Raspberry-Lemon Biskuit Cake

I made this cake for my grandmas birthday. I had this idea about combining lemon and raspberry in a cake. If you look at most of my cakes I think it becomes obvious that I absolutely love my aunt's biscuit. So I used it as the base. And for the raspberry part I chose the raspberry dough from this recipe. And to round it out I would make a lemon frosting.
It didn't work out as I planed. I hate buttercream frosting, so I chose a cream cheese frosting. It was the first time I made that recipe. It was horrible. For one it was too sweet, but I could have lived with that. But the real problem was that it was too runny and it didn't get better when I put it in the fridge for some time. It just run down the cake. I would have made some other cream, but there was no cream cheese leftover. And it was already too late to go and by more. I was really pissed.
So I think it's no surprise that I'm replacing the frosting with one I made before and that actually worked and tasted good.

But it was not all bad. This is the first time that the fondant I made worked out perfectly.
I stumbled over this blog. There I found not only a recipe for fondant that uses only german ingredients. But also one for gum paste. I actually had to make a half an hour long bus trip to a bigger grocery store to get some of the ingredients. But it was worth it, 'couse it was still cheaper than to buy it online.
And like I said the fondant was great, just the right texture. The cake would have been beautiful. Smooth and even. The cream totally ruind it. I was kinda sad.

There are a few drawbacks to this recipe.
For one the syrup used for it is too dark. It results in an off-white fondant. For another it's a little too soft. So I don't think it's suitable for shaping.
If you make the gum paste, the problem with the shaping disappears. But if you don't plan to color it you get another problem. Because the gum paste is a pure white. The differene between the fondant and the gum paste will be obvious. 

It was the first time I worked with gum paste. I'm pretty happy with the result.
The flowers look really beautiful. They weren't perfect but for a first try still pretty good. But the work is rather elaborate. The gum paste dries fast. So I could only work on one or two petals at a time. And everytime you have to take the gum paste out of the plastic wrap, cut of a piece, put the rest back, roll out the cut of piece, stamp out the petals, put the spare gum paste back, work on the pestals and then do it all over again. I think I worked over one hour on the rose alone.
But the result was worth it.

Usually I don't put up so many picutres. But well I am rather proud of my accomplishment and wanted to show it from all sides. It would have been too hard to chose only two or even three pictures.

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Raspberry-Lemon Biskuit Cake

Biskuit

150 g flour
38 g cornstarch
188 g sugar
315 g eggs (with shell)
1 pinch citric acid powder

1. Weigh the eggs with the shell. Try to come as close to the intended weight as you can. That works best with a mix of medium and large sized eggs.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
3. Put the egg whites in a tupperware container, close it. Put the container in the freezer. Leave it there until the egg whites are a little bit frozen on the edges. This can take from 15-50 minutes. You should check every 5-10 minutes.
4. Beat the egg yolks with a hand mixer until they turn pale. Put a piece of saran wrap directly on the beaten yolk. Put the bowl in the fridge for later.
5. Mix the flour with the cornstarch. Sieve the mixture at least twice. Leave the flour in the sieve for later.
6. Put the sugar into a small bowl and leave it for later.
7. Take a baking pan but leave out the bottom. Put a cake-strip around the pan.
8. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet. Place the ring of the baking pan on top. Crush the edges of the parchment around the ring.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 155°C/310°F.
10. Prepare the flour, the sugar, the yolk and a timer for easy access.
11. Put the citric acid powder in a big bowl.
12. Add the egg whites.
13. Whip the egg whites manually. Preferably use a spiral whisk or a normal whisk, if you don't have one. It's important that you don't turn the bowl while you whip the eggs and you always have to beat in the same direction. Basically you have to repeat one hand movement the whole time.
14. After 10 minutes start gradually adding the sugar. Overall the egg whites should be whipped for 25 minutes.

15. Afterwards add the egg yolk.

16. Sieve half of the flour to the whipped egg whites. Fold them in carefully but quickly. Sieve in the remaining flour and fold it in too. Like with the egg whites you should not turn the bowl and fold in the same direction. Try to work quickly but always be careful.

17. Put the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top as good as you can.

18. Bake for 50-60 minutes. When you press the top carefully with a finger and it jumps back, the biscuit is finished.

19. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack and leave it to cool down completely.

