[Ad – This post is in collaboration with Joseph Joseph]
For us, this time of year always involves way too much eating and drinking. With all the Christmas markets and loads of new and delicious German food and drink to try this year is turning out to be particularly naughty (we’d better join a gym here in Berlin soon!).
As if we weren’t already indulging in enough calorific treats one thing that we also try to do around this time of year is some festive baking.
I totally admit that I’m not the best cook or baker but I do love a good kitchen gadget and I totally think having the right tools for any job is the secret to success (both in DIY and cooking/baking) so I was over the moon when the lovely guys over at Joseph Joseph sent us some great tools to help me perfect improve my baking.
We’re huge fans of Joseph Joseph (we already own loads of their products) and our fab new adjustable rolling pin, pastry mat, bowl scraper and grater do not disappoint!
As so often, it’s the little extra touches that make all the difference!
The rolling pin, for instance, has disks that you can adjust so that you can roll out your pastry to an exact and even thickness (from 10mm to 2mm). It also has etched measurements along the pin itself to help you roll out your dough to a certain size.
The bowl scraper has an edge that means you can stand it without getting pastry gunk all over your worktop. So clever!
This year we also had a bit more fun with the biscuits and treated ourselves to some fun new cookie cutters. Can you guess what they are?
Yep, they’re all Berlin-themed! Okay, so it may not be the biggest surprise ever but I just couldn’t resist. The biggest surprise is that these are probably the best biscuits I’ve ever made!
And because they were so good, I’ll even make an exception and share the recipe with you!
Mix 150g icing sugar and 3 large egg yolks together till creamy. In a separate bowl mix 300g plain flour, 150g butter (unsalted) and ½ tsp salt together until crumbly. Then mix both together and add the zest of a lemon and ½ tsp of vanilla bean paste. Wrap and cool for half an hour or so in the fridge before rolling out and cutting.
We baked ours at 150°C for about 5-6 minutes (but the time will depend on the size and thickness of your biscuits).
It’s almost too easy to call a recipe but they tasted great that we just had to share!
As well as being able to roll everything out really even with the adjustable rolling pin which I’m sure is the secret to getting an even bake, I love that the silicone mat makes it really easy to remove the cutout biscuits without breaking them. I don’t know if it’s just me but before using the mat I always used to end up with them sticking the kitchen worktop.
As you can tell we love our fab new kitchen gadgets and if you’re looking for any last minute Christmas gifts any of these would definitely make great presents.
Do you do any festive baking around this time of year? Do you love the Joseph Joseph products as much as we do? What’s your favourite festive treat (mine is a Germknödel!)?
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