Nutty Cookies with Hazelnuts and Almonds

Hi everyone!
This cookie is one of my childhood baking things I want to remember. My grandmother on my mother's side baked these cookies, or a cookie close to this cookie, and I imagine it was one of her favourites because they are very easy to bake and also very delicious. And that is also my favourite combination ;) If it was exactly this recipe I don't know but I think they taste like my grandmother's cookies.

Nutty Cookies with hazelnuts and almonds (40 cookies)
100 grams of hazelnuts without the shell
100 grams of almonds
2 deciliter sugar
1 tablespoon potato flour
2 eggs

Garnish
Hazelnuts
100 grams of baking chocolate

How to...
1. Put the oven to 200 Celsius (175 Celsius for convection oven)
2. Grind the nuts in a almond grinder and put them in bowl.
3. Add sugar, potato flour and eggs to the bowl and stirr it all together until you get a firm batter.
4. Use your fingers to portion out small balls on baking plates (use baking paper or grease the pan!)
5. Push one hazelnut in the middle of each ball, if the almonds are very big you can divide them in two.

6. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 8 minutes.

7. The cookies are easily getting stuck on the paper so remove them from the paper before they cool.

8. Tempering 50 grams of baking chocolate over water bath (melt and heat to 45 Celsius, add the rest of the chocolate and let it cool to 25 Celsius, then heat it to 30 Celsius - done!)

9. Dip the bottom of the cookies into the chocolate and lay them with the up side down to solidify.

Happy baking everyone! :)
 

Semlor

So, my dear friends, it is time for the special day, Fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday), tomorrow and of course I want to give you my recipe of these lovely pastries we eat like crazy here in Sweden this time of year: Cardamom wheat buns filled with almond paste and whipped cream!
The recipe for the buns is very easy, it takes quite some time to let the buns raise but they will be worth the wait! The filling is quickly managed, especially if you use ready almond paste from the store like I did. However, if you don't have the possibility to buy almond paste, I will give you a recipe for it in this post too.

Cardamom buns filled with whipped cream and almond paste

Buns
640 grams flour
112 grams sugar
112 grams room temperatured butter
15 grams powdered cardamom
3 grams salt
280 grams milk
1/2 egg
25 grams fresh yeast

Filling
Whipped cream 
Almond paste 

Almond Paste
This recipe gives 100 grams almond paste
75 grams of almonds
2 bitter almonds
3 deciliter icing sugar
1,5 tablespoon water

1. Boild the almonds and the bitter almonds in water a minute until the shells will begin to loosen.Rinse the almonds with cold water and remove the shells.
2. Dry the almonds.
3. Mix the almonds together with sugar in a food processor until you get a flour.
4. Add water and mix until it gets a smooth texture.


Garnish
Sieved icing sugar

1. Put all the ingredients in room temperature for a couple of hours before baking.
2. Use a baking machine and just put all the ingredients into the bowl without heating or sifting and led the machine work the dough for about 20 minutes on low speed. 
3. When the dough is ready you will be able to take a piece of dough between your hands and make a thin membrane that will not crack. If you are kneading my hand you will have to knead for about 40 minutes.
4. Without letting the dough raise you make buns (60 grams each) of it and put them on a baking tray. Make sure you give them space so they will not raise into eachother.
5. Boil water and put the pan with the water in the bottom of your cold oven. Put the trays with the buns. The water will evaporate and it will me warm and moist into the oven while the buns raise. Let the buns raise to double size, it took about 90 minutes for me.
6. Get the trays out of the oven and put the oven to 200 Celcius.
7. When the oven is heated, bake the buns for about 5 minutes until the buns have a nice golden color.
8. Let the buns cool on a grid.
9. Whip the cream until the texture is good enough to pipe it.
10. Mix the ready made almond paste with a spoon of water and use a fork to make the texture smooth.
11. Cut off the top of the buns so you get a little hat.
12. Put the almond paste on the cut surface and this is a matter of taste how much you want to put on.
13. Now it is time to pipe the cream on top of the almond paste. Try to cover on the sides som the almond paste doesn't show.
14. Put the little hat on top and sift powdered sugar over.