Paris coffee-sandcookies( petits sablés de Paris au café)

Since childhood I have loved my mother’s coffee cookies. We always baked them for Christmas. These little sablés are good too and much less work than the real old coffee cookie Maman used to make. And..they come with a Parisian flavour! What could be better? Come Noël, we will revert back to Maman’s old fashioned Christmas coffee cookie.

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La recette:

petits sablés de Paris recette-001Pincée de fleur de sel:

  • Keep some sablés single, without being sandwiched together. They will be crispier and perfect for dipping into some coffee or tea.
  • Replace the ground almonds with plain flour if you so prefer.
  • Instead of the TBSP of strong coffee, add a TBSP of instant coffee powder if you have it available.
  • Replace the coffee in the icing sugar with some milk and flavour with vanilla essence for a contrast in flavours, or add cacao to taste for a mocca cookie.
  • The icing sugar can be added to a cookie simply with a knife but a piping bag makes for a neat filling.

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The dough on the pastry mat. Be sure to always work with flour under your pastry to prevent sticking.

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Using a piping bag makes for neat cookies, but still with a home made feel..and of course taste!

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Une Parisienne

la parisienne  29-10-2010 12-23-55 1502x2148My Parisian umbrella always goes with me to Paris. A little bit of a cliché it is, but I love it. It depicts a typical Parisian street scene in winter(of course). a year or so back, I had my beautiful friend pose for me with the umbrella. She is the epitome of Parisian elegance, even though she doesn’t live there anymore.

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So, with these petits sablés and une ravissante Parisienne, peeking from behind her umbrella, I hope I could give you just  a little taste of Paris for today.

..à la prochaine fois..

Ronelle

Rainbow carrots with orange flower honey sauce..and rainbow chickens.

Vegetables are part of our every day healthy diet, right? Five portions of different fruit and veggies every day. Yes, that is what we are advised here in France. I try my best to adhere to that..in any case, we love fruit and we love our vegetables. On the menu here are thus some carrots of all colours served with Greek yoghurt and a sauce flavoured with orange flower water.

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rainbow carrots recette

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Pincée de fleur de sel:

  • Serve the carrots warm in fall and winter as a starter on individaul plates.
  • Serve cold with salad leaves in summer.
  • The sauce can be kept in the fridge for about two weeks.
  • Add orange juice to the sauce with the vinegar and reduce to a syrup.
  • Use an orange flower honey if possible, but otherwise a wildflower honey can work too.

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..parsnips can serve as “white carrots”..

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..when using young and organic carrots, it isn’t necessary to peel, only wash and use..

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*recipe adapted from “Les légumes de Monsieur Wilkinson; Matt Wilkinson.

Like the carrots, my chickens are rainbow coloured too. And I adore them, no doubt about that. Every day is a story that unfolds before me from the morning to the evenings when silence dawns finally on the chicken coop.

..keeping an eye on the cooking in the barn kitchen…

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..aren’t I pretty with all my colours..?

chickens

..I am the epitome of elegance, in case you haven’t noticed..

chickens porcelaine

..life looks interesting from up here..

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..Where are those hens again..!

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..Don’t mess with our corner..!

chickens

à la prochaine fois

Ronelle