Chocolate Pear Turnover

A friend and I were baking cookies. I wanted something special. So I looked through my whole online bookmarks regarding Cookies. It's a long list. And I found these.
These cookies are really prestigious. And they taste great.

Some of the dough was left over. I just made some medallions. They were tasty too. Simple but still good. Because of the cacao the dough is really dark, in taste and color. As soon as I find a good filling I will make my own Oreos with these recipe.

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Chocolate Pear Turnover

Dough

125 g butter, room temperature
200 g flour
50 g cacao
1 egg
125 g sugar

1.  Use a fork to "cream" the butter.
2. Add the flour and the cacao and blend everything with your hands until it's crumbly.
3. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and the sugar. Use your hands to blend the dough until it's smooth.
4. Form a Ball out of the dough and wrap it with plastic wrap. Put it for at least one hour in the fridge.

Filling

400 g pears
1/4 cup water
20 g hazelnuts, ground

1. Peal and core the pears. Afterwards cut them into small cubes.
2. Put the pears with the water in small sauce pan and bring it to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat to low. Cover the pan with a lid and leave it to simmer for about 1 hour. Stir occasionlly.
4. Take of the lid in the last 15-20 minutes. So the water can vaporize.
5. Heat a skillet and toast the hazelnuts in it for about 2-3 minutes.
6. Use an immersion blender to blend the pears.
7. Press the pear mash through a fine sieve. You need about 125 g.
8. Add the hazelnuts and blend everything together with a fork.

To Assemble

1 Egg

1. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet.
2. Unwrap the dough. Roll it out on lightly floured surface.
3. Cut out circles with a 8-10 cm big diameter.
4. Put about 2 tsp pear mash on the circles and fold them to half moons. Use your fingers to squeeze the edges together. If some dough is left over, form small medallions.
5. Place the turnovers on the baking sheet.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
7. Whisk the egg in a small bowl.
8. Brush the cookies with the egg wash.
9. Bake the turnover for about 15 minutes.
10. Leave the cookies on a cooling rack to cool down.

Bon appétit!!

Samosas with Shrimp Filling

It's been awhile since my last post. The last few months I was to lazy to write down the recipes and to edit the photos. At least I kept up with the photographing, so there is a great deal of material.
And now I try to work through my backlog. There is a lot to come.

I have this recipe from a magazine and it just took me a few years to actually try it out.

All in all I'm lease call pinit.js only once per page --> not really a big fan of the filling. The mint taste was just to much for me. And I'm unsure about the chickpeas. I never tried them before. They smell strange.

But I positively love the dough. Easy to make and tastes great. I already have some ideas for other fillings I could try out.

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Samosas with Shrimps

Dough

300 g flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
6 g dry yeast
1 tbsp oil
3/4 cup cold water

1. Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl.
2. Use dough hooks on the hand mixer and mix everything for about 5 minutes.
3. Shape the dough to a ball, put it back in the bowl and sprinkle it with a little flour.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a clean towel.
5. Let the dough raise for 6-7 hours.

Filling

100 g cauliflower
1 scallion
3 tbsp sesame
120 g shrimps
1 bunch of parsley
3 leafs of mint
2 garlic cloves
1/2 lemon
100 g cooked chickpeas, tin
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp pepper

1. Clean the cauliflower and cut it into really small florets.
2. Boil some water in a sauce pan and cook the cauliflower in it for about 2 minutes.
3. Pour it in a colander and leave it for later.
4. Toast the sesame without oil in a frying pan.
5. Wash and dry the shrimps and cut them into small pieces.
6. Mince the parsley and the mint.
7. Strip the garlic and it chop into rough pieces.
8. Squeeze the lemon and collect the juice.
9. Wash and dry the scallion and slice it into thin rings.
10. Put the chickpeas, the garlic, the oil, the lemon juice and 2 tbsp water in a bowl and blend it together.
11. Season the mash with the salt, the pepper flakes, the cumin and the pepper.
12. Add the sesame, the cauliflower, the shrimps, the scallion and the herbs and mix everything together.

To Assemble

1. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet. Slide the sheet in the middle rail of the oven and another sheet in the bottom rail. Pre-heat the oven with the sheets to 240°C/465°F.
2. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until it's about 5 mm thin.
3. Cut the dough into squares with a side length of about 12 cm.
4. Put about 1 tbsp of the filling on the squares.
5. Brush some water along the edge of the squares and fold them into triangles. Squeeze the edge shut with a fork.
6. Prepare 1/3 cup of water.
7. Take out the hot baking sheet with the baking parchment and put the turnovers on it.
8. Put the sheet back into the oven.
9. Take the water and carefully tip it onto the sheet at the bottom. Close the oven door as quickly as you can, so the steam doesn't escape.
10. Bake it for 12-15 minutes.
11. Put the turnovers on a cooling rack for a few minutes.

Bon appétit!!