Day 8: Little Josephines

Last weekend I baked two Chocolate Mousse Cakes, so I had a lot of egg yolks that I had to use as soon as possible. Luckily I didn't have to wait long to get an inspiration.

In the morning I was reading one of my favourite baking books Underbart är gott, and happened to see an interesting recipe that only required four ingredients: egg yolks, butter, marzipan, and almond flakes. That sounded so crazy I just had to try these little cakes called Josephines. I was almost sure this could only result in a disaster - I mean, what kind of a batter would you get using only those ingredients?!

But weirdly enough, the batter was smooth and the Josephines themselves.. well.. I feel like repeating myself, but they are like almonds gone to heaven!

I don't think they will keep well, though; they are very moist - maybe in the fridge they'd keep up to a week or so, but I think I'll make a second batch just before Christmas and serve these first ones asap ;)

For 10 small-cupcake-sized Josephines you need:

• 300g marzipan


• 170g butter


• 90g egg yolks


• about 10g almond flakes


• plus some extra butter for the forms

This is how you make them:

Grate the marzipan into a baking bowl. Add softened butter and stir until well combined. Then add egg yolks and stir again until smooth. Prepare the cupcake forms: I suggest you use silicon ones - I tried in both silicon and aluminum ones, but although I had buttered the aluminum forms really well, the Josephines wouldn't come out of them well. Place some almond flakes into each form, then fill with batter and bake in a preheated oven (150-170C) about 15 minutes or until well set.

Let the Josephines cool before taking them out of the forms.

Serve immediately!

P.S. I have no idea where the Swedish name Josefiner comes from: a quick Google search in English and French didn't result in any similar recipes... so I'll call them Josephines until I find out what they really are called in English :)

 

Day 7: Greek Almond Stars

This is a recipe I’ve wanted to try for a long time, and I’m glad I finally did! These almond stars, flavoured with brandy and vanilla, are among the prettiest cookies I’ve ever baked! They are very tasty and easy to make.

The original recipe is from Rena Salaman’s The Greek Cook. I had to change the measures a bit - especially the amounts of sugar and flour. Here’s my version:

For the dough you need

• 225g butter


• 125g sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 2 egg yolks


• 3 Tbsp brandy


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 160g ground almonds


• 350g all-purposed flour


• a pinch of salt (only if using unsalted butter)


• plus about 100g confectioner’s sugar for dusting.

Set the oven to 175C. Combine softened butter, vanilla sugar, and sugar in a baking bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until creamy and white, then add the egg yolks and stir until well combined. Add the brandy in which you have dissolved the baking soda. Lastly, add almonds and flour and work the dough with your hands until you can form it into a ball.

Roll the dough about 1cm thick (the original recipe suggested 2,5cm but for me it was just too much and my cookie cutter is only a bit less than 2cm deep…). Use a cookie cutter to cut small stars. Bake the cookies until they almost start to get some colour - be careful, they burn very easily!

Once out of the oven, sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar on top. Take a big plate and sprinkle its surface with confectioner’s sugar, too. Let the cookies cool a few minutes, then transfer them on the plate and dust them with more confectioner’s sugar so that they are totally white.

Serve your stars with a cup of strong coffee!