My Favorite CNY Cookie - Almond Cookies

This was the 3rd (or was this #4? I have lost count) batch of Almond Cookies that I baked within a week.

Feeling encouraged by the very positive response from family and colleagues who have tried the cookies, I garnered enough courage to submit this post to Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011). This shall be my maiden submission :)

The recipe is adapted from the host of this Aspiring Bakers #3, j3sskitch3n. Thanks Jess for sharing this wonderful recipe!

I gave some of these cookies to my colleague, Karen. She and her kids liked them so much and did a "thank you posting" in her facebook yesterday. See below for the photo she has posted. Isn't sweet?! :)

Besides several batches of almond cookies, over the last weekend, I have also baked 2 batches of cornflakes, and spent 3 hours baking kueh bangkit in various shapes (bunny, playboy aka rabbit head, and flowers). It was fun but tiring too, with aching shoulders and neck whole day while at work. Went for 30 minutes quick massage after dinner for a quick fix :(

Although I have promised younger daughter Reann that I'll bake another batch of pineapple tarts tonight, I decided to take a break from baking but make something simple and not so straining to my shoulder and neck - steam 发糕 Huat Kueh. They turned out nice and yummy. Daughters love them so much and will be having them for breakfast tomorrow :)

Below is a line-up of all the CNY cookies that I have baked over the last weekend. Enjoy!

你发了吗？

发了！发了！

Beautiful mini Huat Kuehs that I made tonight......  :)

4 of us shared one of the cake after it is slightly cooled down. It is so moist and the sweetness is just right. Both girls said they want to have the remaining for breakfast tomorrow and already request me to make it again for breakfast on day after tomorrow too. Well, this is call planning ahead, right? LOL

Recipe adapted from bakingmum but I made 80% of the full portion and reduced the sugar content. Recipe for my adapted version is as follows:

200g self-raising flour

128g light brown sugar (see Note 1)

200g coconut milk (see Note 2)

1. Mix together the flour and brown sugar together in a mixing bowl, break the lumps in the sugar by hands, if necessary
2. Stir in coconut milk and mix till flour and coconut milk is well combined, until no more visible dry flour. Do not overmix otherwise the cake might not huat (ie split up nicely).  You should get a  sticky gluey mixture.
3. Pour into muffin cups and steam over high heat for 15 minutes (Note 3).

May we huat in the year of Rabbit, just like these Huat Kuehs!

Cheers!!

Agnes' Notes:

1. I used light brown instead of dark brown sugar. Hence, the light yellowish color cake, which I prefer over the conventional dark brown kind.
2. I used low-fat coconut milk, a healthier choice.
3. I would steam for 5 more mins the next time when I make this again as I find the bottom of the cakes are still a bit wet after 15 minutes. Alternatively, steam in one big lined container for 40-50 mins to get a big huat kueh.

Brown Rice with Fresh Mushroom, a healthy lunch

I am on sick leave today and it's raining cats and dogs outside. Being alone at home gives me the  time to do my own stuff. What a blessing to be unwell once in a while :)

Besides a few recipes which I'm supposed to post here before I forget about the variations that I've made during the baking process, there are brown rice with mushroom cooking in the rice cooker (my lunch), a dough in the oven waiting to rise for the sweet dough buns that I'm attempting to make for tomorrow's breakfast. There are also almond cookies and Kuih Bangkit that I've planned to bake today. Very ambitious but shall try to do at least 2 posts, have my lunch (of course), do up the buns and bake at least 1 kind of cookie today.

The rice should be cooked by now as I can smell the nice woody mushroom fragrance coming out from the kitchen. Yum yum, I am so hungry now that I shall leave this post mid-way to have my lunch first :P Coming back soon......

Hmmm, so satisfying....the lunch was so good! It's so easy to prepare too. In fact, faster than cooking instant noodles. Most importantly, it's healthy without any need for salt and oil.

