Red, White and Blue Mini Panettones

Hello all, I hope you have had a nice Christmas or a general happy holidays if that's not your thing.  Mine was quite lovely except for the fact that I have been ill since I came off from school!  I was bed-ridden for 3 days, where I did nothing but watch movies on Netflix and sleep.  The Hubby did a wonderful job taking care of me (bringing me food and drinks and sitting with me for a bit) and has ended up being sick himself for his troubles.  It doesn't quite seem to be the same thing: he's really stuffed up whereas I was hurting and suffering an annoying and painful cough.  I've still got the latter.  Curse my weak lungs and the sensitivity to the weather.  It's worse this year though as it is far too easy for me to get out of breath.  I was almost done in by a walk to the train station yesterday (which is 3 minutes away).  

But enough about that.  As I was saying, my Christmas has been lovely.  There were some lovely presents under my  beautiful (if I say so myself since I made all the decorations) Christmas tree and it was nice having dinner with the Dunion side of the Hubby's family, as well as skyping mine.  I even spent a chunk of the day making mince pies because the mother-in-law had requested them.  I made a batch for taking to Christmas dinner and then sent another batch along to Falkirk with the in-laws on Boxing Day when they visited the McGinlay side of the family.  The Hubby and I didn't go.  We took the day to recover.

Now with the Dunion side of the family, one of the siblings hosts Christmas Dinner.  This year it was the Hubby's Aunt Linda.  We all go for our tea and then we all exchange presents with each other.  We didn't go last year since we were down in England visiting my family.  I try and make my presents for extended family.  The year before last it was orange shortbread.  This year, I made panettone since the Dunion side has Italian roots.

I'll say right off the bat, this is not a proper, traditional panettone.  You can probably see that from the photos since they are quite tall and skinny panettone and baked in tin cans.  True panettone would also require a sourdough starter, which I do not have the patience to cultivate or maintain, and several days for proving.  Admittedly, I did have that latter bit but it was slightly scuppered by the being ill thing.  Hence they are not as beautifully fluffy as a real panettone should be.  Finally, I'm not using the most traditional of ingredients.  No mixed fruit or Fiori di Sicilia.  This has cranberries, blueberries, white chocolate and candied peel.  Hence the red, white and blue in the title.  That being said, these are still very yummy and went down well as gifts.

I wanted the panettone to be as fresh as possible so I made them on Christmas Eve.  I just about managed to stay upright whilst doing it.  It gave me a fair bit of trouble.  The dough is ridiculously sticky for a start.  However, I may have added slightly more egg that I was meant to because a bag of sugar fell out the cupboard and upended my jug of beaten egg onto the floor.  There was still some left and I just mixed up 3 new eggs.  The recipe said it is meant to be sticky, but I'm also supposed to be able to knead it into a ball, which was a bit of a hassle and very messy.   It also did not want to rise so I was constantly worried that I had killed the yeast.  I ended up leaving it whilst we went for Christmas Eve tea and board games with the Hubby's parents, sister and sister's boyfriend.  I was praying they had risen by the time I got back so I could cook them before bed.  Otherwise I was going to have to start over again.  I stole eggs from my mother-in-law's kitchen just in case.   Thankfully though, I came home and they had risen.  I'd put them in the oven since I figured it would be a bit warmer in there and that seemed to do the trick.  Baking took forever as I was wanting that golden brown finish on the top and it was pretty late by the time I finally got to go to bed but the blasted things were done.  I would just need to spruce them up and package them the next morning, as well as grab a few photos (what a shame most of them blurred because I forgot to correct the ISO...).

Recipe - adapted from Good Food: Delicious Gifts

Makes 5 


There is a lot of waiting around and a lot of rising to be done with these.  At the least add in 2.5 hours for rising time but may take longer if it is cold.  Mine did.  Along with the prep and cooking time, you're looking at at least 4 hours from start to finish.

