Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I usually make  stained glass  cookie windows for the cookie house at Christmas, but this year I didn't get round to making a cookie house (you can find a recipe  here  with step by step images if you like) so I made some cookies, just for fun! All you need to do is cut out the cookies with a central pattern and fill the hole with some crushed candy. The candy will melt while the cookies are baking, and harden as they cool.    Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

A super easy and quick recipe for purple blackcurrant and coconut macaroons! My husband loves coconut macaroons, and I often make them if I have some leftover egg whites.  I just made a meringue base with egg white and more or less the same amount of icing sugar (this time I had 2 eggs whites). To add interest I included one tbs of  Fresh As  Blackcurrant powder. The colour was very pretty! Then I folded in some dried coconut, enough to make them 'spoonable' over a baking tray, lined with the  Lynette's baking sheet  I won form blogger  Zo . Nice to use a baking sheet that can be recycled over and over again! I Baked at 100 C for an hour or so and then I let them dry with the oven door open. They aren't pretty, but they are nice, and gluten free too :-).  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Recipe first. I felt it coming when my husband asked me three times if I was going to the supermarket (no, no, and no) and then moved around the kitchen saying that there wasn't anything bad to eat. Our American wwoofer lifted his eyes in surprise, but I knew exactly what it all meant, and replied that the cookie jar is empty on purpose. Yes, that he worked it out too, I am not the type that simply forgets to fill the tins, I simply try to 'regulate' the weekly intake of sugar in this family. But then I felt guilty, with the wwoofer we had an extra mouth to feed, and another thought crossed my mind: I never made peanut butter cookies! When I told the American he couldn't believe it, they are such a classic US thing, but to be honest I am not really fond of them and I rarely eat peanut butter, which is also the only food that my kids don't like. But my husband loves it, so I decided to go for peanut butter and chocolate and invent something that would f...

butterflies A pot of love Farm animals This is very easy and gives you a perfect and professional finish: just use the same cookie cutter for the biscuits and for the icing! After baking your biscuits roll out your fondant icing and cut it with the same shapes. You can secure the fondant onto the biscuits by brushing them with a little jam or marmalade first.  Also we tried out a little Japanese cookie stamp set that Arantxa got for Xmas from Yosuke. This is great, you just need to place in the  hiragana  symbols and compose the word/sentence that you like. We started easy, with arigatou (thank you). Actually, the set instructions were for using the stamps before baking the biscuits, so we tried, but after baking the biscuits it was a little hard to read the words. Maybe next time we will need to press the stamp harder, or bake the biscuits a bit more, so that the words are legible, but it works fine on icing, since you do...

Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies I used a whole 250 g bar of Whittaker's Macadamia Block (please note that this is milk chocolate). The Whittaker's Macadamia Block is good value, it is full of nuts and you don't need to buy extra for these cookies (macadamia nuts are quite expensive!): with one block we made 30 good sized cookies! Ingredients: 250 g macadamia chocolate 100 g butter 2 eggs 100 g sugar 200 g self rising flour 1 tsp cocoa 1/2 tsp vanilla paste (ar a few drops of vanilla essence) icing sugar to roll the cookies in before baking Melt the chocolate with the butter, then stir in the eggs, sugar, self rising flour, cocoa and vanilla paste (or essence). You will get a very oily dough. Line a 90 cm baking tray (or two 40 cm baking trays) with baking paper. Make little balls with your hands (about the size of a heap teaspoon) and roll them in icing sugar. Place on the baking tray, remembering that during baking they will flatten and take a cookie shape, so leave enoug...

A break from Xmas decorations, and on to cookies... although even these could be a nice homemade present... Ingredients 100 g dark chocolate 50 g butter 50 g sugar 1 egg 80 g self-rising flour 80 g shredded coconut, plus more to dust Makes 20 biscuits Preheat the oven at 160°C. Melt the chocolate with the butter. Add the sugar, egg, flour and shredded coconut. You will get a very oily cookie dough. With a teaspoon shape 20 small balls, which should be each about the size of a walnut. Roll the balls shredded coconut and then place them onto an oven tray lined with baking paper, making sure that you leave some space in between, as the cookies will flatten during baking. Bake for 20 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking tray before lifting them. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©