Bunny Baking Project

Those Nut Crescent Cookies are also good with their powdered sugar coating:

I really don't see why I ever need to try another recipe for these.  The hardest part was chopping the pecans.  (You can't use the food processor because pecans are relatively oily and the food processor will start turning them into pecan butter before all of the pieces are as small as they're supposed to be.)




Speaking of nuts, behold the Italian Almond Cake:

Yeah, so it gets the Barbara Walters soft focus.  I learned that I need to bake this one in the bottom oven of my double oven so the top doesn't overbrown before the inside is done.


This one gets done in a springform pan lined with parchment paper:

Take the bottom out of the pan, put it on a sheet ofparchment paper, trace aroundit with a pencil, cut out thecircle, and put it in thebottomofthe reassembledpan.  I decided nottoedit this paragraph so you could see what I'm dealing with here with this wonky spacebar.  Grrr.

So then you toast plain whole almonds for a few minutes.

When they're cool, you put them in the food processor with some of the sugar...

...and you grind them into dust.

Then you combine them with the flour and leavening.  Meanwhile, you cream butter with the rest of the sugar.

Hey there, Big Papi *bats eyelashes*

Then you add the eggs, and then gradually the nuts and flour....

...and finally some milk.

Then you stir it once or twice with a rubber spatula to make sure all the stuff from the bottom and sides of the bowl is mixed in properly, and then you pour it into the patented pan, smooth the top, and bake.

Hee!  Tiki is taking a sunbath with his Blue Bunny.

And when you've done it properly, it comes out of the oven looking a little bit paler than this:

It's dense and rich and not too sweet and basically perfect when you make allowances for the absence of chocolate.


And so the Nut Crescent Cookies get three stars, and the Italian Almond Cake gets three stars plus an eyeball for its simplicity.

Almost ready to move on to 2008, but I might have to go on hiatus for holiday baking.


Oh yeah!  I almost forgot.  The Manos scarf is finished: