Baking *without* the Doctor, this time

[wiseheart]

I've tried a new recipe today, as Mum's getting guests the day after tomorrow (or Wednesday, I'm not entirely sure), and this promises to keep quality for a fortnight if kept in a tin box.

So I made little hazelnut biscuits (Haselnussbusserl for the Germans among us), partly because I wanted to try out the recipe before the Great Xmas Baking Orgy (TM) actually starts and partly because I've managed to buy three times the amounts of hazelnuts that I'd actually need. And considering how outrageously expensive the things are over here, letting them go wrong would be a criminal waste.

The recipe says I'd get 50 little biscuits from the ingredients. I managed to make 37, but since I used 2 teaspoons to form them instead of a "Spritztüte" (sorry, no idea what it's in English, my kitchen vocabulary is entirely in German), I think I did well enough.

Bottom line: they are delicious. And that considering that neither Mum nor I actually like anything with hazelnuts. Or with walnuts, for that matter. I'll definitely add them to the Christmas menu.

Comments

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

I really like hazelnuts (also called "filberts" in English in some places). I've made biscotti with them a few times, and I like them roasted and salted, too. Mmmm.

I wonder if the device you're describing is what I'd call a "cookie press," which I use to make holiday cookies ("biscuits" to the Brits). It's sort of like a huge syringe (as in what the doctor uses to give an injection), only the thing is much bigger and metal. The tube is maybe 5-6cm across, and instead of a needle at one end, there is a wide opening in which one places metal disks with patterns cut out. The spritz dough, which is very buttery and often has almond flavoring and some coloring, is pressed out through a disk to make shapes, such as Christmas trees, animals or ribbons of dough that can be formed into bows and such.

We had one growing up, but I never thought to buy one, as I would rarely use it. Then, when walking my first dog in Brooklyn one night, I found a very nice cookie press, in an unopened package with a bunch of disks. It was in a pile of things put out with the rubbish. I also got a knife block and a simple pewter tray with fancy brass handles out of that rubbish heap. I passed on the egg coddler -- I just don't make eggs that way. Walking a dog has its benefits!

I hope you'll post the recipe for your Haselnussbusserl sometime. I have a scale and can handle conversions from metric to imperial.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I do have a cookie press (inherited from Granny), but this is something different. It is, basically, a triangular bag, with a syringe-like plastic thingie on the narrow end, and is used similarly as a cookie press.

Should the Haselnussbusserln not make it into the Edhellond recipe exchange, I'll send you the recipe nonetheless.