Carrot-cashew biscuits

What shall I make to a vegetarian British?

A recept magyar nyelven itt érhető el.

The biscuits!

I’ve lived here in Helsinki for a while, but I didn’t meet yet with Peter’s friend, Neil. If they met with each other to drink a couple of beer, I always excused myself, because I don’t like to interrupt a “men-talk”. At this time Neil invited us to his place, where I had to go and I wanted to go, too!

How could I surprise a Scottish man, who is actually vegetarian, too? Of course… biscuit, but a special one! Is he vegetarian? Than I have to make something with vegetables! The chosen recipe was a carrot-cashew biscuit from the cookbook (66 Xmas cake) of Mari Lajos. I modified this recipe based on my own ideas, but you can find the original recipe HERE (in Hungarian language). A already made the original recipe, but somehow I didn’t find it good. Well, everybody thinks our own version is the best! J

Ingredients:

70 g cashew                                                                        1 pinch salt

50 g nut                                                                               1 teaspoon of baking powder

150 g carrot                                                                        1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

300 g flour                                                                          1 teaspoon rum aroma

150 g butter                                                                        1 teaspone of ground clove

90 g sugar                                                                           2 heaped teaspone of groundcinnamon

1 egg yolk                                                                            1 pinch nutmeg

200 g dark chocolate (70%)                                       zest of 1 lemon

50 g white chocolate                                                     zest of 1 orange and liquid of half orange

Preparation:

It’s worth to put out the butter from the fridge, it will be easier to crumble the butter with flour and the breading will be faster, too. I cleaned and chopped the carrot, than simmered it in salt-free water. I let it cool down, than I mashed it with a fork. The cashews and nuts were toasted in the oven for 5-5 minutes and then I removed the skin of the nuts by shaking in a tea towel. The toasted seeds were minced with a quern, than I minced it again with a coffee-mill fine-grain the seeds. I washed the orange and lemon with dish soap under hot water!

Making the pastry:

I mixed the dry commodities (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and spices) in a bigger bowl, than I crumbled it with butter. I added the orange and lemon peels, orange juice, vanilla and rum aroma, mashed carrot and egg yolk to the mass. I kneaded the pastry with fast movements; it was very soft and sticky at this time so I covered the surface of pastry just with a thin flour layer, but I didn’t mix more flour to the pastry. I put the pastry in a plastic bag to the fridge for a night to mature the flavours.

The pastry.

 Baking:

 Next morning I devided the pastry to 3 parts, than I rolled it out with a rolling- pin for 2-3 mm thick. I always work with a smaller piece of pastry and I let the rest of it in the fridge, because it is a very soft. Small heart pieces were jagged with a mold, than the hearts were baked in the oven for 10-12 minutes on 170°C-on. They became gold brown in the end, but they never dark brown! When I got them out from the oven they were soft; 10 minutes later they were hard, but they become one day later soft again. Approx. 70 pieces can be formed from this quantity of pastry.

Melted chocolate.

Decoration:

I melted the dark chocolate over stem, it was enough to heat the liquid chocolate til 40°C. The 1/3 part of the biscuits were dipped into the melted chocolate, than I removed the extra choco  from the biscuits drawing them off on the edge of bowl. I put them to silicon greaseproof paper and let them dry. While they were drying I melted the white chocolate and spilled into a plastic bag and I chopped off one angle previously. I drew lines with the white chocolate on the biscuits. I let it flow to the paper, too. You don’t worry about the extra chocolate covering on the silicon greaseproof paper, it can be removed if it’s dry.

Decoration.

I put the ready biscuits into a closed metal box and I give them to Neil only the following day, they become soft and delicious by than!

Possible errors:

The seeds have to be toasted at all events, because the taste of cashew and nut will be much more intense! Omiting the toasting is a huge mistake, because the taste of our biscuit will be totally different! Grinding the seeds perfect crumbly is not so important. I like it, when my pastry is homogenous, so I made creamy carrot puree, too. I used a fork to do it, but it can be made by a hand blender.

A biscuit will be limp, if it contains lots of butter or/and it has high moisture. You shall not frighten, when the pastry is soft and sticky. You must not mix more flour to the pastry; you have to cover only the surface of pastry with a thin layer of flour! You have to cover the rolling-pin and board with flour during the stretching. You also have to work with this soft pastry very carefully and it has to be kept in a fridge under the whole process!

In summary, I was really happy to make this recipe in this form finally! This cookie is perfect besides drinking an afternoon coffee or as a visiting gift! J

The hearts!