitted myself a lilac Daphne Top!). Francesca’s new look in the Season 3 promotional material feels very similar to Daphne’s style, so this shortbread recipe is kind of like my ode to those two debutante sisters (…sorry Eloise).

Also, I decided to cut my shortbread into heart shapes, because, you know, Bridgerton is a romantic series. Obviously, though, you can choose any shape you want for your shortbread!

Ingredients

To make these Lavender Shortbread Hearts, you only need 5 ingredients:

• Dried lavender

Make sure you buy culinary-grade dried lavender. I use this brand.

• Butter

You can use either salted or unsalted- whichever you have on hand. I tend to use unsalted, but, to be honest, it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

• Caster sugar

This gets creamed into the butter for the dough, then more is sprinkled on top of the baked biscuits to give them their characteristic, sparkly look and crunchy texture.

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour- you don’t want the cookies to rise, you want them to be crisp and snappy.

• Rice flour

Rice flour helps to give the shortbread its characteristic crumbly (or ‘short’, hence the name) texture. You can find rice flour in most supermarkets- try looking in the Free From aisle if you’re having trouble.

How to Make Lavender Shortbread Hearts

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C (conventional oven). Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.

Next, prepare your lavender by grinding it into a powder. This will ensure that the lavender flavour is evenly distributed throughout the shortbread (and that the texture of the biscuits stays consistent). I do this in a mortar and pestle, but you could use a spice grinder, if you prefer.

Once your lavender is prepared, you can start the shortbread dough. Place the softened butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. You can do this by hand, with a wooden spoon, but I prefer to use a handheld electric mixer (you could also use a freestanding mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, if you have one).

When the butter and sugar are well-combined and the mixture is pale and fluffy, sift in both flours, then add the ground lavender.

Mix until the dough starts to come together.

Use your hands to finish bringing the dough together into a smooth ball, being careful not to overwork it (otherwise your shortbread might end up being a bit tough, which isn’t what you’re going for!).

Place the ball of dough onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and roll it out, until it’s about 1cm thick.

Using a heart-shaped cutter (or any cutter of your choosing), stamp out the shortbread and transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking tray. Re-roll as necessary (but as little as possible, to prevent over-working the dough).

Use a fork to prick each biscuit all over before baking. The holes will remain after baking, so try to keep them neat.

Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until just golden around the edges.

Dredge the biscuits with caster sugar as soon as you take them out of the oven (doing this straight away helps the sugar to stick), then allow them to cool completely on the tray before shaking off any excess sugar and serving. The shortbread can be made in advance- stored in an airtight container, at room temperature, it will keep for about 3-4 days.

Tips & Tricks for Perfect Shortbread

• Don’t overwork the dough

Overworking the dough can make your shortbread tough and oily, instead of soft and crumbly. Bring it together until it just forms a smooth ball, then re-roll the dough as little as possible by cutting out the individual biscuits as close together as you can. It’s not quite as important here as it is with, say, scones, but it is something to keep in mind.

• Always prick the biscuits before baking

Also known as ‘docking’, pricking shortbread before it bakes is a really important step. If you don’t, your shortbread will bubble up and bake unevenly- not only will it look a bit strange, but the structure of your biscuit will be all over the place! Make sure to prick the whole surface evenly- for these heart-shaped shortbread biscuits, I made 5 vertical lines of fork pricks on each biscuit, spacing them out so that no part of the biscuit would bubble. Just remember that these holes will stay after baking, so try and keep things looking pretty and even!

Lavender Shortbread Hearts Recipe

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Lavender Shortbread Hearts

Classic, crumbly shortbread with a fun twist- the lavender flavour and cute heart shape make these biscuits perfect for a Bridgerton-themed watch party.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Scottish

Keyword Lavender, Shortbread

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 10 – 12 biscuits

Equipment

• Heart-shaped cookie cutter

Ingredients

• 1/4 tsp dried lavender, (see Note 1).
• 60 g butter, softened (see Note 2).
• 30 g caster sugar, plus extra for dredging.
• 60 g plain flour
• 30 g rice flour

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional oven) Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.
• Grind the dried lavender into a powder. I use a mortar and pestle for this, but you could also use a spice grinder. Set aside.
• Place the softened butter into a medium-sized bowl, along with the caster sugar. Cream together until light and fluffy. I use an handheld electric whisk for this, but you could use a freestanding mixer (fitted with a paddle attachment) or a wooden spoon, if you prefer.
• Sift both flours into the butter mixture, then add the ground lavender. Mix briefly until a dough starts to form, then switch to your hands to bring the dough together into a smooth ball.
• Roll the dough out on a clean, lightly floured work surface, until it is about 1cm thick. Using the heart-shaped cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as possible and transfer them to the prepared baking tray. Re-roll and cut more shapes as needed, trying you best not to overwork the dough.
• Use a fork to prick the surface of each biscuit, to prevent the shortbread from bubbling up, then bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until just golden around the edges.
• As soon as the shortbread comes out of the oven, dredge each biscuit with extra caster sugar before allowing to cool completely on the tray. Once cool, shake off any excess sugar and serve. The shortbread will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 3-4 days.

