Riciarelli Cookies

 This recipe is part of a collaboration with many other mums. We  are sharing some handmade gift ideas or Christmas. And of course all I could think of are recipe ideas. One was fresh pasta...but that is hard to store properly..so I went for Ricciarelli, a traditional cookie from Sienna. It's made with almond flour, sugar and egg whites! Very simple to make and it's gluten free too! It's a fresh cookie....so they are better if consumed in maximum a week time! This is the most delicious cookie that I have ever tried and hopefully it's going to be like that for you too.

Ingredients:

Almond flour*              200gr /7oz
Powder Sugar               200gr/7oz
Egg White                     2
Almond extract             2 small spoons
Vanilla Stick                 1 (Only the beans)
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I also used
The Juice of Half Lime  
Lime zest**       

Notes:
* You can obtain the almond flour by blending pealed almonds :)
** These extra aromas vary from recipe to recipe. Sometimes orange zest is used....in some brands. I do not suggest to use orange zest as it kills the delicate taste of almond that this cookie has...some lime zest instead remains very settled with the overall taste of this cookie.

Procedure:

1) Mount the white egg. If you think this is hard, it's not, just take a fork and energetically mix the egg. Give it 5 min and that's it.

2) Mix the almond and almost all the powdered sugar. Keep a bit of sugar aside. We will use it on the dough (3-4 full spoons will do). Add slowly the egg-white mixture to the almond flour. Attention as it may take less egg-white than the recipe ask for, so you need to mix the two by adding the egg-white mixture slowly.

3) Once you get to a workable dough consistency (watch the video linked bellow if you are not sure what the consistency has to be like) add the beans of the Vanilla stick, the zest of a lime, the juice of half a lime and the almond extract.

4) Use wrapping paper to cover the dough and leave it rest in the fridge for 1 night...or 8 hours

5) The next day can make them into a cookie shape and bake them at 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. They don't have to brown so make sure that you remove them from the oven earlier.

Leave them cool and store them in an air tight container.
You may pack them and give the presents in a couple of days max!

Next you need to let me know how they turned out :)! Enjoy!

If you want more insides on the making of these cookies watch the linked video..it will also bring you to other handmade Christmas ideas from other ladies!

Peanut Butter and Oat Bran Cookies

My nutritionist keeps suggesting Oat Bran as a good cereal to eat for breakfast. It's rich with fiber and helps the metabolism. With all my good intentions, this thing added to yogurt (her suggestion) tastes like yogurt with flour. So, I tried to find a cookie recipe that stays on the healthy but still tastes well.

Ingredients:

2 egg Yolks
4 Tbs of Peanut Butter
4 Tbs of Sugar
2 Tbs of Chocolate chips
16 Tbs of Oat Bran
About 12 Candied Cherries

Note: The amount of sugar that I used does not make extremely sweet cookies. You may consider adding 1-2 spoons of sugar or more chocolate chips if you like the cookies to be very sweet

Procedure:

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar then add the Peanut Butter. After mixing well the ingredients, add the oat bran and finally the chocolate chips.

Use a baking sheet or non stick spray or just butter/oil on the backing tray. Wet your hands with water and form round balls which you then press down to take the cookie shape. Finally add one candied cherry in the center of each cookie (like this they look like flowers).

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees centigrade (about 390 F) and bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes. You will see that they are ready when they become slightly golden-brown.

Leave them cool a couple of minutes then Enjoy!

Watch me and my daughter prepare them:

Video coming soon!