Crispy Almond Butter Cookies

 

This is another cookies I was wanted to bake last year and did not manage to do so . When I fail badly making the open face Pineapple Tarts last year , I decided that is the end of my CNY cookies for the year. Is too hot , is too tire and after all I am still learning to take care of a newborn . Breastfeeding take up a lot of my time and I need to take good care of myself so my milk supply is sufficient.

This year I will not let this slip. Told you I have a plan !! When my baking mode is on , I just wanted to bake myself to the max !! Interesting enough is staying in Australia we do not do the usual thing as visiting other people house during the period. So I wonder who will help me finished all my cookies. I bet you the most happy person at this point is my husband. He told me he is happy to sacrifice and assist in any eating that is required. Well , I suppose is still a good gesture to give out what we bake to others. So there will be some home bake cookies for my friends then to let one sacrifice himself too much .

For the recipe I follow ->NasiLemakLover

Ingredients :

190g Butter ( at room temperature)
100g Icing Sugar
50g Egg White
220g Cake Flour
2Tsp Custard Powder ( I omitted this )
50g Almond Meal ( to have it more almondy I will increase the ground almond more next round)

Almond Flakes
3 Egg Yolks + 1 Tbsp of Milk as egg wash

Method :

1.Cream butter and icing sugar with hand held electric mixer till light and fluffy. It take about 3-4min.
2.Add in the egg whites and mix on medium speed for 1 min.
3.Add in the almond meal mix well with the spatula. Sifted in the cake flour and mix well till soft dough in form .
4.Spread the dough onto the tray ( 14"x14") . I used the flat scrapper to spread it evenly on the tray .
5.Preheat oven till 165C ( lower rack fan forced). Bake the cookies for 4mins until half cooked.
6.Take the tray out from the oven let it cool down for 1min. Use a pizza cutter to slice into rectangles.
7. Brush with egg yolks and place 2 pieces of almond flake .Do not brush the whole tray with egg yolk at one time , as it will dry up quickly and the almond flake will not stick on it.
8.After done putting almond flake on the cookies, return tray to oven at 165C and continue to bake for 12min until golden brown. I rotate the tray few times to have the cookies bake evenly.
9.When the baking is done, remove tray from the oven and cool on the rack. When the cookies is cool , store in air tight container.

Spreading the dough on the tray is a bit of struggle as the dough is soft and I want to make sure is evenly spread and the cookies is not too thin or too thick.

The fragrance of the cookies is more like buttery. The almond taste is mild. I love the crispiness of the cookies and I thought it can be very addictive and be consume fast , as the cookies are quite thin.

I hope you will try this out if I have time I might bake another tray of this.

I have linking this post to

This post is linked at Cook and Celebrate: Chinese New Year 2016

hosted by Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe

 and Zoe from Bakeforhappykids

Pineapple Tarts - (Open Face version)

Is the month where Chinese family is busy busy with preparing the Lunar New Year that fall on next month ( Feb ) . I have so many plan in my heads for this year , as my girl grow older , I wanted to introduce to her ALL Chinese Festival . However , days and weeks seem flying faster than it used to be for me nowadays. Before I knew it , I only left 2 weekends to prepare and one weekend was down as I need to visit the folks in Sunshine Coast. My panic mode seem to switch on and the result of this , will be either no baking at all or bake in full force.


To collect myself and get it started , I need to be more efficient and plan out well . ( Ya talking about planning again !!! )  My beloved told me to be easy , he always support what I want to do but to do it out of stress or enjoyment is a thin line. After hearing his advise, yup I should back to where I am , bake with happy spirit and not stress. After all , I do not have a whole village to give or feed. So just relax and enjoy .


To start of my baking , always do something that will motivate me - Pineapple Tarts. It just seem missing if we do not have Pineapple Tart during CNY. I have done the close version before ->pineapple-tarts 2014. I did an open version last year but it was fail . I did in a rush and my baby was not corporative then . The dough stick in the mould and having  a crying baby. I gave up !!

So here I am to make it success this year :)


The recipe I follow ->Table for 2 or more 


Ingredients :


200g Salted Butter ( Soften)
125g Icing Sugar ( I used Caster Sugar - my pineapple jam is not so sweet so I guess is ok )
2 Egg Yolks
2 Tbsp Milk
400g Plain Flour


Pineapple Jam ( using my old recipe . I find that is the best pineapple jam recipe ever. No hard work in stirring and the result is always satisfied !)