Notes

1. Make sure the dried lavender that you use is culinary-grade. I use this brand.
2. You can use either salted or unsalted butter for this recipe (the difference is barely noticeable), though I tend to use unsalted by preference. 

Today’s post is the final recipe of Blogmas At Home 2023, which is kind of sad, but also not that sad, because these Iced Star Biscuits are the dreamiest, easiest Christmas Cookies ever. I’ve been making these biscuits in all shapes and sizes for YEARS because they are so simple (I mean, they only require 5 ingredients, one of those ingredients is literally WATER and the dough is made in the food processor!), but they are also so delicious. In the original recipe, they are called ‘Birthday Biscuits’, so we still call them that, but I’m making these star shaped ones for Christmas- they’re really a year-round cookie! Also, the possibilities for decorating them are ENDLESS. I’ve just done plain, white glacé icing on these, to keep things simple, but you could use royal icing, fondant, chocolate, buttercream, literally ANYTHING. It’s such a versatile recipe!

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Making the Biscuit Dough
• Cutting out the Cookies
• Baking the Cookies
• Decorating the Cookies
• Storing the Cookies
• Recipe

Ingredients

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, these cookies only require 5 ingredients:

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour, because this will cause the biscuits to puff up, rather than bake into nice even biscuits- not what you want!

• Caster sugar

I use golden caster sugar, because it gives the cookies a lovely depth of flavour, but you can use white caster sugar, if that’s what you have.

• Unsalted butter

The butter needs to be cubed and at room temperature, so that it incorporates into the other ingredients properly.

• Icing sugar

You only need icing sugar and water to make glacé icing, which is what I used to decorate these biscuits.

• Water

Does water even count as an ingredient? I have no idea, but my brother threw a fit when he heard I was calling these ‘4-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits’ and I was guilted into changing the name. I’ll forgive him, because 5-Ingredient sounds better anyway.

You will also need a star-shaped cookie cutter. The one I used was 5.5cm across. You can use any size/shape cutter you would like, but be aware this will affect the quantity of cookies this recipe makes, as well as the baking time.

Making the Biscuit Dough

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C (as usual, I am using a conventional oven) and line 3 baking trays with baking paper, then set aside.

To make the dough, put the flour, sugar and softened, cubed butter into the bowl of a food processor.

Blitz the mixture until it forms crumbs…

…then pulse until it comes together in a ball. That’s it! That’s the dough! Bring it together with your hands (after removing the food processor blade, of course), then it’s ready to roll- no chilling necessary.

Cutting out the Cookies

Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and tip the dough onto it. Dust both the surface of the dough and a rolling pin with a little more flour, then roll the dough out until it is about 5mm thick.

Cut out the cookies using the star cutter, carefully transferring them to the lined baking trays as you go. Re-roll the dough as needed.

Baking the Cookies

Once all of the dough has been used up, bake the cookies. They will need about 10 minutes in the preheated oven and should be a pale, golden colour when they are ready.

Allow the cookies to cool for about 5 minutes on the trays, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely, before decorating.

Decorating the Cookies

First, make the glacé icing. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl (this is important to get rid of any lumps), then add 2 tbsp of the water and stir to combine. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to get the perfect consistency of glacé icing, so it’s best to start with some of the water, then gradually add more until the perfect consistency is achieved. You want it to be thick enough that it doesn’t all slide off the cookies, but not so thick that it doesn’t have a smooth, shiny finish.

Once you have made the icing, spoon it onto the cookies and spread it out, so that it fills the star shape. Place the cookies back onto the wire rack to set- glacé icing will never set completely solid, like royal icing does, but it will form a delicate crust after about 20 minutes.

Storing the Cookies

Store the cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature. Like this, they will keep for 2-3 days. Ideally, store them in a single layer, to prevent the delicate icing from being smushed (or, you know, be like me and completely disregard that suggestion…).

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe- these cookies really are the simplest treatsntil your desired consistency is achieved- to make, but they are completely delicious, so really it’s a win-win! Let me know if you try this out- I’d love to hear what you think!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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5-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits

You only need 5 ingredients to make these simple and delicious festive biscuits (and one of them is water!). While these are perfect as Christmas cookies, they can be made in any shape and decorated in a multitude of different ways to fit any occasion year round!

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword 5 ingredient, Cookie, glacé icing

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Setting time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 50 cookies

Equipment

• 1 5.5cm star cookie cutter

Ingredients

For the cookie dough:

• 250 g plain flour
• 85 g golden caster sugar
• 175 g unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature.

