Today is Chinese New Year (CNY) eve. My usual CNY goodies bakes will be pineapple tarts and almond cookies. As years passed, I find myself baking less and less cookies. Mainly because my family members are more health conscious and decided to eat less goodies, and also, I've become lazier. Was it no demand equals no supply or vice versa? I'm not so sure too.
With some sliced almonds on hand, I decided to try Wendy's Coffee Almond Cookies as it looks really good. The cookies were thin, crispy and tasted good with the almonds. They were really nice.
Recipe for Coffee Almond Cookies, adapted from Table for 2... or more.
(Makes for 2 small canisters)
Ingredients:
2 tsp Nescafé instant coffee
1 tsp Hot water
1 tsp Coffee extract
150g Salted butter
50g Brown sugar
1 Egg
200g Plain flour
50g Corn flour
100g Icing sugar
30g Full cream milk powder
100g Almond flakes, toasted
Method:
1. Mix instant coffee, hot water and coffee extract and stir to dissolve.
2. Sift plain flour, corn flour and icing sugar together. Then mix in full cream milk powder. Set aside.
3. Cream butter with brown sugar for about a minute on medium speed. Add in egg and beat until combined. Pour in the coffee mixture and beat until combined.
4. Add in flour mixture and mix until combined. Fold in almond flakes and mix until combined.
5. Spoon the dough into a full lined 8 inch square pan. Press down the dough and cover with another piece of baking paper. Fold down the overlaps and apply some pressure to level the dough. (I spooned it into a lined plastic container.)
6. Chill for 2 to 3 hours.
7. Preheat oven to 160(fan)/180C. Line 2 large baking trays with non stick baking paper
8. Remove chilled dough from fridge and cut into 4 long bars. Cut the bars evenly.
9. Arrange the dough slices with some space allocated for expansion. Keep balance of dough in fridge if not baked immediately.
10 Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the edges take some some colour.
11. Let the cookies cool down and store them in air tight containers.
Wishing everyone
新年快乐, 猴年大吉, 红运当头, 心想事成, 岁岁平安!
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After Christmas weekend, we brought our twins to Orchard Road for a walk. It has been a long time since we brought our children to Orchard Road. The street is known for being crowded, especially during weekends and for it's exquisite and expensive buys. While we were at Wisma, we saw this stall - Ben's Cookies, with its nice aroma cookies. Where did the "Famous Amos" gone to? As we past by a few times, my son finally said he wanted to eat the cookies. He said he couldn't stand the aroma anymore.
I'll have to admit, the cookies were really nice. I had a piece of the Dark Chocolate and Nuts and it was really soft, chewy and chocky. I like it very much. I personally preferred chewy cookies to crunchy ones. So, after that one piece of cookie, it triggered my craving. I preferred to make themselves, therefore, starts my quest for a recipe. So on New Year's Day, I attempted this Chewy Chocolate Chips and Walnut Cookies. It was really simple to put them together. The cookies turned out to be pretty good. But there was still some missing element I felt. My hunt continues...
Recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chips & Walnut Cookies, adapted from Making Food with Love
(Makes approximately 20 3" cookies)
Ingredients:
192g Plain flour
113g LIV unsalted butter,softened
100g Soft brown sugar
75g castor sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Baking soda
75g Chocolate chips
60g Walnut, coarsely chopped
Method:
1. Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar till lighter in colour.
3. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix well.
4. Add in flour till well combined. Do not over mix.
5. Add in chocolate chips and nuts.
6. Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto lined baking tray.
7. Freeze the tray for approx 5 minutes to reduce spreading.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 190°C for 13-15 mins until surface is slightly brown.
9. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before serving.
