Eggs and Biscuits

My friend Annie brought round some lovely fresh eggs the other day. I thought about using them to bake with , but in the end decided to boil them so we could really enjoy the taste. Two of them were pretty blue eggs, and there were also two duck eggs which I have never had before - they were very tasty.

So I used a shop bought free range egg to make my biscuits with in the end. Here are some of my orange crunch biscuits wrapped to take to a friend as a hostess gift. I used a large size cellophane bag (from my cardmaking stash) and some curling ribbon and a label I printed on the PC.

Recipe for Orange Crunch Biscuits

Rind of two oranges
1 teaspoon of orange essence
350g flour
1 egg
150g caster sugar
150g softened butter
(If you want you could add some grated ginger root or ground ginger to make orange and ginger crunch biscuits. Yum!)

I love this recipe because I use my food processor and it is so easy to make.
First I blend the sugar and softened butter and orange essence and rind and then I add one spoonful of the flour and the egg, and blend again. Finally, I add the rest of the flour bit by bit until the dough starts to ball up in the machine. I then add a touch of fresh orange juice if it is too dry - and if it was a big egg and it is too wet, then I add a touch more flour. It's that whole guessipe thing again. Then I place the dough in a plastic bag and chill for an hour or so. Then roll out the dough quite thin and cut into shapes and bake for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Cool on a rack, and then enjoy or package up prettily and share with a friend.

P.S. - LOOK OUT FOR MY NEXT POST

My next post is going to be my 100th and I will be doing the traditional 100th post giveaway.

I'm just getting it together now.

The last pyramid...

This is all that is left from a batch of about 200 coconut pyramids I made for a Passover Seder Celebration. They always go down well. Here is the very simple recipe.

200g packet of desicated coconut
2 eggs
 100g sugar

All you have to do is combine the ingredients. It might seem a bit dry, but you have to work it all together by mixing and pressing with the spoon. It is hard work! Eventually when it is well mixed I cover and leave it for an hour or so. Then with wet hands I form pyramid shapes and I bake at around 170 until they are golden on top (about 10 minutes)

I hope you can figure out how to convert my UK measurements and oven temperature to US standards if you want to make some. They are yummy at any time of year.

This is one of my painted and stencilled Seder plates I made a few years ago. It started life as the same kind of wooden platter that the coconut pyramid is sitting on.

A fleeting visit

We've actually been having some lovely sunshine this spring. So much so there have been moments I could have believed it was summer except for the lack of leaves on the trees. Still, the buds are bursting and all is looking beautiful, and that is my excuse for not being a bountiful blogger! That and all the spring cleaning I have been doing. So, I apologise for the lack of posts. Hopefully I shall get on with some creative projects soon!

Hope the sun is shining where you are!