Abbie's Autumn Tea and a Pumpkin Spice Shortbread Recipe

Today my daughter Abbie and I had a mini tea party together. She had been after me to have a tea party, but I had been busy with Thanksgiving preparations. So today, since my husband and son had gone on an excursion together, Abbie and I decided to try a new shortbread recipe and make some Pumpkin Spice Tea.

The recipe we tried today came from Melanger Baking. It is a "Melt 'n' Mix Custard Shortbread." The recipe calls for an ingredient called custard powder. We don't have custard powder here, but you can substitute instant pudding mix. And since I happened to have some Pumpkin Spice flavored instant pudding mix, that is what I used!

The cookies were so easy to prepare. As the recipe title says - you melt the butter and mix the rest of the ingredients, put it in a baking dish and voila, 30 minutes later you're having tea & cookies!

The Pumpkin Spice Tea was really good and perfect for this time of year.

Love the cat creamer! And, speaking of cats......

Oh, my, here comes an uninvited guest to the party!

Our kitty likes her tea with lots of cream!

Thanks for visiting and if you'd like the recipe, just click the link above. If you want the Pumpkin Spice version, just substitute Pumpkin Spice Jello Instant Pudding Mix for the custard powder. It's really tasty!

Update........

I noticed that I didn't have any closeups of the lovely shortbread - I was too busy getting pictures of Miss Abbie. This turned out to be some of the best shortbread I had ever made, but with one additional secret.

After I had baked my shortbread and let it cool on a wire rack, it was still a bit moist inside. Some people don't mind that, but I like my shortbread with a bit of snap!  So, the next day I put the shortbread back on the wire rack, put the rack on a baking sheet, and baked it again at 325 degrees for 20 minutes, let them cool and.... 

They were perfect! The Pumpkin Spice Instant Pudding Mix gave them such a nice flavor and color! You could try all the different flavors of instant pudding mix in these or just use cornstarch in place of the pudding mix and add your own blend of spices! Another note - when I took my cookies out of the oven the first time, I sprinkled them liberally with sugar to give them that nice sparkle!

Have a great week!

Christmas Nougat Cookies

Today I tried another recipe from my Christmas baking board on Pinterest. These are called Christmas Nougat Cookies, and the recipe comes from a commercial bakery in Seattle.

This recipe is made with shortening, not butter. I rarely use shortening in baking, but to achieve the correct texture with these, you must. These cookies are sweet and crisp and nutty, but then melt away in your mouth. They remind me of Mexican Wedding Cookies in their texture.

The recipe for these comes from a blog called Mediteranean Cooking in Alaska. To quote from that recipe: "The soft dough doesn't need to be refrigerated, and rolls out easily. The cookies do not spread when they are baked, so can be placed closely together on the baking sheet. As a result, they are quick and easy to make."

You can use any kind of nuts that you prefer in these. I used Pecans, but other yummy choices include cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds or macadamias.

This is the photo from the original recipe. Don't they look yummy?! Well, I had to try an aqua & pink look, so I got out my powdered leaf green color, my french dragees, my Christmas tree cookie cutter, and my vintage feed sack and went to work. But you don't have to do that to try these yummy cookies! Just roll them out and use a round cookie cutter and they will be just as good! The recipe says to bake for 8 minutes, but I baked mine for 10, and that is the only adjustment I made. They are not supposed to brown.

If you like Mexican Wedding Cookies aka Russian Teacakes etc etc, then you'll love these. They're easy, and you can create fun shapes for the holidays! Happy Baking!!

Pink Piccadilly's Toffee Crumble Scones

Happy Tuesday to everyone! I have a wonderful recipe to share with you for this Tea Party Tuesday!  I am joining Trish from Sweetology today, and I'm sure that she will also have something yummy to share with you!

Today I baked my yummy Toffee Crumble Scones. This is a photo of them before they went into the oven. I wanted to try them in a pan to see if it would help them maintain their shape. I don't know about you, but many of the scone recipes that I have tried don't hold their shape while baking. Maybe it has to do with the amount of butter and cream in the recipe.

I was happy with the way these looked after baking, and they came out of the pan with no problem! I did use a nonstick pan, and also lightly buttered it.

This is my pretty rosy vintage hankie. Love the colors!

Wouldn't you love to just reach right through the screen and take one?

Oh, you're waiting on the recipe?

Toffee Crumble Scones

For the Scones:

2 cups AP flour

1 tbsp baking powder

pinch salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup Heath's Toffee Pieces

1/3 cup butter, cut up

1 cup heavy cream

For the Crumble:

1 cup AP flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup Heath's Toffee Pieces

6 tbsp butter, room temp

Combine the first five ingredients, cut in butter with a pastry blender (or rub in with your hands) until crumbly. Add heavy cream, stirring just till moistened. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just until dough comes together. Pat dough into a rectangle and cut into 12 equal square pieces. (I use a dough scraper) You don't have to be perfect. You can also just pat the dough into a round shape, then cut that round into wedges.  Place pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet or into a baking pan such a mine.