When I first tried this cheese cookies from a reputable bakery/confectionery chain here, I like it very much. However, one tin of this cheese cookies isn't cheap. I bought it for a few years before I decided not to get it anymore. Then I decided to try this when I first saw the recipe at Corner Cafe. I thought it isn't too difficult to do. The method of frying the tapioca starch sounds like Kueh Bangkit method. Then I thought that maybe, to make a melt in the mouth texture, the flour had to be fried first (or heated up). However, I didn't follow the instructions clearly. As I didn't have pandan leaves, I omitted the first step. :p
Then I neglected the low temperature required. That was why I ended up with first batch being overbaked. Thinking why it was so crispy and brown. Actually, after eating, I found that the crispy cookies tasted better in terms of texture. The suppose to be melt-in-the-mouth version was soft and didn't melt in the mouth. Likely was because I didn't fry the flour. So in comparision, the crispy cookies was better. :p
Recipe for Cassava Cheese Cookies, adapted from Corner Cafe.
(Makes approx. 75 small cookies)
Ingredients:
(my modification in brackets)
85g LIV unsalted butter, softened
85g Caster sugar (75g, which was still too sweet for me)
1 Egg, separated
170g Tapioca starch *
2 Pandan leaves (I omitted this)
50g Parmesan cheese powder
15g Coconut milk powder
* I actually started with just over 170g of starch, after drying in microwave oven and sifting, I ended with just about 155g of dry tapioca starch. (I didn't microwave it because I don't have pandan leaves)
Method:
1. Wash and dry the pandan leaves, and then cut into short sections. Put tapioca starch and pandan leaves on a piece of kitchen paper and put into the microwave. Cook on HIGH for 1 minute. Remove from microwave and transfer onto a new piece of kitchen paper. Put back into microwave and cook on HIGH for another minute. Remove the tapioca starch and sift it into a mixing bowl; set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 150°C. (I omitted this step because I don't have pandan leaves)
2. In the meantime, cream softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk until well mixed.
3. Add sifted tapioca starch, parmesan cheese powder and coconut milk powder to the creamed mixture. Mix well. The dough will be crumbly at this stage.
4. Lightly beat the egg white and add gradually to the crumbly dough until it just clumps into a smooth dough. You may not need all of the egg white; or you may need more. (I used up the whole egg white)
5. Transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle. Pipe out into small flower shapes.
6. Bake for about 18-20 minutes; the cookies should remain light golden in colour, so don’t let the cookies get too brown. (I over-baked my first batch as I put it to 180C, without noticing the temperature should be low.)
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I like buttery melt-in-the-mouth cookies. Sonia's Butter Cookies are a good example. Since I discovered this recipe, I've been baking it for Chinese New Year. This year is no different. However, I decided to enhance the flavour by adding coffee powder. The coffee cookies were very well received by my colleagues. They loved the subtle coffee buttery melt-in-the-mouth texture. I love it too! Make a tub today!
Recipe for Coffee Butter Cookies, adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover.
(Makes a small canister)
Ingredients:
200g Liv Unsalted butter
45g Icing sugar
150g Plaim flour
50g Corn flour
2 tsps (good) Coffee powder dissolved in 1 1/2 tbsp Kahlua
Method:
1. Beat butter and icing sugar till creamy.
2. Sift in flour and corn flour, mix well to a soft dough.
3. Add in coffee powder paste. Mix well.
4. Scoop dough into piping bag and pipe dough evenly on baking tray.
5. Bake at preheated fan oven at 160C for 13-15 minutes or browned.
Wish all my Chinese readers,
祝大家
恭喜发财！身体健康！万事如意！到成功，
上有钱，發啊發啊!!
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Christmas is round the corner. Ever since I started baking, I've been thinking what Christmas presents I should bake/make for my family and friends. As there are many people I wanted to give, I didn't want them to be too complicated. Even though I don't really like cookies, but I think cut-out cookies are really nice, especially when it's frosted. I have to admit, I'm not so diligent, nor am I a perfectionist. Hahaha... (did you hear excuses coming?)
With so many recipes online and from books and magazine, I finally decided on making Honey Cinnamon (Cutout) Cookies.
Recipe for Honey Cinnamon Cookies, modified from "Super Food Ideas", Dec2012/Jan2013 Issue.
