Almond Cookies

This is another cookies that I will bake every year for Chinese New Year - Almond Cookies. They are healthier compared to many other traditional CNY cookies such as pineapple tarts as they are baked with canola oil instead of butter.

 

 

 

 

 

The original recipe is from Alan Ooi's New Year Cookies Cookbook via melspantrykitchen. I have made some variations as below.

 

Almond Cookies

(Made about 50 cookies)

 

Dry Ingredients:

• 100g ground almond
• 20g almond bits
• 150g plain flour
• 30g corn flour
• 80g icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

 

Wet Ingredient:

• 120 ml canola oil

 

For Egg Wash:

• 1 beaten egg yolk

 

Method:

1. Combine the dry ingredients together. Add in the wet ingredient and mix well with your fingers to hold them together to form a dough.
2. Pinch a small piece of the dough and roll it in your two palms to form a small marbled-size ball. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
3. Line the almond balls in a baking tray lined with baking paper. Apply egg wash over all of them.
4. Baked in pre-heated oven at 175 degree C for 20 minutes of until the cookies turned lightly golden.
5. Let them cool down completely before storing in air-tight container.

Pineapple Tarts (2013)

Chinese New Year is just around the corner again! My daughters are so excited over it, because their mummy is going to bake them pineapple tarts again.

I've been baking this Chinese New Year's must-have using the same recipe in the past few years. This year, I tried a different recipe and it yielded equally good result.

I used ready-made pineapple filling. The pastry recipe is from Thelittleteochew but as I only have a short window time frame in the night to do the baking, I halved the recipe as follows which yield one tray of little balls (about 40):

Pineapple Tarts

Ingredients:

• 200g plain flour
• 25g corn flour
• a pinch (original 1/4 tsp) of salt
• 140g cold, unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)
• 1.5 egg yolks, beaten (I scoop out a spoonful from the beaten 2 yolks, and reserve for egg wash)
• 1.5 tbsp cold water
• 2 tbsp icing sugar (reduced from 3 tbsp)
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• For egg wash - the half beaten egg yolk + half tbsp water
• Pineapple fillings - rolled into small balls (slightly smaller than a marble)

Methods:

1. Sift flours, icing sugar and salt. Mix well to combine.
2. Beat the egg yolks, add in cold water and vanilla extra. Mix Well.
3. Add the butter cubes into the flour. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until it look like fine bread crumbs.
4. Add the egg yolk mixture into the flour mixture.Using your fingers again, gently mix the liquid into the flour and gather them into a loose dough ball. Leave it in a bowl, cover and chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove the dough from the fridge, pinch a teaspoonful dough and roll it into small ball with your palms. Flatten it and place a small ball of pineapple filling in the centre. Wrap and roll into a ball so that the filling is hidden inside.
6. Insert a clove into the centre to dress it up like a small mandarin orange. Repeat the same for the rest of the dough.
7. Apply some egg wash over each of the balls. Bake in pre-heated oven at 160 degree C for 18-20 minutes or until the balls turned golden yellow.
8. Remove and let them cool completely before storing them in air-tight container.

Butter Cookies

My younger daughter has been craving for the buttery danish butter cookies and was pestering me over the last 2 weeks to bake her some of them.

 

She was delighted when her wish came true last Thursday. And now, it is my elder girl's turn to request for chocolate chip mint cookies. I am blessed with easy to please kids :).

 

 

 





 

 

Butter Cookies

(Makes about 20)

 

 

Ingredients:

• 185g unsalted butter
• 60g icing sugar
• 185g plain flour, sifted
• 60g custard powder, sifted

 

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 160 degree C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar then stir in sifted flour and custard powder.
3. Scoop out the dough with a teaspoon and roll in into small balls (about 3cm in diameter) and place on the baking tray.
4. The cookies will spread a bit, so ensure that there are sufficient space in between each cookie.
5. Gently press down each cookie with a fork to create the indention patterns.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes.