I came across a food picture in a dated issue of i-weekly. It was a bowl of rice topped with mushroom, with a short para that said it was a simple and delicious bowl of rice prepared by a well-known local chef - he simply put the rice in rice cooker and topped with fresh mushroom (not sure if there is any seasoning added though). Since I am at home alone today, I brought some fresh mushroom from Cold Storage after seeing the doctor last night. Intended to cook them with instant noodle but I remembered this picture this morning. Hence, decided to give it a try. I  topped the brown rice with 2 kind of mushroom - 茶树菇 and shitake mushroom, without any seasoning. I ate the rice with  some Japanese crispy seaweed and dried sambal ikan bilies sprinkled on top of it. Yummy and very satisfying now :)

Almond Cookies

Baked these Almond Cookies after dinner tonight. Verdict: the almond scent is so nice and the cookies are yummy. Rachel said the texture is not as crumbly as they look. They are "biscuity" instead. LOL. I like the soft and melt in the mouth texture. 

Both girls helped me to lay the little paper cups on the baking tray. And while I was rolling the dough into cookies, Reann kept me company by helping me to arrange the cookies orderly in the tray and counting them. She tried counting several times but still couldn't get the number right :P But I think she had great fun rendering her assistance, especially the last part after I applied egg wash on each of the cookies. She helped me to drop some almond bites on the cookies to decorate them :)

The recipe for the Almond Cookies comes from j3sskitch3n and I yielded 51 cookies (Reann counted them again after they came out from the oven and managed to get the number correct, finally!) :)

Ingredients:
150g self raising flour (Note 1)
60g icing sugar
80g ground almond
80g diced almonds (Note 2)
100g canola oil
1/2 tsp almond essence
Egg yolk for egg-wash

some diced almonds for decoration

Method:
1. Sift together flour and icing sugar, add in ground almond and diced almonds, mix well.

2. Mix almond essence into  oil and stir well.

3. Mix both ingredients together to form a soft dough. 

4. Shape into small round balls and place into small paper casing and press it slightly.

5. Brush with egg yolk and decorate with diced almonds and bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 15-20 mins or until slightly brown. (Mine took only 13 mins at 165°C) 

6. Cool completely on wire rack before storing into airtight containers. 

Agnes' Notes:

1. I realised that my self-raising flour had expired. Hence, googled for substitution and followed the instructions as follow: For every 1 cup (100g) of all-purpose flour, mix with 1.5 tsps baking powder and 0.5 tsp salt. I needed 150g i.e. 1.5 cup. Hence, multiplied the baking power and salt by 1.5Xs to get the self-raising flour needed for these cookies.

2. I roasted the diced almond for 10 mins at 120°C in advance and let cool before using.

Cashew Nut Cookies

Baked these cashew nut cookies this afternoon. Pretty happy with the results. Aren’t they looked nice like those we see in bakery shops? :P

 

The cashew nuts are from Vietnam, bought specially by hubby in his last business trip there. In order to put these nuts into good use, I search for cashew nut cookies recipe in the net. There are many recipes posted by food bloggers and I picked this one by baking mum.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients A:
210g butter
80g icing sugar (I used 60g)
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredients B:
250g plain flour
60g corn flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cinnamon powder

Ingredients C:
300g cashew nuts (I needed slightly less than 200g only)
1 egg yolk (beaten for egg wash)

Methods:

1. Bake 100g of cashew nuts in oven at 180C for 10 minutes. Chopped up half of them into small pieces in a chopper and further ground the remaining 50g finely into fine powder. Set aside the remaining 100g of cashew nuts for later use.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar lightly at low speed. Add in egg yolk and vanilla essence. Mix well.
3. Stir in Ingredients B, grounded and chopped cashew nuts. Mix well into a dough.

4. Chill dough in fridge for 40 minutes.
4. Remove dough from fridge and roll into small balls. Arrange on a lined baking tray. Brush with beaten egg yolk and place half piece of cashew nut on top of each cookie and press slightly to flatten it.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 14 minutes or until it is nicely brown. Cool and keep in airtight container.

