Lemon Cookie mini-cakes


for the cookies:

180 g unsalted butter
70 g vegetable shortening
grated zest from two lemons
310 g sugar
5 g salt
1 large egg
8 g vanilla extract
60 ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed 

625 g flour
18 g baking powder

prepare the cookies:

1. Cream the butter, shortening and the zest together. Add the sugar and beat until creamy fluffy. Add the salt.

2. Add the egg. Beat until well combined. Add the vanilla extract and half the lemon juice. Mix lightly.

3. Incorporate half of the flour, alternating with the other half of the lemon juice and the rest of the flour. Mix until the dough is formed.

4. Divide the dough in two. Roll it out between two pieces of wrapping foil. Place on a flat surface and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

5. With a round cookie cutter, cut out cookies.

6. Using a cookie cutter with a smaller diameter, cut the centre of half of the cookies to form a ring. Make the cut out centres into button cookies.

7. Place all the cookies in a lined with parchment paper sheet pan and bake in a preheated to 180C oven for 8-10 min, or until golden.

8. Leave the cookies to stay in the pan for 5-8 min and remove on a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container until assemble the mini-cakes.


 for the Lemon Filling:

1 g gelatin sheet (1/2 gelatin sheet)
175 g butter, diced in a bowl (1 1/2 stick, 6 oz.)
2 eggs
135 g sugar (3/4 cups, 5 oz.)
130 ml lemon juice (1/2 cup)
30 g ground almonds (1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp, 1 oz.)

1. Soak the gelatin sheet in cold water until softened.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, combine the eggs and sugar. Whisk lightly.
3. Whisk in the lemon juice and cook, stirring constantly over medium heat. 
4. Cook the mixture, until thickens. Remove from the heat.
5. Squeeze the gelatin dry, add to the lemon cream and stir, until dissolved.
6. Strain over the butter. 
7. Stir the almonds into the cream.
8. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours.


Tailoring:

1. Spread some filling in the centre of each of the plain round cookies. 
2. Cover with the ring cookies. Press down gently, until the filling fills the rings evenly.
3. Store in a refrigerator.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lebkuchen Houses

Image
Traditions are sculpted by the memories of the people. For some traditions is particularly easy to cross time and geographical borders, because of the taste. The well known gingerbread houses today are the young ancestors of the lebkuchen houses, born in Germany two hundred years ago, when Brothers Grimm wrote "Hansel and Gretel". German bakers were inspired by the descriptive story and freed their imagination into baking differently shaped and coloured small and big delicious houses.  Decorated with candies, small cookies, chocolate pieces and lots of icing, the houses are extremely appealing not only because of their whimsical appearance, but because of the heavenly aroma of the spices as well. Make this in advance and you will have Christmas feeling all season long.  I chose to bake lebkuchen houses because of the variety of spices used in the recipe . My houses are gently decorated with white royal icing and I did not use any candies. I like this way of decor...
Read more

Rustico Buttergipfel

Image
55 g unsalted butter I 225 g unsalted butter II 30 g flour 15 g cold water 7 g dry yeast 20 ml lukewarm water 160 ml col water 14 g malt syrup , or 30 g dark honey 12 g salt 1 large egg 380 g flour My Grandma used to "toast" the butter for almost every pastry - either at the time of preparing or just before serving. It gave just a small "intonation" of difference to the colour but such a complete finish to the taste. At the time I did not care what and why she did that - to me it was just an extra unnecessary work. Later on at the university I realized how the separation works and what a difference it makes to the taste. French call it beurre noisette and use it mostly for pastry and savoury hot sauces, Indians call it ghee and cook mainly with it, in Germany and in the German part of Switzerland, chefs use this "toasty" butter for the buttergipfels .  The process is a simple separation into butterfat and milk solids, called clarificat...
Read more

Old-fashioned Lebkuchen Stars and Hearts

Image
This is the classic recipe for Christmas Cookies from old Germany, or Switzerland (if you'd prefer). A recipe, I was hoping to find for a long time. Thanks to Sara Kelly Iaia and her fine memories, collected in the book "Festive Baking", I am happy to bake the first cookies for this Christmas. The honey and the quantity of the fragrant spices make these cookies unique. I would advise not to skip any of the spices or to change their quantity. I am pretty conservative when it comes to perfumed spices. I think the simpler ingredients make one dish tastier. But here, the spices are in perfect unison.   for the cookies: 490 g all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 Tbsp cinnamon 1 tsp cardamom 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp powdered anise 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 1/2 tsp ginger 225 g honey 160 g light brown sugar 134 g unsalted butter 1 large egg 1. Sift the flour in a bowl. 2. In another bowl, sift all...
Read more