Recipes - Cakes, Cookies

[Randi]

Like me, some of you love marcipan. Here's another recipe with marcipan. I have not made it yet, but I do wonder if you can use normal mashed potaoes - I have never ever used instant mashed potatoes and I can't imagine why you would do that.

I've had these in Spain, they're SO yummy, but I think they're sold only at Easter and only in certain parts of Spain.


Panellets de Pinyones

Ingredients:

2 1/4 pounds of raw almonds ( 1 Kg )
2 1/4 pounds of sugar
1 box of instant mashed potatoes (dry)
1 egg
pine nuts

Mash the almonds. Put in a big bowl the mashed almonds, make a hole in the center and add the sugar to the hole. Prepare the mashed potatoes with 2 glasses of almost boiling water and the contents of the box. Pour it (very hot to mix easily ) on top of the sugar and mix everything together until you get a compact paste. Let it rest until the paste is cold. Form the paste into little balls (about 1 inch diameter), soak them with beaten egg, roll them in the pine nuts until covered. Bake at 375 F, 8-10 minutes. You can change the flavors, adding to the paste shredded coconut, instant coffee, cocoa...

[Randi]

I made this Tosca cake today with lots of almonds, it's SO yummy. There are 12 slices and I hope it freezes well.

Anyone want the recipe? If so, I'll translate it tomorrow.

[pomtzu]

I made this Tosca cake today with lots of almonds, it's SO yummy, but a bit pricey. There are 12 slices and I hope it freezes well.

Anyone want the recipe? If so, I'll translate it tomorrow.

Yes please. It looks delish. I love anything with almonds.

[kitten645]

Husky Mom, you add butter to melt marshmallows for Rice Crispie Treats. Or corn flake treats. With the cornflake ones, we used to add green food coloring and shape them like wreaths for the holidays!
Claudia

[Randi]

OK, this is the Tosca cake and it's really yummy and quite easy! Especially if you buy ready made almond flour.

Tosca cake

120 gram butter (room temperature)
250 sugar
4 eggs
250 gram almond flour (you can blend that yourself)
130 gram wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Mix flour, almond flour and baking powder.

Whip softened butter and sugar until white (I didn't whip that long, though) in a large bowl. Stir in two eggs at a time and mix well, then fold the flour mixture in.

Glazing:

80 gram butter
80 gram sugar
1 tsp. honey
80 gram almond flakes

Put this in a pot and boil for a few min. until it's all melted. Let it cool off a bit.

I poured the doug into one of these:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/SpringForm.htm
... but you can use another kind.

Smear the glazing on top of the dough and bake until it bubbles and is light golden (175 Celsius = low) for about 30 min. or until a knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean and center of pie appears barely set.

Serve with whipped cream, or creme fraice 30%.

Enjoy!

Hint: You might want to use 240 g of sugar, rather than 250 g. Btw, it freezes well.

[cassiesmom]

I have a former medical director who did his residency at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. He introduced us to a yummy sweet treat, Mardi Gras King Cake! YUM! It is a sweet cinnamon dough, sort of like a Cinnabon roll but not sticky. Then an icing of powdered sugar, water and a little lemon juice. Then granulated sugar, colored yellow, purple and green for Mardi Gras. He told us that in New Orleans, they hide a tiny plastic baby in the cake, and the person who gets the piece with the baby will have good luck for the year. I'm going to try making one for the gang at work but without the baby.

I saw this recipe on the Web... it's like the Chicago version of king cake (source: blog.nola.com)---

1 can refrigerated cinnamon rolls, with icing

Purple, green and gold sugars

Separate the cinnamon rolls and roll them out by hand so each looks like a hot dog. Pinch together into a ring. Shape the roll into an oval, pinch the ends together, and place on a cookie sheet. Cook as directed.

Ice the tops with the white icing and sprinkle with the sugars, alternating as you go around the oval.


I wish I had time to make a sweet dough. Should have done it yesterday.

[Randi]

I just watched the British Bake-off. This was called "Tea Party." One contestant made scones with raisins in, but I hate raisins in cake.

Years ago I had a 7-eleven scone that I really liked, do you know them? They're not too sweet. Have you ever made scones yourself?

I found some recipes here - which would you go for?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=scones