Chocolate Chip Cookies

To be fair, I have to say that I baked these cookies by mistake, what I was trying to do were chocolate chip scones, but I think I didn't add enough baking powder so they didn't rise as they should, but as I said when I was introducing myself, sometimes my bakes go wrong and totally inedible, this time the cookies turn out good though,. What I've got were cookies with a softy inside so they were a nice and tasty mistake. If you want to try them yourself you will need:

225g flour
2tsp baking powder
50g dark chocolate chips
50g caster sugar
1/2tsp salt
50g butter
150ml milk
some extra milk for glazing

First of all, grease a baking sheet and pre-heat the oven at 220ºC - Gas 7.

Sift the flour with the salt into a bowl and add the cold butter, you have to rub in the butter, you can do it with your hands, I never do it like that because it is really easy to melt the butter with your fingers when you are working it, what I use is a pastry blender, it is really handy and I use it lots because I make my own puff-pastry. If you don't have one, you can use a normal butter knife, it will take you a bit longer but you will not melt the butter. You have to cut the butter in small pieces, like lentils.
Once you've done that add the rest of the ingredients and work them to a soft and sticky dough.
Now all you have to do is roll it and cut it, I cut it about 0.5cm thick with a round cookie cutter, then re-roll the trimmings and re-cut until you shape all the dough. Remenber to add some flour to your working surface and to the rolling pin.

Place the cookies on the prepared baking tray, brush them with some milk and put them into the oven. They will be ready in about 10 minutes.

So if you want to try my chocolate chip cookies a.k.a chocolate chip scones you have the recipe.

By the way, if you like the photos they are made (the nice ones) by Jorge Deepsea Photography, the no so nice ones are made by me :)

Carbayones

They were quite difficult for me to make, it took me 3 times to get them right but totally worth the extra effort.

They take their name from a city in the north-west of Spain called Oviedo, people who live there are called "Carbayones" furthermore a Carbayu is how we call oak-trees in Asturias and Oviedo is Asturias' capital.

For this recipe you will need puff pastrie, I make my own one because it is not difficult to make, it tastes better and I like to make everything from scratch, the dowside is that you have to start the day before so you have to plan it in advance. I will post the puff pastrie recipe later.

You will need:

0.5Kg of puff pastrie

For the filling:

200g of grounded almonds
4 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1 lemon zest
200g of white sugar
0.5 cup of sherry liquor

Egg yolk cream

4 egg yolks
4Tsp of water
100g of white sugar

Glaze

400g of dusting sugar
100g of water

Fist of all you have to line the special molds with the puff pastrie, these molds are longer than the individual tart molds but they are less wider, I bought them the last time I was in Spain, if you can not get them, don't worry you can use the tart molds.

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC- Gas 4

For the filling you just have to mix all toguether in a bowl.

Fill the pastrie shells and put them in the oven until the pastrie is golden, if the filling is getting dark cover them with a big tin, you probably will have to do it so be ready because takes longer for the pastrie to be done  and you don't want the filling to get burn. when the puff pastrie is done take them out of the oven and allow them to cold down a little and remove them from the molds.

For the egg yolk cream you have wisk the egg yolks and put them on a side, afterwards put the sugar and the water into a pot and heat it up to hard ball so you will have to use a sugar thermometer, once you get the temperature allow it to cold down just a little and pour it over the egg yolks, do it very slowly meanwhile you wisk. when you have the cream, spread it over the top filling with a knife, making an even layer. Leave them to cold down compleatly until the surface is not sticky anymore.

Now all you have to do is the glaze and it is very simple, just mix the dusting sugar and the water and pour it over the carbayones, I changed this part of the recipe because I cannot get this part right, you are supposed to heat up the sugar to hard ball, I tried this twice and didn't work so I decided to use a simpler glaze that instead.

I know this recipe looks quite long but it was quite easy to do once I changed the glaze part, that was diving me crazy. If you have any tips for that glaze I will be happy to hear them :)

By the way I made meringues with all the egg whites that I didn't use in this recipe.

Enjoy :)