Christmas cooking

We are having C's family over for Christmas lunch today, early since C is going back to work on Christmas Eve and will not be around. For dessert I have made Praline Semifreddo, out of the Sweet Food cookbook. It seemed pretty straightforward, and I guessed (correctly!) that the weather might be very warm and a frozen dessert appreciated.

The most complicated part of the recipe was making the praline. I was a little nervous about melting sugar in a pot over the stove. I had one experience when I was at school and I managed to burn one of my mother's pots so badly that it was thrown away! The recipe said to tip the sugar from side to side to allow it to heat evenly. I found that there were clumps of melted sugar that formed, and I was worried that I had wrecked the sugar - and possibly the pan! Still, I persevered, and eventually all of the sugar dissolved and I had a nice liquid.

One thing that I did not realise, not having done it before, is how quickly the sugar set once the heat was taken away, so I needed to work very quickly after adding the almonds to mix it all toghether and lay it on the greased baking tray to set. Next time I will work a little more quickly, as I think I could have utilised more of the toffee if i had been quicker.

I had wanted to find a recipe for a biscuit to have with coffee. I had visions of a vanilla flavoured biscuit, vaguely round in shape and covered in icing sugar. I was quite unable to find what I was looking for, and ended up settling on a recipe for a Greek Almond Biscuit. It was perfect too, as it meant that I could use some of the frozen egg whites that I had left over from my custard making efforts!

As these things go, I did not check the amount of almond meal that I had until after I had partially defrosted the egg white, and the amount left meant that I needed to find an alternative recipe. I found a recipe for Italian Choc Hazelnut Cookies on Best Recipes. I am usually reluctant to try a recipe from an unknown source, preferring sites such as the Australian Women's Weekly or Exclusively Food, however I was running out of time! The recipe seemed straight forward and I was taken with the idea of leaving them in a warmed oven overnight to cook, rather than having to cook them for several hours as most of the meringue recipes required.

Constructing the mix was fairly straight forward. I had a packet of hazelnut meal in the pantry, and chopped the chocolate rather than processed it as I did not wish to make another appliance dirty - it was around 11:30pm!

3 egg whites
125g dark chocolate, chopped (I used Cadbury Old Gold)
125g hazelnut meal
1/4 cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 160C and line a tray with baking paper.
Place egg whites into mixer and beat.
Once soft peaks start to form add sugar in slowly, taking care to retain a shiny appearance to the egg whites.
Fold chocolate and hazelnut meal into egg mixture until well combined.
Use a dessertspoon to place dollops of mix onto tray and place into oven.
Turn oven off and let residual heat cook the biscuits (may take a few hours).

This morning when I opened the oven, I was disappointed that the biscuits were still quite wet - they tasted lovely but did not hold together when lifted off the try - they obviously had not had enough heat! I thought that maybe my oven did not hold heat as well as the person who had posted the recipe, so as I type the biscuits are back in the oven, waiting for it to cool down. I figured I would try the same technique a second time and see how it goes!


Recooking them has led to a harder, browner biscuit. I think perhaps the biscuits could be smaller and the suggested cooking technique of the original recipe may work. Also that would mean nicer, bite sized biscuits to have with a cup of tea. Heaven!