(Makes approx. 46 cookies)
Ingredients:
250g LIV unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
3 cups Plain flour, sifted
3/4 cups Icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
A pinch of Ground ginger
A pinch of Ground nutmeg
A pinch of Chili powder
1 Whole egg
2 tbsp Honey
Method:
1. Place butter, flour, powders and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl.
2. Rub in chilled butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. (You may use a food processor for this step if you have).
3. Add egg and honey. Stir until mixture comes together. (Continue to use food processor if you are using it.)
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth. Divide mixture into half.
5. Shape into 2 discs. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 mins. (You can freeze the other half for up to one month. Thaw in the fridge overnight, stand at room temperature for 30 mins before continuing to cut out and bake.)
6. Preheat oven to 170C fan forced.
7. Roll 1 dough disc between 2 plastic sheets (or baking papers) until 5mm thick.
8. Using a cookie cutter of your choice, cut out the pattern from the dough. Re-rolling and cutting dough scraps.
9. Place on prepared baking trays, 1cm apart. Bake 1 tray at a time, for 13-14mins or until pale golden.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Wrap it individually and give it as present.
Also to 'Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013' hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out.
Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2014!
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I have always love to watch Anna Olson's baking show on Asian Food Channel (AFC). However, on AFC website, it's not easy to look for her recipes episode by episode. The better site is through Food Network, which are categorised accordingly. What I tried today was her Classic Chocolate Chips Cookies. It was really easy to make, without even having to use the mixer. I am always fazed by how she just used wooden spoon or whisk to do the creaming and whisking. Her cookies turned out to be very evenly round, whereas mine is truly a homemade version! Heehee...
Recipe for Classic Chocolate Chips Cookies, adapted from Anna Olson's Drop Cookies Series.
Makes approximately 53 one inch cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (113g) Liv unsalted butter, at room temperature
5/8 cup packed Brown sugar
1 large Egg, at room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups Plain flour
1 tbsp Cornstarch
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Fine rock salt
1 1/2 cups Chocolate chips
Method:
1. Cream the butter with the brown sugar using a hand whisk until light. Beat in the egg and the vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the cornstarch, baking soda and salt.
3. Add this to the butter mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Using a teaspoon, scoop spoonfuls of dough, shape them into a ball (I wasn't able to get balls) and place onto a parchment lined baking tray.
5. Chill the scooped cookies for at least an hour, or once chilled, the cookies can be frozen for baking later. (I left it in the chiller overnight).
6. Preheat the oven to 170C.
7. Arrange the chilled scooped cookies onto parchment-lined baking trays, leaving 1 inch between the cookies.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, until browned. Cool the cookies on the baking tray.
9. If baking cookie dough that has been frozen, arrange the frozen cookies on the baking tray and let them thaw for 20 minutes at room temperature before baking as above.
"This chocolate chip cookie dough has 2 secrets to success. The first is the addition of cornstarch, which holds in moisture to guarantee a soft-centred cookie. The second is to chill the cookies before baking – this ensures they all bake to the same size and don’t spread too much while baking."-Anna.
This recipe is a keeper. My children simply loves them!
It's been a while since I baked cookies. Weirdly, I'm not a great fan of cookies, but I do like cookies once a while though. I like cookies to go with coffee. And, that's about it...
Something healthy to chew on. Chewy Oatmeal Raisins Cookies was I thought will go with coffee.
Recipe for Chewy Oatmeal Raisins Cookies, adapted from Martha Stewart.
Makes approx. 2" 20 cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/2 cup Plain flour
1/2 cup Raisins
1/4 cup Nibbed almonds, toasted
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Fine salt
6 (90g) tbsp LIV Unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup Dark-brown sugar, packed
1 large Egg
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Method:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together oats, flour, raisins, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl as necessary.
- Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined. Gradually add oat mixture; beat just until combined.
- Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto two baking sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven of 170C until cookies are golden brown but still soft, 15-16 mins, rotating sheets halfway through.
