Saturday, October 30, 2010

Chocolate chestnut caramel cupcakes *gluten free*

I made these for a Halloween morning tea we had at work, but they could easily be made for Christmas, with the chestnuts, its kinda christmassy, and they are good!

ok I confess, the cupcakes were from a packet mix, its a new packet mix made with chestnut flour, I didn't have enough time to make any from scratch, I have a recipe, but I have to order chestnut flour on line as its not in the shops yet. sooo..

make 1 batch of chocolate chestnut flour cupcakes.
1 marshmallow per cupcake
red food colouring
black food colouring
chocolate melts
can of condensed milk turned into dulce de leche
150g cream cheese
1 cup icing/powdered sugar

using the cone method, cone out your cupcakes and fill with caramel replacing the top.
mix cream cheese, icing sugar, 2 tbsp caramel. put 3 tbsp of mixture in another bowl and add red food colouring to desired colour.
top cupcakes with the caramel icing, then red icing.
with a toothpick, dip into red food colouring and make squiggly vein lines on your marshmallows
melt chocolate and add a few drops of black colouring, pipe small round for the eyeballs pupil on wax paper, and pop in freezer for 10mins to set.
using a small bit of melted chocolate attach choc pupil to marshmallow eyeball and set onto top of cupcake nestled inside the red icing. voila!!





Week 5 Twelve Weeks of Christmas:


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Amaretto Cookies

12 Weeks of Christmas cookies - o what a joy baking for Christmas is!! I heard on the radio this morning one of the DJ's horrified that Christmas decorations and displays were already up, reminding us that Christmas is 2 months away.. are you kidding me? I wish the decorations started last month!

Amaretto cookies

225gm blanched almonds, finely ground (almond meal)
4 drops almond extract
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon powdered sugar


Combine almonds, extract, sugars, and lightly beaten egg whites in medium bowl.
Knead mixture until dough is firm.
Moisten hands and form dough into 1" balls.
Place balls on cookie sheet and bake at 250F (120C) for about 60 minutes, on bottom rack in oven.
Place cookies on cooling rack and dust with powdered sugar while still warm.

Tip: these cookies don't expand - they cook in the size and shape you made them. don't make them flat though as they will lose that chewy centre.

Also Gluten free.