Pineapple Macadamia Nut Shortbread #CreativeCookieExchange

Candied pineapple and macadamia nuts bring a little tropical flair to traditional, rich buttery shortbread.

This month my Creative Cookie Exchange friends are channeling the tropics to bring you cookies that remind us of sun and surf and swaying palms trees. And I got to reminiscing about a long ago holiday to Hawaii.

When I was still in school and my father moved to southeast Asia, he used to book tickets for my sisters and me to visit him from Texas. No one flew that far in one go at the time so there were several stops. Often one of the layovers was in Hawaii so we’d break up the trip by staying a few days on Waikiki. One year I was going to be traveling on my own so I twisted a friend’s arm (hard task, right?) to come with me. Her father worked for Delta so her ticket was heavily discounted and since Daddy was already paying for the hotel room, all she needed was spending money. We had the best time, hanging out on the beach and soaking up the sun together.

I’ll tell you honestly that while we ate our share of pineapple there, both at breakfast time and perched on tropical cocktails, I don’t recall trying a macadamia nut until years later. Nevertheless both pineapples and macadamias have become synonymous with Hawaii. And they go beautifully together in buttery shortbread.

Adapted from Recipe.com

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 315g all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed or 65g brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 227g cold butter
1/4 cup finely chopped or 30g macadamia nuts
1/4 cup finely chopped or 50g candied pineapple

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare a 8 x 8 in or 20 x 20cm pan by lining it completely with baking parchment. I also use a little non-stick spray just to help it stay in place.

Chop your pineapple and nuts into small pieces.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, brown sugar and salt.

Cut the cold butter into pieces and add them to the mixing bowl. Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter, until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Stir in the chopped candied pineapple and nuts. Use your fingers to break up the bits of pineapple so they aren’t all stuck together.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and level it out with a spatula or spoon.

Use your hands to press and flatten the mixture as thin as you can manage.

Use a sharp knife to score the top of the shortbread. If it crumbles as you try to score it, press it down again, even more firmly. You can poke 'em with a fork if you want to also. That seems traditional for shortbread.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 18-22 minutes or until the edges are starting to turn golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan for just a few minutes on a wire rack. While the it's still quite warm, use the sharp knife to cut right through the shortbread where you scored it.

Allow to cool completely before removing the shortbread cookies from the pan.

These are melt in your mouth good.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other tropical cookies from my fellow Creative Cookie Exchange bakers this month:

• Chocolate Dipped Macadamia Nut Cookies by A Baker's House
• Coconut Mango Butter Cookies by Oven Delights
• Frosted Pineapple Shortbread Cookies by Magnolia Days
• Guava Lava Cookiess by Flours & Frostings
• Hawaiian Raincoast Crisps by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Key Lime White Chocolate Chunk Cookies by 2 Cookin' Mamas
• Lime Coconut Bars with Macadamia Nuts and White Chocolate Chunks by The Spiced Life
• Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Mojito Sugar Cookies by Upstate Ramblings
• Passion Fruit Curd Shortbread Cookies by Live. Bake. Love.
• Pineapple Coconut Cookies by A Shaggy Dough Story
• Pineapple Macadamia Nut Shortbread by Food Lust People Love

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life, this month with technical assistance from Renee of Magnolia Days. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life). We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Gin Lime Coconut Truffles #GalentinesDay

Tart and sweet with the zip of a little gin, these white chocolate and lime truffles are rolled in coconut for a little trip down the islands.

Happy Galentine’s Day! Yep, you read that right. Galentine’s Day: The day women celebrate women, breakfast style, inspired by this scene in Parks and Recreation.

Our smart and lovely organizer, Nancy from gotta get baked, is in charge once more this year, along with her co-host, Courtney from Neighborfood. Their invitation to join the fun said we must also write about a woman who inspires us. I’d like to write about 43,990,000. Give or take a few.

