Weekend Cooking: Figolli (Take 2)

On the Easter weekend I attempted to share a post about my experience of going to a cooking class to make a Maltese Easter treat called Figolli. We were away that weekend. Unfortunately I was about 45 minutes away from home when I realised that I hadn't even thought about taking my laptop with me. I had been so tired on the Thursday night that I didn't just finish off my Saturday post so I thought I would just use the Blogger app to just do the last bit. That was a mistake. That removed all the photos and added in about 50 paragraph lines for each time I wanted a break which made it unreadable. I am therefore reposting it this week!


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Recently my friend and I attended a cooking class run by the Maltese Community Council of Victoria. The class was to make a traditional Easter treat called Figolli which consists of a layer of marzipan sandwiched between pastry and cut into various shapes. In our case we made rabbit shaped figolli!

We started with all of our pre-measured ingredients

We were then shown how to make the pastry. The recipe we were given includes the instructions on how to make it using a mixer but for this occasion we made it using the time honoured technique of using our fingers to mix the flour and butter until it became like breadcrumbs and then adding in the extra ingredients to form a dough

From there, we rolled out our pastry and cut out the rabbit shape. One handy tip we were given was to cut the dough into halves, and then cutting out the shape. When re-rolling, take a bit of the second half of dough so that it helps keep it more pliable.

We then made the almond filling using a mixture of ground almonds, caster sugar, egg whites and almond essence

The figolli is formed with a layer of pastry, the almond paste, another layer of pastry and milk wash.

And then off to cook in the professional kitchen ovens

Once the creation was baked and cooled it is time to ice. We used the biggest batch of royal icing I have ever seen as a base, and then we coloured small amounts of icing and used various decorations that we were supplied to decorate. You can also use melted chocolate to decorate

Given that I had never even seen figolli, let alone knew what they tasted like, I tried to stay pretty close to the shapes and decoration that was suggested. Other people in the group obviously have more experience and so there were a variety of other shapes and decorations being used. 

The class was held in a a cooking school kitchen, so there were proper commercial ovens, all the equipment you could possibly need, stainless steel benches!

It was very cool and a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Oh, and it tasted delicious!!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Pizza 

Sunday -  Tuscan Chicken Pasta Bake

Monday - Tomato and Rice Soup

Tuesday - Pepper Beef Stew with rice

Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Thursday - Green Curry Chicken Pie

Friday - Out for dinner

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend cooking: What I baked (In My Kitchen) in March

The first Saturday of the month is when I share all the things that I baked in the previous month. This month there is very much an Easter theme, which I suppose isn't that surprising.

My first bake in March was Figolli which is a Maltese Easter treat.

I wrote a post last weekend all about going to a cooking class to make Figolli, but I had a blogging disaster over the weekend.  I had been so tired on Thursday night that I didn't just finish off my Saturday post so I thought I would just use the Blogger app to just do the last bit while we were away for the weekend. That was a mistake. That removed all the photos and added in about 50 paragraph lines for each time I wanted a break. So above is a picture of the finished product, but I will repost about my experience of making figolli next week!

I also attempted to make Hot Cross Buns. I made them a few years ago but they were more like hot cross rocks. This time I used a different recipe, and they were better, but still not perfect. Maybe next year.

Last month I mentioned that I had bought a new cookbook, Meliz's Kitchen, and one of the key ingredients in many of the recipes is something called tatlı biber salçası which is a Turkish sweet red pepper paste. We tried a new recipe with it this week and now we are thinking about all the other things that we could use it for!

I am including a curveball this month.  A couple of weeks ago I shared about my reread of Relish by Lucy Knisley. When I first read it around 10 years ago. I shared an image of how to make carbonara. Given that today is National  Carbonara Day I thought I would share the image again

New recipes 

We only tried one new recipe this month which was a Baked Chicken Breast from Dinner by Nagi Maehashi. This is part of the section where she says what she would do with a pork chop, a chicken breast or a piece of fish. It was really simple, and really delicious! We will definitely make this again.

I have already tried two new recipes this week so will have more to share in this section next month.

My Weekend Cooking posts over the last month:

A Weekend in Sydney

Ready, Steady, Cook

Cook the Books: Relish - My Life in Food by Lucy Knisley

Figolli 

I am sharing this with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings

Weekly meals

Saturday -  

Sunday -  

Monday - chicken, onion, parsley wraps 

Tuesday - Pork Chop, mash and broccoli

Wednesday - Tomato and Halloumi Pasta 

Thursday - Takeaway

Friday - Spatchcock chicken and rice

Here

Weekend Cooking: Figolli

Recently my friend and I attended a cooking class run by the Maltese Community Council of Victoria. The class was to make a traditional Easter treat called Figolli which consists of a layer of marzipan sandwiched between pastry and cut into various shapes. In our case we made rabbit shaped figolli.

