Tiger nut cream and Fruit Tartlet And Cashew and Oats Cookies

2 Baked  Recipes for the Season
I am hosting my extended family on Christmas day and I tell you there will be many kids running around playing , laughing and maybe crying. It’s also time for me to put away all those decors that stand the risk of destruction, so usually a few days to christmas I put away such items. The announcement that someone has broken something will be distracting for me.
Christmas Days and the signature rice and stew or jollof rice and fried rice does not seem to hold the same appeal for kids today as this is what they eat daily anyway. I wonder what they look forward to anyway. For most just the freedom of running around and playing is sometimes enough at least in the first few hours of visit. The problem comes about two hours later when the adults might have almost finished the food, that you hear someone say…’mummy I am hungry.’
Children have such interesting eating habit like wanting that Jollof rice when the cooler has just been emptied by the adults or even wanting dodo when this has just disappeared from the cooler and no one sells plantains on Christmas Day. This is why I keep things like my exciting cookies. My pastries also come to the rescue.
Now I don’t even trust that these cookies will be a children’ affair. They are so good that the adults will love them too, but self control is advised for the adults, as you don’t want to struggle with weight gains after the holiday season.
The Tigernut cream and fruit Tartlet is my humble creation, whilst I borrowed the Cashew and Oats thumbprint Cookies from a fellow foodie  blog, elsbro.com, many thanks to her.
So bake these yummy numbers some days to Christmas and you will be glad you did.

Tiger nut cream and fruit Tartlet

Recipe for Short Crust Pastry

Ingredients
1 cup All purpose Flour
3 tablespoon Butter
Pinch of Salt
3 table spoons Iced Water

Method

1, Add salt to the flour. Cut the butter into small cubes. Using the tip of your fingers, rub the butter into the flour in a light motion. Whilst doing this lift the flour up. The final product should look like garri( fried cassava grains)

2, Add the water, sprinkling over the flour . Using a fork mix the flour well into the water for just a few seconds

3, Gather the mixture gently and lightly together in a ball without kneading. It’s important not to add any pressure to the dough.

4, Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to rest for 10 minutes and use as desired

Making the tartlets
Ingredients
Short crust pastry
1 cup tiger nut milk
1/2 table spoon black currant
1/2 table spoon Sultanas
1 tablespoon roughly crushed Cashew nuts

Method
1, Make your tiger nut milk ,the how to do this is available on my earlier post Banana and Tigernut milk  smoothie, add the sultanas and black currant and bring to boil for about 1 minute stirring all through and tiger nut milk thickens quite fast .  Set the cream aside for use in filling the tartlet
2, Roll out the dough into about 1 cm thick and using a dough cutter, cut into small circles. If you do not have a cutter you can use a small tumbler.
3, Place these circles in the holes of cake baking tray , press into each hole, and using a fork make a design on the edge of each cup.
4, Fill each tartlet hole with the cream and top each one with a small sprinkle of the cashew nuts and bake for about 15- 20 minutes or until golden brown.
5, You may wish to drizzle some honey on your tartlets.

 Cashew and Oats thumb print Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup  Oats(ground oat flour)
1 cup ground Cashew nut
1/4 teaspoon ground Cardamom( optional)
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves
Pinch of Salt
1/4 cup Safflower oil (or a neutral flavoured oil)
1/4 cup Honey or liquid sweetener of your choice)
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Your favorite jam or preserve

Method
1, Preheat the oven to 350°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
2, Mix oat flour, ground cashew, cardamom, cloves and salt in a large bowl
3, Add safflower oil, honey and vanilla extract, mix until well combined
4, Form the dough into rounded tablespoon-sized balls and space them evenly on to the baking sheet
5, Using your index finger or the end of a wooden spoon, make an indentation into the center of each dough
6, Fill the center of each cookie-dough with a small amount of jam or preserve
7, Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until cookies are evenly browned
Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring them onto a cooling rack

Tip:
1, You can make oat flour by grinding rolled oats in a food processor, grinder or a powerful blender
2, For the cashew flour ,simply grind whole cashew nuts into flour.