Many years ago, when I was living in Brunei with my father, we had a sweet lady from the Philippines working for us. She cooked, she cleaned and she helped look after my little baby half sister. I was surprised to learn that she had been a schoolteacher in her home country but could make more working as a housekeeper in Bandar Seri Begawan than she could teaching school in her village. So she applied for a job through a maid service, left her own children behind with their grandparents and moved to a foreign country to raise other people’s children.

Lirio was one of an estimated 83 percent of 53 millions domestic workers worldwide, who are women. (Source: International Labor Organization) Millions of whom leave their own families behind, to make a better living elsewhere, so that their own children will have better lives. The sacrifices they make, living with strangers, in strange lands, caring for families other than their own, are deemed worthwhile, because the support money they send home each month is crucial to the wellbeing of their families.

Here in the UAE, it is common practice to hire maids from overseas. I see them in flocks at bus stops on Friday morning, often their only day off, headed to the malls or beaches, to spend time with friends. They are laughing and smiling, enjoying their freedom and a day of rest and recreation. But I know they must miss their children, all the day-to-day milestones of skinned knees and spelling tests, afterschool snacks and goodnight kisses. I admire their work ethic, their dedication and their sacrifice. It’s never an easy job but they are doing what mothers the world over want to do, care for their children, in the best way they know how.

To read about the women who inspire the rest of our Galentine’s Day group and to check out the other wonderful recipes, make sure to scroll down to the link list below.

Ingredients
For the truffles:
10 1/2 oz or 300g good quality white chocolate – I use Lindt bars.
6 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
2/3 cup or 150g butter
Zest 1 lime
2 tablespoons lime juice
5 tablespoons gin

For rolling the truffles:
1 cup or 85g desiccated coconut (Not sweetened coconut flakes)
Zest 1 lime

Method
Zest your limes and then juice them, keeping the zest and juice separate.

Add the cream and the white chocolate, broken up into squares, to a heat resistant mixing bowl. Place the bowl on top of a pot about one quarter filled with water. Bring the pot of water to a slow boil, stirring the chocolate and cream in the bowl above, until the chocolate is completely melted.

Add in the butter, cut into pieces and stir until it is melted.

Remove the bowl from the heat and add in the zest of one lime, 2 tablespoonf of lime juice and the gin. Stir until completely combined.

Leave the mixture to cool and then place it, covered, in the refrigerator until it turns solid.

Mix the zest from the second lime with the desiccated coconut.

Use a teaspoon to scoop out small amounts of the firm mixture and roll them into balls between your clean palms. Place the balls in the dry coconut and roll them around until they are well covered.

Place them directly on a serving plate or use little paper candy cups. If you are living in a warm climate, keep the truffles refrigerated until you are ready to serve. These also freeze beautifully!

This made 33 truffles but you would probably get more if you can control yourself and make them all as small as the first ones. Mine tend to get bigger and bigger as I go along.

Enjoy!

And now, as promised, the other Galentine's Day recipes with inspiring stories. Make one for a special woman in your life! 

• Caramel Cheesecake from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Cherry Chocolate Chip Cheesecake from Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt
• Chocolate Frosted Fudgy Brownies with Strawberries from Pineapple and Coconut
• Gin Lime Coconut Truffles from Food Lust People Love
• Hula Pie from Heather’s Dish
• Lavender Ice Cream from NinjaBaker
• Nutella Layer Cake from gotta get baked
• Pecan Sticky Buns from The Cooking Actress
• Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies from Wallflour Girl
• Red Velvet Donuts from Blahnik Baker
• S'mores Waffle Sticks from A Cookie Named Desire
• Strawberry Chocolate Chip Pancakes from NeighborFood

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Okie Peasant Potato Soup #BloggerCLUE

This creamy thick potato soup, seasoned with shallot, garlic and bacon, is sure to warm body and soul on a cold winter’s day. 

