Chocolate mousse cookies

Today I share with you the last of the seven bakes for Christmas.  We of course bake 

other things but we only cook seven types of cookies. We also bake  Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, kransekake (see here) and chocolate roulade ~ a true family favourite  (see here), along with other things that catch our fancy, it is a foodie time of year where we perhaps eat a tad too much but come together as a family and share in this culinary feast.  This year as we all know is different and many families and friends are separated for reasons beyond their control and we are the same in this household.  Today for the first time I made chocolate mousse cookies as my daughter is not a Norwegian spice kind of girl, give her her Asian heritage spice and away she goes but not the warmth of Norwegian cookies, so  these are for her...

Chocolate Mousse Cookies

Chocolate Mousse Cookies

You will need:

3 egg white

200g sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

250g good quality dark chocolate

200g walnuts ~ these could be omitted

2 tbsp corn starch

♥  Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

♥  Add the sugars and continues to whisk till they form a lovely glossy meringue.

♥  Melt the chocolate over a Bain Marie and allow to cool until it is room temperature but still completely melted, you do not want it beginning to form a solid again.

♥  Carefully fold the chocolate into the meringue.

♥  Add the chopped walnuts and corn starch and continue to fold in gently.  You do not want to loose the air or make the meringue change it's consistency, if over mixed it will become a runny mix.

♥  Put a tablespoon of mixture onto lined baking sheets, leaving a good amount of space between each one as they will spread out quite a bit.  

♥  Bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes.

♥  As you take them out of the oven they will appear to be very soft, leave them on the baking sheets to cool for several minutes and they will stiffen up a bit.  

♥  Very carefully transfer them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  these meringue like cookies are very fragile.

These cookies melt in the mouth

These gorgeous mousse like meringue cookies are delicious but do not last very long.  Bake and eat within 3-4 days

The best way to describe them are  something akin to a chocolate brownie and a meringue.  

Delicious!

♥  How are your preparations coming along?  ♥

Vanilla Wreath Cookies

December 18th 2018

Today I share with you the penultimate of the seven cookies that I will be baking for a 

Vanilla Wreath Cookies

Norwegian Christmas.  These vanilla based cookies are not dissimilar to shortbread, the difference being they are thinner and therefore really melt in the mouth and are very quick to make, only seven minutes in the oven!

I do so hope the Advent time has been a joyful one for you all and that you are taking time out to enjoy.  As each year passes I become less stressed and think what will be will be.  I make and do that which I enjoy and no more.  These cookies are made most years and are truly one of the seven traditional cookies made by most Norwegian or if not made then bought.  These along with pepperkaker epitomise the Norwegian coffee table at Christmas. So let's get baking if you fancy it...


Vanilla Wreath Cookies ~ makes about 40-50

You will need:

2 vanilla pods

Divide the dough into sections

175g plain flour
125g sugar
pinch of salt
200g butter, straight from the fridge
100g ground almonds
1 egg yolk


♥  Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
♥  Rub in chopped butter with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs.
♥  Split the vanilla pods and scrape out the seeds and add to the mixture along with the ground almonds.
♥  Add the egg yolk and using your hands' mix to form a dough. Kneading in the bowl or on a lightly floured surface for a couple of minutes.
♥  Wrap in cling film and chill for a minimum of two hours or preferably overnight, but it is not necessary.
♥  Preheat oven to 200 Celcius.

Form sausage shapes before
making them into wreaths

From the sausage lengths form circle shapes

♥  Either roll out the dough or using food processor attachment with a star-shaped nozzle make sausage length of about 6 cm long and a diameter wide.  NOTE:  I tried piping these with a piping bag once, it does not work, so either roll out, use the food kransekake) then use that.  I also mark out the dough into sections to give me an idea of how many each portion should give me, to try and keep it the same size.  I divided mine hereinto 8, so I hoped to get 6-7 out of each section.
processor method or if like me you have a
metal piping contraption (used for piping
♥  Shape each sausage length into a flat circle like wreath, see the photograph.
♥  Place on  lined baking sheets.
♥  Bake for 7 minutes or until very lightly golden.
♥  Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.  Although I doubt they will last this long.

Eat and enjoy, bet you have more than one!

♥  What preparations do you enjoy doing for Christmas?   ♥