Red Velvet Whoppie Pies - the alternative to the cake

Birthday cake time! I love Red Velvet Cake. But one whole cake for two people who shouldn't eat that much sweets at a time when we're surrounded by chocolates and candies already? So I "downscaled" the  cake idea to Whoppie Pies. Smaller portions and you can freeze them and take them out if needed. The idea for Red Velvet Whoppie Pies isn't mine but the following recipe is a conglomerate of about three I found in the internet adapted to my taste and since the first filling came out much too runny I changed that completely. Since there's only filling and no icing I allowed a bit more butter in order to make it easier to spread on and stick two half pies together.

1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 T. cocoa powder
1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 cup butter (57g for those who don't have cups indicated on the package)
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 t. - 1T. red food coloring (depending on how concentrated your coloring is)
1/2 t. lemon juice (or white vinegar)

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, add the egg and buttermilk, beat. Add buttermilk, lemon and food coloring. Mix into the dry ingredients, beat the whole thing into a homogenous batter.
Take a tablespoon or a small ice scoop and drop heaps of batter on a baking tray you lined with a baking sheet. Space apart approx. 5cm! Makes 16-20 heaps.
Bake at 190° for approx. 10min. Edges should be slightly browned.

Filling:
1/2 cup butter (or 110g)
2 T. cream cheese
1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)

Mash the butter with a fork until softened, add cream cheese, confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Mix into a creamy filling. Take one of your "buns", spread a good teaspoon full onto the flat side, press a second "bun" with the flat side on it. Looks like a burger with the colors the wrong way 'round. :-)
Put in the fridge to let the filling set.

I mixed some confectioner's sugar with a bit of lemon juice (water would do as well) into a stiff mixture. I scraped the mixture into a little plastic bag, cut off one corner and wrote a letter onto each "burger" to make a HAPPY B-DAY. You could also use left over filling to spread on the tops and add some sprinkles or ... oh, get creative yourself! :-D

Sugar Cookies

by Nancy Phelan

1.5 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1 cup margarine
1 egg
1 t. vanilla extract
0.5 t. almond flavoring
2.5 cups sifted flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cream of tartar

Cream sugar and margarine. Mix in egg and flavorings. Stir dry ingredients together and blend into creamed mixture. Refrigerate 2-3 hours. Roll out, cut out, decorate (sprinkles), bake.
If you've got more time at hand (and probably kids in the house), you can decorate them with the following frosting:

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 dash of salt
0.5 t. vanilla extract
enough water to mix smooth
optional: add food coloring

Mailänderli

125g butter
125g sugar
1 pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
1 t. lemon zest
250g flour

decoration:
2 egg yolks, beaten with a few drops of water

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, add salt, yolks and zest, stir. Add flour and mix into a kneadable dough.
Wrap in cling foil, put in fridge for about 1 hour. The dough should be not too soft or too hard to be rolled out. In case you store the dough longer (like over night) in the fridge, take it out 30min before working with it.
Work in batches. Roll out to 5-7mm. Cut out with as many cookie cutters you have. The more, the merrier. :-)
Brush the top of the cookies with the beaten egg yolks. Bake at 200°C for about 15min until edges start getting lightly brown. Or longer, if you prefer dark, hard baked cookies (my Dad loved the ones the rest of the family considered being burned).

Berner Haselnussleckerli (Bernese Hazelnut Treats)

This is another long time handed-down recipe in my family.  How can you tell it's old? In earlier times people didn't have so much access to sugar, sweets and candies all the time as we have nowadays. So if there was a special occasion coming up (like Christmas) they used sugar aplenty!

125g ground hazelnuts
125g ground almonds
300g sugar
20g flour
50g candied orange peel, finely cut
1 pinch of cinamon
1T. kirsch
1T. honey (liquid)
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Decoration:
Take about a glass of water and the same amount of sugar, cook until the syrup starts running in threads from a spoon. Keep hot on very low heat until you use it, carefully adding a few drops of water if the syrup starts to thicken too much.