For the icing:

• 250 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 3-4 tbsp water

Instructions

Make the cookies:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional). Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.
• Place all of the cookie dough ingredients into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then pulse until it forms a ball.
• Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Tip the dough onto the work surface and bring it together into a smooth ball with your hands. Dust both the dough and a rolling pin with a little more flour, then roll out the dough, until it is about 5mm thick.
• Use the star cutter to stamp out as many cookies as possible from the rolled-out dough, then re-roll and stamp again, carefully transferring the cookies to the lined baking trays as you go.
• Once you have used up all of the dough, bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until pale golden. Once baked, allow the cookies to cool on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Make the icing:

• When the cookies are cool, make the icing. Place the sifted icing sugar into a bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and mix to combine. If needed, add more of the water until the desired consistency is achieved- the icing should be thick enough that it will not run off the cookies, but not so thick that it does not look smooth and shiny.

Decorate the cookies:

• As soon as the icing is ready, start decorating the cookies. Spoon a small amount of icing onto a cookie, then use the back of the spoon to spread it out over the surface, so that the whole star shape is filled. Repeat for the remaining cookies, setting them back onto the wire rack to sit while the icing firms up. This icing won't set as hard as royal icing, but it should form a delicate crust after about 20 minutes or so (if they last that long!).
• Store the cookies in an airtight container, ideally in a single layer, to prevent the icing from smushing, at room temperature. Like this, they will keep for 2-3 days (or longer, if they are left un-iced). Once kept for 24 hours, the icing will be significantly firmer and less likely to smush (though it will still not be as hard as royal icing).

Notes

 

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food.

Last year, I went all out with my gingerbread construction and made a Gingerbread Christmas Market, complete with a kransekake Christmas tree and little stalls selling different goods. It was my magnum opus. I won’t lie though… it was INTENSE. I ended up covered in icing and very worn out, so, this year, I went back to basics (well, almost).

For as long as I can remember, the gingerbread house in our family has been the ‘Finnish fairy-tale house’ from the December 2002 issue of BBC Good Food magazine, which was a recipe shared by a woman called Mira Paren. We always use that recipe for our gingerbread dough, and, when I’m not running away with some crazy gingerbread Christmas market concept, we typically follow the basic construction for the house too. This year, we went for that traditional house again, but with a few extra decorations to make it super special.

While this post is not a recipe, nor a tutorial, I thought I would show you around the gingerbread house that my mum and I made together this year- kind of a ‘Hey MTV, welcome to my (gingerbread) crib’ situation. Let’s get into the House Tour, shall we?

Table of Contents

• The Basic Construction
• The Decorations
  • The Roof
  • The Chimney
  • The Fence
  • The Paving Stones
  • The Windows
  • The Chimney Breast
  • The Front Door
  • The People, Animals + Tree
• Final Thoughts

The Basic Construction

As I mentioned, we use the same recipe for our gingerbread house dough every year. I actually posted that recipe on the blog last year- you can find it here. It’s not technically gingerbread (it doesn’t actually even contain ginger) but it is DELICIOUS and super sturdy, so it’s great for building with. Also, side note at this point: I never knew there were people who made gingerbread houses with no intention of eating them…? I am BAFFLED- why would you go to all that trouble just to throw it away?! I’ve seen this trend at the moment of using hot glue to assemble it and I just… it breaks my sugar-loving heart. We always eat our gingerbread house and it is always delicious and I absolutely would not have it any other way. We used royal icing to stick this house together and it worked perfectly.

When cutting out all of the gingerbread pieces, we always do the building pieces first, then the people/figures/trees and then, finally, all of the scraps and remaining dough is kneaded together and rolled into one big base piece.

The structure of this gingerbread house is pretty simple: it is just 2 square(-ish) walls, 2 end walls (with gables)and 2 rectangular roof pieces. It also has a chimney (4x little rectangle pieces, 2 of them with triangles cut out at the bottom, so that the chimney can sit flush against the ridge of the roof).

In terms of people/figures, we opted to keep it simple this year and just do one man and one woman (nominally my mum and dad), as opposed to the whole family that we usually do! There’s not tons of space around the house, so we tried to keep the figures to a minimum. We did also include our dog though (but I had to cut her out freehand because we don’t have a dog-shaped cutter, so she’s a little bit squiffy). Around the back, we have a tree and a reindeer, because, after all, it is Christmas.

The Decorations

The Roof

We always use Smarties for the roof tiles, which is what the original recipe did. I think it makes the whole thing look so cheerful (plus it makes the roof pieces super tasty to eat).

The Chimney

To decorate the chimney, we just covered it in royal icing. Whenever I’m left unsupervised for more than a second, I always end up filling the chimney with Jelly Tots. I have no explanation for this other than I think it looks funny.

Also, side note: have Jelly Tots changed shape? Last I remember they were flatter, with only a slight dome, whereas now they just resemble slightly smaller American Hard Gums?!

