Orange Almond Slices

Apelsinsnittar.  

Say that three times fast.  Actually, I don't think I could even say it once.  You'd almost think these cookies had apples in them, but it's quite the opposite as they are composed mostly of almonds with orange and ginger for additional flavours.

Earlier when I looked at the recipe to make sure I had all the ingredients I noticed that again I was being forced to separate the eggs.  Why do I do this to myself?  This time though the white is not beaten nor folded into anything else so I thought I'd be fine and reminded myself to really pay attention and make sure I got every step.

The basis for the cookie is somewhat like a shortbread.  The recipe can be found on another blog ( Fike Cookbook Review ) which also gives a review of the Fika cookbook.  I went googling this time to find out what apelsinsnittar are supposed to look like.  I know what mine look like but what are they actually supposed to be?  This is the only downside to this cookbook because it has illustrations and I've found I'm not sure if what I've made is actually what it's supposed to be.  Hubby says I should concern myself with flavour and not looks.  That doesn't sound very Fika to me.  The only exception to the missing picture ordeal has been the vettebullar and that's because I had a pretty firm grasp on what a cinnamon bun is.  *smile* 

The dough itself was easy to make.  No issues there.  Once done I popped it into the fridge just as I would Mom's sugar cookie recipe.  The next step was to turn on the oven and as I've mentioned previously my oven is hotter than most so to be extra careful this time I used the thermometer to properly set the stove.  Everything I make tends to be over cooked.  Ugh.  Next up is the filling.

Duhn.  Duhn.  Duhn.

Hopefully Mom doesn't see this & want her processor back!

In my Mothers food processor...you see I borrowed it approximately 20 years ago and never gave it back...You process the blanched almonds, cane sugar, and almond extract "until it comes together" BUT "it could be smooth or it could be sticky depending on the almonds."  Oh thanks!  Because that's clear.  *eyeroll*  I ran the processor until Hubby came to inquire as to what the racket was and still it didn't seem like it was "coming together".  So I did it some more until it kind of seemed like it might have at least formed an alliance.  I added the egg white and orange zest and it smelled pretty good and when I stuck my finger in it I'll admit it tasted pretty good too.

Rolling the dough was easy and I did it between two sheets of plastic wrap as it advised.  My biggest weakness as I've come to discover is rolling things into shapes.  Each quarter of dough was supposed to be in a rectangle of a certain size.  Mine ended up being more ovular, if that's a word.  Also the 'logs' I was supposed to construct varied in length.  Good thing I wasn't building something important here.

On the centre of each oval a scoop of almond paste was portioned out.  Wait.  Almond paste?  Is that what that was supposed to be in the food processor?  Okay, isn't almond paste the white stuff that goes on the top of Christmas fruitcakes?  THAT is not what this looks like at all.  But I forage ahead.

Logs made and into the oven they go.

They smelled good.

😕Not very log shaped 🙈

So then they got put on the kitchen cupboard until they were cooled enough to glaze with the orange juice and icing sugar.  I used an actual glass juicer from my hall china cabinet.  It reminded me of being a kid and squeezing oranges for breakfast on the weekends.  Each log was supposed to be cut into 12 cookies but I just cut them into what I thought were a good cookie size.  I'm pretty sure I didn't get 48 like the cookbooks says, but meh, who cares right?  I'm on an adventure of baking here and not everything is going to go as it should.  We found that out last week!  On inspection the 'almond paste' filling wasn't enough or baked into the cookie.  Yet when I googled images to compare they seem kind of alright.  Also mine are almost a lady finger size while other images were more of a fig newton size.  My bad.

The moment of truth.  I give one to Hubby.  He tells me they are over done. (shakes fist at oven)  But over all they are good yet not really a favourite.  He notices they are very buttery or perhaps oily and he doesn't care for that.  It's mysterious because I weighed the butter to make sure I had the right amount.  As a back up taster, I gave one to our basement suite renter aka Renter Person and he liked it however I could see that he may have just been polite.  One doesn't criticize free food right?   My own assessment was that the flavour was nice and if I had company pop by I would probably bring these out for coffee.  For all the fuss with the filling though, I'd in all honesty find something more convenient to have on hand.

My version of Apelsinsnittar.