 

Allow to cool before storing them in airtight container 

Enjoy them plain with fresh milk or turn them into edible yo-yos by sandwiching nutella spread between 2 pieces of cookies.

 

Adapted from droolfactor

 



Chocolate Chip & Walnut Blondies

I baked these Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts together with my elder girl as birthday present for her senior in the school's band.

These squary cookie/bar are very crunchy and chewy. Daughter shared the leftovers with her classmates who liked them very much.

The recipe as given below is adapted from Martha Stewart site. 

Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar (I omitted this)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (i reduced to 1/2 teaspoon)
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used a mixture of dark and white chocolate chips)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I used less than this amount)

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Brush an 8-inch square baking pan with butter; line pan with buttered baking paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides for easy lifting later.
2. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugar until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix just until moistened but do not over mix.
3. Fold in 1/2 of the chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smoothen the top with a spatula. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips and walnuts on top.
4. Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. 
5. Let cool completely in the pan. Using the overhanging baking paper, lift the blondies from the pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 16 squares.

Apple Crumble Bars

I was inspired to make this Apple Crumble Bars over the weekend, after reading Alice's Apple Crumble post. Alice's "bottomless" Apple Crumble (without the bottom cookie base) looks good. I knew I would bake this pretty soon as I love to bake with apples.

For this Apple Crumble Bars, I used the recipe from Annie's Eats which I've used several times.

Apple Crumble Bars

Ingredients:

For the base:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 113g unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the filling:

• 4 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored and coarsely diced
• 5 tbsp sugar ( I cut down to 3 tbsp)
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (I cut down to 1.5tbsp)
• ¼ cup fruit jam (I used blueberry jam)

For the topping:

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 55g unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

1. To prepare the filling, cook the apples, sugar, and cinnamon over medium heat in a pot. Stir  occasionally, for 5-7 minutes, until apples are tender but still firm. In a small cup, whisk together cornstarch and lemon juice. Add to the apple mixture and continue cooking, stir constantly for 3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 176°C. Line an 8×8” baking dish with foil, leaving overhang on both sides for easy removal later. Grease foil.
3. To make the base, mix flour, sugar and salt in mixing bowl. Cut the butter into it using a pastry blender, until it resembles breadcrumbs. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven. Spread the fruit jam evenly on the base while it is still hot. Top with the cooked apple mixture.
4. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients for the topping. Mix well with fingers or pastry blender until combined and crumbly. Sprinkle over the apple layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Using the foil, lift the apple crumble bars out of pan. Cut into squares and serve.

(This tip from Annie is very useful - refrigerate before cutting to firm up a bit for easier slicing.)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Cookies

Tomorrow is an important day for my elder daughter. It's PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam) result release day. She will be collecting her result from her school at noon tomorrow. As her parents, hubby and I are equally nervous as we know that she has put in effort from the beginning of her Primary 6 to prepare for the exam.

As tomorrow will be her last time seeing all her classmates at her primary school, she asked for me to bake her peanut butter cookies for her to share with her classmates tomorrow.

I took this fuss free cookies recipe from JIF but made some variations. The cookies did not disappoint both the girls who are peanut butter fans.

 

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Chunky Peanut Butter
• 1/2 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Baking Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture. Add in chocolate chips and beat at low speed until just blended.
3. Roll the dough into 1 inch ball and flatten it slightly with you hand. Place the flattened cookie dough on the baking tray at 2-inches apart.
4. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking try. Remove cookies to cooling racks to cool completely.

This recipe yields about 36-40 cookies, depending on the size of your cookies.

Matcha Sablés (Green Tea Shortbread Cookies)

This is a very late post which has been sitting in my blog as "draft" for a few months which I did not realise until now. Blur me!

These Matcha Sablés (Green Tea Shortbread Cookies) were baked sometime in September as a birthday gift for the best friend of my elder daughter who loves green tea a lot. These cookies are crunchy and full of green tea flavor. If you love green tea like me, you will sure love this.