The Fence

The marshmallow fence is another design feature that came from the original recipe. They probably wouldn’t keep any intruders out, but they taste good so we’ll let it slide.

The Paving Stones

Again, from the original recipe- we stick a few giant chocolate buttons leading up to the front door to act as little paving stones. I had actually planned to use Cadbury Twisted buttons for this, but they ended up looking a little bit too much, so we just went with the classic plain ones.

The Windows

This was one of my new ideas for this year: After Eight shutters. I sometimes find that, in the midst of all of the other decorations, the windows get a little neglected and end up looking a bit lacklustre, compared to the rest of the house- I thought that adding some dark shutters for contrast might help to liven them up a little bit. I didn’t want to bother with tempering dark chocolate or anything, so I had the idea to use chopped up After Eights (which are mint chocolate thins). I cut a single After Eight into quarters, then cut two of the quarters in half to make 4 little shutters (2 for each window). I snacked on the leftovers, obviously.

For the windows themselves, I just piped them on using the royal icing- I know lots of gingerbread houses have boiled sweet/gelatine sheet windows, but I think that’s a little beyond my capabilities at the moment!

The Chimney Breast

Okay, the chimney breast is another of my slightly rogue ideas- but I’ve actually been doing it for a couple of years now because I like it so much! I use a Curly Wurly as a ‘chimney breast’- I just trim it to the size of the back wall (closest to the chimney, because, obviously, we’re all about realism here) and stick it on with royal icing.

For the little stones on the chimney breast, I used these mini jazzies from Waitrose. I just piped some royal icing into each of the holes in the Curly Curly and pressed the mini jazzies onto those splodges. I used to use Jelly Tots for this, but they are the wrong shape now (see my earlier Jelly Tot rant), so I had to use these- honestly, I think I like them even better!

The Front Door

Like the windows, the front door is often a bit of an afterthought on our gingerbread houses. This year, I was determined to give it some love and attention. Admittedly, my initial plan did not work out- I tried to create a little door canopy using two After Eights and some trimmed candy canes, but it wasn’t sturdy enough. In the end, we used two (different) After Eights to make a kind of ‘farmhouse’ style Dutch door (side note: I just googled what those were called and it never occurred to me that that was why the bullet journalling community calls cutting away some of the paper a Dutch door! The more you know…). I also stuck a mini M&M on as the handle.

To decorate around the door, we stuck two candy canes (my mum trimmed these down to remove the curved part- she actually used some secateurs to do this and it was much easier than trying to chop them with a knife) on either side and made a little evergreen garland above it. To do that, I just piped on a good amount of royal icing, then used tweezers to stick these holly sprinkles (also from Waitrose) into the icing.

The People, Animals + Tree

It suddenly occurred to me, as I was sticking the people into the icing beside the house, that giving the gingerbread man fancy little buttons and the gingerbread woman an apron was… problematic. In my defence, my mum and I were both wearing aprons at the time (though, then again, my dad was not wearing a shirt…). It’s just what we’ve always done, but I’ve never thought about the questionable gender roles at play before! Maybe next year I’ll give the gingerbread woman a little power suit to remind her that the world is her oyster. Then again, I spend half my time in an apron, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, so maybe I’ll just give the gingerbread man an apron too! Yeah, I think that’s the vibe.

Anyway, I just used royal icing to decorate the people (and the dog). I kept things simple (no faces) because I didn’t want to tempt fate. For the reindeer, I used royal icing for the eye, then used a little more icing to stick on a red mini M&M for the nose. For the tree, I did little swoops of icing as garlands and then I stuck on some Jelly Tots as the decorations.

Final Thoughts

I think this might just be… my favourite gingerbread house we’ve ever had! It’s fun and it’s covered in sweets and it’s cute and I KNOW it will be tasty- I’m very proud of this one. It’s giving… Hansel and Gretel, without the prospect of being baked alive. Good times.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Gingerbread House Tour. Do you make a gingerbread house at Christmastime? Let me know in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

And welcome to the second instalment in my new Baking Around the World series! This time, we’re heading to Germany for another festive cookie recipe.

Mandelhörnchen have become somewhat of a fixation of mine since I first learned about them last year. I can’t even remember how I came across them, but I was obsessed with making them. Unfortunately, no matter what recipe I tried, I just couldn’t get my cookies to look like the ones pictured- the majority turned out flat and crispy (not the vibe). Some recipes called for shop-bought marzipan, some called for homemade almond paste- I tried them all. I was confused and, after several unsuccessful and frustrating attempts, I rage quit my mandelhörnchen quest and gave up on my almond dreams.

But! The story does not end there! Though I had given up on my mandelhörnchen dreams, they stayed with me. I could not forget them. So, when I bought myself a new Christmas cookbook full of German recipes (Advent by Anja Dunk), I allowed myself to hope. In fact, one of the first photos that comes up in the reviews of the book on Amazon is of some homemade mandelhörnchen! My hope grew (3 sizes, just like the Grinch’s heart). As soon as I got the book (and read it cover to cover, obviously), I tried the mandelhörnchen recipe. They worked! They used shop-bought marzipan! They were magnificent!