20. Remove the parchment. Afterwards use a thin knife to carefully cut the biscuit out of the pan.

 

Raspberry Batter

1 2/3 cups raspberrys, frozen
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 tbsp lemon zest
2 egg whites
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt

1. Let the raspberrys thaw.
2. Press them through a sieve.
3. Grate the zest of the lemon.
4. Squeeze out the juice.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
6. Place baking parchement into the cake pan. Press it firmly to the edges. Try to make it as smooth as possible.
7. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together.
8. Pour the batter into the cake pan.
9. Bake it for 30-35 minutes.
10. Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool down on a cooling rack.
11. When the dough is completely cold, take it out of the pan. Don't yet detach the parchment.
12. Place it in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours.

Lemon Sauce

1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3 eggs
1 pinch salt

1. Grate the zest of the lemon.
2. Squeeze out the juice.
3. In a sauce pan combine the juice, the sugar, the egg yolk, the eggs and the salt.
4. On a waterbath bring the mixture to a boil. Stir constantly with a whisk. Cook it for 12-14 minutes.
5. Press the mixture through a fine sieve.
6. Add the lemon zest and mix it in.

Frosting 

250 g cream cheese
60 g butter, soft
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract

1. Whip the butter with a hand mixer until it's smooth.
2. Add the cream cheese and 1/4 of the icing sugar to the butter. Blend everything together with the hand mixer on medium speed.
3. While the hand mixer is still running add the remaining sugar and the extract.
4. Blend the frosting for another 4 minutes.

To Assemble

1. Cut the biscuit in half. Put the top half to the side for later.
2. Spread a little more than half of the lemon sauce on the biscuit.
3. Take the raspberry batter out of the fridge. Carefully detach the baking parchment from it.
4. Place it on the biscuit.
5. Spread about half of the remaining lemon sauce on it.
6. Place the cut of biscuit on top.
7. Spread the remainig lemon sauce on top.
8. Cover the whole cake with the frosting.
9. Decorating the cake with fondant is optional.

Bon appétit!!

Lemon Ginger Honey Tea

This april it's really warm. The sun is shining! The birds are singing! The flowers are blossoming! And I managed to catch a cold. Well done Julia!

All in all it's not that bad. The worst is the sore throat. Especially in the mornings. And this is where this sweet little elixir comes in. Sadly it's not a cure, but it does soothe the throat. And tastes great while doing it.

I'm not going to give you fixed quantities in this recipe. For one it's so simple that it's really not necessary. And for another you can mix it to your taste. Add more ginger if you want it spicier, more lemon for a sour tea and more of the honey if you have a sweet tooth.
By rule of thumb just use about the same amount of ginger and lemon and add the honey until all the gaps are filled.

I would recommend a stronger, darker honey. You wont be able to taste a more subtle honey, like acacia. If you have an older honey that's already crystallized, use it. It takes a little longer but it will dissolve after about a day in the mixture.

The only drawback here is that, if you consider the amount of ingredients that go in, you only get out a small volume of the actual tea. But it's still worth it.
When (not if, cause really there is no if) you decide, that you love this. You'll want to make more. But if you make so much, that it lasts for more than three days. You should sieve out the lemon and ginger pieces. The juice will keep for another two or three days in the fridge.

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Lemon Ginger Honey Tea

Ginger
Lemon (organic)
Honey
Jar

1. Peel the ginger. Cut it into thin slices.
2. Peel of the zest of the lemons. With organic lemons you can leave the zest. Just wash them beforehand with hot water and dab them dry.
3. Cut the lemons into thick slices. Quarter the slices.
4. Layer the honey, the ginger and the lemon. Make a few thin layers.
5. You should add enough honey to fill the gaps.
6. Place the jar in the fridge. Shake it every few hours.
7. The tea is ready after about a day or after the honey is dissolved.
8. Use a spoon to mash the lemons a little to squeeze out more the juice.
9. Pour one or two tablespoons into a tea cup. Fill it with hot water.
10. Enjoy!

Bon appétit!!

Easter Egg Mini-Cakes II

Last year the Easter Egg Mini-Cakes were a hit. So this year I wanted to make some more. Especially because I was planig to have breakfast with some of my friends the saturday before easter. They make great gifts. Especially for kids, I have it on good authority that they like them just as much as the adults.
First I was planing to bake 30 eggs, but then I had a closer look at the recipe and realised that it would be more advantageou s to make 40. 
It's a good thing that this time I could use a small drill to make the holes or I would have spend a few hours on that alone. I had this idea that I could drill perfect little holes into the shells. Of course that didn't work out. For smaller holes it worked great, but as soon as I tried to make them bigger, the shell started to break. In the end I had the same result as if I had just used a finger to make the hole bigger, just with more work.

