Manna 

Mini shortcrust pastry. Cooking sand cakes

The strawberry season is in full swing, which means that you need to fill up on strawberries for the year ahead: first, raw, and when you get bored, you can take something delicious from it 😉 . In my opinion, there are never too many good pastries, so today we have mini strawberry biscuits. In fact, strawberries with shortcrust pastry are an absolutely win-win option, I was convinced of this by example Yes, the word “biscuit” does not sound so appetizing, but in our case, a biscuit is a crumbly almond-shortcake dough with a subtle, barely perceptible aroma cinnamon and sweet and sour strawberry core. And with a scoop of soft, cold vanilla ice cream, it's mind-blowing and incomparably delicious! So I recommend that you replenish your ice cream supplies and immediately prepare a double portion of these mini-strawberry biscuits. I guarantee it will be delicious!



We will need for 8 mini-biscuits:

for the test:

  • almonds - 40 g
  • flour - 65 g + 2-3 tbsp. for dusting
  • sugar - 1 tsp
  • salt - 1/4 tsp
  • ground cinnamon - 1 pinch
  • butter - 55 g
  • water (ice) - 2-3 tbsp.

For filling:

  • fresh strawberries - 200 g
  • corn starch - 2 tsp
  • sugar - 1 tbsp.
  • milk or cream for greasing the mini biscuits
  • sugar - 1-1.5 tbsp. for sprinkling
  • vanilla ice cream for serving (optional)

How to make dough for strawberry biscuits

In a blender bowl (or with a chef's knife on a cutting board), coarsely chop 40 g of almonds.

Add to the bowl to the chopped almonds 65 g flour, 1 tsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 pinch of ground cinnamon and 55 g of chilled (but not frozen!) Butter, previously chopped into cubes.

We turn on the blender at full power and grind the butter with flour and nuts into small crumbs.

If you are not using a blender, butter with nuts, flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon should be chopped into crumbs on a cutting board with a large chef's knife. Then form a slide from the resulting crumb, make a recess in it and pour 2-3 tablespoons into it. ice water. Knead the dough.


Divide the finished dough into 8 equal parts, roll them into balls, lay them out at a distance from each other on a pre-spread cling film, then cover the dough with a second layer of cling film and press each dough ball with the palm of your hand, forming small cakes. Fold the cakes in half and refrigerate for 1 hour.

How to prepare the stuffing for biscuits:

Wash 200 g of strawberries, remove the sepals, cut the berries into 4-6 parts and put them in a small deep bowl.


Add to the berries 2 tsp. cornstarch and 1 tbsp. sugar, mix gently.


Preparing mini biscuits:

On a cutting board or countertop slightly dusted with flour, roll out the dough cake into a thin layer, put a saucer on it (I have a diameter of 11 cm), circle it with a knife and remove the trimmings.


Gently transfer the circle of dough to a baking sheet previously lined with baking paper, spread about 2 tsp in the center. fillings and wrap the edges of the dough.

Sand cakes "Snow peaks"

Delicious, beautiful cakes, crumbly shortbread dough, delicious currants with sugar and tender meringue! Thanks to the meringue, the surface of the cakes seems to be covered with snow, so the pastries will look great on the New Year's table! And not only for the New Year, you can bake such a delicacy: just for evening tea, it will also come in handy. Such shortcakes can be made not only with currants, but also with other jams - for example, apple or apricot jam, gooseberry or strawberry jam, and even with cottage cheese.


In fact, in our family, such cakes are called unpretentiously - "false cakes", I don’t know why, but I remember this name from childhood. The poetic name "Snowy Peaks" unexpectedly came up today. In the morning I was just about to put this recipe on the site, opened the photo, and then my husband comes out and asks: "What are these mountains in the snow?" I say: yes, these are cakes! "Yes," he replies, "and I thought it was some kind of landscape..." 😀



Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour (about 260g);
  • 250 g butter;
  • 0.5 teaspoon of soda (quench with vinegar);
  • a glass of blackcurrant, mashed with sugar;
  • 1 egg white;
  • 0.5 cups of sugar.

How to bake:

We prepare shortcrust pastry for the cake according to my favorite recipe: knead the flour and softened margarine to crumbs with our hands, extinguish the soda and continue to knead until a lump of dough is obtained.



Pinch off pieces from a lump, knead them with your fingers on a baking sheet to make a cake of "patches" about 0.5 cm thick.

We bake the cake almost until ready at 220C, over medium heat - about 20-25 minutes.

While it is baking, prepare the meringue by beating the egg white with sugar with a mixer until a thick white foam.

When the cake becomes golden in color, we take out a baking sheet and spread the cake with a layer of currant jam, and on top of the currant - meringue.



Put the cake back in the oven for 5 minutes, increasing the heat so that the meringue is browned and crispy on top.



Cool the cake on a baking sheet and cut into squares.



We shift the cakes to a dish and enjoy the delicate taste!



I love and often cook shortbread cookies and pies from shortcrust pastry. Traditionally, margarine or butter is used for their preparation. The latter I respect and, moreover, love. But if you often cook on it, it will be greasy (in every sense of the word). A lot has already been said about margarine and spreads, but I consider it worth recalling that the transgenic fats they contain lead to an increase in the level of "bad" cholesterol in the blood, disrupt the normal functioning of cell membranes, contribute to the development of vascular diseases, etc. Therefore, I completely excluded these "products" from my kitchen. And now I make shortcrust pastry in vegetable oil. Completely safe, tasty and healthy. And what is important, even cheaper and faster than with margarine! And a couple of words about margarine. Margarine drinkers are more likely to develop angina, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and heart failure. It was invented in France to feed the army and the poor - a cheap product for sandwiches and fries. All this happened at the end of the century before last, people had different ideas about food and life. I want to warn you that products made from this dough are A LOT harder than those made from margarine or butter, but is it worth ruining your blood vessels for the sake of a small difference ???

