Monday, December 15, 2014

TBB: The Ischler

I like making cookies and eating cookies.  Except when it comes to rolled cookies, I tend to procrastinate a lot because of the waiting time. And because I have to wait for the dough to harden up in the fridge, I always forget about the dough...and usually the dough would end up resting in my fridge for a long time.


I know I'm not supposed to grind whole raw almonds mentioned in the book. But... I did it anyway!  I put the whole raw almonds (because I can't find sliced raw almonds..usually blanched ones here) into my mini-grinder and blitz them away.. and they turned out very fine and I added a bit of icing sugar to absorb the oil in case it turns oily...


The almonds all processed till fine.  Looked good to me! :D  


Then I transferred the ground almonds into my huge food processor and continued with the instructions on the recipe.  Add butter, flour etc. 


Dough is formed and feeling a bit wet. 
Cut the huge dough into quarters and wrapped in cling wrapped into the fridge. 


I was supposed to finished up the recipe that day..but as usual, while waiting for the dough to firm up in the fridge, I completely forgotten about it..till a week later..LOL!  


So after the dough rested 1 week in my fridge.. I finally took it out to roll them out and bake them.

You like my chinese frying ladle?  It is very versatile, can also be used as a cookie scoop...lol! 



Making ganache.  Ok..i went the lazy way. I just put the cream into the chocolate and microwave together. It's very hard to heat up 56g of cream in saucepan..plus one more item to wash later. So i put them together and microwave.  :)  


Look..it worked..! As long as it works, I guess no harm right? LOL!  


See how smooth my ganache turned out?  Oh ya..the left over Lekvar in bottle from way back when I first made them during HCB bake-through (1 or 2 years ago?.. don't judge me.. it can keep indefinitely!) 


Finally!!!   I sandwich most of the cookies with chocolate ganache and 6 of them with the apricot lekvar. That's because I thought the cookies will absorb the moisture from the lekvar making it soft. Over here where it is always humid, cookies/crackers/toast/etc turn soft easily if not kept in airtight containers. Thus we like our cookies crisp and crunchy and often associate soft cookies as stale. 

However, over the years, I have also learned to like soft cookies too.  :)  Changed my mindset that soft cookies = stale cookies. 




Because I was running out of time, I brought some cookies to office to take photos.  Day light makes the photos very pretty. Usually, I take my photos at night so always end up dull and full of shadow. 

Oh ya, I just found out that I was supposed to fill the cookies with half ganache and half lekvar??! Really? I did not remember reading that part! That's why I filled them up separately! LOL!  Oh well, nevermind.  Next time.  

Verdict: As I have predicted the cookies sandwiched with chocolate ganache stayed crisp and the ones with lekvar turned really soft.  I like the ones with chocolate ganache better. I also like that these cookies are not-too-sweet.. (see i said it again!! not too sweet!..LOL!).  The sweetness level is just right!  Loving the almond speckle on the cookies, I think the speckles make the cookies look very pretty on its own. 

I got my office colleagues to try and they liked the ones with chocolate ganache better too.  





12 comments:

Rosa V. on December 15, 2014 at 11:27 AM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rosa V. on December 15, 2014 at 11:40 AM said...

Hi Faithy, love your cookies they are nice and awesome blog and pictures you did a nice job. and your food processor is different, I have never seen one like that.

Mendy on December 15, 2014 at 11:45 AM said...

ב''ה

Love those 'Eat Me' cookies. The perfect cookie to imagine you are Alice looking up at them from underneath a glass table.

I agree that ganache is really so easy to make.

evil cake lady on December 15, 2014 at 12:06 PM said...

Good to know I can use whole almonds! Also I like your ganache shortcut. Your cookies are very pretty, I like that they are square.

Unknown on December 15, 2014 at 6:16 PM said...

You're very funny. I love your square cookies - they look so perfect.

The apricot and chocolate together is worth trying - a classic combination.

Vicki on December 15, 2014 at 9:28 PM said...

I didn't know we weren't supposed to grind the almonds! I did with the powdered sugar and it worked just fine. Love your cookie cutter and Chinese cookie scoop!

Jenn on December 15, 2014 at 11:45 PM said...

Faithy, your post is so funny. It's good to know 2 years old lekvar is still edible! I love the eat me cookie and the chinese spatula :). I use a double boiler to melt the chocolate and then add the hot cream over it. It takes too long to melt chocolate in a microwave.

Unknown on December 16, 2014 at 12:02 AM said...

I like that you made them square. Great post, Faithy.

Michele at The Artful Oven on December 16, 2014 at 1:43 AM said...

Hi Faithy: Love the "eat me" cookies!! They look terrific! Michele at www.artfuloven.com GIVEAWAY THIS WEEK!

Unknown on December 16, 2014 at 7:59 AM said...

Like everyone else, I love the eat me square cookies. Adorable. PS Faithy, check the nougat post. There is a message for you!

Patricia @ ButterYum on December 16, 2014 at 8:13 AM said...

I love your post! Really like the square shape of your cookies, and the "eat me" is very tempting :). I wish I would have made some of mine to only have the ganache filling - lol. This was the fisrt time I ever made my ganache in the microwave, but it was so easy, I'll probably do it that way from now on. Great job. Oh, and you're completely right about daylight photos!!
Patricia @ Butteryum
http://www.butteryum.org/roses-alpha-bakers/2014/11/6/tbb-the-ischler

inthekitchen on December 22, 2014 at 4:13 AM said...

Faithy, your cookies are absolutely adorbs!! You have a lovely baking aesthetic (I was looking at the cakes on your old site...omg, so creative and beautiful! :)

I love your square cookie cutter (and the 'eat me' note) - I never would have thought of going square, but they look so elegant.

 

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