For the crumble, combine flour, sugar, salt, and toffee pieces. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in the butter until fine crumbs form. Using your hands, squeeze together most of the mixture to form large clumps.

Add a heaping tablespoon of the crumble to the top of the scones and bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

I think these scones would be perfect for an autumn brunch, or for Thanksgiving morning to go with coffee! They really are Scrumptious!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Two Wonderful Holiday Recipes ~Pumpkin Crumble Muffins & Apple Toffee Tartlets

Today our Church had their annual Holiday Hospitality program, and I was asked to bring some goodies to go with the morning coffee. I brought my very favorite Pumpkin

Muffins and..........

These super yummy Apple Toffee Tartlets!

The Holiday Hospitality program was so much fun! First we had a lovely devotion on Hospitality. Then, our own Kay Heritage of the blog The Church Cook showed us how to make pie crusts! We also learned the art of flower arranging, and how to make bows for our Christmas packages and wreaths. The program ended with a tasting where many of the church ladies brought samples of treasured Thanksgiving recipes, and we all got to try them. Among the recipes were turkey & biscuits, sweet potato casserole, cornbread dressing, and cherry, apple, pecan pies! Many of the ladies were requesting the recipes for my goodies, so I wanted to go ahead and post them.

I found the recipe for the pumpkin muffins on allrecipes.com. It got great reviews and when I made the recipe, I knew why. They are fantastic!! As usual, I had to add something pretty to the recipe, so I thought a crumble on top would be nice, and also yummy! Again, I used Martha Stewart's crumble topping from her Blueberry Buckle recipe. The recipe for the muffins is actually called Pumpkin Bread, and it is a recipe that makes enough for 2 loaves. When you make muffins instead, you get 48 regular sized muffins. I doubled the crumble recipe because I like to have plenty! I baked the muffins for 22 minutes - just until the top springs back when touched.

My Apple Toffee Tartlets came from a combination of two recipes. I used Barefoot Contessa's French Apple Tart recipe  for the tart crust, and Better Homes & Gardens Apple-Toffee Tartlets recipe for the filling.  If you have a food processor, you are not going to believe how easy it is to whip out a tart crust! (Barefoot Contessa) I can't recommend her recipe highly enough. It is delicious! Last night, I whipped out 3 recipes of the tart crust in 15 minutes! The B.H. & G. filling recipe uses toffee pieces, (yum!), and I used Granny Smith Apples. You could always just buy a ready made piecrust, such as Pillsbury Pie Crusts. Holidays are busy times, and we don't always have time to make everything from scratch.

These muffins would be wonderful for a Holiday breakfast or brunch! Hope everyone has a great weekend! If you come by the blog for Tea Party Tuesday, I'll be sharing my secret recipe for Toffee Crumble Scones. Hmmm, I think I see a pattern developing here! I keep choosing recipes with Toffee and Crumble in them!! Thanks for visiting!

Two Eggs, Two Recipes ~ Pistachio Meringues and Biscotti Regina

Today is 2 for 1 day at Pink Piccadilly Pastries! You get 2 recipes for 1 visit! I am also joining Trish over at Sweetology for Tea Party Tuesday and Kathy at A Delightsome Life. Well, my son had grown some beautiful Zinnias that just started thriving as the cooler weather began here and I wanted to use them in a post. So I thought, now what kind of goodie could I bake today that would look nice with a Zinnia garnish? (LOL) So I decided on Pistachio Meringues. Then, since I only needed the whites of 2 eggs and didn't want to waste 2 yolks (with so many recipes waiting to be made!), I also decided on a yummy Italian cookie recipe that only needed 2 egg yolks called Biscotti Regina.

I have just discovered Italian Cookies and find that I like them alot! Many Italian cookies are not too sweet and will keep in the cookie jar a long time. I had recently seen a beautiful photo of some pretty "biscotti" cookies on the Tomkat Studio blog, but the recipe was not given. There was just a tag in front of the cookies with the word "Biscotti" on it. Well, I was overcome with curiosity (LOL) and had to find out what these cookies were. This is the photo from the blog.....

The Tomkat Studio

Aren't they pretty? They look nothing like the typical "biscotti" that I am familiar with. I wondered how it could be called biscotti when it obviously is not a twice baked cookie. So I just began to google Italian Cookie recipes that might fit. The very first recipe I found was for Biscotti Regina. I learned that Biscotti Regina is an example of an Italian Cookie which is not sliced and re-baked, since biscotti in Italian just means cookies. The true Biscotti Regina is rolled in Sesame Seeds before baking and is found on nearly every Italian Cookie Platter. The recipe description for this cookie fit what the picture showed if you left off the sesame seeds and dipped in powdered sugar icing after baking. So that is what I did!

Just call me Sherlock Holmes! I actually liked the cookies better before I dipped them in icing! They have a sort of crunch when you bite into them, but then melt away in your mouth. After they are iced, the crunch is not as pronounced. They are extremely light, a really different kind of cookie. I can imagine all kinds of variations, by changing the extract or rolling in chopped nuts! The recipe can be found here. I made a couple of changes to that recipe to "pretty it up." First, their recipe used unsalted butter, but I used salted. Next, I didn't roll the cookies in the sesame seeds, but instead made a simple powdered sugar icing adding lemon juice until it was the right consistency. Then, I added a bit of pink color gel and dipped the cooled cookies in that. I also sprinkled on a bit of light pink sparkling sugar to finish. I'm not sure that this is the recipe for the photo on Tomkat Studio, but it looks the same, and it is delicious! .....Now, onto my other yummy cookie that I made today.....