Panettone:

•  500g/1lb 2oz plain flour
• 14g/0.5oz easy blend, dried yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 100g/3.5oz golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200ml/7fl.oz milk
• 200g/7oz butter
• 75g/3oz dried cranberries
• 75g/3oz dried blueberries
• 100g/3.5oz white chocolate chips
• 100g/3.5oz mixed candied peel

To finish:

• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp flaked almonds

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour, yeast and salt together briefly before adding the sugar and mixing again.
2. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it is hand hot.
3. Beat the eggs with vanilla extract and add to the dry ingredients along with the warmed milk.  Mix to make a soft, sticky dough.
4. Work the dough for a few minutes in the mixer then remove the hook and allow to rest until it has doubled in size (about 1 hour but maybe more if it is cold).
5. Put the hook back in, add the butter to the dough in small pieces and mix to incorporate.  Leave to rise for another hour.
6. Add the cranberries, blueberries, white chocolate chips and mixed peel to the dough and mix in until just incorporated.
7. Grease the bottom of 5 clean 400g soup tins and add a circle of baking parchment.  Cut a strip of baking parchment that is just over double the height of the tin.  Fold in half and place inside the tin to form a collar.  Make sure the parchment sticks out over the top of the tin.
8. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead quickly into a ball (the dough is very sticky so this is quite tricky and messy, I recommend using a dough cutter to help).  Divide the ball into 5 pieces and put one in each of the tins.  Leave to rise for about 30 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
10. Beat the egg and brush over the tops of the panettones and sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
11. Bake for about 50 minutes or until the panettones are a deep golden colour.  
12. Cool in the tins on a wire rack.  You should then be able to remove the parchment collar and decorate your tins with a bit of wrapping paper to present as a gift.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Matcha Tea Trees for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Despite the lack of activity this year I knew I wasn't going to miss out on the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  I had so much fun doing it last year that as soon as applications opened, I signed up. The fact it is for charity is just a bonus really.

"The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap brings together food bloggers from around the world in celebration of all things scrumptious. The premise is this: sign up. Receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. Send each of them one dozen delicious homemade cookies. Receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Eat them all yourself (or, you know, share. If you want. No judgement either way.) Post your cookie recipe on your blog. See everyone else’s cookie recipes. Salivate. Get lots of great ideas for next year’s cookie swap. Rinse and repeat.

This year we are again excited to be partnering with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a national non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against paediatric cancer, which claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease. By participating in this cookie swap you are not only contributing to the food blogger community, but also supporting a great cause."

If you are interested in taking part next year you can sign up to be notified when next year's cookie swap opens.

Now (some of) you know me: I like to get inventive for this.  I also like to get festive.  Hence why last year was a take on a classic Christmas flavour (gingerbread) mixed with a little extra of what reminded me of the start of the season (cola).  This year was going to be no different.  I wanted something different from the usual chocolate chip, shortbread or gingerbread (not that I would complain if I received any of those myself).  I cannot remember what got me on to looking at matcha tea as an ingredient but once I had it I wondered about adding more Christmassy ingredients to it, namely cranberries and white chocolate (a popular combination with the Hubby).  And since matcha is green, I thought it would be so cute to make them look like Christmas trees!

The main research for this went into finding a recipe that used matcha and produced a cookie that would hold it's shape by baking.  Of course, I started early in case this bizarre idea turned out to be a disaster.  I required the Hubby's approval and was really unsure if I would get it with these.  Matcha is a bit out there.  I made up a small batch of the recipe I found and conveniently it made exactly one dozen cookies.  I used the tree cutter I had at the time but ended up buying a new one specially for the final ones because the shape looked too much like a holly leaf.  I tentatively offered one to the Hubby, saying I wouldn't be offended if he didn't like it.  As you've probably guessed though, he did like it.  In fact, he loved it and scoffed my whole batch!

