ALMOND SHORTBREAD

Shortbreads are a quick and easy treat to bake so I make it quite often. Our children love it, we love it and everyone who eats them seem to enjoy them. I usually have a few logs of frozen shortbread dough to bake up at the last minute when we have someone coming over or as an after-school snack. I've baked them with many flavor combinations as well. Today, I am sharing with you a recipe that I discovered recently, an Almond Shortbread...a sweet something special for my blog's 11th birthday!

I chanced upon this recipe in a cookbook called Sweet by Valerie Gordon that I borrowed from our public library during one of our recent visits. It's a very straightforward recipe just like my basic shortbread recipe. It's rich and buttery and crisp! While baking these,make sure you bake them just until they are golden around the edges and firm to the touch. You should be able to lift it up,turn it over and see that the bottom is also golden. If you bake it any further, it ends up being very hard.

If you are a beginner at baking cookies, this would be a good place to start. It's not that cookie baking is rocket science but straightforward recipes like these are hard to go wrong with. Also, please invest in a good, heavy baking sheet. I personally feel lightweight tins don't yield good results. They end up giving your cookie a burnt underside when the top is barely done. Also, lining your cookie sheets always gives you a better results unless the recipe clearly states that you don't have to line it, which is usually in the case of very buttery cookies.

ALMOND SHORTBREAD
 Yields 50 small cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup toasted almond flour *
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
Whisk together both flours and set aside.
In a large bowl using a hand beater, cream the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the flours 1/2 cup at a time mixing thoroughly after each addition.Add the salt and vanilla and mix for 30 seconds.
Turn the dough out onto the counter top and divide it into quarters. Roll each piece into a log measuring about 1 inch thick and 6 inches long. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill / freeze until needed.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F and line a cookie sheet.
Slice the logs into rounds approximately 1/3 inch thick and place them on a lined sheet, 2 inches apart from each other. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden around the edges. Cook on the tin for 10 mins. Remove carefully and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in airtight tins.

* To make toasted almond flour : Spread the almond flour on a baking tin and bake at 350F for 6-8 minutes. Cool and use as needed.

These cookies are perfect with a cuppa! They have a slight caramel undertones from the brown sugar that's used in the recipe. Ian is not very fond of nuts in it's direct form but loved these cookies. You can dress these up further by dipping a fork in melted chocolate and drawing some lines over the cookies or simply dip half the cookie into melted chocolate, dark or white! Plain or dressed, these will win your hearts for sure!

CHEWY M&M COOKIE BARS

Hello everyone! I am still alive and kicking and I have a lot of things to share with you! The most important thing is that my little blog is not so little anymore. It turned 7 years old on October 8th and I even managed to remember it inspite of all the craziness I've got myself into. When I saw the posters in our school about the ACF Hot Foods Team, I really didn't know what it was all about other than that it was a food competition. I am game for any food competitions as long as the judges know what they are doing. I know it's not about winning all the time but if you have to lose just because the judges don't know a thing about what they are judging,it sucks BIG time! Anyway,so when I saw the posters, I wanted to give it a try...obviously!

They had 3 rounds of selection and I passed them all! So, I am officially a part of the ACF Hot Foods Team representing Le Cordon Blue, Minneapolis- St. Paul!! It also means that I need to stay back after school on weekdays to practice for the competition which is sometime in March. It's a 2 day competition and it's INTENSE! You have no idea how excited I am to be a part of this team because it will definately benefit me in many ways,not just having that cool title on my resume but also on my knife skills,timing and discipline in the kitchen. One thing I've realised after joining school is that there are so many little things that you can never learn if you don't get trained professionally. Afterall, I really care about the little things in life...we all do,right?

The next thing is that I am on the President's list for securing a 4.0 GPA for the last quarter in school. We had a celebration where we were given certificates and a small badge which can be pinned onto our uniforms! Then there's this Open Baking Lab that I go to every Wednesday to learn more about baking,ofcourse! All these have been keeping me super busy that I had zero time to come here and tell you all about what we've been doing otherwise in school. We had to come up with our own Original Bread Formula for our practicals and I baked a Chipotle Onion & Walnut Bread which came out really really well ! I am almost done with my Breads & Viennoiserie  class and we will be starting a new term next week.

Okay, about these cookie bars now. We are having a Halloween party in our building for the little ones and I baked these for the party.Ian is dressing up as the Ninja turtle Leonardo. He looks so cute in it! I will try and post a photograph when I get a chance. I found this recipe on Cooks Illustrated.

CHEWY M&M COOKIE BARS
Makes 24  bars

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
12 tablespoons unsalted butter,melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups M&M's

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325F and line a 9X13 inch baking tin with a parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper.

In a bowl,whisk together flour,salt and baking powder.Set aside.
In another bowl,beat the melted butter and sugars for 1 minute. Add the vanilla,the egg and egg yolk and beat till combined,30 seconds or so. Add the flour mixture and gently mix until just combined. Stir in 1 cup of M&M's. It will be a slightly thick and sticky dough. Spread it into the prepared pan and press it out evenly. Sprinkle the remaining M&M's over it and pat it in gently.Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool completely and then cut them into bars. Store it in an airtight container.

This could be one of the few posts where I didn't talk much about the food! Weird,huh?
When Ian came home from his Montessori,he was really excited to see these bars and ate one right away. He really is a cookie monster.By the way, he has totally become an Appa's boy now. He even told me that Appa baked these cookies when I asked him who baked them! That monkey is always with Jobin and it's really nice to see how that bond is building up more and more as the days go by.

If you don't know what to do with all those candies after Halloween trick or treating,just chop and add them into this recipe and create something new! These are some really good fudgy cookie bars,I have a feeling that you will love these!