We started with all of our pre-measured ingredients



We were then shown how to make the pastry. The recipe we were given includes the instructions on how to make it using a mixer but for this occasion we made it using the time honoured technique of using our fingers to mix the flour and butter until it became like breadcrumbs and then adding in the extra ingredients to form a dough



From there, we rolled out our pastry and cut out the rabbit shape. One handy tip we were given was to cut the dough into halves, and then cutting out the shape. When re-rolling, take a bit of the second half of dough so that it helps keep it more pliable.



We then made the almond filling using a mixture of ground almonds, caster sugar, egg whites and almond essence



The figolli is formed with a layer of pastry, the almond paste, another layer of pastry and milk wash.





And then off to cook in the professional kitchen ovens



Cooked but pre decoration



Once the creation was baked it is time to ice. We used the biggest batch of royal icing I have ever seen as a base, and then we coloured small amounts of icing and used various decorations that we were supplied to decorate. You can also use melted chocolate to decorate

I 

Given that I had never even tasted figolli, let alone kneam w what they tasted like, I tried to stay pretty close to the shapes and decoration that was suggested. Other people in the group obviously have more experience and so there were a variety of other shapes and decorations being used.

The class was held in a a cooking school kitchen, so there were proper commercial ovens, all the equipment you could possibly need, stainless steel benches!

It was very cool and a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Oh, and it tasted delicious!!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Out for dinner

Sunday -Thursdae

Monday - Magic Chicken Fried Rice

Tuesday - Beef and Bsparoccoli Noodles

Wednesday - Chicken Parma, mash

Thursday - 

Friday -

Catching up!

Well...it's been a while since I posted, but I guess that is because I haven't really been doing much card making! Still been buying up big equipment wise, and still have a wish list, but not making much! I do think about making things though. I actually need to make a Thank You card in the next few days...maybe posting tonight will help my inspiration to kick in....or my motivation at the very least!

The biggest piece of equipment that I bought was a heat gun for embossing...haven't even taken it out of the box yet though! How slack is that?


Since the last time I posted we have had two classes, so I thought that I should post those at the very least.

The first one was the Easter class, and the focus was on using glitter. I made this card for my son, but then ended up leaving it behind when we went away so maybe he will get it next year.




We also made a bookmark using the same technique. I would like to make more bookmarks but I will have to buy a laminator, so I will wait to see when they come on sale and get one then! Unfortunately I couldn't get a very good scan of this, but you'll get the idea! Where ever you see the white lines there is actually glitter there.



Actually the class where we did this was pretty disappointing in terms of learning new things. The teacher is pregnant and has just gone back to full time work so doesn't have the time to focus on this stuff...and you could tell. Fortunately, there is someone else who she can hand onto and we did some good stuff in her first class.

The focus in this one was punching, although you probably won't be able to tell that from the pictures! The first thing that she had us make were these cute little gift boxes...well hers were cute but so fiddly to make. Mine are a little deformed! But I still have the template so one of these days I can have another go and see if I can get the lids on properly! When the leader made hers they all sat together beautifully and then she had some punched flowers stuck on the top. Here are mine:



She also had three cards for us to make but in the end I only got to make two because the boxes took so long. The first was a Mother's Day card. One cool thing was that I finally got to use the sticker maker I bought when I went to the craft show a couple of months ago! Worked a treat.



The last card I made could have been a Mother's Day card as well, but in the end I made it into a Happy Birthday one. It hasn't photographed very well because there were lots of shimmering bits on this card. The pink was torn along the edge to give it a less than perfect seem if you like, and then the punched flowers were added along the seem. I liked this one and it was pretty simple. I could do something similar again I am sure.



Next class is not this Friday night but the one after, and it will be the new girl teaching again. I look forward to seeing what she has us doing this time!

Easter Cards

The workshop that I am going to once a month has a set challenge each month, which I think I have mentioned before. This month was supposed to be stamping, but now that is being changed to next month, and this month's challenge is going to be Easter.

I don't have a problem with changing challenges but my question is....do people give cards at Easter? I don't think I have ever given or received, or seen anyone else give or receive!