I needed to be prompt with getting my cookies done and sent.  December is a busy time at school, even if I'm only working part-time.  I had to prepare my dough on a Sunday, cut and bake 3 dozen on the Monday after I got in from work and then finally photograph and package them on Tuesday, ready for the Hubby to take to the Post Office on Wednesday.  I really had to be strict with myself.  There were several moments where I wanted to just curl up on the couch and sleep.  I also annoyed my cats by shutting them in the hall so I could do my photography.  It is a bit of a problem living in a small flat with two nosy kittens who want to climb on your equipment.  Even more so when there are pretty ribbons all over the place!

Worth it though! I loved how my cookies turned out and I'm really hoping Claire (Clairey Fairy's Cooking), Alicia (Beef and Brioche) and Laura (Foodie Laura) enjoyed them!

I know I have been enjoying what arrived for me not long after: 

Soft Ricotta Cookies with Almond Icing from Iris at Whatever Gets You Through The Day	Chocolate and Candycane Cookies from Karen at Yankee Doodle Paddy	Mint Chocolate Snowball Cookies from Marsha of Marsha's Baking Addiction

The Hubby and I have been steadily scoffing our way through all these delicious bakes from three lovely ladies.  We also took some to share when we went to dinner at the in-laws and they very much appreciated it.  The Hubby says the cookie swap makes this the best time of year!

Recipe - adapted from Just One Cookbook

Makes 36 cookies

• 360g/12.5oz plain flour
• 22.5g/0.8oz matcha tea powder (green tea powder)
• 225g/8oz unsalted butter
• 195g/7oz icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 150g/5.5oz white chocolate chips
• 100g/3.5oz dried cranberries

1. Sift the plain flour and matcha into a bowl.
2. Cream the butter, icing sugar and salt together until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the egg yolks and beat in well.
4. Add the flour and matcha mix gradually to the butter.  Beat mixture until a soft dough forms.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips and cranberries.
6. Shape the dough into 3 equal rounds and wrap in clingfilm.  Chill in the fridge overnight.
7. Line a few baking trays with baking parchment.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 7mm/0.25inches and cut into Christmas tree shapes using a cutter.  Place the cookies on the tray.
9. Put the cookies in the fridge while you preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2.
10. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Allow them to rest on the tray for a couple of minutes after removing from the oven before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Shortbread

Well, long time no see.  It has been a rather hectic few weeks since I last made an entry, all the way back in early November.  That's rather terrible but between teaching and paperwork there has been no time for anything else other than some dinner and not enough sleep.  Good news is, at the end of it all, I passed!  I am officially halfway through my course!  And now I'm on holiday for a few weeks (though there is a 4000 word essay to do...) and have plenty of baking planned since lack of funds means a lot of people are getting home baked presents.  Admittedly, a number of those will be some of my favourites featured in previous posts but I am determined to try something new whilst I have the chance.

In fact, that is what today's post is!  These were part of the gift bag I put together as a 'thank you' for the teacher whose class I have been working in the past 9 weeks.  Now I know I used cranberries and white chocolate together only a couple of posts ago but she likes that combination, and is a big shortbread fan so I knew that if I was going to bake her something it would have to contain all those elements.  Finding a recipe was pretty easy and the one I ended up using was pretty hassle free.  My only complaints would be that the dough was VERY sticky and that I had to cook them slightly longer than recommended.  Other than that though, I think they turned out rather well and were certainly less hassle than the last cookies I made.  It's definitely a recipe I'll be squirrelling away for future gift purposes.  

As my resident taste tester, the fiancé says the biscuits are beautifully sweet and crunchy like he thinks shortbread should be, and that the cranberries and white chocolate compliment each other beautifully.  Hopefully my mentor teacher enjoys them as much.

