Baci Di Dama - Lady's Kisses

This weekend I thought I didn't have time to bake anything.  Busy cleaning out the garage, want to get ready for spring.  Surprisingly husband and I finished cleaning early. Husband marinated a chicken early this morning, so he was banking it. Then I decided to make these lady's kisses cookies while waiting for the dinner.

This recipe is from a Japanese pastry chef's book. 

Ingredients:

Dough

1. Butter - 75g

2. Confectioner Sugar - 50g

3. Cake Flour - 60g

4. Corn Starch - 60g

5. Almond power - 30g

(I bought a bag of almond powder from Hong Kong Supermarket. This kind of almond powder is for making almond drink. I just wanted to try it out how it would taste with the baking.  The result was pretty good.  Just that next time I would cut down the sugar a little, because the almond power already have sugar added.)

Filling

1. Semi sweet chocolate - 40g

2. Heavy cream - 20g  ( I didn't have heavy cream on hand, so I substitute with 2% milk)

3. Instant coffee - 1/3 teaspoon ( I didn't have instant coffee, so I use instant espresso coffee)

Steps 

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F)

2. Beat the butter until soft and creamy

3. Add confectioner sugar into the butter in two parts. Mix until creamy white color  with each time the sugar is added. 

4. Sift flours and almond powder, add to butter and sugar mix.  Uses a spatula gently folds them together, until it becomes dough.

5. Put the dough in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes or more.

6. Take the dough out of fridge after it's chilled. Then take a little bit of the dough and use hands to roll into 1cm ball shape.  Line them up in a baking sheet.  remember to keep them a distance a part. 

The picture showing here, the distance between cookies are still not enough. I will put them a little bit more apart next time.  

7. Bake at 180C (350 F) for 15 minutes. 

8. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. 

9. Remove chocolate from the double boiler, and then add the milk and the coffee. Quickly mix them until smooth.

10 set aside to cool down.

11. Take out the baked cookies out of the oven and let it cool down.

12. To combine them, take one cookie, and put a little chocolate on the flat side of the cookie.

13. Take another cookie, and attach them together.

Enjoy ~
 

Salty Sesame Cookies

I have always wanted  to try make some salty cookies for my husband.  He doesn't really like sweet desserts. This is the first time I made salty cookies. This recipes is from a cookie book that I bought from Taiwan. The author is a Japanese dessert chef.

Ingredients

1.     Butter – 50g   (room temperature)

2.    Salt – ¾ teaspoon  (please adjust to your own taste)

**I would cut down to 1/2 teaspoon next time, it's kind of salty with 3/4 teaspoon.

3.    Milk – 2 tablespoon

4.    Black Sesame – 20g

5.    Cake Flour – 100g

Steps:

1.     Preheat oven to 180C (350F)

2.    Mix butter & salt together.  Use whisk to mix them until it’s soft and creamy

3.    Then add milk little at a time, beating well after each addition.

4.    Add the black sesame into the milk, butter & salt mixture.  Use a spatula gently mixes them.

 

5.    Shift cake flour, and add the flour into the sesame mixture. Uses the spatula gently folds them together, until it becomes dough.

6.    Shape the dough into a 6cm wide x 2cm thick square. Put the dough in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

7.    Take the dough out of fridge and cut them into 5mm thick pieces.

8.     bake them for 15 minutes, or until a little golden brown on the side.

Enjoy ~ 

I will make a sweet version of sesame cookies next time ~