Tag: almond powder

Kwarezimal… again and perfect!

A few months ago I made Kwarezimal and posted the recipe. Kwarezimal are these Maltese vegan treats usually for easter that we had in Valetta last year when visiting. My first attempt at recreating these delicious sweets was tasty but I wasn’t quite happy. The recipe posted reflected the slight modifications needed to improve it but I haven’t tested it fully: a little overcooked and not enough moist from the honey. Also a slightly too strong taste of almond compared to what I wanted and the other ingredients. As these treats are rather rich and nourishing they are perfect in winter with a hot tea after working outside in the cold in the garden or after playing tennis, or both. So I decided to prepare them when the thermometer hit the 5degrees in the house in the morning. What best than working in the kitchen near the oven while the house warms up. I used the recipe posted earlier this year with a few modifications in the process, the shaping (made a smaller double bite size, faster cooking) and the topping: honey dip + hazelnut + pistachio. And made one slight change in the ingredients amount: double tap of cocoa powder. So here is the new recipe. To be honest it was perfectly delicious. Hard to stop eating them!!!

Kwarezimal (makes 18 double-bite size pieces)

  • 150g of almond powder (or hazelnut powder)
  • 100g of flour
  • 60g of brown sugar
  • 1tsp of orange blossom flower
  • 2tsp of cocoa powder
  • 1tsp of cinnamon
  • 1tsp of clove
  • 1/2tsp of cardamom
  • the zest of half an orange or any other citrus fruit (I used yuzu this time)
  • a bit of water

For the topping:

  • a small handful of pistachios
  • a small handful of hazelnuts
  • 3tbp of fragrant honey

Pre-heat the oven to 180 while mixing all the ingredients (but those for the topping) together. Add a bit of water and knead until you obtain a dense but not sticky dough.

Roll the dough to a 5-7mm thick and cut the double-bite size with a shape or with a knife. Other option is to take small balls and shape them the way you want. A flat surface is better for the topping. Set on cooking paper in the oven for 15minutes.

In the meantime, crush the pistachios and hazelnuts of the topping, and set in the plate. In another plate a bit deep, put the honey. As soon as the Kwarezimal are baked and out of the oven, flip a few of them in the plate with the honey, and leave for a couple of minutes. Then dip the sticky side in the pistachio-hazelnut mix and flip on a dish or back on the cooking paper, repeat with the others and let cool down before enjoying!!

Almond treats…

The current situation is forcing us to work from home, and there are a few minor changes in our daily activities but in the meantime I don’t feel it affects us that much. One thing though has been a bit annoying, is the closure of our tennis courts in Isumi since the beginning of February. As I believe there is a season for everything, the season for surfing for me has not yet started: the ocean is yet too cold and the weather too, we are not equipped for cold water and I don’t feel like going for a dip in the ocean at the moment. Gardening kept us busy outdoors, but not enough to really free our busy minds. So one day we decided to go for a bicycle ride and just loved it, so we upgraded our foldable tiny bicycles to proper bicycles and we took on riding. Every Saturday and Sunday we go for a 25km ride in the neighborhood and run some errands… Riding, even for only 90min, makes us very hungry. And with the weather doing ups and downs having a few sweets in the pantry is not a bad idea!!! Not to mention that I forgot to refill our chocolate cabinet on an Easter weekend… oups… what was I thinking??? So I decided to prepare some financiers, A. loves them. (Well what is it he doesn’t like when it comes to sweets and treats? ;))

The problem is that financiers recipe uses only the egg whites, so I was wondering what to with the yolks, and found the recipe of helenettes, an other almond based treat that uses only the yolks. Basically the same ingredients as financiers one has the egg yolk, the other the egg white!! Both are really super easy to prepare and very quick! So was I preparing both and baking both and making every body very happy!

While I have been making financiers for a long long time, it was my first time making helenettes and even more, hearing about this little cookie so I was preparing them in a very simple manner, following almost blindly the recipe I found there (in French), I only changed very slightly. So here are my recipes of helenettes and financiers.

Helenettes (15-20 pieces 3cm each)

– 2 egg yolks
– 100g of flour
– 100g of almond powder
– 80g of sugar
– 60g of butter

Melt the butter. In a bowl mix the egg yolks and the sugar. Add the butter, stir well. Add the flour and the almond powder and stir well. Knead a little and make balls of 20g each and slightly flatten them. Set on a sheet of cooking paper and bake for 10 min at 200deg. Don’t over cook them, they will lose there softness and become really hard.

Finish with a bit of icing sugar if you want to make them really beautiful!

Financiers (25 tiny pieces)

– 40g of almond powder
– 50g of butter
– 20g of flour
– 75g of icing sugar
– 2 egg whites

Melt the butter. In a bowl mix the flour, the almond powder and the sugar. Add the egg white one after the other and stir well. Finally add the butter and stir well. If you have financiers molds this is perfect (I have very tiny ones), if you use paper molds be careful not to fill them too much as they might collapse. Fill half to 2/3 of the molds and bake at 240deg for 5 minutes then decrease the temperature to 180 and bake for another 10min. The smaller the shorter, if you use large molds, it may take a bit more time. They must be golden, but not over cooked neither undercooked.

Et voila! Have a good week!
The next almond treats are going to be some Maltese sweets… coming soon! Stay tuned!

Double almond pancakes

The last weekend we spend in the country before traveling for a few weeks in Europe: Italy and France, and it is perfectly cold and sunny, just how like the mornings it this season. To warm us up before going outside play tennis and garden, a rich breakfast is now needed and this morning I chose to make rich pancakes, but not muesli pancakes, since A. is not a big fan of muesli. But almond in cakes he likes very much. The recipe is really simple, they are fluffy, warm and nourishing.  The recipe is vegan, but you can add eggs if you want them even richer. So here is my recipe with proportions that are about, adjust slighty if needed! Enjoy the weekend!

Double almond pancakes  

– 200g of flour

– 1 glass of almond milk

– 80g of almond powder

– 1tsp of baking powder, and a pinch of salt

– 2tbs of sugar (optional) 

– 1/2 vanilla bean

In a large bowl, add the flour, the baking powder, the salt the sugar. Stir and add the almond milk. Then the almond powder and the vanilla. The dough must be creamy thick. If it is too hard add a bit of almond milk or water, if it is too wet add a little bit more almond powder or flour.

Heat a anti-adhesive fry pan, don’t grease it. Cook the pancakes on both sides for a few minutes. Eat warm!

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