For my birthday I got a lovely book on meringues called Meringue Magic. I made the recipe for Pistachio and cardamom langue de chat, except that I didn't have cardamom and I piped them into discs rather than the langue de chat (cat tongue) shape. Langue de chat are shaped like ladyfingers.

I bought some pistachio extract online and this was my first time using it. I liked the taste alot better after the cookies had baked than before. When paired with the chopped pistachio nuts, it really was yummy. If you bake alot and don't have a digital baker's scale, I encourage you to add one to your Christmas list. They make measuring alot easier, and when you find recipes where the ingredients are measured in grams or ounces, you don't have to worry about converting to cups. Many European recipes are given in grams, as is this one.

Pistachio and cardamom langue de chat

(slightly adapted)

50 g (1 3/4 oz) pistachio nuts

2 egg whites, at room temperature

100 g (3 1/2 oz) caster sugar (I use Dixie Crystals extra fine granulated sugar)

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 drop green food coloring (I used a powdered color in Leaf Green)

1-2 drops pistachio extract (I used 1/8 tsp) Bought online

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Prepare a piping bag with a medium sized round nozzle. (I used my 1M open star tip)

Toast the pistachio nuts in the oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutese, then roughly chop. Set aside. (I skipped this part because I bought a bag of dry roasted pistachio nuts).

Place the egg whites in a large metal bowl. (I used my electric mixer) Using an electric whisk, whisk on a medium speed for about 1 minute. The whites will turn to foam and begin to increase in volume. Increase the speed to high and continue until soft peaks begin to form. Still whisking, add the sugar a few spoonfuls at a time, whisking for 20-30 seconds after each addition. Continue to whisk until the egg whites are eight times their original volume, the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is stiff and shiny. Slowly add the cardamom, food coloring and pistachio extract, whisking until the mixture is a uniform color. It is ready for baking when it doesn't slide off a spoon and it holds its shape.

Put the mixture into the piping bag. (or just dolop onto baking sheet). For each langue de chat, pipe a line about 2 1/2" long, then pipe back up along the side, pulling the bag to make a little peak. Space the meringues about 1 1/4" inches apart. Sprinkle over the chopped pistachios.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the meringues are dry to the touch and just starting to turn a little golden on the peaks. (I completely dry mine in the oven for 2 hours). Allow to cool completely before removing from the baking parchment. The meringues can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

As you can see, I sandwiched my meringues together with a dolop of slightly sweetened whipped cream. They were so yummy! I highly recommend the Biscotti Regina recipe as well, and think it would be a very lovely addition to any shower or tea party.

 Today I used my sweet vintage feedsack with the delicate pink flowers that I bought on Ebay. I love the look of vintage linens!  I hope you enjoyed your class on biscotti (LOL) and come back soon because I am going to be baking my very favorite and almost famous Pumpkin Bread, and my super yummy signature Toffee Crumble Scones! Thanks for visiting!

Getting Ready for Holiday Baking ~ Pretty Pastel Spritz

Are you excited about Holiday Baking? What happens to me is that I make all these plans to bake so many things, then the busyness of the season takes over and ruins my plans.  So this year I have decided to start early and try some of these recipes that I have on my (very long) list.

I bought this cookbook last week and it's full of pretty cookies to bake and give.

This is the recipe I chose, but my cookies didn't quite turn out as pretty as these - through no fault of the recipe. I have a problem with rushing through a recipe and not reading every line. I wanted to pass this info along so that you don't have as much trouble as I did.

I followed the recipe exactly, put the dough into my cookie press and began piping the cookies, as I always do, onto my parchment paper lined baking sheet. WRONG!  Well, I passed right by the line on the recipe that said to press the dough onto an "ungreased cookie sheet." You should have seen the mess I made trying to pipe those cookies onto parchment paper! Did not work! Then I threw away the parchment paper and piped onto the ungreased baking sheet and voila! It worked!!

Second thing - do you see in the recipe photo the lovely picture of the iced light blue cookie with the candy bead on top? That was what I was going for. I also seemed to have passed right over the part that said to "brush cookies with icing." I dipped, instead of brushed. Oh well, this is why I am starting early and doing a trial run on the cookies I intend to give!

I just bought this lovely doily from Ebay. I love the pastel colors!

If you would like to try this recipe, you can go here.

Another note about spritz presses. I had a new Wilton Cookie Press that I tried to use for this recipe. It just did not work. I still hope that it will work when I use one of the recipes that came with it. I wanted to give you the name of the spritz press that I did use, but I have had it many years and the name of the product was not on it, sorry!

I had hoped that any spritz recipe would work in any spritz press, but I guess not! More reason to start early! Happy Baking!