Turrón chip cookies

And again another recipe with turrón ^w^ This time I used a basic recipe for chocolate chip cookies and replaced the vanilla extract with almond extract and the chocolate chips with turrón chips.
I made these cookies for a charity baking sale and they had a good acceptance :-) People said that they tasted kind of like marzipan, I guess that's because of the almond extract...

Ingredients (for around 30 cookies):

200g white sugar
100g unsalted butter
150g soft turrón (Spanish almond nougat)
220g flour
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Cream together butter, sugar and salt.
2. Beat the egg and then add it to the butter. Then add the almond extract and beat until well mixed.
3. In another bowl, mix together the flour and the baking powder.
4. Add the flour little by little to the butter, mixing well between additions.
5. Chop the nougat and add it to the dough (similar to when you add chocolate chips).
6. Allow the dough to rest for at least 15 minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 170ºC.
7. Line the baking tray with kitchen foil/waxed paper/silicon matt (whatever you prefer, just make sure that the cookies won't stick later). Take the dough out of the fridge and make little balls with it. Put them on the tray about 4cm (2 inch) away because they will grow thanks to the baking powder.
8. Bake them for 12-15 minutes or until golden.
9. Allow them to cool in a wire rack. When they're cold store them in an airtight container.

Turrón cheesecake

Another recipe of my invention! This is the second one after the honey and walnut biscotti and is basically a twist on the traditional NY Cheesecake. My recipe substitutes half of the cream cheese with the spanish soft almond nougat and changes the kind of sugar used to muscovado. Also, I refrained from using vanilla essence because I didn't thought that it would suit the flavour of the turrón.

I got this recipe right on my first attempt (incredible, I know!) though it makes a rich and heavy cake so it's advisable to either eat only a small portion each time or use half of the ammounts (quite difficult when it comes to the eggs but I used 3 medium sized eggs so you could try with 2 small sized ones).

Ingredients:

200g digestive cookies
175g muscovado sugar
75g unsalted butter (melted)
300g cream cheese
300g almond nougat (turrón) from Jijona
200ml soured cream
50g flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
50g milk chocolate (to decorate)

Method:

1. To make the base, crush the digestive cookies with a food processor until they're fine crumbs, or put them in a sealed plastic food bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
2. Add 25 grams of the sugar, the salt and the melted butter. Mix well and press it into the base of a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
3. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese, remaining sugar, almond nougat (cut in small pieces) and soured cream until smooth.
4. Add the eggs one by one, ensuring that each of them is well mixed before adding the next one..
5. Fold the flour into the mixture to form a smooth batter.
6. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Take the cake tin out of the fridge and spoon the filling over the cooled base.
7. Bake the cheesecake for 45-60 minutes until it's set at the edges and just wobbly in the middle. If the cake is getting too brown in the top cover it with foil.
8. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin and then unmold it and store in the fridge for at least three hours.
9. Melt the chocolate over a water bath (or in the microwave, but veeeery carefully) and spread it over the cooled cake. Leave the cake in the fridge for another 15 minutes or till the chocolate hardens.

Spanish almond nougat cookies

It's traditional in Spain to eat turrón in Christmas. The typical turrón can be of two varieties: Alicante or Jijona, being the Alicante type the hard kind and the Jijona the soft and chewy kind. The name of turrón can be translated to English as almond nougat, which is especially accurate for the Alicante variety, though I have used the Jijona variety for my cookies. The one I've used comes from last Christmas' leftovers which my boyfriend brought to UK on January ^·^U I don't like that type and my boyfriend seemed to have forgotten about its existence so I decided to turn it into delicious cookies. And delicious they are, indeed! My boyfriend devoured them and said they were the best ones I've made so far! ^o^

I found the recipe in this blog but it's in Spanish and I changed one or two things so I'm posting the new recipe below, enjoy!

Ingredients:

100g butter at room temperature
70g sugar
300g almond nougat (turrón) from Jijona
300g flour
1 egg

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. In another bowl, mix together the nougat and the egg to form a paste. It can be done either by hand with a fork or with an electric mixer.
3. Mix together the butter and the nougat until well combined.
4. Add the flour to the mixture to form a soft dough. Split in two and wrap each dough with cling film. Allow to set in the fridge for at least two hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 175ºC. Prepare the baking trays with a non-stick surface (baking paper).
6. Shape one of the doughs into a cilinder and store it in the freezer while you shape the other dough. Store the second dough in the freezer while you cut the first dough into slices of about 5mm thick and line them in the baking tray. Repeat the process with the second dough.
7. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes or until they begin to brown. Switch off the oven and let them rest inside of it for another 3-4 minutes.
8. Take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool before storing them in an airthight container. The cookies will taste better and their texture will improve after one day, so try to be patient! (though it's difficult ^^).

Chocolate and almond cookies

These cookies were originally a variation of someones I made some time ago (the chocolate and walnut cookies). The recipe is also for chocolate and walnut cookies, only that it comes from a different cookbook. This recipe is from Chocolate Basics: 80 Recipes Step-by-step (in spanish Recetas básicas de chocolate). I simply LOVE this book! It's got step by step photographs and explanations, which makes the recipes look less scary :-) Indeed, I find myself willing to attemp some layered cakes, which is something I usually don't dare to even give a second glare.

I made these cookies for my boyfriend's birthday, as one of his presents, because he loves the cookies this way, chewy rather than crunchy (I prefer them the other way ^^U). These cookies taste really good and are super easy to make, just as they seem in my book!

Ingredients:

200g white sugar
100g butter
150g chocolate with almonds
220g all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170ºC.
2. In a saucepan, melt butter and let it warm.
3. Add the sugar and the salt to the butter mix until well combined.
4. Mix in the egg and then the vanilla extract until well combined.
5. In a bowl, mix the flour and the baking powder and the add the flour to the butter.
6. Chop the chocolate and add it to the dough.
7. Let the dough rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.
8. Take a small amount of cookie dough onto your palm and roll into a ball.
9. Put the balls onto a baking tray and press them slightly.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until the borders brown.
11. Take the cookies out from the oven and let them cool completely in the tray before transfering them to a wire rack.