Peach Cookies

Original Recipe : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQmLrxNH6jU&t=1s

(Btw, I love this channel and highly recommend the recipes to people who love cute and pretty desserts.)

These wondrous cookies are sold all over Bulgaria in little bakeries or convenience stores. The recipe I found is originally Italian and thus is a bit different. Peach Cookies are called "Praskovki", meaning "cute peach", but instead of being sort of dry, like the original recipe, they are instead soaked in a sugar syrup for a few minutes and they are made with baking powder to get a more cake like texture. The Italian version is a bit drier, but also a lot less sweet and instead tastes more like it was actually made of peaches. I hope you make this recipe and enjoy eating (or decorating, in my case) them!

(I doubled this recipe to make more cookies since I was distributing them to my starved friends.)

Ingredients (For one batch of eight cookies.)

1 peach

30 g sugar

200 g water
10 g honey

40 g room temperature butter (Unsalted)

70 g powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp or to taste Vanilla extract

5 g lemon juice (I used half a Costco lime)

185 g flour

Red food coloring

Granulated sugar

Directions

Place water, sugar and sliced peach in a pot of your choice, bringing it to a small boil then letting it simmer until the peach is very soft and the liquid is a nice pink color. Then carefully pour the liquid into a separate bowl and set aside.

 With a hand blender, mash the peaches into a puree and put back on the flame. Cook it, stirring consistently until it forms a thick paste that holds it's shape and is not watery.

For the cookie, take your butter and mix with the sugar until fully combined. Add in your egg, vanilla, and lemon juice. Mix. Lastly, sift in your flour and fold together with a spatula. Preheat your oven to 340 F (170 C). Divide your dough into 20 g balls and bake for 20-30 minutes or until baked thoroughly. Place all cookies on a cooling rack once done, and start carving a little hole in the bottom of the cookie with the edge of a knife. Be gentle and careful as you carve because the cookies are very breakable.

Next, take your cookie crumbs and mix it into the peach puree along with the 10 g of honey. Take your peach syrup next and add in some red food coloring and mix. To assemble the cookie: Take a cookie and fill with the puree, making sure there is a little bit extra on it. Place another cookie on it, stick them together, and twist a bit. Now run your finger around where the cookies are stuck together to remove any extra puree. Dip each side of the cookie in the syrup, let it sit for about 1 minute, and roll around in your granulated sugar. Repeat these steps for the other cookies. Enjoy!

Tip: If you want cookies that are a bit more moist, dip a second time in the syrup for about 1 extra minute on each side or until you get the desired wetness.

Syrup on the left, cookies on the right.

Assemble Cookies, ready for dipping and coating.

 The filling may not look great, but it sure did disappear fast from our kitchen!

Cosplay Post #1

After attending Anime Expos, watching cosplayers cosplay, and experiencing the wondrous world of sewing, I thought it was about high-time I got down to work. Making my own cosplay for Anime Expo 2020. I knew this would most likely take me about a year to complete, but I was and am ready for the challenge. I started out by picking a character I would like to replicate. After many weeks of searching, one of the skins from Akali (League of  Legends) popped out to me. It was the Silverfang Akali.


I think she looks really cool, and the fact that I have a 3D model at my disposal thanks to Riot, makes my research a lot easier.

I started out by mapping out all the items and components that I would need to make in order to make the costume. I also used a lot of tutorials from Kamui Cosplay and Cosplay Shop.

Next up was to go and buy the fabrics. My mom helped a lot with the picking of the fabrics because she went to a sewing specialized high school and knew her way around clothes. We ended up buying 4 fabrics.

From the left- A soft T-shirt material for the undershirt. A hard material for the vest. A semi hard material for the pants. And A softer material for the gloves, fake sleeves, and any other extra things.

Then I used a tight shirt I had to make the template for the sewing pattern.

The template. My mom said that the far left one was not good so I only used the other two.

The shirt will have a high neck,
so I didn't bother cutting out the neck hole.

This is dedicated to a wonderful dog that lives in my neighborhood. She (I think she was a girl) has a spinal disorder that prevents her from walking and living a normal life. So the owner got a cart that would let her at least go and see the outside world. I don't know why, but I find it so nice and sad whenever I see her.

She is soooo cute, though!

.

 I used the recipe from here (scroll down a bit and you will see Pusheen Cookies), but I also added a tablespoon of this Baileys for a delightful aroma! I also put some rose food coloring to match the taste :).

 Since we were having friends over, I decided to make a Chiffon cake with a Strawberry Baileys twist (and food coloring). It was very light and fluffy! I replaced one tablespoon of the almond milk with a tablespoon of Baileys to make sure that the extra liquid did not interfere with the texture of the cake.

Good things come to those who wait.

 Gamer bumblebee! I intended to put this on a pair of pants (as a picture), but I instead decided to put the lazy bumblebee lying on the couch, "working out".