I did make some small adjustments to the recipe (just to the chocolate/bake time/overall quantity of cookies, so I’m hoping the cookies are still authentic?), but, like with my last Baking Around the World post, the idea/recipe for these cookies is not original to me at all- I’m just trying them out to widen my baking horizons and sharing the process with you! You can read more about my disclaimers for this series on that last post.

Table of Contents

• Mandelhörnchen: Explained
• Ingredients
• Making Mandelhörnchen
• Final Thoughts
• Recipe
• Sources Used

Mandelhörnchen: Explained

Mandelhörnchen (‘Almond Horns’ in German), are known by a variety of names in English- in my research, I’ve come across them referred to as ‘almond and marzipan crescents’, ‘chocolate-dipped almond horns’ and ‘almond paste cookies’, to name a few. They are essentially a chewy, flourless almond cookie, bent into a crescent/horn shape, rolled in flaked almonds and once baked, the ends are dipped in dark chocolate. I mean… yes please. Mandelhörnchen are a year-round treat in Germany, but are particular favourites at Christmastime.

Ingredients

• Marzipan

Traditionally, mandelhörnchen recipes use marzipanrohmasse– an almond paste that is slightly different to the typical marzipan you would find in the store. It’s not easily accessible here in the UK though, so I was delighted that Dunk’s recipe was specially-formulated for the use of marzipan instead. I used shop-bought white marzipan (though apparently golden marzipan gives a nicer colour- I’ll have to give it a try!) and it worked perfectly. This makes baking these mandelhörnchen SO much quicker and easier.

• Ground almonds

There is no flour in this recipe, just ground almonds- which makes the cookies naturally gluten-free!

• Icing sugar

Unlike the pizzicotti from the last post, which used caster sugar, these mandelhörnchen use icing sugar, which makes for a softer, smoother and stickier (but that is unfortunately necessary) dough.

• Egg whites

You don’t need the yolks, so you can save them for another recipe.

• Flaked almonds

You roll each cookie ‘log’ in flaked almonds before baking, which makes the cookies extra tasty and extra pretty.

• Dark chocolate

For dipping the ends of the horns in. The original recipe uses coconut oil to thin out the chocolate and make this easier, but I prefer the taste of the chocolate by itself. Dipping the horns is customary, but you can leave them plain to make this recipe even quicker and easier, if you prefer.

Many mandelhörnchen recipes also include almond extract, but Dunk’s does not- honestly, I didn’t even miss it! The ground almonds in the dough and flaked almonds on the outside of each cookie make these so deliciously almond-y, as Dunk says, there’s really no need for the extract.

Making Mandelhörnchen

First up, you need to preheat your oven to 150°C. This is a lower temperature than most cookies, but it’s perfect for obtaining mandelhörnchen that are perfectly chewy and just slightly golden. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper, then spread the flaked almonds out into an even layer on a plate and set everything aside until later.

Next, grate the marzipan. I know, I know- grating marzipan sounds weird, right? Don’t skip it though- it really helps to incorporate the marzipan into the dough, and it’s actually pretty easy- marzipan is soft (but not so soft that it can’t be grated!), so it won’t take long at all.

Place your grated marzipan into a large bowl, along with the ground almonds, icing sugar and egg whites. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together.

Once the mixture has started to come together, switch to your hands and bring the dough together into a smooth ball. The dough will be super sticky, but this is a necessary evil- it needs to be sticky so that the flaked almonds stick to it later. I found that the best way to deal with this was to rinse my hands off in cold water after shaping each cookie and only partially dry them, so they are still a little damp. Not only does this remove any sticky almond build-up on your palms, but having damp hands helps to keep the dough from sticking to you as much in the first place.

Now, you’re ready to shape your mandelhörnchen! Start by pinching off a walnut-sized piece of the dough (it should be about 25g- I like to weigh cookie dough so that all my cookies are the same size and bake evenly). Roll the dough into a smooth ball between your hands.

Once you have a smooth dough ball, open up your palms and continue rolling it between your hands to form a log- you want it to be about 9cm long.

Roll the log in the flaked almonds, until it is fully covered. Bend the coated log into a crescent (or ‘c’) shape, then place it onto one of the prepared baking trays. Repeat for the rest of the dough.

Once you have all of your cookies rolled and shaped, you can bake them in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until just golden. Allow them to cool on the baking trays for a minute or so, to firm up, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, you can dip them in chocolate. I like to melt the chocolate in the microwave (1 minute bursts on the lowest setting, stirring in between each one until the chocolate has completely melted), but you could do it over a bain-marie if you prefer. I didn’t bother tempering the chocolate either, which made this even quicker (and the cookies still looked and tasted delicious!).