- Cool 5 minutes on sheets; transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
[Baked on 9 Mar 2013]
I still had some egg whites leftover from my CNY baking, and was wondering how to use it. Then I saw a post on Chocolate Meringue Cookies from Joy of Baking in FB, and decided to bake it. As discussed in the FB comments, we were told not to reduce the sugar as it will affect the crispiness of the cookies. I reduce it from 200g to 160g anyway. I found that the cookies were able to stay crisp. However, I realised that the baking time for me was too short as the cookies wasn't able to pull away from the parchment paper easily. I had difficulties separating them to. Having said that, the cookies were really nice. It had a crisp outer and a very chewy inner.
Recipe for Chocolate Meringue Cookies, adapted from Joy of Baking.
Makes approx. 50 1" cookies
Ingredients:
100g Egg whites (approx. 3 eggs)
160g Caster sugar
15g Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
Method:
- Preheat oven to 130C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Put the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and whisk to combine.
- Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the sugar has melted and is warm to the touch (about 2-5 minutes).
- Remove from heat and wipe the bottom of the bowl to remove any condensation.
- Using an electric whisk, beat on high speed until the meringue is stiff with glossy peaks and cool to the touch.
- Sift the cocoa powder over the meringue and with a large spatula, gently fold the cocoa powder into the meringue. Mix well.
- Before placing the cookies on the parchment paper, place a little of the meringue on the underside of each corner of the parchment paper. This will prevent the paper from sliding.
- With piping bag and a star nozzle, pipe the meringues on your prepared baking tray.
- Sift a little more cocoa powder over the meringues.
- As soon as you put the meringues into the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 100C and bake the meringues for approximately 90mins (1.5hrs), or until the meringues have a crisp outside crust and release easily from the parchment paper. (If you break one open, the inside will be soft and marshmallowy. The longer you bake the Meringues, the firmer they will be inside.)
- Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. The meringues can be covered and stored at room temperature for 2-3 days (depending on humidity).
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I'm reposting this Bak Kwa Cookies using Liv butter.
Recipe for Pork Jerky Cookies (香脆肉干饼)
Makes approximately 122 mini cookies
(fill 2 canister containers)
Ingredients:
250g Liv unsalted butter, soften
70g Icing sugar
1 Whole egg
1 tsp Vanilla extract
400g Plain flour
A pinch of salt
150g Pork Jerky (bak kwa), mini diced
Method:
- Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and beat till well incorporated.
- Add vanilla extract and mix.
- Add the flour and bak kwa, and mix thoroughly.
- Use a scrapper to cut out into small sizes, and shape it accordingly.
- Placed it on a baking tray, spacing out evenly.
- Egg wash the top to get some golden colour.
- Bake at 180C for 16-18mins, or until it turned golden.
Note:
- Last year when I made this, I rested the dough in the fridge for at least 30mins. This time, I rolled it immediately after mixing. I realised that by resting the dough in the fridge, it produced a more refined crispy taste.
- After mixing the dough, it's still very soft. However, it is still manageable to roll them up.
- After baking, the cookies were crunchy. However, after a day, it turned slightly softer. It didn't taste like those "soften (lau hong)" kind though.
I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover.
This post is sponsored by LIV butter.
Requested from my children again after I made these rich Double Chocolate Chips Cookies for their teachers.
Recipe for Double Chocolate Chips Cookies, modified from Joy of Baking
Makes approximately 50 thick 2.5" cookies
Ingredients:
230g LIV Unsalted butter, room temperature
180g Light brown sugar
2 Large eggs
1 1/2tsp Vanilla extract
260g Plain flour
60g Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Fine rock salt
500g Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
Method:
- Preheat oven to 170C. Line baking trays with baking papers.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in eggs, one by one, followed by vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.
- Add in the sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in two batches. Mix till just incorporated.
- Fold in the chocolate chips thoroughly.
- Using a small ice cream scoop, place the batter on the prepared trays, spacing about 3cm apart.
- Gently use your fingers to flatten the cookies slightly.
- Bake for approximately 18-20 mins, or until the cookies are still soft in the centre but firm around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 mins before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
