~Viennese Shortbread Biscuits~

Ingredients:

250g (8oz) butter

1/4 cup castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1/4cup rice flour

pinch salt

Method:

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, beat until combined. Fold in sifted flours and salt. Fill into piping bag fitted with fluted tube. Pipe into straight lengths or different shapes on lightly greased oven trays. Bake in moderate oven at 180 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden. Cool on trays.

Leave plain or dip end in about 125g (4oz) of melted dark chocolate for yummy & pretty effect.

*Melting Moments*

Yahoo Christmas is on the way and ladies dorn your apron and start pre baking to save you time on the day you want to enjoy with your family:)

Melting Moments are easy to make and are perfect for those who like to do their Christmas baking early. They store very well, up to two weeks & are very fragile:)

Incidentally, you may have seen Melting Moments with different looks. Sometimes the dough is placed in a piping bag with a fluted tip and then piped into rosettes. The finishing touch is to top each cookie with a red or green candied cherry. Other times the dough is rolled into a crescent shape with the ends sometimes dipped in melted chocolate.

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt.  In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Cover and refrigerate the batter for an hour or two, or until firm. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. When batter is firm, form into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls and place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart. Bake for about 10 - 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies just start to brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 3-5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack that is placed over a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Put the confectioners sugar in a fine strainer or sieve and sprinkle the tops of the cookies with the sugar. These cookies store very well. Place in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper and they will keep a couple of weeks. If desired, just before serving, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with confectioners sugar. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Melting Moments Recipe: 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour 1/2 cup (60 grams) cornstarch (corn flour) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup (30 grams) confectioners sugar (powdered or icing) 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Topping: 1/2 cup (60 grams) confectioners sugar (powdered or icing)

~Coconut & Vanilla Balls~

Coconut & Vanilla Balls – A great recipe from Arabic Bites.

The original recipe called "Almond Balls

I will make them at Eid time :) with variations.

Serve with arabic coffee or tea.

For Coconut & Vanilla Balls:

Makes 100 cookie balls:
1 cup unsalted butter
3 Tbs. granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups shredded Coconut
1 tsp. pure Vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups unbleached flour
2 cups confectioners sugar for coating
In a mixing bowl, cut the butter into pieces and let sit at room temperature.Chop the shredded Coconut into a coarse meal and set aside.When the butter is softened, beat in 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar with an electric mixer and cream together well.
Add the vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and blend in completely. Then, stir in the Coconut until evenly blended.
Use a blender attachment for the mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon , to stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time. Put the dough in a large bowl and continue mixing for a minute or
two with hands until all the flour is blended into the dough.
Shape the balls, by pinching a small piece and rolling gently in hands into a 3/4 inch ball. Place
on a ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until bottom is golden(Oven Temperature 325°F).
Remove tray from the oven and let cookies sit on tray for a few minutes.

Put the confectioners sugar in a bowl and slowly add the warm cookies to the sugar and gently
toss and turn in the sugar until coated. Place on a large tray to continue cooling for 5-10mins, then return to the bowl with the sugar and coat again. Set on tray to cool completely.
Store in an air tight tin.

Roll the cookies into the powdered sugar while still warm, to glaze and again when slightly
cool for a beautiful white coating.

Optionals:

*To make Almond Balls use blanched almonds and almond extract instead of Coconut & Vanilla.

*You can add any fruit inside the filling in the centre and roll the balls as well.

*You can add cocoa powder to the flour mixture and make varities in brown and white as well.

~Nankhatai~

Nan khatai is an crunchy and delicious biscuit often made using all purpose flour (maida) and butter. But there are several varieties of nan khatai made using different ingredients. This is an eggless recipe of nan-khatai light and crispy biscuit that’s perfect to serve with  tea or coffee made with all purpose flour, semolina and gram flour. This recipe yields 24 to 26 nan khatais.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup all purpose flour (plain flour or maida)
• 1/3 cup fine sooji or semolina
• 1/2 cup gram flour (besan)
• Pinch of baking soda (a little less than 1/8 teaspoon)
• 1/4 teaspoon green cardamom seed coarsely powder (ilaichi)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon sliced almond
• 1 tablespoon sliced pistachio

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 375 degree.
2. In a bowl, mix the all-purpose flour, gram flour, sooji, baking soda and cardamom powder and set aside.
3. Let the butter come to the room temperature (butter should be soft not melted)
4. Add butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat for two to three minutes until light and fluffy.
5. Add the flour mix to butter and sugar mixture and knead them together to make smooth dough.
6. Divide the dough into about 24 equal parts and make them into balls.
7. Press each ball between your palms lightly; every piece should be about 3/4″ in thickness.
8. With a sharp knife softly draw a tic-tac-toe design on the top and put few pieces of almonds and pistachios and press them into the dough gently.
9. Put Nan khatai on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 13 to 15 minutes or until Nan khatai are lightly gold brown.

After they are lightly golden brown remove the cookie sheet from the oven.  Let the Nan Khatais cool down for two to three minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet.

~Cardamom Biscuits - Klejah~

I came across this excellent lovely blog with step by step recipes of very good Saudi Arabian food - http://www.arabicbites.blogspot.com/.   As the coming months of Rajab & Ramadhan is right at our doorstep I thought of trying this so that I can make them for breaking our fast with them.

Klejah originally came from Iraq ,and is eaten alot in arabic gulf area specially in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Serve with arabic gulf area coffee or cardamom tea.