Once the chocolate is melted, dip the ends of the cookies into it, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl, then place the dipped cookies onto a tray lined with baking paper. Leave them at room temperature to set for about 1 hour, until hard.

As you use up the chocolate, it will get harder to dip the cookies. At this point, you can either start spooning the chocolate over the ends instead, or you can panic-drizzle the remaining cookies with the dregs of the chocolate like me (not strictly authentic, but just as tasty and far less soul-destroying).

Once the chocolate, however you choose to add it, has set, you can peel the mandelhörnchen off the baking paper and serve them. Alternatively, you can transfer them to an airtight container, where they will keep for about 3 weeks if stored at room temperature, in a cool, dry place.

Final Thoughts

I am obsessed with these cookies. I don’t know if it’s because I waited so long to find the perfect recipe, or just because they are SO DELICIOUS, but I really, truly love them. They were also incredibly easy to make- the hardest part was dipping them in chocolate and that’s optional! Just like the pizzicotti from the last instalment of Baking Around the World, these are festive almond cookies, with very similar ingredients, but they are actually very distinct. While the pizzicotti were soft and clementine-y, these mandelhörnchen are chewy, chocolate-y and intensely almond-y. I like both very much, but the mandelhörnchen have a special place in my heart.

I hope you enjoyed this second instalment of Baking Around the World, and the 11th post of Blogmas At Home! Tomorrow we’ll be halfway through- can you believe it? Let me know if you try making some mandelhörnchen of your own- I’d love to hear what you think!

Gemma

xxx

P.S. This entire post was basically my love letter to Anja Dunk. Thank you for making all of my mandelhörnchen dreams come true!

Recipe

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Mandelhörnchen

These classic German almond cookies are curved into a crescent shape and rolled in flaked almonds before baking. Traditionally, the ends are dipped in dark chocolate, but you can leave them plain if you prefer.

Course Snack

Cuisine German

Keyword almond, Cookie, Dark Chocolate, German

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Setting time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 50 minutes minutes

Servings 28 cookies

Ingredients

• 100 g flaked almonds
• 330 g marzipan, grated
• 200 g ground almonds
• 130 g icing sugar
• 2 egg whites

For dipping:

• 180 g dark chocolate

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 150°C. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper and set aside. Spread the flaked almonds out into an even layer on a plate and set aside, ready for rolling the cookies in later.
• Place the grated marzipan, ground almonds, icing sugar and egg whites into a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture begins to clump together. Use your hands to knead the mixture, so that it forms a smooth, sticky dough.
• Take a small amount of dough (about 25g) and roll it into a ball (see Note 1). Roll the ball between the palms of your hands to form a log, about 9cm long. Roll the log in the flaked almonds to coat it, then bend it into a crescent shape and place it onto one of the lined baking trays. Repeat this process for the rest of the dough.
• Once you have all of your mandelhörnchen rolled, bake one tray at a time in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the tray before dipping (if you choose to do so)/serving.
• To dip the cookies, melt the chocolate in the microwave (see Note 2, or use your preferred method for melting). When the chocolate is melted, dip the end of each crescent into the chocolate, allowing any excess to drip off, back into the bowl, before placing the cookies back on the baking paper to set.
• Once the chocolate has set, you can transfer the biscuits to an airtight container- they will keep for about 3 weeks at room temperature.

Notes

1. The dough will be very sticky- it needs to be, so that the flaked almonds stick to it. I found it helpful to rinse my hands off after shaping each cookie- this helps to prevent the sticky dough building up on your palms. I also left my hands ever so slightly damp, which helped to prevent the dough from sticking as well.
2. I find it easiest to melt chocolate in the microwave and I don’t bother tempering it for this recipe. Just break up the chocolate and put it into the microwave, on the lowest temperature, for 1 minute at a time, stirring well between each burst, until it has completely melted.

Adapted from ‘Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas’ by Anja Dunk.

Sources Used

Dunk, Anja, ‘Advent‘: Mandelhörnchen, p.131.

In Jennie’s Kitchen: Luisa’s Mandelhörnchen (Chocolate-Dipped Almond Crescents).

My German Recipes: Almond Crescents or Horns/Mandelhörnchen.

Serious Eats: Chocolate Dipped Almond Horns.

The Daring Gourmet: Mandelhörnchen (German Almond Horns).

Confession: I am… not a big travel person. I mean, this whole blog is literally called Gemma at Home because of the sheer amount of time I spend not travelling. However, I do think witnessing, experiencing and making an attempt to understand cultures other than your own is incredibly important. While travelling to different countries and immersing yourself in their respective cultures is the most obvious way of doing this, it’s not the only way. I think, sometimes, people look down on the idea of learning about other cultures via less ‘real life’ methods- things like reading books and articles, watching videos or even engaging in certain activities. I know these techniques can’t provide as comprehensive an understanding of a culture as firsthand experience, but that doesn’t mean they are not effective sources in their own right- especially for those who aren’t in a position get that firsthand experience for themselves.