At the begining of the year I made my own extracts. And the eggs were a perfect opportunity to try them out. I made four varieties. Lemon, lime, mandarine and mint. I also used vanilla extract, but it's store bought (for one it's cheaper, for another it's the only extract you can actually buy in a supermarket here in germany). It was kind of funny, cause after the baking the eggs were all mixed up and you always had to guess which flavor it is you were just eating. 

Sometimes I can't eat the things I baked. Mostly because of the smell during the baking. The kitchen had this buttery smell the hole time I was cooking. I was kind of sick of it after the three of four hours I had to smell it non-stop. I ate one that same evening to see how they looked on the inside and that was it for the next four days. But when I came back after easter I ate the six eggs I left at home (they broke while I was cleaning them after baking). They were absolutely delicious. Way better then the one straight out of the oven. 
That's why I would recommend to make them two or three days before you plan on eating them. Just don't store them in the fridge, the cold dough won't be as fluffy. Just put them in an airtight container. 

And one last pointer. Don't peel the hole shell of when you want to eat it. Just make the hole at the bottom a little bigger and than spoon it out. Just as you would do with a soft-boild egg.

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Easter Egg Mini-Cakes 

Cake Batter

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
150 g butter, soft
200 g sour cream
3 eggs

1. Sift the flour, the baking powder, the baking soda and salt together.
2. Blend the sugar and eggs with a hand mixer till the mass is pale and creamy.
3. Add the butter to the batter and blend it well.
4. Add the flour mixture and blend everything together.
5. Add the sour cream to the batter and blend it.
 

Cream Cheese Batter 

2 egg
360 g cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
yellow food coloring
red food coloring
7 tsp extract of your choice

1. Blend the egg, the cream cheese and the sugar with a hand mixer together.
2. Add the food coloring until the batter resembles egg yolk.
3. Add flavour of your choice. Mix in well.
 

To Assemble

40 eggs, hollowed
40 strips kitchen foil, ca. 10 cm wide

1. Carefully drill a small hole into the bottom of the eggs. Preferably use some kind of sharp metal skewer. Widen the hole with a corkscrew bottle opener or something similar. In the end the hole should have a diameter of about 2 cm.
2. Scoop out the eggs. A wooden skewer is rather helpful with that. You should save five of the eggs separately. Three for the cake batter and two for the cream cheese batter. The rest of the eggs can be put together and used for something else.
3. Wash the egg shells out with warm water.
4. Keep the egg shells for 30 minutes in salt water.
5. Rinse the egg shells with cold water. Place the shells with the opening down on some kitchen paper and leave them for at least 10 minutes.
6. Dry the shells in the microwave. Do it 3-6 times, for 12 seconds at a time. Open the door between each time.
7. Tear 40 strips of kitchen foil. They should be roughly 10 cm wide.
8. Crumple up the foil and put one each in the hollow of the muffin pan. It should be formed in such a way that the eggs can stand on their heads without falling.
9. Place the egg shells in the muffin pan with the hole facing upwards.
10. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
11. Put the cake batter into a piping bag.
12. Fill each egg to 1/5 with the cake batter.
13. Fill each egg to 2/5 with the cream cheese batter. The batter will be to fluid for a piping bag, so just carefully pour it with a spoon.
14. Fill each egg to 3/5 with the cake batter.
15. Bake the eggs for 20-25 minutes. During the baking some of the batter will flow out of the eggs. When the batter has a gold brown coloring it should be ready.
16. Let the muffin pan on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes. Afterwards take the eggs out of the pan and let them cool down to almost room temperature.
17. With a small knife carefully scrape the overflowed batter from the eggs. Don't cut all the batter at the hole of. Delicately wipe down the shells with a wet paper towel.
18. Color the eggs with an easter egg coloring which doesn't require for the eggs to be dipped in water or something similar.
19. When the color is dry cut of the rest of the overflowed batter or which has some color on it.

Tip: You will save time if you work with two muffin pans. You can prepare one while the over is in the oven. That way the second can go in immediatley when the first comes out.

