Friday, June 02, 2006

WCB/ Hey, Hay, Its Donna Hay!

Well, Weekend Cat Blogging is one year old, and Clare is throwing a party. She asked us all to bring our favourite toys and some checkerboard cookies....

Aggie's not particularily interested in the cookies ~

but you can see her smiling when I pull out her little man and stuff him full of catnip

Then, she hangs on for dear life, shooting me evil looks if I so much as look at her toy.

Check out the big party over at Eatstuff.

Pistachio and Rosewater Checker Board Cookies
For the Hay Hay its Donna Hay event, I was unable to make the recipe without changing the flavours. Its not that the chocolate and vanilla sounds bad ~ I just have an addiction to messing with recipes.

185 gms butter (6 1/2 ounces)
1 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plain flr (all purpose)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup ground pistachio
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp rose water

preheat oven to 180 C (355F).
Place the buter, sugar and vanilla ina food processor and process til smooth. Add the flour egg and egg yolk and continue til a smooth dough forms.
Remove half the dough and set aside. Add the pistachio and milk to the processor and process for 1-2 mins or until just combined. Remove the dough and roll betweern 2 sheets of bakingpaper until 5 mm or 1/4 inch thick. Add rosewater to the other half of the dough ( and I used a little red sugar to give the dough a pale pink colour), roll out as for original dough.
Use a square cookie cutter* to cut out squares arrange on baking sheet lined with baking paperto for cheqerboards. Repeat
Bake for 10 - 12 mins until crisp and golden. — You just lay the squares right next to each other they will stick together when they bake.

*Alt method 1) Use a ruler and a knife and cut small squares, can be fun and fiddly, esp if you want to make small squares
*Alt method 2) Divide the 2 doughs and make long thin logs, join the together and then cut 1 cm thick slices. You will need a sharp knife.

5 comments:

eat stuff said...

Wow Linda!!
They look fab :)
Love the "high" look on Aggies face :)

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh, the power of catnip!!!! Stay away from her mouse or someone will lose a hand. She looks so adorable!

Lisa said...

Heavens! I must grow some catnip. :) Thanks for sharing.

boo_licious said...

Yum! Yum! Cookies. Great combo Linda.

Aggie looks like she is in heaven with her catnip toy. Nah, I'm sure she don't want to share that bliss she is having.

Cat said...

maybe if they were salmon checker cookies she would have been interested ;)