One of my favorite days of the month is here – it’s Blogger C.L.U.E. Society reveal day when I get to tell you the clue we were assigned this month – soups and stews - and which blog I’ve been poking around in – the wonderful Eliot’s Eats! I’ve been getting Debra’s recipe posts in my inbox for a very long time, although I am terrible about commenting, so she may not even know that. I just checked the “read” emails in my inbox and this is the weirdest thing but the very first one was from the day I signed up - a message to confirm my subscription – on February 10, 2013! Isn’t that a wild coincidence! It’s our anniversary! Three years of delicious recipes from Eliot's Eats in my inbox!

Proof! Not that you didn't believe me but only because I hardly believe it myself! February 10th! 

I have to tell you that I didn’t even get around to a search for stews because I was bookmarking so many soups to make that I knew the choice was going to be hard enough. Check out the Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup that may have won Debra’s husband’s heart or this spicy Furious Five-Spice Noodle Soup with an Asian flair.  I was also loving the way Debra has turned favorite non-soup dishes into soup like these pizza and enchiladas ones. I mean, sometimes you want pizza or enchiladas but sometimes a body just needs soup.  Can I get an amen?

Those of you in the cold areas of the world right now are going to laugh in my face when I tell you that Dubai is cold when we are only talking the late 40s°F (<10°C) at night but remember that we have no heating whatsoever. These tile floors, thick walls and reflective windows are designed to keep us cool during the extraordinary heat of summer but they make it really chilly indoors during the wintertime. Plus I don't seem to own the right clothes. What I needed was a thick, comforting soup so I finally settled on Debra’s mom’s Okie Peasant Potato Soup because it starts with bacon and ends with cheese, and what could be more perfect than that?

Ingredients - Makes about 6 servings.
6 slices bacon
1 1/2 lbs or 680g red potatoes
1 large carrot
1 small shallot (Debra used dried shallots but I don't have any of those.)
3 cups or 710ml chicken broth
3 tablespoons bacon fat
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups or 710ml low fat (but not skim) milk
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated cheddar to serve

Method
Cook your bacon until crispy and drain on some paper towels. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the bacon fat. Chop the bacon with a sharp knife and set aside. I also set aside just a little for use as garnish when serving. I left it pretty chunky.

Cube your potatoes, leaving the peels on. Peel and dice your carrot.

Peel and mince your shallot and garlic clove.

Put one tablespoon of bacon fat in a large pot with the minced shallot and sauté until translucent. Add in the potatoes, carrots and chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Cook until carrots and potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.

In another saucepan, heat the rest of the bacon fat and lightly sauté your garlic. You don’t want it to brown and turn bitter, but just to soften. Add the flour and whisk until mixture bubbles to cook the flour.

Carefully whisk in milk to make a sauce.

Cook for a few more minutes until the white sauce thickens a little and then remove from the heat.

Use a firm whisk to add the sauce into the potato pot.  Some of the potatoes should break up a bit, thickening the soup even more but make sure to leave some chunks too.

Add in the crispy bacon bits. Cook for a few more minutes and then taste your soup. Add salt if it needs any and few generous grinds of fresh black pepper.

Ladle into warm bowls. Sprinkle on some cheddar cheese (and bacon if you saved some) to serve. And, yes, that's just a little more black pepper. I love that stuff.

Enjoy!


The Blogger C.L.U.E. Society - February 2016 participants

• Caldo de Mariscos - Mexican Seafood Soup by Sue from A Palatable Pastime
• Cheddar Cheese Soup by Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Chicken Asado by Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Classic French Onion Soup by Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Creamy Ham Swiss Potato Soup by Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Egg Drop Soup by Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Egg Drop Soup by Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Ginger Lemon Chicken Soup by Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Italian Soup by Anna from annaDishes
• Mini Ham and Cheese Pepper Frittatas by Karen from Lavender and Lovage
• New York Strip Steaks with Cognac Creamed Mushrooms by Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Okie Peasant Potato Soup by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Potato and Ham Chowder by Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• Roasted Red Pepper Soup by Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Roasted Squash and Apple Soup by Jean from Lemons and Anchovies
• Rustic Tortellini Soup by Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Simple Cheese Soup by Heather from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
• Veggie Chili by Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook

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