Almond Crescent Cookies

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almond meal, butter cookies, Celebration cookies, Cookie, cookies, eid celebration cookies, how to make almond meal, Orange blossom water, refrigerator cookies, sugar cookies, sweets, tea time, ماء الزهر, بسكويت, بسكويت الزبده, حلويات العيد, طحين اللوز

A powder sugar-coated butter cookies loaded with nutty roasted almond made for special occasions.

Cookies are the one sweet treat that no one can pass up. Because they’re small, and easy to eat on the go, they’re the perfect snack anytime your sweet tooth starts nagging for a quick fix.
A classic holiday favorites, very easy to make, popular through out the world during celebrations. These crescents also make a welcome gift, just wrap and zip it in a decorative tin.

Very light and tasty cookies, combine between luxury creamy butter taste and nutty roasted almonds, scented perfectly with orange blossom water then decorated with copious amounts of confectioner sugar. Butter is essential to the exquisite texture and flavor, use good quality butter for better taste. For the crunch part, I used a home made almond meal, which adds more crunch than using the store bought one. The dough is refrigerated before it’s worked by hands into familiar half moon shapes.

How to make your own almond meal:
Almond meal is also called almond flour, which is just very finely ground almonds. It can be found at natural food stores and many supermarkets, it ‘s very expensive. You can make your own batch, but because it’s chopped not ground, the texture will be a bit rougher than almond flour and the cookies will have more rustic crunch.
to easily peel the almond: put it in small sauce pan, cover it with water and let boil. Once boiled, remove from heat, get rid off the hot water and cool it with cold water, then skin will peeled off easily once you rub it between your fingers.
If the recipe calls for roasted almond, then spread the peeled almond into one layer in a baking sheet, put it in preheated oven at 300 f, and let toast for 15 min, make sure to stir a couple of times to toast all over perfectly. Let cool completely.
Using food processor, add the almond with 1 tablespoon flour (using 1 tablespoon from flour in the recipe). process until the almond are finely chopped. The addition of flour will act as a buffer and keeps the almond from turning into butter.

Almond Crescent Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup icing/powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water
• dash of salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup raw unsalted almonds, peeled, roasted, then finely ground
• icing/powdered sugar to taste for dusting

Directions:
1- Cream the butter and sugar.
2- Mix in the orange blossom water followed by the flour and then the roasted cnuts.
3- Chill the plastic wrap dough in the fridge for at least 2 h.

4- Shape 1 tablespoon of dough at a time into crescent moons and place them on a baking sheet one inch apart from each other.

5- Bake in a preheated 350F oven until they just start to lightly brown, about 12-15 minutes.

6- Sift the icing sugar over while cookies still warm.

بسكويت اللوز

١ كوب زبده بحرارة الغرفه
١/٢ كوب سكر بودره
١ م ص ماء زهر
رشة ملح
٢ كوب طحين
١ كوب لوب مقشر ومحمص ومطحون
سكر بودره للوجه

طريقة اللوز المطحون
نضع اللوز الني بطنجره صغيره ونغمره بالماء ونتركه يغلي
نطفي عليه ونزيل الماء ونبرده بماء بارد
باطراف الاصابع نضغط عليه لنزيل القشور
هذه اسهل طريقه لازالة القشور عن جميع انواع المكسرات
نحمص اللوز المقشر بالفرن طبعا حسب ما تقتضيه الوصفه لان هناك وصفات تتطلب لوز ني
نضعه بصينيه الفرن ونحمصه على ٣٠٠ ف لمدة ١/٤ س ونقلبه عدة مرات ليتحمص من جميع الجوانب ونتركه يبرد تماما
في محضرة الطعام نطحن اللوز مع اضافة ملعقه واحده من الطحين المستعمل للوصفه
سيكون قوامه من ناعم لخشن نوعا ما
اضافة الطحين حتى لا يتحول اللوز عن الطحن الى زبده

لعمل البسكويت
نخفق الزبده والسكر حتى يصبح متل الكريمه نضيف ماء الزهر والطحين والملح واللوز المطحون
نعجنه مع بعض ونغلفه ونحفظه بالتلاجه على الاقل لمدة ٢ س او طوال الليل
نقطع العجين الى قطع بحجم ١ م ك ونشكلها على شكل هلال ونصفها بالصينيه ونضعها بفرن محمى مسبقا على ٣٥٠ ف لمدة تقريبا ١٥ د
نخرجها من الفرن ونضعها بالسكر البودره والبسكويتات دافئه

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Biscotti di Regina

Tags

biscotti, biscotti di regina, Biscuit, Cookie, italian cookies, Sesame, tea time

The queen’s biscotti, it’s a Sicilian cookies, a cake-like covered with sesame seeds and slightly sweet, very good companion with tea or coffee.