Bon appétit!!

White Chicken Pizza

A while back I ate a pizza with a white sauce and I was delighted with it. Don't get me wrong I love "normal" pizza, with tomato sauce. But this was something new, something different. And as is mostly the case, I wanted to do it myself. I had some research to do, but as you can see I managed it in the end.

As regards to the taste it turned out a little Indian stlye, what with all the curry and masala. But it goes well with the red onions and the corn.

I have a huge cookbook full with Italian dishes. And I think I only cooked about 1% (but in my defence it's like 300 recipes and I have so many other cookbooks and lets not start with all the bookmarks I have saved on my laptop). So I thought before I create extra work for myself I just use the pizza dough in that book.
The end result was ok, but it didn't enthrall me. The fault does not necessarily lie with the recipe. I'm kind of at war with yeast. I just can't stay away from it even if more often then not the whole thing ends with frustration.
Or maybe I just want a dough that's as good as that of a stone-baked pizza. Yeah, good luck with that.

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White Chicken Pizza

Dough

10 g dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 pinch sugar
1 tsp salt
3-3 1/2 cups flour

1. Warm a bowl by swirling some hot water in it. Drain it again afterwards.
2. Put the yeast in the bowl. Pour the water in.
3. Add the sugar and use a fork to stir it in.
4. Put the bowl aside for 5-10 minutes, until the yeast starts to foam.
5. With a wooden spoon mix in the salt and about 1/3 of the flour.
6. Add another 1/3 of the flour. Mix with the spoon until the dough starts to form a mass and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
7. Sprinkle some of the flour on a smooth surface. Place the dough on it and start kneading.
8. Add a little of the flour at a time and work it in.
9. After kneading the flour for 8-10 minutes the dough should be smooth and elastic. Form the dough to a ball.
10. Lightly oil a bowl and place the dough into the bowl.
11. Dampen a clean towel and wring it out. Stretch it over the bowl.
12. Leave the bowl in a warm place for about 40-50 minutes. The dough should have doubled in volume. To test wether the dough is ready, poke two fingers into it. If the indentations remain your good to go. Make sure the place is not to hot, no more than 37°C/100°F.
13. Use your fist to punch out the air out of the dough. Afterwards knead the dough for 1-2 minutes.
14. Place baking parchment on a baking sheet. Oil it lightly.
15. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin.
16. Transfer the dough onto the baking sheet.
17. Press some of the dough from the middle towards the edge, to make a thicker rim.

Topping

1 red onion
125 g mozzarella
1/2 cup corn
300 g chicken breast fillet
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp curry
1/8 tsp masala
1 tbsp olive oil

1. Peel the onion. Cut it in half lengthwise, then cut the two halves into thin slices.
2. Grate the mozzarella.
3. Use a colander to drain the corn.
4. Cut the chicken into thin short stripes.
5. Season with salt, pepper, curry and masala.
6. Heat the oil in a frying pan.
7. Fry the chicken stripes in it. It should be done but only just. Or it will be too dry after it gets out of the oven.

Sauce

2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup parmesan
30 g butter
3 tbsp flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp curry
1 tsp masala

1. Peel the gralic. Mince it afterwards.
2. Grate the parmesan.
3. Let the butter melt in a sauce pan by medium heat.
4. Add flour and whisk it in until there are no more lumps.
5. Gradually add the milk. Whisk constantly.
6. Mix in garlic, salt, pepper, curry and masala.
7. Add the parmesan. Whisk it in until it's melted.
8. Take the pan of the stove. Let it cool down a little so it will thicken.

To Assemble

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250°C/480°F.
2. Spread the still warm sauce evenly on the dough.
3. Scatter the onions, the corn and the chicken on top.
4. Cover everything with the mozzarella.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Bon appétit!!

Vegetable Noodle Soup Italian Style

I think this is my favorite summer soup. For one it tastes great, so italian, for another the most important ingredients, the zucchini and tomatoes, grow in my parents garden.

The original recipe is in german. The webside LECKER.de is one of my favorite german cooking and recipe sides. They have lots of tasty dishes. When I need a recipe for one ingredient this is one of the websides I consult.

I made it a few times over the summer. It's pretty easy to make. And even if you don't follow the recipe to closely it still tastes great.

It tastes best with bread, the chesse muffins for example, and some crème fraîche.

