Pet Pixels

I've been baking some cookies for Christmas. Not your average tree decorations, I've been attempting to bake Alsatian "Bredele", which might be called "petit-fours" in French. These have traditionally been baked at Christmas since the mid 15th century in Alsace. I'm working from a French recipe book called "Bredele et Gâteaux de Noël" by Thierry Kappler. So far I've made (I'm using the Alsatian names as they are more interesting!):

• Wiss un schwàrzi butter bredele (those chequered and spiral ones)
• Vanille hernle (litttle vanilla crescents, no picture as they, um, got tasted a bit too much)
• Spretz bredele (wiggly piped vanilla shapes)
• Hernele (a.k.a. Fer à Cheval, i.e horseshoes)
• Kokos Màkrone (coconut macaroons)
• Spetzbuewe (home-made jammy dodgers!)

I've run into a few problems; the coconut macaroons were looking perfect until I added the coconut, which made the meringue separate horribly in the piping bag; the hernele dough was far too crumbly to roll, so I added an egg; the spretz bredele dough was far too stiff to pipe; I don't know if it's my oven, but nearly all the recipes turn out undercooked, so I'm adding on about 50% cooking time. I've still got a few more to do, but I'm pretty happy with how these are turning out; they certainly look nice!

Right now I'm inundated with synthesizers. It's a hobby of mine to buy up old synths, refurbish them as best I can, then sell them on. Just recently I got very lucky on a Gumtree ad and picked up 4 in various states of disrepair: a Korg DS-8, Korg DW-8000, Roland JV-80 and a Roland D-70.