Christmas al Natural
As I was saying in my last post, growing up having Christmas on summer always call for refreshing food. The sweet smell of fresh flowers in the morning makes the holiday season even more inspiring.The warm weather invited us to celebrate outdoors and my mother would decorate the table, with a vase filled with green leaves and some flowers from my grandmother's garden. It was simple but exceptionally beautiful. It didn't need to be more. Inspired by my mother's creativity, nowadays I decorate my Christmas table the same way. And it seemed appropriate to share this with you today. A Christmas au naturel table setting.
Also this month in our Oh Happy Plates Group we are celebrating the holiday season with the theme Still Life Christmas. And members of the group have been uploading some GORGEOUS "Christmas Inspired" photographs! And I invite you to take a look around our board.Big Claps to all of you participating this month!
Black Sesame Tuiles {Wafers Thin Cookies} ------------------------------------------------------------------ Makes 20-25
1 C. / 120 g / 4.2 oz All Purpose Flour / Plain Flour 140 g / 4.9 oz Icing Sugar / Confectioners sugar 100 g / 3.5 oz Unsalted butter , melted 4 medium / 134 g / 4.7 oz Egg whites 1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla essence Black Sesame seeds Preparation: Preheat oven at 200C / 400F. Grease and flour baking trays (about 3 trays). Set Aside.
In a medium bowl cream together sugar and butter (by hand with a whisk). Slowly add egg whites, vanilla essence and flour. Mix well until batter becomes uniform and silky in texture. Place medium round cookie cutter on the prepared baking tray and place 1 to 2 tsp. tuile batter into the center of the hole and spread it out evenly. (making a thin layer). Sprinkle with sesame seeds on top. Repeat with the remaining tuile batter. Bake in the oven for 4-5 minutes until lightly colored around the edges. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, remove the tuiles from baking tray. Leave them to cool flat or create arched shapes.If want to create the arched shape, you'll need to work fast and as soon as they come out of the oven and they are enough cool to handle just drape them around rolling pin. If they become stiff to bend, return them to the oven for a minute and they will soften up.Keep tuiles in a airtight container or they will lose their crisp texture. Serve tuiles alongside ice creams, fresh fruit, fruit compote, sorbet, yogurt or panna cotta.