Mix all ingredients into a soft dough.
Put in fridge for about 30min. I think it's easier to work with after it was kept in the cold for a while.
Roll out to about 8mm thickness on a good floured surface.
Cut into 4x4cm squares and put on a baking tray you lined with a baking sheet with some 1-2cm spacing. The cookies won't flatten much.
Bake slowly at 175° until edges turn brown, about 15-20min.
Take out of the oven and immediately apply the sugar syrup with a brush on the top of the cookies while they're still hot.

The cookies will be firm and sort of crunchy on the outside while the inside stays soft.

BTW: I'm usually a bit more generous with the cinnamon and the kirsch than what the recipe calls for. :-D

Orangenblättchen (Orange Leaves)

250g flour, sieved
125g butter
100g sugar
2 egg yolks
1 T. orange juice
2 t. orange zest

for decoration:
confectioners' sugar
orange juice
crystallized orange peel or orange slices

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, add egg yolks, orange juice and orange zest. Add the flour, mix into a dough. Wrap in cling foil, put in fridge for approx. 30min.
Work in portions. Roll out the dough on a floured surface about 5mm thick. Cut out leaves (or whatever cookie cutter form you like, I usually use a heart or a star) and place them on a baking tray you lined with a baking sheet.
Bake in oven at 190°C for about 15-20min until golden brown.
In the meantime prepare the glazing by mixing confectioners' sugar and orange juice to a glazing of your desired thickness (some like thick sweet glazing, some only a thin cover). Blood orange juice will give it a somewhat pinkish color (you could add food coloring, too if you want).
Apply on top of the cookies while they are still hot, press a piece of crystallized orange peel or slice in the still wet glazing.

Variation: use lemon juice and zest instead of orange to make Lemon Leaves.

Haselnuss-Stängeli (Hazelnut Sticks)

Another handed down recipe:

150g butter
3 egg yolks
150g sugar
1 pinch of salt
170g ground hazelnuts
140g flour

1-2 egg yolks for decoration

Mix all the ingredients into a dough. Wrap in cling foil, put in fridge for approx. 30min.
Roll out the dough on floured surface to approx 1cm thickness. The original recipe says "as thick as a finger " but my thickest "roll out helpers" (no idea how they are really called)  are 1cm thick. Those are basically two long plastic sticks you place on either side of the dough. The rolling pin can't be pressed farther down than the plastics sticks when rolling out the dough ensuring an even thickness.

Cut the dough in 1.5cm x 8cm pieces. (original recipe: "as long as a finger").
Place the cookies on a baking tray you lined with a baking sheet with approx. 3-5cm spacing between. The cookies will flatten and broaden during the baking.

Beat the egg yolks with a few drops of water, apply with a brush on the top of the cookies.
Bake 10min at 180°C. Don't let the cookies turn too brown, as they will harden too much while cooling down. A light brownish edge is perfect.
When you take them out of the oven, they will be pretty soft and easy to break. Either wait until they have cooled enough or transfer them to a wire rack with the help of a baking spatula or a knife.

Schoggi-Chugglä (Chocolate Balls)

A handed down recipe from my great-grandmother.

3 egg yolks
200g sugar
320g ground almonds
80g milk chocolate, melted
80g dark chocolate, melted
30g flour
2 egg whites, beaten

Beat egg yolks and sugar until bright and fluffy, add almonds, chocolate, flour and mix in the beaten egg whites.
I usually then put the whole thing in the fridge, just for 30min or so. I think the dough is better to work with when colder.
Make walnut sized balls out of the dough. The original recipe calls for "sugared hands", i.e. pour some sugar in your hands and the dough won't stick so much to it while you roll it. It never worked for me and I didn't like to have even more sugar added to the recipe.What I do is, wet my hands. After about 6 balls my hands are too sticky and the balls start looking awful, so I wash my hands and start all over.

