Taste-and-Treats on the West Coast

Zimtsterne – Swiss Christmas Cookies December 14, 2023 in   Uncategorized No Comments » Its this time of the year again that we all remember certain things from our childhood. For me it was always the incredible smells of my Granny who was Swiss baking mountains of Christmas cookies for 4 weeks before the actual day. My most favourite was always the Zimtsterne ( Cinnamon Stars) which I still bake today to give away as presents to family and friends. Ingredients for approximately 50 cookies (depending on the size of a single cookie): 3 fresh egg whites 1 pinch of salt 250 g icing sugar sugar 1½ tbsp cinnamon ½ tbsp kirsch or lemon juice 350 g ground almonds Preparation: Stir white of egg and salt in a bowl until it is real stiff. Add icing sugar, stir until ingredients are evenly distributed. Put ½ cup aside for the icing. Add cinnamon, kirsch (or lemon juice) and almonds, knead to a soft dough. Roll out dough on a flat surface (it should be slightly covered with sugar), approximately 7

It strawberry season again and perfect to enjoy a glamorous French Strawberry tart... I have always had problems making this delicious melt in the mouth pastry that is called pate sablee ( translated into sand pastry).. Think I have now perfected it and  will share it here. Pate Sablee 150 g butter 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp icing sugar Sift icing sugar Mix at low speed and combine 1 egg yolk and 1 hard boiled egg yolk grated mix into batter add 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 cup and 3/4 cake flour Take out 2 tbsp flour and replace with 2 tbsp corn starch Sift the flour   1/4 tsp salt Mix only until it is well blended Then wrap dough into cling wrap and chill Roll out dough with floured  rolling pin into 1/8 inch thickness     and larger than the     18 inch pastry tin you are going to use. You can trim the pastry using your rolling pin over the top of the tin. Make holes     in the pastry with a fork     and chill for about ½ hour. Bake at 175 deg C for 20 minutes. While your tart bottom is baking make t