Recipe - adapted from taste.com
Makes about 36

• 250g/8oz butter
• 125g/4.5oz icing sugar
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g/10.5oz plain flour
• 75g/2.5oz dried cranberries
• 100g/3.5oz white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl until it is very pale and creamy.
3. Stir in the flour, cranberries and chocolate chips and bring together to form a dough.  It will be quite sticky.
4. Roll tablespoon sized portions of dough into balls and place them on the prepared trays, spaced about 5cm/2inches apart.  Flatten slightly with a fork (you may wish to dip the fork in flour to prevent it sticking to the biscuits).
5. Chill the biscuits in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
6. Bake for 15-25 minutes (the original recipe said 15-18 but mine ended up needing 25) until the edges are just starting to turn golden and are slightly firm.  The middles will still feel soft.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to rest on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies

 

My Sundays have started to develop two traditions. The first is that I will spend the day in my pyjamas.  I love pyjamas.  LOVE them.  Especially cute, fleecy ones.  The sleepwear section in clothes shops is one of my favourite places to be though I have to restrain myself or I'll end up buying all of the stock, and I already have too many pyjamas.  The second tradition that is developing is that I will bake.  With the way things are right now, it is the only day I can bake, and take pictures.  During the week I have to leave home when it is dark and come back when it's dark.  So that means no natural light to work with, which results in quite ugly photos.  So it has to be the weekend and, for the last few, has been a Sunday.  That being said, I was not able to finish these biscuits during daylight hours so they ended up being shot at night.  Hence the pictures are not as lovely as I would have liked.

Anyway, for the last three weeks (and for the next six right up until the end of the school term) I have been on placement in a primary school as part of my teacher training.  It was a daunting thing when I started and I was waking up with dread.  However that has gone away and being there reminds me exactly why I want to go into this profession in the first place.  I love it!  I really enjoy teaching, even though I'm still ironing out the kinks in my methods.  And even better, I am apparently good at it.  My formative (so ungraded) assessment was on November 4th and my tutor was very impressed!  She did add that she was pleasantly surprised by this but I am overlooking that and am just being pleased that I am suited to this job.  Hooray!

However, being part of the school is not just about the teaching of the children.  You do have to get along with the staff too and my first impression was not the best.  I am VERY shy and come across as closed off and withdrawn (something I am trying to get rid of).  According to my supervising teacher, I was looking like I didn't want to be there.  Not good!  So to try and improve myself in their eyes I've been meaning to bake something to take in to the staff room.  Unfortunately I only got around to doing so this past weekend.  The previous ones got taken over by the Dessert Challenge (coming Thursday) and Hallowe'en.  Plus it's hard to work out what to bake for people you don't know very well so really I benefited from a few weeks of observing what sort of biscuits got brought in and listening to talk of what people liked.  If reconnaissance had failed, I would have fallen back on my chocolate and orange shortbread.  But no, luckily  I got to try out something new and slightly fancy and also, just a little bit festive.  I have no problems with starting the Christmas baking early. 

So here we have cranberry and white chocolate cookies.  Cranberry and white chocolate was a combination I heard mentioned a lot, and always favourably so I thought I would try my hand at it myself.  Now I wanted to present something that was pleasing to the eye as well as the stomach so I decided I would cut out shapes for my cookies, rather than making drop ones.  Of course, that meant finding a roll-out dough recipe.  Easier said than done and even the one I ended up with did not co-operate to the extent I would like.  Admittedly, I did make a mistake with the first two thirds of the batch.  I had chilled my dough as a ball, rather than rolling it out and then chilling it.  I still made a point to chill the cookies in that batch after I cut them out but they still spread and all my stars were a bit fat.  So with the last third I rolled it out and chilled it.  It was not sticky and I could cut shapes from it a bit easier than before.  Still spread in the oven though.  So, being a perfectionist who did not want to present lumpy stars to my work colleagues, I removed them from the oven a few minutes early, re-cut them and put them back in to finish.  Yes, overly complicated but hey, it worked.  Really, I'm going to recommend chilling it for several hours, maybe even overnight.  And if that fails, you always copy my crazy method.

