Baking Love: Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

Christmas and cranberries seems to be a trend that has reached the Netherlands from the United States, which is fine by me, because I love my share of cranberries every once in a while. I made this cookies the previous winter, but I never got around to actually write about it. Now seemed the perfect time to share them finally on the blog. This is another recipe that I tried from Laura's Bakery. She also shares more difficult baking recipes but I tend to stick to the simple things that I know I can manage and that are still delicious. Granted my cookies don't look as pretty as hers. They are actually a bit misshapen. But they tasted great and are especially good to bake for white chocolate lovers.

Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies: (makes about 20)
- 225 gr butter
- 150 gr white castor sugar
- 8 gr vanilla sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 280 gr flour
- pinch of salt
- 90 gr dried cranberries
- 90 gram white chocolate, chopped

Beat the butter with the two sugars until creamy. Then mix in the egg. Add the flour and salt and knead until you have a firm dough. Lastly add the cranberries and the white chocolate and scoop them through the dough evenly.

Make a roll from the dough and wrap it in cling foil. Leave the roll to cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Pre heat the oven to 190 degrees. Remove the cling foil and cut the dough into 0.5 cm slices with a sharp knife. Bake the cookies for about 18 minutes. If you have to bake in multiple batches, place the 2nd batch in the fridge until you can put them in the oven.

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Baking Love: M&Ms Christmas Cookies

We had a staff meeting with our volunteer work a few days ago and we wanted to spread some Christmas cheer so we made some cookies. I love making simple yet delicious cookies and these were gone in minutes! I made them according to the recipe on Laura's Bakery. It has to be one of my favorite baking blogs. We thought these cookies were so good that we might just bake them once more before it is Christmas ;)

M&Ms Christmas Cookies (makes about 20 - 30)
- 225 gr butter
- 150 gr white castor sugar
- 8 gr vanilla sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 280 gr flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 100 gr Christmas M&Ms

Beat the butter with both sugars until creamy. Add the egg yolk and mix through. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and knead until you have a dough. Lastly add the M&Ms to the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic cling and leave it in the fridge for 1 hour.

Pre heat the oven on 190 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Make little balls from the dough and press them a little bit flatter. The cookies spread so don't lay them too close together. Press some more M&M's on top of the cookies. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges turn golden.

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So Sweet: Nutella Peanut Butter Truffles

We served these at New Year's Eve, but of course you can also make them for whatever occasion you want, like Valentines Day. Just use other decoration that Christmas sprinkles :) Of course not very healthy, but they taste so good! In the Netherlands they sell these balls called Ferrero Rocher, and I loved those luxury chocolates as a child. These taste a bit similar. The original recipe comes from Pretty Simple Sweet.

Nutella Peanut Butter Truffles (makes 20-30 truffles, depending on how large you roll them)
- 40 gr butter, melted
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 0.5 cups + 3tbsp Nutella
- 0.5 cup peanut butter
- 2 cups vanilla wafers, crushed (crush first, then measure)
- 2-3 tbsp milk

In a large bowl, combine melted butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add peanut butter and Nutella and mix well. Then add the crumbled wafers and mix again. Lastly add 2 to 3 tbsp of milk, until the mixture is no longer crumble and can be rolled into balls easily. Let the mixture rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Or make up ahead until this point, until you have time to roll them.

Shape balls from the mixture. I used a tablespoon to scoop a heaping spoon out and rolled that into a ball. This can be a bit messy. But that is part of making truffles. Roll each ball into a topping of choice. Leave the balls in the fridge for at least one hour. Keep them there until serving. You can store them in an air tight container for a week.

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Yule: Gingerbread Bundt Cake

Yes, I know that Yule is already a couple of weeks behind us, and I wanted to post this sooner, but the flu and the holidays got in the way of that. I didn't want to save it for next year, so here it is. Besides, I am sure this cake is good to make any time during winter. Just change up the decorations.
The original recipe is from Laura's Bakery.

Gingerbread Bundt Cake: (serves 20)
- 360 gr butter
- 280 dark brown castor sugar
- 16 gr vanilla sugar
- 8 eggs
- 360 gr self rising flour
- 320 gr maple syrup (or other)
- pinch of salt
- 1.5 tbsp ginger powder
- 1.5 tbsp cinnamon
- 3 tsp nutmeg
- 150 gr white chocolate
- chocolate sprinkles
- chocolate holly leaves

Beat butter and both sugars creamy together. Add the eggs one by one, make sure one egg is absorbed before adding the next. Don't worry about the state of the batter at this point, because it has too many fluids, but it will be fine later on. Add the syrup and mix well, then add the flour, salt and spices. Now mix until you have a smooth batter. If your bundt cake pan is not silicone, you might want to line it with butter and some flour, but with my silicone one, this isn't needed. Add all the batter in the pan and bake the cake in a pre heated oven on 170 degrees for about 60-70 minutes.

Let the cake completely cool down before you start with the decorations. We actually baked the cake one day in advance, covered it up and let it stay overnight before we decorated it this next day. Melt the white chocolate au bain marie and pour it over the cake. I did a tablespoon at the time because I don't have much decorating experience and I just wanted to make sure it was evenly divided. I started with adding a couple of handfuls of chocolate sprinkles. And then gently placed the chocolate leaves on top. The latter should be fine because the melting temperature of white chocolate is lower than milk chocolate. Make sure the chocolate is completely set before serving.

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Yule: Stuffed Almond Muffins

Tomorrow it is Yule, the shortest day of the year and the start of winter. I wanted to post more Yule recipes, but sadly I didn't make that many recipes beforehand as I wanted. For Yule you can think of almost any recipes you would make with Christmas, because a lot of Christmas traditions have their origins from Yule. I will bake something else on x-mas eve, but I am not the kind of blogger that bakes their goods before I need them for the sake of blogging ;) But for now enjoy these delicious muffins :)

Stuffed Almond Muffins: (makes 10, or 20 mini)
- 200 gr self rising flour
- 1 heaping tbsp of speculaas spices (or gingerbread spices)
- 150 gr brown castor sugar
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 100 gr hard butter
- 25 gr chopped almonds
- 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
- 1-2 tbsp milk (if needed)
- about 80 gr almond paste

Sift the flour, speculaas spices, sugar and salt in a large bowl and combine. Add the hard butter and make crumbs with 2 knives. Then add the egg yolk and almonds and knead until you have a ball of dough. If it is too crumbly, add first 1 tbsp of milk and if that isn't enough add another. Wrap the ball in plastic foil and leave it at least one hour in the fridge, but this can also be done overnight.

Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees. I use a silicone muffin tin, so I don't have to grease them but if you have a tin one, please do. Roll the dough into a rectangular and cut out circles that are slightly bigger than the holes of the muffin tin you are using. You can use a small glass to do this. Fill each hole with a piece of dough. Make little balls of almond paste with your hands and place them on the dough. Then cut out some smaller circles from the dough to function as a lid. Press them on the almond paste and make sure you the dough is connected so the muffins stay closed.

Glaze them with some egg. Bake them for about 25 minutes (15-20 for mini)

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