3 cups whole wheat flour.
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon corn oil or sunflower oil.
3/4 cup sugar.
1/4 cup low fat milk.
1 egg, beaten.
1 tablespoon baking powder.
1/4 teaspoon salt.
2 teaspoons ground cardamom.
Pinch of saffron.
Egg + 2 tablespoon milk .


1)Combine sugar and milk in small pan ,stir over heat without boiling, until sugar dissolves, set aside, let it cool.

2)Sift flour into a mixing bowl , add the oil into the flour & combine with a fork or your hand until crumbly , then add other dry ingredients, egg, sugar and milk, mix well (Form dough into a ball) let set for 10 to 15 minutes.

3)Roll dough, cut it with biscuits cuter, then make a cross lines using back of knife.

4)Place it on baking sheet, brush it with egg wash, bake in 350 F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

When cool store in jar and enjoy your fasting.

~Shortbread Cookies~

Shortbread (Ghraybeh) is very simple cookie, containing only 3 ingredients, but as with many Middle-Eastern pastries, the recipe is almost always poorly documented and frustratingly vague. Chef Ramzi uses cups for measure, which is terrible when used with non-liquid ingredients. I encountered complete failure on the first attempt, but have since been able to perfect the recipe. Ghraybeh can be eaten alone, or used to sandwich dulce de leche as I have done here. For the recipe of dulce de leche, please view Lili’s blog here.

Shortbread - Ghraybeh Recipe
Ingredients
300 g cups white, all purpose flour
150 g ghee (dairy, not the vegetable based one)/clarified butter (I have used unsalted butter)
150 g icing sugar (not the icing mixture, which contains cornflour)

Nuts for decoration such as peeled dry pistachio, almonds or pine nuts
Chocolate - Melted for decoration - Optional

Method

1. Cream the ghee and icing sugar in a mixer for 5 minutes until fluffy, creamy and white
2. With the speed on medium, add the flour gradually and incorporate well
3. Now it’s time to use your hands. Grab the mixing bowl and using one hand, keep kneading the mixture for around 10 minutes. This encourages the flour to absorb the fat and creates the all-important texture. The dough will feel oily and loose, but 10 minutes of heavy kneading should be enough
4. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour
5. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cover your baking tray with baking paper
6. Take the pastry out of the fridge. You must work fast here as the pastry will go soft if you handle it too much. Pinch a bit of dough and roll it up to a ball between your hands, flatten it slightly and then place it on top of the baking tray and flatten until the shape is of a round cookie.
7. Repeat until the tray is full, leaving some space between the cookies
8. Decorate with nuts of choice
9. Bake for 15 minutes, then take out of the oven and cool down on a cooling rack.  Eat just as it is or sandwich with Dlce de leche.

If you have dulce de leche (Boiled sweetened condensed milk), you can sandwich it between 2 cookies. If you are making plain cookies, there is a nice step you can add which involves dipping your hands in orange blossom water when you form the balls of dough, which gives the ghraybeh a distinctive aroma. You can also make different shapes and decorate with nuts

* How to make dulce de leche

(Boiled sweetened condensed milk)*

Put a can of condensed milk without labels into a pressure pan. Cover it with water & a tspn of oil, close the pan and wait for the whislte of the pressure cooker, reduce to low heat, let cook for +- 40 minutes. Let it cool completely inside the pan. Don’t open it if it’s hot. It’s very dangerous.

Take our when cool into a container and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using - as it becomes thick in the cold.

You can omit the sweet tin milk filling and make them as below as well in different shapes as you wish:

~Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls~

Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls are like no other cinnamon roll I’ve ever had.  

There’s hardly any kneading (they are like short crust pastry).  There’s no rise time.  There is warm, tender-centered, cinnamon flavored dough bites.  These pastries bake up with biscuit flakiness and rich cinnamon swirl.  They’re a bit more dense than your standard cinnamon roll… because they’re biscuits.

Makes 8 or 9 rolls

For the Biscuits:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk, cold
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.  Grease a 8×8-inch square baking pan and set aside.

For the Filling:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg (optional)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted plus a bit more for topping the biscuits before baking

Shaggy and cold dough will be formed into a loose, lightly floured disk.

It’s the beginning of very good things.

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Use your hands to break the fat cuts into the dry ingredients. Some of the fat bits will be the size of peas and some bits will be the size of oat flakes.   

In a small bowl, make the filling by mixing together sugars, spices.  Set aside.  

Set melted butter aside as well.

For biscuit cinnamon rolls, we’ll roll the dough much thinner.

Dough is topped with melted butter and cinnamon sugar filling.

Ok now you know this is the ultimate - rolled & sliced into thinly if you want crispy or thick if you want soft centre

 In another bowl, combine egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat lightly with a fork.  Add the liquid to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough.
Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times.  If the butter has warmed too much in the making of the dough, shape the batter into a dish, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.  If the butter is still cool, shape the dough into a disk and, on a well floured surface, roll dough to a little less than 1/2-inch thickness.
My dough was about 12-inches long and 10-inches tall.  The dough will be rolled much thinner than a biscuit dough that you would cut biscuits from.  Brush biscuit dough with melted butter.
Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar filling.
Begin to carefully roll one vertical side into a fairly tight roll.  Continue rolling until you have a biscuit cylinder.  Using a sharp, floured knife, slice into log, about 1-inch thick.  Place rolls, in prepared pan.  Brush the tops with melted butter and bake for 13-15 minutes, until slightly golden brown on top.
These biscuit cinnamon rolls are best served warm the day they’re made.  They’re also good reheated with butter and jam.