The cookie itself is delicious though.  I'm not a cranberry fan so I ate some of the off-cuts that didn't have cranberry in.  They were yummy!  As for the finished ones that did have cranberries and a generous layer of white chocolate everyone has loved them.  The staff called them moreish and they vanished very quickly.  I was even awarded a (metaphorical) gold star!  And the fiancé was jealous that they were not for him, though he did get to eat all the other off-cuts plus a reject and one that I snapped for the photos.  He also thoroughly enjoyed them.

Recipe - inspired by Semi Sweet Designs

Makes about 36

• 225g/8oz butter
• 70g/2.5oz golden caster sugar
• 85g/3oz light brown sugar 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 225g/8oz plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
• 150g/5.3oz dried cranberries
• 250g/9oz white chocolate

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter, both sugars and the salt until light and creamy.
2. Add in the vanilla extract and the egg yolk and beat until well combined.
3. Add half the flour and mix in, then add the other half and mix that in too.
4. Fold in the dried cranberries.
5. If dough is too sticky to roll out at this stage, wrap in clingfilm and chill for a couple of hours.  Otherwise skip to next step.
6. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 0.5cm/0.25inch thick.  
7. Chill in the fridge until dough is quite firm to the touch.
8. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and prepare 3 baking trays by covering them with greaseproof paper.
9. Cut out shapes (my star cutter is about 6cm/2.5inches across) from the dough and place on the prepared trays, spaced about 1cm/0.5inch apart (I got 12 per tray).  If the dough gets a bit soft from being handled, put it back in the fridge for about 15 minutes before baking.
10. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the edges are just slightly golden. (If they start to spread, remove after 10 minutes and re-cut shapes if you want, then put them back in for a few minutes).
11. Remove and let rest on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
12. Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water.  Do not let the water touch the bowl or let the chocolate get too hot.
13. Dip the underside of the cookies in the chocolate to coat them, lift out and shake off the excess.  Place back on the wire rack, chocolate side up, and allow them to set.

Blueberry and Cranberry Cinnamon Biscuits

So today I got up two hours earlier than usual, since the fiancé was off for his introductory CBT lesson today and since I had work later I wanted to spend any time I could with him whilst he was home.  I could have gone back to bed after he left but figured I'd be productive and tidy up the flat.  That was finished by 8:45am.  Thus I needed something else to occupy myself and, after dismissing sitting down and playing on my DS, I thought I should bake.

I have to say, I do love my Cookie Jar book.  So many great ideas and it only cost be £2.99 at the Works.  Such a bargain!  Anyway, these were something I had picked out for the fiancé because they contained a lot of things he likes.  And since he finished all the gingerbread, I thought I'd make these for him for his sweet fix.

He loves them!  He's eaten a number of them already.  

The only complaint I have about the recipe is the cooking time.  When I kept them in for the recommended time, they didn't cook all the way through and they had to go back in the oven, flipped over, to finish them off.  If I just left them in longer than the cooking time, without flipping, they burnt on the base.  Quite frustrating.  I don't know if it is my oven.  Or if I'm not flattening them enough, since the recipe only said to flatten them slightly, even though the image in the book is quite flat and they don't spread out much in the oven.  So I'm going to be suggesting some trial and error in the recipe write-up.

Recipe - adapted from Cookie Jar

Makes about 30

• 225g/8oz butter
• 140g/5oz caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 280g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 55g/2oz dried blueberries
• 55g/2oz dried cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line 2-3 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.
3. Lightly beat the egg yolk and add to the sugar butter, along with the vanilla extract and mix in.
4. Sift together the flour, cinnamon and salt and add to the mixture, followed by the blueberries and cranberries.  Stir together until thoroughly combined.
5. Scoop tablespoons of the mixture up and roll into balls.  Space the balls well apart on the trays.  I got about 12 on mine.  Flatten each ball.
6. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
7. Remove and leave to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes.  If biscuits still feel soft, they are not cooked all the way through.  In this case, use a palette knife to carefully flip them over on the tray and bake for another 5-10 minutes.  Again, leave to cool on tray for 5-10 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.