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Vegetable Noodle Soup Italian Style

3 onions
2 garlic cloves
2 carrots
1 zucchini
2 beef tomatoes or bulls heart tomatoes
180 g pasta, small
2 tbsp tomato paste
1,5 l vegetable broth
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 bunch of parsley
4 tsp thyme, dry
salt
pepper

1. Skin the onions and garlic cloves.
2. Mince the garlic.
3. Cube the onions.
4. Peel the carrots. Cut them into 3-4 mm thick slices.
5. Wash and dry the zucchini and the tomatoes.
6. Cut the zucchini into 5-6 mm thick slices. Quarter the slices.
7. Cut the tomatoes into rather big cubes.
8. Heat the oil in a big sauce pan.
9. Braise the onions and the garlic in it until the onions turn translucent.
10. Add the carrots and the zucchini and braise them for about 8 minutes.
11. Add the tomato paste and let it sweat a little.
12. Add the tomatoes and mix them in.
13. Add the vegetable broth and bring it to a boil.
14. Add the pasta.
15. Let the soup boil at a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
16. In the mean time chop the parsley.
17. Add the parsley and the thyme at the end.
18. Season with salt and pepper.
 

Bon appétit!!

Blueberry Biscuit Cake

In Wiesbaden you can find the gorgeous Café Maldaner. I absolutely love it. Not only the delicious cakes but also the atmosphere. It's more than worth a visit.

One of my favorite cakes is the Blueberry Biscuit Cake. I liked it so much that I wanted to make one myself. I already had a tasty biscuit recipe from my aunt. So I only needed the blueberry topping. It wasn't so easy to find one. Somewhere along the way I stumbled over these recipe. It came pretty close to what I was looking for.

The recipe works with fresh or frozen berrys. The first time I tried it out it was summer so I made it with fresh blueberrys. It was for my aunts birthday. Everything worked how I planed it. The taste is of course not exactly like the one from Café Maldaner. But it's still delicious.
I changed the recipe a little bit after the first try. For one I made more of the topping. That way there is a better balance between the biscuit and the blueberrys. For another I left out the shortcrust. It was too sweet for my taste.

On the second try I made it with frozen blueberrys. At first I used the same, already changed, recipe. But while cooking the topping I realized that it was too runny and wouldn't firm up. I had to add more cornstarch and cook it again. But it was worth it. It held perfectly when I took of the cake ring the next day.

The fresh and frozen berrys aren't interchangeable. The result is pretty different. In taste and appearance.
And I got to say the frozen blueberrys were pricier than the fresh. But you only get fresh berrys in the summer while you can buy frozen blueberrys all year round.

All in all I liked both variations.
Maybe next time I try it with raspberrys or a berry-mix.

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Blueberry Biscuit Cake

Biscuit

150 g flour
38 g cornstarch
188 g sugar
315 g eggs (with shell)
1 pinch citric acid powder

1. Weigh the eggs with the shell. Try to come as close to the intended weight as you can. That works best with a mix of medium and large sized eggs.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
3. Put the egg whites in a tupperware container, close it. Put the container in the freezer. Leave it there until the egg whites are a little bit frozen on the edges. This can take from 15-50 minutes. You should check every 5-10 minutes.
4. Beat the egg yolks with a hand mixer until they turn pale. Put a piece of saran wrap directly on the beaten yolk. Put the bowl in the fridge for later.
5. Mix the flour with the cornstarch. Sieve the mixture at least twice. Leave the flour in the sieve for later.
6. Put the sugar into a small bowl and leave it for later.
7. Take a baking pan but leave out the bottom. Put a cake-strip around the pan.
8. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet. Place the ring of the baking pan on top. Crush the edges of the parchment around the ring.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 155°C/310°F.
10. Prepare the flour, the sugar, the yolk and a timer for easy access.
11. Put the citric acid powder in a big bowl.
12. Add the egg whites.
13. Whip the egg whites manually. Preferably use a spiral whisk or a normal whisk, if you don't have one. It's important that you don't turn the bowl while you whip the eggs and you always have to beat in the same direction. Basically you have to repeat one hand movement the whole time.
14. After 10 minutes start gradually adding the sugar. Overall the egg whites should be whipped for 25 minutes.

15. Afterwards add the egg yolk.

16. Sieve half of the flour to the whipped egg whites. Fold them in carefully but quickly. Sieve in the remaining flour and fold it in too. Like with the egg whites you should not turn the bowl and fold in the same direction. Try to work quickly but always be careful.