Method :


1. Mixed butter and sugar with hand held electric mixer till combine and creamy. Add in egg yolks mix well and add in 2 Tbsp milk incorporate well into the mixture.
2. Pour in the flour and mix with spatula and do not knead. The texture of the dough is soft but is not hard to combine the flour well into the butter.
3. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill in the fridge at least 30min.
4. Roll out the dough to 5mm thick. Press with prefer mould cookie cutter and arrange the cookies on the baking tray line with baking sheet.
5. The cookies will not spread so is ok to place it next to one another.
6. Brush with egg wash and place the round pineapple jam in the middle of the tarts.
7. Preheat Oven to 165C ( this is for my oven. So do adjust according to your oven standard) . Bake for 15min.


This time was a success for me. I reckon chilling the dough in the fridge help to get the tarts out from the mould easily . I have to on the air conditioner while cutting the dough. Australia summer is no joke and can be more heat up compare to Malaysia. What an expensive cost to bake this tarts.

The Tarts come out well from the mould and brushing some egg wash make the tarts has some color and I think it help the jam sit well on the tarts.


Am happy with the result and this is faster compare to the close version. Would prefer to make the closed version but time is really something a new mom does not quite have.


Happy baking and I am submitting this post to


This post is linked at Cook and Celebrate: Chinese New Year 2016 hosted by Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids at Here.

Happy Monkey Year :)

Christmas Stained Glass Cookies

I have been baking quite few cookies the last few weeks. One Sugar Fondant Cookies for a friend babyshower, some shortbread cookies for my daughter 1st year birthday celebration and this cookies for my Church Christmas For kids events.


As mention before , my church has a C4K event yearly to bring joys and Christmas blessings to the community we are in . I did not participate in the baking last year , as I was in the confinement period ( when you being confine for giving birth reason , one shall not do anything except eat, sleep and nursing the baby). Finally this year I can spare some time to bake for this event again , I would not want to miss it , after all is more joy and blessed to give during this season then just to receive.


I come across the recipe last year , however do not have the chance to bake it . I find this cookies really bring the chrissy spirit to those who received it . So here is why I choose this as one of the baking for the events. The recipe I follow is from Beanpanda Staind Glass Cookies

Ingredients :


I have make 30 cookies by increase half the portion of the original recipe


150g Unsalted Butter
60g  Icing Sugar ( I reduce the sugar amount)
243g Cake Flour
18g  Corn Flour
1.5 Tsp Lemon Juice
1/4 Tsp of Baking Soda ( I add extra 1/2 of 1/4 tsp in )
Crystal candy with different colors  ( original recipe ask for Fox crystal candy , I can not find it in Aus , I just used any candy that is crystal and similar texture as Fox )




Method :


1. Bring unsalted butter to room temperature, cut the butter into small cube. Mix in the sugar and used electric handheld blender , blend till the butter is plain and fluffy.
2. Put in the lemon juice, sift in all the flour - cake flour, corn flour , baking soda into the butter mixture.  Use a spatula to combine it well. Mix the biscuit dough lightly with hand and make sure all the ingredient combine well .
3. Place the biscuit dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
4. Bring the firm dough out on your flour working bench . Roll out the dough to 0.5mm thickness. Used cookies cutter to cut out different shape and place it on the tray with non stick baking paper.
5. Used a smaller cookies cutter , make a hole print in the cookies when the cookies has place on the tray . To avoid breaking the whole cookies while transferring the cookies.
6. Preheat oven to 165C , bake the cookies for 10-13min. While the cookies in the oven, break the crystal candy into small pieces. Place different color candy in different bowl . Only do this step when cookies start baking , to avoid the candy melting and stick together.
7.Bring the baked cookies out from the oven without turning the oven off. Place the candy into the print hole we have make. Carefully not to put too much candy as will cause it overflow into the cookies surface area.
8. Place the cookies back to the oven and bake another 3-5 min. Till the candy melt in the print and the cookies can be taken out from the oven . Let it cool on the rack . Once cool down the candy will be harden again and is good to take out .


Is such a pain to bake cookies during summer, the dough turn soft and is hard to maintain the shape while placing onto the baking tray. I have to keep putting the dough in the fridge to cool down. This has slow down my baking process.  I am rushing to have all cookies finished baking while my little one is asleep . Well, I  fail to do so , I then literary has a "koala' hanging on my leg while I am cutting , rolling the dough . What a challenge ! As I promise to contribute 24 cookies for the events, I persist to make extra, just in case , some did not turn out well . Thank GOD , I have some good shape looking one and some just got to leave for my beloved as his snack.


So here is my Christmas cookies and hope you will give it a try .