Add softened butter, mix a little, then put it on the table and knead the dough (for 3-4 minutes), it should gather well into a ball, be soft, slightly sticky to your hands.

Wrap the dough in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Then take out the dough. Spread parchment on a work surface, lightly sprinkle with flour and roll out the dough on it into a rectangle the size of a standard gas baking sheet, up to 3-4 mm thick. Cut the dough into two equal parts and, together with parchment, transfer to a baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes until slightly golden.

In the meantime, lightly heat the apple jam to make it easier to spread on the cake. Get ready-made sand cakes, put them on the table along with parchment. Lubricate the surface of one evenly with jam and leave to cool. Then cover the cake with jam with the second cake and press lightly.

Cooking fondant: Melt butter and cool. Beat the protein with a pinch of salt until light foam (no need for stable peaks!).

Then, without ceasing to beat, add powdered sugar in parts. Beat until shiny.

At the end of whipping, add lemon juice, mix thoroughly.

Add butter, beat lightly.

That's it, the sweet is ready!

Then cut the large "cake" with a hot knife into portioned cakes - stripes (after each cut, wipe or wash the knife thoroughly).

Cakes "Sand strips" are delicious served with cold milk, tea, coffee or cocoa.

Enjoy your meal!

Nowadays, market stalls are full of a wide range of confectionery products. But how can any pastry be compared with the one prepared at home, with your own hands? And what an aroma the house is filled with when something tasty and sweet is baked in the oven! It wraps you like a blanket and you feel warm and cozy.

Today we offer to please our relatives and prepare shortbread cakes for them.

Universal shortbread recipe

Ingredients:

  • flour - 300 g;
  • margarine - 210 g;
  • powdered sugar - 115 g;
  • egg yolks - 2 pcs.;
  • egg - 1 pc. (for lubrication of the form);
  • sour cream - 1-2 tbsp. spoons
  • vanillin;
  • salt;
  • ground walnuts - 110 g;
  • sugar - 35 g (for sprinkling).

Cooking

Add the softened margarine to the sifted flour and grind it into small pieces so that they are almost not felt by the fingers in the flour. Add powdered sugar, stir with flour and margarine, make a hole in the center of the mixture, put egg yolks, sour cream, vanillin into it, salt and knead the dough with your hands so that all the ingredients are combined into one whole.

Form the dough into a ball and place in the refrigerator to chill. Then generously sprinkle the table with flour and roll out the dough with a thickness of 5-7 mm. Cut out circles using a thin glass. Using a spatula, arrange the circles of dough on a baking sheet. Lubricate each circle of dough with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar and nuts. Bake in a preheated oven at 210 degrees until their color is light golden.

Since this recipe is universal, you can use any topping and icing.

Sand cake with jam

Shortcrust pastry cake always reminds the taste of childhood. But we can plunge into it completely if we make a treat with jam.

Ingredients:

  • flour (highest grade) - 600 g;
  • butter - 320 g;
  • sugar - 280 g;
  • eggs - 2 pcs.;
  • baking powder;
  • salt;
  • vanilla sugar;
  • (from apples or plums) - 330-350 g.

Cooking

We take out the butter from the refrigerator and cut it into pieces, and then twist it through a fine sieve into a convenient bowl to knead the dough. Here we sift the flour together with the baking powder and mix thoroughly with the oil. Beat in eggs, followed by sugar and salt. Knead the dense dough with quick movements of the hands. We put in the cold for 40 minutes. Then we divide the dough in two and roll it out in layers of 7-8 mm. We move them to baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes at 230 degrees. We cut the finished bases on all sides. We smear them with jam and put them on top of each other. Top cake with jam, sprinkle with crumbs from scraps. Now we cut everything into equal cakes.

Sand cake with icing

Ingredients:

For test:

  • flour - 850 g;
  • margarine or spread - 420 g;
  • chicken eggs - 4 pcs.;
  • sugar - 650 g;
  • soda - 1.5 teaspoons;
  • vinegar - 1.5 teaspoons;
  • milk - 50 ml;

For filling:

  • jam (any) - 250 g;

For glaze:

  • warm water - 250 ml;
  • sugar - 375 g;
  • citric acid - 0.5 tsp;
  • food coloring.

Cooking

Soft margarine, beat at medium speed with a mixer. Continuing to beat, add: eggs, sugar, slaked soda, milk. Putting the mixer aside, pour the flour into this bowl and quickly knead the dough, immediately sending it to cool. We roll out the cold dough and cut it into triangles, if there are molds of other figures, then use them. We bake the resulting figures in the oven cabinet 18-20 minutes at 180 degrees.

While everything is cooling, make the frosting. Pour warm water into a metal bowl and pour granulated sugar. We put the container on the stove, and so as not to burn, stir constantly. As soon as the syrup begins to thicken, we introduce the dye and citric acid. After holding on fire for a couple more minutes, set aside.

Spread half of the sand triangles with jam and combine with empty shortcakes, and pour glaze on top.

Children will like these cakes the most, especially if you use