Need to thanks my little girl for helping me with the rolling of half of the balls :)

Will be giving one box of the cookies to a dear colleague and friend who will be leaving the company next week. A little token from me, hope she will have a blessed endeavor ahead of her in her career and family.

Chicken & Potatoes Pies

These chicken and potatoes pies were my in my To-Do List for really long (> 1 year). I almost forgotten about this until I dug out the long forgotten printed recipe and Elder girl start to pester me to make it.

Finally, I made them in end Nov 2010. And, what you see here are the final products.  Overall, they were yummy and worth waiting for :P

Chicken & Potatoes Pies Recipe
(adapted from myculinaryjournal)

150 g unsalted butter
250 g plain flour
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

1 tsp of mixed dried herbs

100 g plain yogurt

Put all the ingredients, except yogurt, in a mixing bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until like breadcrumbs. Add in yogurt and mix to a dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 mins to firm it up before moulding.

Filling:
1 big onion diced

diced potatoes
diced carrots
Sliced button mushrooms
2 chicken thighs, diced

oil

½ cup water

Seasonings :
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce
salt n pepper to taste

• Heat about 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatoes and carrots until soften. Set aside.
• In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry the onion until transparent. Add mushroom and chicken. Add in potatoes and carrot.
• Add in water and cook for about 5 mins. Add in seasonings.
• Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture. Cool and set aside.

Roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish (I used big muffin cups). Poke holes at the base using a fork. Put 2 - 3 tablespoons fillings in. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie. Use the left over dough to cut into leafs/flowers and place on top of the pies as decoration. Brush with 1 beaten egg.

Baked in a preheated oven at 180°C for 25 - 30 mins. The above yielded 4 pies.

Pineapple Tarts - It's the time of the year again

How time flies! It's time for festive baking again as Chinese New Year is just round the corner. To be precise, it will be CNY in less than a month's time. Last year was my first attempt in pineapple tart and Kueh Bangkit baking. The pineapple tarts were very well received by family, friends and colleagues. I did not make my own pineapple fillings but used stored bought fillings instead as I feel it's time consuming and since I'm no expert in pineapple selection, I may actually end up with sour fillings and thus used more sugar than the ready processed fillings. Hence, I place more emphasis on the pastry, ensuring that it looked and tasted nice :)



2nd Batch, waiting to be cooled down



Baked my first of X batches of pineapple tarts last night. This time, I did not follow the same recipe I used last year. Well, though it was a good and tested recipe but must always strive for improvement and try out new ones right? I adapted the pastry recipe from Baking Mum but instead of milk powder, I added horlick powder instead. Though the dough is a bit soft and difficult to shape, but it produced a nice texture and does taste better than just adding milk powder. Yeah! I'm quite please with my little creativity :)

Gave half of the portion to my mum and there are only few left in the box. Will be baking my 2nd batch tomorrow night to share with colleagues. :)

Recipes (from happyflour):

Ingredients
Pastry:
120g butter
10g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4tsp vanilla essence
140g plain flour
40g milk powder (I used Horlick powder instead as variation)
20g corn flour

Filling:
300g pineapple filling (I used store-bought)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
2. Sift flour, corn flour and horlick powder together and set aside.
3. Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla essence.
5. Fold in the flour mixture and mix until form soft dough.
6. Cover and rest dough in the fridge for 30 mins.
7. Roll pineapple filling into small balls.
8. Pinch some dough and roll into small balls.
9. Flatten the dough ball, place in the filling and seal the opening, shape it into oval ball.
10. Arrange on a greased tray and glaze surface with egg yolk.
11. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 mins until slightly brown.
12. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
13. Store in an airtight container.

Coming up soon is Kueh Bangkit. Even though we will not be able to celebrate CNY this year due to recent bereavement of my FIL, but there is no stopper to bake them to share, right?

