Crunchy cheese breadsticks (100/100/100 Biscuits)

The "100/100/100" biscuits / crackers are one of the most popular recipes among moms with small kids. The biscuits are really easy to make and very tasty, so I decided to make them for my daughter's birthday party. This time I made them like bread sticks and I added some poppy and sesame seeds on top.

Ingredients:

- 100g cold butter, diced;

- 100g fresh cow's cheese / ricotta (virtually any cheese works but these are the most appropriate types for kids, due to the low sodium contained); 

- 100g flour (+ extra, until you get a firm, non-sticky dough, but not hard - depending on the cheese consistency it will take more or less flour);

- 1 egg to brush on the surface (optional);

- poppy and sesame seeds to top (optional).

Method: 

Place the diced cold butter, the cheese and the flour in a bowl and knead with your hand (or with the kneading tools of the food processor) until you get a firm, non-sticky dough (you can add extra-flour, little by little, until you reach the desired texture).
Form a dough ball, wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Remove from fridge, roll dough flat (about 1/2 cm thick) and cut the desired shapes (I cut sticks and rolled them). Place the biscuits / sticks in a tray lined with baking paper, brush them with the egg (lightly whisked) and add poppy or sesame seeds on top (this step is optional).
Bake in the preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius), for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

Rosemary biscuits (crackers)

Ingredients:

- 2 cups flour;
- 100g butter, cold, diced;
- 1 egg;
- 2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped (or any other aromatic plants of your choice - chives, basil, oregano, etc.);
- 2-5 Tbsp water;
- salt, by taste (optional).

Method:

Place the diced cold butter in a bowl, add the flour and mix using your fingers, until you get a sandy texture. Add the egg, rosemary and 2 Tbsp of water and knead until you get a firm dough (but not hard). If needed, add 1 to 3 more Tbsp of water, until you get the right texture. Form a ball of dough, wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
Remove the dough from the fridge, roll it thinly and cut in the shapes of your choice. Place the biscuits in a tray lined of baking paper and bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until they become slightly golden.
They are perfect either simple, as a snack, or with some cream cheese or other creative toppings, as a party appetizer.
The dough is perfect as a crust for salty tarts (quiches).


Enjoy!

Pumpkin gingerbread (sugar and honey free)

It all started with a Hokkaido pumpkin, that I bought for the games I use to teach the kids about fruits and vegetables (associating images with the actual fruit).  

The real challenge was to cook something with it, as we are not really pumpkin fans. For the start, I baked it in the oven, with a bit of cinnamon on top. That's when I figured it might actually go well in a gingerbread recipe, as a replacement for honey. So, I modified a basic gingerbread recipe (from here) and this is what came out of it: 

Ingredients:

- 350g flour;

- 200g baked pumpkin, pureed;

- 100g melted butter;

- 1 egg;

- a piece of ginger, grated (aprox 1,5 cm) or 1 tsp ginger powder;

- o tsp of cinnamon powder;

- zest of one orange (bio) or 1 tsp orange powder;

- 1/2  tsp nutmeg powder;

- the seeds from 1/2 of vanilla bean or a pinch of vanilla powder;

- 1 tsp baking soda.

In a bowl, mix the pumpkin puree with the melted butter and the egg. Separately, combine the flour, baking soda and condiments (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange, vanilla). Mix the contexts of the two bowls using your hand, until you get a non sticky dough ( you can add a bit of extra flour if needed). Shape the dough into a ball and put it in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Take the dough out of the fridge, roll it on a flat surface and cut it in the desired shapes. Bake in the preheated oven, at 190 degrees C, for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Fruit and walnut cookies

Frequently, after the snacks, we have a lot of fruit leftovers: half apple, half banana etc. These make the perfect reasons to bake some fruit cookies or pancakes for the next snack.
Yesterday I had half an apple and half a pear so, while the girls were sleeping at noon, I made some fruit and walnut cookies (I love the smell of baked walnuts, it reminds me of Christmas, so I include walnuts in most of my recipes).

Ingredients:
- 100g butter;
- 1/2 apple;
- 1/2 pear;
- 100g ground walnuts;
- 200 - 220 g flour (depending on the amount of juice and pulp from the fruits)

Method:
Place the diced, cold butter and 200g of flour in a bowl and mix with your fingertips until you get a sandy mixture. Add the finely grated fruit and the ground walnuts. Mix and knead with your hand and, if necessary, add a little more flour until you get a firm dough. Form a ball of dough, cover with cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 1/2h.  S
Take the dough out, roll it on a flat surface and cut the cookies in the preferred shapes. Place them on a tray lined for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
They are amazing and would go perfectly as a present on Saint Nicholas' night!

Enjoy!

Digestive biscuits and plum crumble

The summer holiday is over and we got back to our daily routine and to our healthy recipes.
On Thursday mornings, my younger daughter and I join the International Playgroup (a.k.a. our gang of moms and toddlers). This week I decided to prepare a healthy snack for the kids - some digestive biscuits I've been thinking about for a while.
Well, from the biscuits I ended up making also a plum crumble and the results were so appreciated by my girls that they miraculously vanished within minutes and I had to make another snack for the playgroup.




Ok, I admit, the biscuits were so good next to a foamy cappuccino, that I ate most of them before the girls even woke up from the lunch sleep. 

Ingredients, method and how I got from making biscuits to making plum crumble:
I saw the recipe on this blog and I adapted it to be baby-friendly. So, I used:
- 100g 4 cereal flakes (wheat, oat, barley and and rye) - you can use any cereal flakes;
- 100g wholemeal flour;
- 100g butter;
- 1/2 banana;
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder;
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder;
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder;
- the seeds from 1/2 of a vanilla bean.
I used some of the biscuit mixture to make a plum crumble (see below). For the crumble I used about 10 plums, halved and pitted.

Place the cereal flakes in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the flour, baking powder and spices and mix well. Cut the cold butter into small cubes, add it to the flour and mix with the fingers
until you get sandy crumbles.
 
While I was mixing the butter and flour, I was thinking that the sandy mixture would be perfect for a crumble. As I had bought some plums that morning, I decided to put the idea into practice.

For the crumble, coat a ceramic pot with butter, place the halved (pitted) plums inside, add some of the sandy mixture on top and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (until the crumbles became golden brown).

For the biscuits, blend half of a banana into a smooth paste and add that over the remaining sandy mixture. Knead well until you get a firm, non-sticky dough. Coat it in plastic foil and place in the fridge for half an hour.

Flatten the cold dough using a rolling pin and cut the biscuits in round shapes, with a glass (alternatively you can use any cookie cutter). Place them in a tray lined with baking paper and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (or until golden brown). Take the biscuits out of the tray and let them cool on a rack.

In the meantime the crumble has already cooled. Take out halves of plums, pour a Tbsp of yogurt on top of each, add a pinch of cinnamon and they are ready to be served.

Enjoy!