The point of this whole spiel, ultimately, is to introduce a new series on the blog: Baking Around the World. Food is such an intrinsic part of so many cultures- I love hearing about the stories and traditions surrounding food across the globe. In Baking Around the World, I want to explore some new recipes, try some new tasty bakes and learn about the history of each one as I go. I may not be much good at travelling, but I do love to bake. This is my own, more accessible version of experiencing new cultures (and testing out some tasty snacks that I have never tried before!).

Before we begin, let me just throw out a few disclaimers: obviously, I will not be any sort of expert on any of these recipes- I’m just giving them a try. As part of the process, I will be doing lots of research on the recipes- I’ll list the sources I have referenced for the bakes at the end of each post, as well as sharing some of what I have found in my research throughout. While I will be providing the final recipe I end up using in the posts, I am (obviously) not going to be claiming the recipes as my own- just sharing the ingredients/methods I used to make my version of them. Finally, my bakes are unlikely to be super authentic- recipes vary based on region, my research may go awry, I might be limited by the ingredients available to me here in the UK. Please, go easy on me! I’m just a girl who loves sweet snacks.

Right then, let’s get into our first bake, shall we? We’re heading to Sicily for this one…

Table of Contents

• Pizzicotti: Explained
• Pizzicotti Ingredients
• Making Pizzicotti
• Final Thoughts
• Recipe
• Sources Used

Pizzicotti: Explained

In my research, I was surprised to discover that pizzicotti are not actually a flavour of cookie, but a shape. Pizzicotti means ‘little pinches’ in Italian and these cookies are shaped by, quite literally, pinching the dough- hence the name. The cookies themselves are almond cookies, known, in their unshaped form, as pasticcini di mandorla (or mandorle – I’m fairly certain that mandorla is the singular form of ‘almond’, while mandorle is the plural. Which one is grammatically accurate in this context- I am unsure).

I actually stumbled upon some cookies with the same scalloped shape as pizzicotti in a (quite fancy) farm shop recently- you can see them in the photo above. These cookies are labelled as amaretti, though they look more like the pizzicotti/pasticcini di mandorla than the amaretti I have seen. Upon further research, I think pasticcini di mandorla are a Sicilian variation of amaretti– made using sweet (as opposed to bitter) almonds and no apricot kernels. If you have had the amaretti that they sell in stores here in the UK before, these pizzicotti are very different- they are much paler in colour and have a much softer texture.

Pizzicotti Ingredients

To make pizzicotti, you will need the following ingredients:

• Clementine

Pizzicotti are often ‘scented’ with citrus (though you can also use alcohol, vanilla or something else along those lines), so I decided to use clementine zest, like in Giuseppe Dell’Anno (of Bake Off fame)’s recipe (see the end of this post for source references). Honestly, I’m still not sure what makes a clementine different from a satsuma or a tangerine, but I’m pretty sure any of them will work in this recipe. You could even use orange zest, just make sure to only use the zest of about half an orange (clementines/satsumas/tangerines are much smaller!)- otherwise the flavour might overwhelm the almond taste.

• Ground almonds

There is no flour in these cookies, just ground almonds. This means that the cookies have a lovely almond-y flavour and, as a bonus, they’re also gluten-free!

• Caster sugar

Some recipes use icing sugar for their pizzicotti, but the majority seem to use caster sugar. I’ve gone with caster sugar here.

• Egg whites

This recipe doesn’t use the yolks, so you can save them for a different recipe.

• Almond extract

This is just to amp up the almond flavour a little- I’ve actually decreased it slightly from the original recipe because I felt it was fighting a little too much with the clementine flavour, but you can use the original amount (1 teaspoon) if you prefer.

• Honey

I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of the honey is in the recipe, but it seems to be a fairly standard edition across the pizzicotti recipes I’ve found. I’d love to know whether it helps to bind the mixture or adds sweetness/flavour- or maybe even both?

• Icing sugar

This is what gives the pizzicotti their iconic snowball-esque appearance- the balls of dough are rolled in icing sugar before baking, making them all snowy (and extra tasty).

Making Pizzicotti

The traditional method of making pizzicotti involves a bowl, a spoon and good old-fashioned elbow grease. When I first tried these out, I followed Giuseppe Dell’Anno’s recipe, where he uses a food processor instead. I’ve tried both methods now, and I actually prefer the food processor method for a couple of reasons:

• While pizzicotti are by no means taxing to make by hand, energy is not something that I have a lot of. I love recipes that I can make in a stand mixer/food processor, because I can still enjoy making them when I’m feeling particularly tired.
• Processing the sugar and almonds helps to break them down a little, making your pizzicotti a little smoother. I found that the pizzicotti I made by hand were a little grainier, which wasn’t unpleasant, but was noticeable.