Christmas 2010 Bakings

Well, I know I'm late. These are the baking for 2010's (aka last year's) Christmas but I only managed to put them up in this space on the 3rd day of 2011. Well, late is better than never, right? :)



My 1st Christmas Log Cake



Roast Chicken with Veggies



My First Log Cake

This is my very 1st log cake that I've ever created. Though simple and it does look like a log cake, right? :P The little Santa Claus is compliment from my younger girl, who dig out from her toy box when I said I needed some Christmas ornaments to decorate my log cake.

One down side for this log cake is its fillings. I chosen plain yogurt with fresh mango puree as the filling but the plain yogurt which tasted sourish and plain (cos it's plain yogurt loh, LOL) doesn't seem to go well with the log cake. Other than that, the cake is soft and spongy and the chocolate cream are nice to the taste :) Hubby and the kids are impressed with my creation and Elder Daughter loves it so much that she was still asking for it after the 3rd day of making it.


Swiss Roll Cake:
(adapted from dessertfirst)
5 large eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract (I didn't use)
1 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Oil a Swiss roll baking pan with butter and line with baking paper. Oil the baking paper with butter too.

2. Whip egg whites in a stand mixer bowl until they hold soft peaks.

3. Add 1/3 cup of the sugar in a steady stream and whip until white hold medium firm peaks.

4. In a clean mixer bowl, whip the egg yolks, vanilla extract, and remaining 1/3 cup sugar on high until mixture is thick and pale, about 5 minutes, scraping sides of bowl down as needed.

5. Add in flour and salt and whip on low speed just until incorporated.

6. Using a spatula, carefully fold one-third of the egg whites into egg yolk mixture to lighten it. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites until combined.

7. Turn out mixture into prepared pan and spread out evenly with an offset spatula.

8. Bake in oven for about 8 minutes, until the top is pale golden and the center springs back when you touch lightly. It should not get very dark.

9. Remove from oven and place on wire rack. Place a tea towel over the top and let rest for 10 minutes.

10. Run a thin knife around the border of the cake to loosen it. Using a strainer, dust the top lightly with confectioners' sugar.

11. Re-cover the cake with the towel, and place a  baking paper on top. Invert the pans together so the cake turns out onto the towel, on top of the baking sheet. Peel off the baking paper and let the cake finish cooling.

Mango yogurt filling:
(adapted from pengskitchen)
200gm unsweetened plain yogurt
1/2 cup mango puree
4 tsp gelatin
2 tbsp water
some diced mango

1. Dissolve gelatin with water. Mix yogurt, mango puree and gelatin together. Chill in fridge until needed.

2. Spread the filling evenly over the surface of the cake, leaving an inch border on the long sides and a narrower one on the short sides. Spread the diced mango over the fillings.

3. Starting with the long side closest to you, use the tea towel to roll up the cake. Fold the edge of the cake over the filling, and keep rolling, pulling the towel out of the way as you go.

4. Wrap the roll with a plastic wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to let the cream set a bit.

Mocha buttercream frosting :
(adapted from allrecipes)
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1.5 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp brewed coffee
2 tbsp milk

1. Beat all frosting ingredients together until smooth.

2. Remove the plastic wrap from the Swiss roll, cut a portion of the roll out, and further cut it diagonally to attached it above the bigger piece of the roll, to form the log cake shape. I used tooth pick to ensure the 2 pieces are attached to each other firmly.

3. Frost the Swiss roll with the buttercream all over the log cake.

4. Use a fork to scratch the surface of the frosting to create the tree bark effect. Decorate with Christmas ornament.

5. Sprinkle some icing sugar to form the snowy effect before serving.

Roast Chicken with Veggie
(Adapted from noobcook)
For this roast chicken, I used kampong chicken for it more tender meat. Simply rubbed a mix of butter, dried herb and sea salt all over the patted dry chicken, stuffed onion and garlic in the cavity of the chicken. And, there you go, it is oven-ready!

I also seasoned some cut potatoes and carrot with olive oil and dried herb mixture, laid them at the bottom of the foiled roasting pan before placing the chicken in the roasting pan. Roasted it (grill mode) at 220 degree C for 20 mins, lowered the temperate to 200 degree C and continue to roast for another 40 mins. (Total abt 1 hr)