Thursday 20 January 2011

Winter sun and choc and marzipan cookies

This past week we have had nothing but wonderful blue skies.
We decided to go and have a wonder up the field to scope out a home for the chickens.

and say hello to the horses, of course :)

The boys were wondering what was planted in the field

off to see the goats
We have actually been contemplating getting our own goats. Yes I know, first see how we go with the chickens but I can't help myself dreaming lol the reality is probably a lot messier :D

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
on their bikes (and scooter) and on our way to the garden centre

flowers are pretty scarce at this time of year but we did find lots of cacti

and home again

Baking time! We had some marzipan left over from Christmas so when I found this recipe I had to make it. The strong chocolate flavour from the cocoa powder offsets the sweetness of the marzipan beautifully. Boo even asked if she could have these on her next birthday :)

Chocolate Marzipan Cookies
200g unsalted butter softened
200g light muscovado sugar (although I just used demerera)
1 egg
300g plain flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
200g marzipan
Preheat oven 190 oC (375 oF)
Grease two baking sheets.
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, then add egg and mix well.
Sift flour and cocoa powder until combined.
Roll out half of your mixture and cut out shapes (we made 38)

Roll little marzipan balls and press onto cutout shapes.
Roll the other half of dough and put the lids onto and press sides together
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Cool for 2-3 minutes before placing on a cooling rack. And remember that even though they smell amazing and you will want to try them straight away, wait a about 10 minutes as the marzipan stays hot for a while. Oh and you can drizzle them with melted white chocolate to make them prettier if you like.
Even Hubby, who "doesn't like marzipan" enjoyed these :D

3 comments:

dorinalouise said...

hi! it looks so warm and you just had so much snow! it's still very cold here in nyc.

morgana and i were just watching the youtube film about victorian farm. what fun! thanks for letting us know.

we look forward to hearing how it goes with the chickens!

Moogie said...

Oh I am pleased that you were able to view it! It is a bit of a pain that they are only in such short snippets but better than nothing :)
Hopefully the chickens will be coming soon. I was leaviing it to hubby to organise but I think I need to push things along a little bit.
England's weather is very fickle, although it never tends to get too cold or too hot, you never know what you are going to get from week to week. Take last week for example, the day I took the above photos it was around 13 oC and two days later it was -4 oC. We just always have to remember plenty of layers so we can add or strip when needed :)
Have a good weekend
xxx

Kelly said...

It does look warm in your pictures! Are you living in the same country as us?!! That slope looks great and your adventure to the garden centre too. Garden centres are really great places to hang out! Always so many different things to look at. Our local centre has fish and reptiles too. We could easily spend an hour or so there. So excited for you getting your chickens.and maybe goats. They are characters, aren't they! I would really love an alpaca, and chickens, ducks, sheep and a donkey! Sol would love a parrot.
Best wishes
Kelly