The recipe is adapted from here (text in Chinese) but I halved the quantity and had also made some slight adjustment as below.

Matcha Sablé Recipe

• 112g unsalted butter
• 80g powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 200g cake flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1g baking soda
• 12g green tea powder
• Some white chocolate chips

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and green tea powder. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in beaten egg over 2 times.
3. Fold in the flour mixture and mix till combine into a dough.
4. Transfer the dough out of the mixing bowl, place it on a plastic wrap and wrap it in the shape of a disc.
5. Chill the dough in the fridge for around 2 hours till firm.
6. Remove the dough from the fridge, roll it flat (slightly less than 1 cm in thickness), use cookie cutter to cut out the desire shape, place the sables over baking paper. Lightly press chocolate chips on top of each sable.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 150 degree C for 20 minutes. Keep a close watch during the baking process to prevent over-baking. Over-baking will cause the sables to turn from green to ugly brown.

Note: Instead of using cookie cutter to cut out the sables, sables are usually prepared by rolling the dough into cylinder shaped log and keep in the fridge to film up before being sliced into pieces of sables for baking. But I personally prefer to flatten the dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out nicely.

Cute Little Doggie Cookies

 

Do you find them adorable and wish you can take one home? :)

I baked these cute little doggie cookies in end October together with my two girls. My younger girl gave them out to her friends and teachers as farewell goodies on her last day with her last student care centre.

These cookies are pretty easy to make and I urge you to bake some on your own / with your little ones at home during the school holiday.

Doggie Cookies Recipe

(Source: ohbin)

Ingredients:

• 180g unsalted butter
• 20g castor sugar
• 80g Horlicks powder
• 25g corn flour
• 25g milk powder
• 200g cake flour
• Nestle's Cocoa Crunch
• Chocolate rice
• Mini Chocolate chips

The above yield about 50 cookies

Baking Steps:

1. Sieve corn flour, milk powder and cake flour together. Set aside)
2. Beat butter, sugar and horlicks powder till creamy
3. Add in flour mixture, and mix well until it come together as a dough (don't over do)
4. Weight dough 10g each and shape into small round ball and decorate with

          Ear- Cocoa Crunch

          Nose- chocolate chips

          Eyes- chocolate rice

     5. Bake at pre-heat oven for 25mins at 150c

An ideal gifit/treat for the little ones.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My younger girl turned 8 years old on 9 August 2011, as we celebrated Singapore's 46th birthday.

I organised a small and fun party for her. She invited 8 friends from her student care centre. They are the BFFs of hers as well as her elder sister who is in the same centre. The theme of the party was "Create-your-own Pizza". I prepared pizza dough as well as various kinds of toppings.  The kids had great fun creating their own personal pizza using toppings of their own choice.

I baked these Chocolate Chip Cookies and had them packed into goodies bags for all the kids who attended the party. They are tasty and full of flavour.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Breadetbutter

• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 2/3 cups bread flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 285g unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 550g chocolate chips (I used only 350g)
• Sea salt, for sprinkling

Baking Steps:

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined (5 to 10 seconds).
6. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. Wrap cookie dough in cling film and refrigerate for 24 hours.
8. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 175′C.
9. Scoop mounds of dough (size of golf ball) onto baking sheet.
10. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes.
11. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool before storing.

Note: I used only half the dough to make 32 cookies and freeze the remaining dough in the freezer.

Pizzas created by the kids:

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies - the lizard likes them too!

I baked this Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies over the weekend at the request of my daughter who has finally fully recovered from her bad cough. This is a reward for scoring full mark in her maths test. Good job, girl!

This is the second (oh, in fact third time, see the story below) I baked this cookies using the recipe from 101cookbooks (original source: David Lebovitz's Great Book of Chocolate Recipe).