Basically, you can make these either way. I do prefer the texture of the pizzicotti made in the food processor, but I also wonder if the grainier texture of the handmade cookies is more authentic? Nevertheless, it’s up to you which method you choose.

Start by preheating your oven to 180°C and lining a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Then, make the dough…

To make the pizzicotti in the food processor, place the clementine zest, ground almonds and caster sugar into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz for a few seconds until well combined.

Add the egg whites, almond extract and honey, then pulse until the dough comes together.

Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface, lightly dusted with icing sugar to help prevent it from sticking, then knead into a smooth ball. The dough will be very sticky- that’s how it should be! The dough is now ready to divide and shape.

If you would like to make the pizzicotti by hand, just put all of the ingredients (bar the icing sugar) into a large bowl.

Mix with a wooden spoon until it starts to come together, then use your hands to knead the dough into a smooth ball. The dough is now ready to divide and shape.

To form the pizzicotti, split the dough into 26 pieces (each piece will be about 25g). Roll each piece of dough between your hands to form a ball.

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, then drop the ball in and roll it around until it is completely coated in the sugar. I like to shape all of the balls first, then roll each one in the icing sugar, but you can do them one at a time if you prefer.

Once you have all of your icing sugar-covered balls, you need to pinch them to make them into pizzicotti!

Using your thumb, index finger and third finger, gently pinch each ball- you’re aiming for a kind of rounded triangle shape with a scalloped pattern on top, as in the photos. Don’t worry about it too much though- they’ll taste delicious no matter what!

Once you have shaped all of your pizzicotti, bake them in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, until they have turned slightly golden and a few cracks have appeared. Let them cool completely on the tray, then serve at room temperature.

The pizzicotti will keep for up to 2 weeks at room temperature, if stored in an airtight container.

Final Thoughts

I am a BIG fan of these cookies. They taste exactly like you would imagine softly baked marzipan tastes, but with an extra hit of clementine flavour, which makes them feel extra Christmassy. I love their snowy-white and powdery coating, as well as their scalloped shape. They’re also incredibly easy to make, which is perfect for this busy time of year! I think these might just be a new favourite cookie recipe for me- I just know I’ll be making them again and again and again.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first post in my Baking Around The World series and Day 7 of Blogmas At Home! I have a few more recipes lined up, so keep an eye out for those. I’ll see you tomorrow for Day 8!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Pizzicotti

These Sicilian almond cookies, called Pizzicotti ('little pinches') for their indented shape, are flavoured with clementine zest and rolled in icing sugar before baking.

Course Snack

Cuisine Italian

Keyword almond, clementine, Cookie, pizzicotti

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 32 minutes minutes

Servings 26 cookies

Ingredients

• zest of 1 unwaxed clementine (see Note 1).
• 250 g ground almonds
• 200 g caster sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 tsp honey
• 40 g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, then place the sifted icing sugar into a small bowl, ready for coating the pizzicotti. Set both aside for later.
• Place the clementine zest, ground almonds and caster sugar into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine the ingredients and break down the sugar and almonds a little.
• Add the egg whites, almond extract and honey to the food processor, then pulse until the mixture starts to come together into a sticky dough. Remove the dough from the food processor and transfer to a clean work surface, lightly dusted with icing sugar, then knead gently with your hands until it forms a smooth ball. You can shape and bake the pizzicotti immediately, or you can wrap the dough in cling film at this stage and store in the fridge for up to 2 days.
• To shape the pizzicotti, take a small amount of the dough (about 25g) and roll it between your hands to make a ball. Drop the ball into the bowl of icing sugar, then roll it around until it is completely coated. Place the pizzicotti onto the baking tray, then use your thumb, index and middle fingers to gently pinch the ball and give the cookie its characteristic shape. Repeat this process with the remaining dough, spacing them out slightly on the tray (they don't spread hugely, but do give them a little room to grow- if in doubt, use a second tray).
• Bake the pizzicotti in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies (underneath all of the icing sugar!) have turned golden and are slightly cracked. Let them cool completely before removing them from the tray and serving. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the pizzicotti will keep for up to two weeks.

Notes

1. I used clementine zest to make these pizzicotti extra Christmassy, but you could use lemon or orange zest to flavour your pizzicotti, or even omit the extra flavouring, if you prefer.

Recipe adapted from ‘Clementine and almond cookies’ by Giuseppe Dell’Anno, from Olive Magazine (Christmas 2023, p.42).

Sources Used

Giuseppe Dell’Anno‘s ‘Clementine and almond cookies’ for Olive Magazine, ‘Christmas 2023’, p.42.

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Italian Recipe Book: Italian Almond Cookies

Italy Magazine: Pasticcini di Mandorla

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Rachel Eats: Pasticcini di Mandorle

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