17. Put the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top as good as you can.

18. Bake for 50-60 minutes. When you press the top carefully with a finger and it jumps back, the biscuit is finished.

19. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack and leave it to cool down completely.

20. Remove the parchment. Afterwards use a thin knife to carefully cut the biscuit out of the pan.

Blueberry Topping

Fresh Blueberrys

1,1 kg blueberrys, fresh
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
4 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
21 g butter

1. Wash the blueberrys.
2. Put 1 1/2 cups of the blueberrys, the sugar, the cornstarch and the water into a medium sized sauce pan. Carefully, so you don't squish the blueberrys, mix everything together.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Boil it for about 2 minutes while constantly stirring. It will become thicker.
5. Add the butter and the lemon juice and stir them in.
6. Take the pan of the stove. Leave it to cool down a little until it's just warm. It takes about 30-40 minutes.
7. Add the remaining blueberrys and cautiously stir them in.

Frozen Blueberrys

1 kg blueberrys, frozen
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
5 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
21 g butter

1. Put the blueberrys in a colander and let them thaw. It works best if the berrys thaw in the fridge over night.
2. Put 1 1/2 cups of the blueberrys, the sugar, the cornstarch and the water into a medium sized sauce pan. Carefully, so you don't squish the blueberrys, mix everything together.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Boil it for about 2 minutes while constantly stirring. It will become thicker.
5. Add the butter and the lemon juice and stir them in.
6. Take the pan of the stove. Leave it to cool down a little until it's just warm. It takes about 30-40 minutes.
7. Add the remaining blueberrys and cautiously stir them in.

To Assemble

1. Cut of a bit of the biscuit to level the top.
2. Put the biscuit on a serving plate.
3. Put a cake ring around the biscuit. Make sure it's as tight as it goes.
4. Pour the blueberry topping on it. Smooth out the top.
5. Leave the cake in the fridge until the topping becomes solid. Best would be over night.
6. Carefully release the cake ring.

Bon appétit!!

Lemon Thumbprints

The original recipe is for Orange Thumbprints. But when I went to buy the ingredints the oranges didn't look so good but the lemons were great. So I took them instead. I was pretty satisfied with the end result.
Other then the Orange Thumbprints the filling for the Lemon Thumbprints is a lot paler.
I found the filling a little dull. So I changed the recipe to intensify the lemon taste and make it a little sourer.
The cookies were good when they were fresh but I liked them a lot more the next day. So it's a good recipe to make beforehand.

When I was visiting my family I made them the Orange Thumbprints. Mostly because they had some oranges lying around and all the other ingredients are of the kind that you always have at home. I started rather late and then I stalled for longer and longer to finish the cookies, until it was almost evening. And I really wasn't in the mood anymore. So I finished them the next morning. The dough was still great. 

I liked both the Orange and the Lemon Thumbprints. I want to try it with limes next time, see how that works out.

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Lemon Thumbprints

Dough

225 g butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks size L, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt

1. Mix the butter and the sugar with a hand mixer until it's light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg yolks and the vanilla extract and mix it for about 1 minute.
3. Slowly add the flour and the salt. Mix the batter until it is entirely incorporated.
4. Form the dough into a 1-2 cm thick square sheet and wrap it in plastic wrap.
5. Store the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour. The dough can stay there for up to 24 hours.

Filling

1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 egg size L, room temperature
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp lemon extract, optional
1 pinch citric acid, optional

1. Whisk the egg with a fork.
2. Add the sugar and flour and whisk everything together.
3. Add the lemon zest, the juice, the salt and possibly the lemon extract and citric acid. Whisk it all together.

To Assemble

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
2. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet.
3. Take the dough out of the fridge. Cut it into even squares, each should be the size of about 2 tsp dough.
4. Form balls out of the squares. Place them on the baking sheet, leave about 2 cm between the balls.
5. Use the end of the handle of a wooden spoon or something similar, it should be round and flat, and carefully press it into the dough balls to make small wells. Try not to break the sides, better to leave them a little shallow.
6. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes.
7. Use the spoon again to make the wells deeper.
8. Carefully fill the wells to the top.
9. Bake the cookies for another 10 minutes, the edges should be a light brown.
10. Leave the cookies on a cooling rack to cool down.

Bon appétit!!