The first time when I baked the cookies two months ago, we did not get a chance to taste them before the  the lizard did!  I had left the warm cookies in the box half-covered to let them cool down while we went out for dinner. After dinner, the girls were so eager to get home for the cookies. While I was still closing the door behind me, the younger girl had jumped up the dinning chair to reach out for the cookies, then she screamed "There is a big lizard in the cookies!" And, indeed, there was a big lizard laying cosily in the bed of warm cookies, taking a rest after having its  big feast?? I quickly poured the entire box of cookies together with the lizard, into a trash bag and threw it down the rubbish chute. :( The girls were so upset and kept blaming the lizard for depriving them of the cookies. To comfort them, I baked them another batch the very next day.

This third time, I tweaked the recipe by adding mint essence as elder daughter has been asking for mint cookies for a while. They loved these very much, and brought some to share with their school friends on Monday morning too. Now the box is empty again, waiting for me to replenish with more cookies.

Here is the adapted recipe for Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies:

(for original recipe: 101cookbooks )

• 120 grams raw sugar
• 115 grams unsalted cold butter cut into small pieces
• 1 egg at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon mint essence
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 175 grams all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 150 grams Hersheys' mini semisweet chocolate chips

1. Beat the sugar and butter together until creamy and smooth
2. Mix in the egg, vanilla extract, mint essence and baking soda
3. Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter
4. Mix in the chocolate chips
5. Scoop the cookie dough into 1 tablespoon balls  and place on  the baking pan lined with baking paper. Space out the cookies (4 inch apart) to allow room to spread. (About 18 cookies)
6. Bake in preheated oven at 150 degree at the top tier of the oven rack, for 18 minutes or until the cookies turn into pale golden brown colour
7. Remove from the oven and cool them on a wire rack before storing them in airtight container

PS: The cookies are very tempting to the lizards, so make sure you keep them safely :P

Tangy Lemon Squares

I baked a tray of lemon squares in the weekend for my daughter to bring to her friend's place for their little girls' gathering. She requested me to bake something for her to share with her friends, so both of us browsed through the bookmarked recipe pages in my iPad  and this is the one she has chosen 'cos she loves tangy, lemony stuff. 

And so I went in the kitchen making these lemon squares and singing "Yellow Lemon Tree"  in my head...

....I wonder how

I wonder why

Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky

And all that I can see, and all that I can see, and all that I can see

Is just a yellow lemon-tree"

We managed to have a piece each before I packed them into a lunch box for the gathering. They are tangy and refreshing with nice lemon scent. One thing I will do next time baking this is to press the crust to make it a firmer base. This was a bit too soft and crumby, thus messy to eat unless you eat the whole piece in one mouth :). But overall, my daughter likes it and has put in request to make it for her again.

The recipe is adapted from Dodol Mochi:

Lemon Squares

(For 7x7-inch square baking tray)

• 113g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 25g icing sugar
• 140g plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• 150g sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 80ml fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
• 25g plain flour
• icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

Methods:

1. Grease the baking tray and preheat oven to 170 degree C.
2. Sift together 140g flour and salt, set aside

For the shortbread base:

1. Cream butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy, fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula till just incorporated, do not over-mix it else the shortbread will be hard.
2. Spread the dough onto the bottom of the greased baking tray evenly, press the dough slightly so that the base will be firm when baked.
3. Bake at 170C for 20 minutes or till lightly browned.

For the lemon curd layer (can be done while the shortbread is baking in the oven):

1. Beat 150g sugar and eggs together till smooth. Stir in lemon juice, lemon zest and the remaining flour. Combine them well.

To assemble:

1. When the shortbread is well-baked, remove the tray from the oven and pour the lemon curd mixture over the hot shortbread.
2. Bake further at 170 degree C for another 20 minutes or till the filling is set. I took Pei-Lin’s advice not to overcook it and was monitoring the oven closely.
3. Once the filling is set, remove the tray from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
4. Cut it into equal-sized small squares and dust with icing sugar (if using).

Yum! (X3)

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!

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.