I am also submitting this post to -> Cook and Celebrate: Christmas 2015 event. organised by Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids at here.

Macha Red Bean Snowskin Mooncake

The mid autumn festival was in Sept this year,It is also known as mooncake festival. Yup any festival should tie with a food that represent it. I have this blog sitting in my post box and waiting for someone to do up my picture before I can post it . =.= ||| Finally here is it ..

I LOVE mid autumn festival . This is my favourite Asia festival ! Nope CNY is not the best for me , especially when you were single ,  CNY can be  a "hell" period for you , in becoming a "target' of a group of "caring" elderly , is a torture !!


Mid Autumn Festival, to me is family reunion ( only to your own family not with relatives) , with the romantic beautiful latterns , all sort of snacks and the "cake" -> Moon Cake. There is no explain on   why I just love moon cake that much . Thank GOD, these is one of the dessert you do not get it throughout the whole year. You can only find it during the festive season. It make it more excited and enjoyable. As it only ONCE in a year ( when you have it all year round, one tend to less appreciate it and lose the original meaning of the festival )


In Australia , we are so blessed to have ALL sort of variety mooncake from different Asia country. Is just pricy. According to my mom , mooncake is no longer reasonable price back home too. As this is an once in a year dessert , it does come with a price !


I did not make mooncake last year , as I was pregnant and I am intolerance of any sweet ( the smell , the sight of any sweet thing make me puke !) . This year I promise myself , I must do something again .


So here is my Macha Red Bean Snowskin Mooncake - adapt from -> beanpanda.ice-skin-mooncake


Red Bean paste


Ingredients :


1kg Azuki Red Bean
700 - 800ml Water
400g Brown Sugar
4-5 Tbsp cooking Oil


Method :


1. Soak azuki red bean overnight. Drain the water next day , place the bean with water in slow cooker and cook till the bean is soft.
2. Blend the red bean till fine , mix in the sugar while red bean paste is warm
3. Pour oil in a wok/pan , pour in the red bean paste. Stir fried till red bean paste dry up and can form into a ball.


Macha Snowskin Mooncake


Ingredients :


120g Glutinous Rice Flour
80g Rice Flour
30g Cake Flour
20g Wheat Starch
100g Caster Sugar
500ml Milk
6Tbsp Cooking Oil
6Tbsp Condense Milk


50g Fried Glutinous Rice Flour ( for moulding and avoid dough sticking on table and hand)


Method :


1. Place all the flour ingredients in a mixing bowl, add in sugar. Pour in the milk gradually into the mixing bowl and stir constantly until well mix.
2. Continue stiring while adding in condense milk and oil . The oil will not be combine well in the mixture but is ok .
3. Sift the mixture 2-3 times to ensure no lump in the mixture.
4. Pour the sifted mixture into a cake pan for steaming.
5. Steam the mixture on high fire 30-40min. Use a toothpaste to stick in the steam mixture if come out clean the dough is cooked.
6.Let the dough cool down and ready to mix with different flavour.


The flavour I used is Pandan paste, green tea powder and mulberry mash. ( My neighbour has a mulberry tree behind my yard , the fruit just so bountifully drop , in order not to waste it , is good to make something of it)


** Weigh 30g dough and 25g red bean for smaller mould
** Weigh 70g dough and 50 g red bean for bigger mould


The measure is a guide for myself . I would say everyone has their own preferences. So measure as it suit your preference and the size of your mooncake mould.

Flaky Mung Bean Pastry - Aka Penang Tau Sar Piah

 

Being a mom and working at the same time, has taken a lot of my time. Of course there is a lot of bloggers in the same position like me. I am still learning to manage my time so to have a work , life and church balance. I thought is not that "hard" , turn out time really go pass faster than I expected. It could be 1/3 of the time is not occupying by my bbaby , it has shorten my hobby time.I still bake, cook and enjoy food . Just before I can blog is another month gone.

I have make this Tau Sar Piah awhile ago. During my maternity leaves and full time taking care of my then newborn. She is a good baby and sleep long hour, so I have the me time to do the things I like. Just one thing that I need to be mindful . She is not good at any noise , whenever she is sleeping and I want to do my baking I have to be extra careful not to make any sharp noise to wake her up. Operating mixer is fine , is a white noise to them. The sudden hit of metal mixing bowl is not a good idea at all.



For the mung bean fillings is in my -> Black-Glutinous-Ang-Ku-kuih. Yes, originally the mung bean fillings is for this 'biscuit'. The excess has been used to make the other kuih.


