Here is an introduction to my attempt at a moody picture. Lesson of the day: I suck at mood photos. Which is funny because I am known to be a moody person in real life. That’s not really the same thing though, is it? At least I am putting myself out there and trying new things, right? I never claimed to be great at this. Plus, I think I am allowed a free pass in my first year of food blogging to be experimental and put up a few not so perfect photos. These aren’t so bad anyway. Well, what do you think anyway? The cookies are amazing though. I mean, they are the best darn cookie I’ve had in a while (besides a gooey chocolate chip, but nothing beats that). 
I wanted to get a good balance of almond and blueberries so I used a combination of blueberry flavored almonds and freeze-dried blueberries in the cookie base. I also added a teaspoon of lavender extract for an added dimension of flavor, but it wasn’t anything particularly life-changing. Omit it if you’d like. My original plan was to use just the cherries in my filling, but I didn’t have enough cherries around and there were two bags of lychee I just purchased from the produce market. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how it would taste together, but I was pleasantly surprised how well all the flavors played off each other. 
- 8 oz blueberry almonds
- ¼ cup dried blueberries
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 stick butter, cut in squares
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon lavender (optional)
- 3 - 4 tablespoons water
- 1 lbs pitted cherries
- 8 - 10 lychee fruit, peeled, seeds removed
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- In a food processor, and blend until fine. Add the flour, butter and sugar. Mix until the contents resemble crumbs. Add the water (and the lavender if you are using it) 1 tablespoon at a time until a dough forms.
- Remove from the food processor and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and flatten to a disc. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the cherries, lychee and sugar in a saucepan and heat on medium until the fruit releases its juices and begins to thicken. Set aside.
- Roll out the dough until it is about ¼ inch thick. Cut out circles (I used a glass cup that is approximately 3 inches in diameter).
- Place a dollop (about 1 - 1½ tablespoons) of the cherry-lychee mixture in the middle of each circle and pinch the outside of the dough to form a triangle.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Mood photos I find are easy to take on a gloomy day. I use a very drab background and the food subject as something very, very bright. Here is an example. Hope you don’t mind me linking it. It’s been funny trying to work with. http://mooshujenne.com/cranberry-curd/
They look so divine!!!
I think you did a pretty (or not if you’re feeling moody:p) good job on these! I’ve wanted to try moody, but right now I just don’t have any dark backgrounds…maybe when we get back to china I can get some black cloth on the cheap. The flavor combination just sounds so fruity…like something you’d like when you’ve been overstuffed for the past week after a salad or something (ahem, ahem)…
These look yummy! I think every food blogger looks back at their early content and wonders how they ever published that 🙂 I’m reshooting a bunch of my early stuff!