Let the balls dry for a day until the outside feels dry.
Then bake about 7-10 min at 220°C until lightly browned. The balls will flatten slightly. Don't overbake them! Don't worry if they look too soft and gooey first when you take them out of the oven. They harden while cooling but you get a yummy soft-ish core.
Store in a tight container and not for too long. They harden and dry out after a while. They are still good in taste but you might want to dip them first in your coffee before biting them. :-)

Spitzbuben

Spitzbuben are the most labor intensive Christmas cookies I make. However, they look really neat and are worth the trouble! Just plan enough time to make them.

250g butter (or margarine), soft
125g confectioners' sugar
2 t. vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract)
1 pinch of salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten
350g all purpose flour

Filling/decoration:
Jam, preferably of red color (raspberry, cranberry, red currant etc.)
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Work butter, confectioner's sugar, vanilla and salt until bright and fluffy. Add egg white, then flour and mix into a soft dough. Wrap up in cling foil and put in fridge for approx. 1h. The dough should harden but not be too hard to roll out. If you store it for a longer time in the fridge, take it out 30min before you work with it.
Work dough in portions, roll out on floured surface to 2mm thickness. Cut out desired forms in pairs, make sure the top ones have a hole in the middle, so you will see the jam filling later.
Put on a baking tray you lined with a baking sheet. Put in fridge for 15min, then bake for approx. 7min at 200°C. Let cool.

Dust the top parts with some confectioners' sugar.

Heat up two good spoons full of jam in a little pot. Stir until the jam becomes spreadable. Add a dot of jam filling onto the bottom cookies. Immediately and carefully press on the top cookie part.

Marshmallow Treats meet Rocky Roads

Jim's favorite ice cream is Rocky Roads. And sure, you cannot get that sort here. Yes, I tried making it and he was very polite and said it was good, but the truth was: it was awful. I had to cut up big marshmallows (because I can't get the mini ones) which looked awful and the partially melted chocolate ice refroze to a solid block we had to break down in edible chunks with a chisel and a hammer. The taste was okay but I filed that recipe under "failure". That's why you don't find it here but the next best I could come up with: Marshmallow Treats meet Rocky Roads.

200g Marshmallows
55g butter (or margarine if you prefer that)
140g crisp rice cereals
chocolate chips or about half a dark chocolate bar cut into little chunks
a good hand full of pecan nuts, cut into pieces

Melt the butter and Marshmallows on low heat. Stir often. When melted, immediately take from the heat, add the cereal, chocolate chunks and nuts. Stir until everything is mixed evenly. If the chocolate chunks melt, that's okay. Pour/scrape into a greased 8 x 8inch (20 x 20cm) baking dish and press flat with a greased scraper or spoon. Let cool, cut in squares of desired size.

BTW: My Easter variety comes without nuts and chocolate but with green food coloring and small Smarties pressed in on the top after having pressed the mixture in the baking dish.

Hot Dog Kipfel - easy and fast

Jim found Hot Dog sausages for half price. Unfortunately, the package held 20 sausages. Far too much for a BBQ for two. So I put them in the freezer and waited for other things to come. And it did: a need for some finger food for a party. So here's a recipe that is not only fast but also very, very easy to make.
You need:
- Hot Dog Sausages (Frankfurter, Wiener, or similar)
- Puff pastry, pre-rolled either in a square or round form.

Cut the sausages in half in order to get like 5cm long pieces.
Cut the pastry in either squares of about 10 x 10cm if you have the dough rolled in a square or cut a round pastry in 8-12 vectors.
Place a cup of water nearby.
Start at one corner of the square or the broad end of the vector. Place one half sausage, roll up in the dough, wet your finger in the glass of water, dab the water on the remaining corner and stick that corner on the roll.
Place on baking tray you lined with a baking sheet. Prick every roll with a fork once.
Bake at 180-200°C until nicely browned, about 20-30min.
Eat with some green salad.