Let it snow, let it snow and snow.

So this is christmas: snow , christmas trees, christmas carols, gift giving season and lots of eating (diet after the holidays excuse,sounds familiar?!) lights and shopping.Well, I've always liked to cook and entertain at christmas season, something about winter,food and friends and family gatherings that takes the best out of me.
But most of all I like to make cookies arround this time of the year.I love the smell of freshly baked cookies that come out of the oven and Frank Sinatra singing and keeping me company while baking them.
These chocolate espresso snowcaps cookies at christmas time are a great treat plus they make a wonderful gift.I love the way they crack while baking and after you've covered them in a good dust of confectioners' sugar, so the outcoming result is a beautiful snowflake like cookie.
The coffee in the recipe engages very well with the chocolate and enhances the chocolate flavor.
I took the recipe from Martha Stewart christmas cookies.Last year I decide to give these cookies as a christmas gift to my colleagues. They loved them

Happy Baking!

Chocolate espresso snowcaps

Ingredients

140 gr all-purpose flour
35 gr unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons instant espresso
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
60 gr unsalted butter
160 gr packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
100 gr bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon milk
Confectioners' sugar, for coating

Method

Sift together dry ingredients: flour,cocoa, espresso , baking powder and salt.
Cream Butter and sugar in a separate bowl then beat in egg and mix well using an electric mixer until well incorporated.Add melted an cooled chocolate and mix using the electric mixer on low speed.Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.Add milk and mix just until incorporated.Flatten dough into a disk and wrap in a cling then freez for 45 minutes to firm.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1 cm balls. Pour confectioners' sugar (about 1/2 cup) into a medium bowl; working in batches, roll balls in sugar twice, letting them sit in sugar between coatings.

Place on prepared baking sheets, 2 cm apart. Bake until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes; cookies will still be soft to the touch. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

A helping hand...

It is not easy to be far away from your family and close friends raising kids alone with your husband.I know it is more satisfying this way but still, everyone needs a helping hand every now and then.I gave birth one month ago and ever since I am playing a super woman ,prohibiting myself from collapsing even if I am tired.After all you need to keep things going and functioning for everybody's sake; especially when you have a pre schooler that needs the reassurance of "business as usual." So my family couldn't be with me this time around to help with the new baby, but I got a helping hand from my friend Hanan who came all the way from Bologna with her toddler to help with the kids and many more things. She cooked ,she helped babysitting my little prince while out taking Elin to kindergarten.
Apart from the great things she did for us, she was a great cook as well and she made us delicious "Manaeesh" a delicious Arab pita like bread topped with zaatar and baked in a special electric pot. It is funny that everytime Arabs meet or get together abroad they think of Manaeesh :-)

So I am dedicating this post to my friend Hanan and her sweet little pie Nadeen. Thanks for being such a great help and such a great company for us.








Manaeesh
yields about 25-30 little manaeesh

Ingredients

1 kg flour
20 gr yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1 tb salt
1/4 ts sugar
4 tb zaatar*
3 tb olive oil

Method
Put the flour in a high edged large bowl and make a hole in the middle.In a cup, disolve the yeast with two ts lukewarm water and put in the hole that you've created before.Add salt, sugar and half a cup lukewarm water. Mix the ingredients with your hands then start to cover the hole with the flour and knead the dough. Add water as needed to creat a pizza like dough.Dough is ready when not sticky and when bowl sides and edges are clean.You should have a large ball of dough at the end.Cover the dough with a couple of dry kitchen cloths for one hour and leave to rest. After one hour the dough should be doubled in size, that means its ready .Start to cut little balls then cover them for another half an hour to rest.After that, start rolling these balls the same way you roll a pizza dough but without stretching the edges.Arrange them in raws on a large table cloth then cover with another one and let rest for half an hour.Mix the zaatar with the olive oil.Using the tips of your fingers ,start tapping slightly on the rolled dough in order to creat little holes .Put one to two tb zaatar with oil and spread it all over the dough.Bake in the electric pot for 2-3 minuts until brownish in color and edges are crisp and dry.Alternatively , you can bake in the oven for 5-6 minutes at 170°depending on the type of oven you have.

Happy baking!






Notes:
*Zaatar is a minced origano mixed with salt and sesame seeds, you can find it in Arabic grocery stores.

** you can top these manaeesh with some white cheese (like feta or primo sale or Arabic white cheese)mixed with Sumack and olive oil.It is a delicious alternative for Zaatar as illustrated in photos.