Indeed this is a pastry you only make when you can not buy from your area or you are too free , and feel to take up some tedious chores then do it . It is time consuming on making the pastry right and wrap it up . The  baking itself did not take long .


Here are the recipe I follow -> Nasi Lemak Lover


Ingredients :


Oil Dough


125g All Purpose  Flour
35g   Shortening
35g   Cooking Oil



Water Dough
250g All purpose flour (sifted)
1/2 Tsp Fine Sugar
65g Shortening
120 - 130ml Water


Method :


1. Prepare oil dough by mixing all the ingredients together and knead till form a soft dough.
2. Prepare water dough by combining all the ingredients and mix till it form a soft dough.
3. Cover the dough and let it rest 20 min separately.
4. Divide and shape ach dough into 34 equal portion balls.
5. Roll oil dough out to round dish and wrap water dough in it. Roll it out into long rectangle shape. Roll up the dough like swissroll. Repeat this step twice ( this is the "fun" part that you have do all for the rest of the small dough , 34 times perhaps!!)
6. Roll the pastry out into a circle and place the fillings at the center. Bring all the edges together ( like making a bun ) pinch to seal.
7. While doing all the rolling and filling , preheat the oven to 170C .
8. Egg wash all the pastry and bake for 20min or till golden brown.

You can see from the picture, some of my pastry seem to tear a bit . But it all turn out good . I share with some of the friends who I think maybe they might miss this as well. The rest?? Of course we keep for our own consumption. Is time consuming pastry so is precious each time we took one .


Will I do it again ??? Maybe when I felt the craving or miss this pastry. Else I can go without :p. I heard that is a new version coming , instead of putting mung bean as fillings, they have the sambal shrimp in it .  Maybe just maybe one day I might do that version. Perhaps I should taste it before I make it.  Yup hope to visit the family sooon.

Black Glutinous Ang Ku Kuih ( Aka Purple Sweet Potato soft cake )

I have always wanted to make the black glutinous rice flour Ang ku Kuih. I was hoping the color of this kuih will be dark shining black . However the result is more a dark purple kuih. When I planned to make this kuih another traditional biscuit was in my mind , so I decided to do a mung bean fillings. The half of this mung bean fillings is used for another recipe ( I hope I can update it soon ) .

For the Mung bean fillings I follow the recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients :

400g peeled Mung Bean ( The one I bought is already peeled , soaked overnight)
250g caster sugar
2tsp  salt
Dash of white pepper 
1/2 Onion ( original recipe called for shallot) - Finely chop.
4-5 Tbsp of vegetable oil

Method:

1. Combine Mung bean , sugar and salt in a large metal bowl. Mixed well and steam on medium heat for 30min.
2. Once Mung Bean is easy to mash , off the fire and mash mung bean to fine. I used blender to blend it , make sure is not too finely blended
3. Heat up the vegetable oil in a wok and stir fried the onion till brown, set aside for later used.
4. In the same wok pour in the mash mung bean and stir fried on low heat till is dry and able to form a ball.
5. Remove from heat and pour in the fried onion and mix well with the mung bean mash.
6. Divide and shape the mung bean into ball shape for later used.


Black Glutinous Rice Ang Ku Kuih 

Adapt from ->Butter , Flour & Me

Ingredients :

80g  Purple Sweet Potato
1Tbsp Caster Sugar
50g Warm Water
120g Black Glutinous Rice Flour ( Original recipe call for 40g black glutinous rice flour + 80g glutinous rice flour)
1Tbsp Cooking Oil

Method :

1. Cut purple sweet potato in cube and steam till cooked and mash it finely.
2. Mix all the ingredients till combine , add in the oil at last to form a dough.
3. **Portion the dough accordingly to fit the mould , and wrap the fillings with the dough.
4. Gently press the dough into the kuih mould that has dusted with flour.
5. Hit the side of the mould and unmould the kuih and place it on a small piece of banana leave .
6. Once finished moulding all the kuih, steam the kuih in a wok with medium heat for 2 min , open the lid let the hot air off closed lid, continue to steam for another 2min , open the lid again and close it to steam for another 1 min.
7. Take the kuih out and brush some cooking oil onto it. Let the kuih cool and serve .

I have 2 size of mould . one is tiny one another is consider medium.

** Note:
For small mould - weigh 11g dough and 9g fillings
For medium mould - weigh 13g dough and 10g fillings.

The kuih is soft and the fillings is just nice sweetness. I have a few freeze and when have the kuih steam back is still soft and yummy.

