Animal Biscuits for Easter

I am trying to catch up with my Easter Baking write-ups before Easter is all too soon, over so here is another quick review, this time of my Easter biscuit experiments. The money shot is of course the ones that found themselves dipped into chocolate so I will start with these:

The base biscuit is a plain sugar cookie (recipe link later). Once baked and cooled each cookie is then topped with a thin layer of marzipan (all the better if a high almond content marzipan can be used) which has been decorated by pressing a texture sheet or rolling pin over the surface first. The marzipan layer is cut out using the same cutters as the biscuits and then stuck to the biscuit by a thin layer of jam. I used a sieved cherry jam but apricot would be another good flavour. The biscuits are then 'carefully' dipped into a pool of tempered chocolate so that the chocolate coats just up to the edge of the marzipan layer. Eyes are added at the end. If you are making these for marzipan haters then decorate them with rolled fondant icing instead. The icing can be coloured which adds a lot more interest to the presentation.

Well, this chocolate dipping was fun but a rather messy business as plunging whole biscuits into a pool of chocolate whilst keeping them on the fork is a bit of an art that I have not yet mastered. They are very keen to hop off the dipping fork when they shouldn't and my clumsy dipping fork action also meant I was dribbling chocolate around rather too liberally and 'streaking' across the top of what started as perfectly dipped biscuits. So having managed about a dozen 'good' ones I gave up and decided plain biscuits were actually very good too!

The sugar cookie dough recipe comes from an American baking blogger Wanna Come With and I have used it twice now with great success. Please click over to the website for details as there are some super decorating tips there too and detailed instructions there.

The recipe makes a huge number of cookies but the baked cookies keep incredibly well. I have recently used a volume-to-weight-calculator-for-the-kitchen/ downloaded from Blog site Khymos to enable me to convert the recipe from american cups/spoons to grams. This also makes scaling the recipe very easy too, if you do not want a full batch. If you are often put off American baking recipes by the need to measure out your butter in tablespoons do give this download a go.

The cookie dough is quite versatile and I made a batch of it into chocolate chip cookies by simply kneading in a good handful of chocolate chips to the raw dough and then resting it for 30 minutes before rolling and baking. It is not so easy to get clean/sharp edges to the cookies once you have added 'chunks' but these are very tasty variations.

Currants would work just as well and make a more traditional Easter biscuit.

The texturing can be added directly to the cookie dough before baking as so long as the impression is reasonably deep. I had better results with my texture sheet than the rolling pin but I am sure that was just because the particular pin I used made quite a shallow indentation to the dough.

To use the texture sheet I placed it on top of the rolled out dough and gently rolled back over with a plain rolling pin to push the mat into the dough. Lift the sheet off carefully and cut out as normal.

I have a large rabbit cutter that looks quite cute with a halved marshmallow pressed on to the baked biscuit to give a bunny tail. Much easier than trying to pipe a bunny face!

If you are a cookie cutter addict you could create quite an Easter menagerie.

I am putting this post forward for the April 2014  We Should Cocoa Challenge managed by Choclette over at Chocolate Log Blog. This month's challenge is being guest hosted by blogger Rachel Cotterill who has chosen Easter as the theme. You will find a round up of all the entries on her site and Choclette's at the end of the month.

It also seems very appropriate for the April Biscuit Barrel Challenge as this month they are focusing on FUN. More information for biscuit lovers can be found on Laura's blog I'd Much Rather Bake Than

Happy munching!

Easter Baking from Germany, Aachener Poschweck

If you are looking for an alternative sweet yeasted bread to our regular hot cross buns then this is a delicious option. The loaf is sweetly scented with vanilla and would suit anyone who finds the traditional bun spices not to their taste.

The texture of the loaf is quite light as it is not too rich in butter but it has 3 egg yolks that add a little brioche like texture. The novelty of the loaf for me was the inclusion of sugar cubes. These melt somewhat as it bakes creating syrupy and mildly crunchy pockets. The cubes would have softened more if I had not added them a little late in the process, having managed to forget them until after the first rise. The cubes become quite tender though so do not be put off at the thought that you will be biting into rock hard sugar cubes.

In addition to the vanilla flavouring there is grated orange zest which I substituted with some finely chopped candied orange rind. There are also raisins and chopped almonds, not too many, so it is not heavy at all.

The recipe comes from a baking website I have followed for some years now called hefe und mehr. Do not be put off by the German blog title, all the recipes appear in both German and English languages. There is a charming story to the bread that the bakers used to have to give it away to their customers at Easter, what a lovely tradition that was for the customers!

The recipe was actually posted last year and can be found here: Aachener Poschweck

Do have a look at recent posts though as you will find even more great breads for Easter such as a chocolate version of the Italian Colomba Pasquale and the recipe writing is very detailed and informative.

The final loaf is quite large but keeps well, and is perfect with morning coffee or afternoon tea.

You know the Americans with their messed about donuts, muffins and brownies, and the French with their macaroons and chi chi meringues have stolen the baking limelight of recent years but it is time we started to look closer at Germany, they have some absolute gems in their repertoire.