Despite it’s italian originality, I grew up enjoying these cookies, having them on breakfast with a cup of chocolate milk, is the world’s best morning treat I had before going to school. Almost every day, my dad used to wake up very early in the morning, hit the humus stand to bring us a plate of humus for breakfast before we going to school, on his way he also brought us a very warm pita bread and some of these biscotti freshly baked from the nearby bakery shop. Until now, every time I went home, my dad knows whats to bring us for breakfast that even my kids enjoy it too.

Qorshalli b’simsim, that’s the name in arabic. These are not too sweet and cake like in the inside, crunchy from the outside and covered with wonderful toasted sesame seeds. The vanilla flavour has its own act with these cookies, and on top of all of that they are so easy to make.

A few months ago, while searching the library, I came around with the Gourmet magazine cookie book, I noticed these cookies and decided to try. To be honest, they came up very delicious like the one’s my dad used to bring, but these are more cake like or more soft from inside, the flavor is the same.
These cookies can be in many shapes. The one from the bakery shop in Palestine make them a fingers shapes or thick sticks.
Don’t forget to enjoy these cookies in the evening tea time too, they are a good companion with tea.

Biscotti di Regina (Queen’s Biscuits)

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
5 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 pound sesame seeds
Preheat oven to 450°
Cream butter add 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg and add gradually milk and vanilla extract.
Sift together into a bowl flour, salt, and baking powder. Make a hollow in the center and gradually work in the butter-sugar mixture. If the dough seems too dry, add more milk.

Shape the dough into a ball and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Wash and drain well sesame seeds.
Break off pieces of the chilled dough the size of walnuts and flatten them slightly between the palms.

Roll the biscuits in the sesame seeds and bake them on a cookie sheet 1/2 inch apart in a hot oven (450° F.) for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden. Makes 5 dozen biscuits.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread with Earl – Grey Infused Glaze

Tags

Baking, butter cookies, chocolate chip, cookies, cooking with tea, Dessert, Earl Grey, Earl Grey glaze, shortbread, tea glaze, tea time

There comes a time in every week ( or maybe in every day) when nothing is more satisfying than a snack of fresh-from-the-oven cookies, alongside a cold and creamy glass of milk or warming cup of tea.

When I’m talking shortbread cookies, I think of simplicity and little ingredients. This recipe of shortbread has no eggs in it, no baking powder, yet it calls for no cooling after mixing the dough. We don’t need to put everything from the pantry into a batch of cookies—a little restraint can go a long way toward helping us remember the pleasure of the simpler things.

But the absolute best part about shortbread? Butter! Shortbread cookies usually have a high percentage of fat and slightly less sugar than other cookies, leaving you with a not-too-sweet cookie that has a nice buttery flavor to it. The butter gives this classic cookie its just-so-slightly crumbly texture, which makes biting into a piece pure bliss. Butter also makes each bite melt a bit on your tongue as you munch on the cookies.

The glaze is new to me, the first time I used it or even see any recipe calling for it. Delicate Earl Grey tea infused glaze gives this unique flavor to the Cookies, calming and refreshing Earl Grey tea taste.

For optimum flavor, use unsalted butter to allow the flavors of butter, chocolate, orange and tea to stand out.

1 cup butter, unsalted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp grated orange peel
2 cups all-purpose flour
1\4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 f. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or leave them ungreased.

Using an electric mixer on low-speed, cream the Butter, orange peel and Sugar together in a bowl until combined, Stop the mixer to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Continuing on low-speed, gradually mix in the Flour, cornstarch and Salt. Scrape the bowl. When dough has formed, add in the chocolate chips, then complete the mixing by hand with a wooden spoon.

Roll dough into 1\4 inch thick rectangle on lightly floured board. Cut dough lengthwise into 4 rows and diagonally into 8 rows. Place shortbread 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until bottoms begin to brown. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan, cool completely on wire rack. Prepare Earl Grey-Infused Glaze. Drizzle over shortbread.

Earl Grey Infused Glaze:

makes 1\3 cup or enough to drizzle on the cookies

1\4 cup boiling water
3 bags Earl Grey tea
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened

pour boiling water over the tea bags, let steep 3-5 minutes. Remove tea bags.
In a small bowl, stir together powdered sugar and butter. Gradually stir in enough tea to make glaze thin enough to drizzle.