Black forest cake ( La forêt noire )

A completely different Black Forest Cake. I came pass this cake recipe years ago. I do bookmark as a cake I must do when I have an opportunity.

April month was full of celebration. One of the special day was my beloved birthday. I did not bake him any cake last year, during my pregnancy I was so put off by any sweet . So I can not make any baking. This year I promise him I will do a special cake for him. So what does he expect from the cake ? He love chocolate and want something creamy. So this is the right cake!!

So this recipe that I have bookmark from my favourite blogger ->DailyDelicious Black Forest Cake . 
is the best choice for this event. 
Ingredients : 

Basic Chocolate Sponge cake 

85g Egg Yolks ( 4 eggs)
25g Caster Sugar
45g Vegetable Oil
45g Milk
60g Cake Flour
25g Chocolate Powder - mixed in the cake flour above

170g Egg White ( 4 eggs)
85g Caster Sugar  ( I reduce to 60g)

Method:


1.  Mixed egg yolks and 25g caster sugar with hand whisk till is combine .
2.  Mixed the oil and milk together combine well. Pour into the egg yolks mixture and whisk well,
3.  Sift the cake flour mixture into the egg yolks mixture and combine till no lump.
4.  Preheat oven till 160C.
5.  Used electric mixer beat the egg white till foamy and gradually add in the sugar. Beat the egg white till peak foam .
6. Fold 1/3 of the egg white into the flour mixture combine well and continue to fold the egg white in 2 batches into the flour mixture , till all combine well.
7. Pour into the rectangle mold and bake for 15mins or baked. When the sponge cake was cold , cut into 2 pieces of square cake that fit into 6" loose base square mold.

 Simple Syrup ( original recipe is Kirsch syrup )

120g Sugar
100g Hot Water
15ml Brandy ( original recipe used Kirsch)
 -> I actually used the juice from the can of pitted cherry.


Chocolate Cream

80g Dark Chocolate Chopped
2 Egg Yolks
15g Caster Sugar
85g Full Cream Milk
100g Whipping Cream ( pouring cream)
-> Next time I would add some gelatin in it to have it more firm(1 Tbsp of gelatin + 1 1/2 Tbsp of water to bloom it)


(Kirsch) Brandy Flavor Whipping Cream

2g Gelatin ( will change to 1Tbsp gelatin + 1 1/2 water to bloom it )
1 Tsp of Vanilla paste
280g Whipping Cream
20g Caster Sugar
10-20g Brandy or Kirsch

Chocolate Whipped Cream
30g Dark Chocoalte chopped
130g Whipping Cream

-> Melt chocolate , and put the 35ml whipping cream into it and mixed. Pour the mixture into the remaining cream and beat till soft peak. Chilled in fridge .


Decoration

Chocolate Shave
Cocoa Powder

1 can of pitted cherry or fresh cherry (pitted)

Method :

Make Chocolate Cream

1. Beat the yolks and sugar till well combine. Boil milk and pour the hot milk over the yolk mixture and whisk all the time.
2. When all milk mix into the yolk. Pour the mixture in sauce pan and heat on low heat until 80C
3. P;ace a sieve over the chopped chocolate. When the egg mixture is ready, have the mixture slowly pour onto the chopped chocolate through the sieve.
4. Wait for 1 min and stir till the chocolate is all melted and let it cool to room temperature.
5. Beat the whipping cream till soft peack, spoon 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture , fold to combine and pour the chocolate mixture back into the whipped cream and fold to combine.

Put 1 piece of the chocolate sponge cake in the 6" square mold sprinkle with syrup . Pour the chocolate cream over the sponge and refrigerated for 2 hours until firm.
Drained the cheery and place the cherries over the chocolate cream.

Make Kirsch flavor whipping cream.

1. Place 80ml whipping cream in a small saucepan with vanilla paste and sugar. Bring it to boil and put the gelatin into the cream and still till melt. Let it cold to room temperature
2. When the cream is cold mix in the kirsch ( brandy) and the rest of the cream whip till soft peak.

Spread the cream over the cherries sponge and place the other pieces of chocolate sponge cake on top. Sprinkle with syrup and refrigerate until firm . I did overnight.

Before serving , decorate the cake with chocolate whipped cream , chocolate shave and cocoa powder.

As I did not drained the cherries enough , my chocolate cream part was really melting when I unmold my cake. I have to freeze the cake to have it come out nice.

If I make this again , will put some gelatin in the cake or use fresh cherries I think would be better.

My husband love this cake to the bits . I promise nobody will share his cake , so basically he has this whole cake himself. I knew he enjoy it lots.