Chia date cookies

With oats~!

First time ever, I've baked without butter, sugar, flour and eggs........

They do taste a little on the drier end just coz I didn't have peanut butter paste but they are great energy source. Really felt weird without those ingredients at the top.

Oh and I wanted to use up the 'food' again in the kitchen. Enjoy!




Courtesy from Ceres's interesting 3 ingredient recipe for Banana cake cookies

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Pineapple Tarts

Hokai, this was my first time making them and I so can't be bothered with the shape etc etc but I do bother with the filling!!

Soooo....

I literally made TarTs...in cupcake trays so that it holds more filling!!

Ok so I didn't have enough mini muffin trays...I made normal cookies instead =P

I tried to make a ball shape but the batter was a bit crumbly (it does boil down to the butter used) and the crust was abit harder than normal (better off for large base tarts) so the next time I make it I'm gona see if semi soft butter and icing sugar will help soften the base abit =)

What inspired this crazy spontaneous move? Leftover batter from my previous post! I realise that I won't have many eating tarts so thought I'd make cookies and distribute it around instead (Well, I gave everything to my sister haha). She loved the pineapple bit since it doesn't stick in between the teeth (I didn't cook it too long).

Before....and after say half an hour at medium flame

Anyway, it's Chinese New Year, so it's not worth the festival without attempting to try and make cny cookies! And to those of you out there, wishing you a great prosperous and wonderful new year to come. May the water dragon brings us joy in what we do! Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Courtesy of Nonyafood & Recipes and Rasa Malaysia's posts)

Makes about 18 tarts

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Orh Nee Cheesecake aka Taro Cheesecake

I've been meaning to make this ever since I stumble across the recipe in the local Malaysian newspaper (The Star) in March...She is a housewife and wrote a book on recipes. I got so excited when a blend of Asian ingredient is fused with Western.

Probably not as nice as her recipe but it's a first try!

Who would have ever thought it turned out yummy....

I placed a rather large base as I wanted to make my own cookie dough base (Oreos are a waste since the cream would be thrown away). I used Milo powder :) but I didn't realise that it was actually twice the size of what I needed! So I had to ratio and half the cheese batter down. Turns out just as delicious. YUM.

Before...............After

Oh as well as we are on this post, I was figuring out the difference between Taro, Yam and Sweet Potato. Turns out we've been mis using the word Yam quite a bit! Glad to get that out of the way.

Pureed Taro

Makes one 8" cake

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Peanut Cookies

And a very Happy Birthday to me! :). I was feeling rather 'giving' today and attempted to make those Chinese New Year Peanut cookies for the office. As well as there was this big bag of uncooked peanuts hibernating quite comfortably in the shelf since last year, haha. The steps are quite interesting as the difference between this and a normal cookie batter is that the egg is not mixed but rather used much later in the baking process.

Anyway, I kinda went abit nutty...as usual...

Yes, I actually peeled the nuts, one by one

Word of advice: Get ready made roasted peanuts. This was quite a mission! It may only way 250grams but my fingers were all sore towards the end.

But I actually learnt a new tip on how to get rid of the skin off the nuts quickly. To roast them before peeling them of course, rather than peel them first....here's a good website to go to for more instructions.

It was a great day regardless, with wishes from work, and family were racing to wish me at 12am my time and it ended with 3 high notes: Suprising flowers from my family, my favourite Japanese restaurant and more wishes on Facebook! Thank you all for making my busy Wednesday too wonderful :)

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Almond and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

W00p w00p! I have started baking again XD. And off I start with something simple. Shortbread cookies!

Well, this is a slight fuse between shortbread and normal cookies, whereby I just added an egg yolk to the ingredient so that it doesn't crumble too easily and it gives a nice brown texture. Why Almond and Chocolate chip? Well, I bought a packet of shortbread cookies of similar flavour from America and it had an acquired taste in which I half didn't fancy and half did on the other hand. So, I thought I tried baking them myself to see whether it might taste a tad better.

Anyway, to start of with things, shortbread cookies follow a very simple ingredient principle ratio (thanks to joy of baking):

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• salt and vanilla essence to taste

And you can add anything to it such as nuts, chocolate chips all to suit! And with a cookie recipe, check out my previous post on the ingredients. The only difference between the two is that cookies add egg to their recipe.

But with my Almond and Dark Chocolate Chip cookies, I've modified a few bits to suit my taste...

Eat me! eat me!

And it turned out just what I wanted, not too dry like biscuits, nor not too crumbly like shortbread :). And what's more, it doesn't have preservatives! It does make such a HuGe difference.

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Cookies

Christmas time is nearing! Time to get 'em christmas cookies in the making. Super simple and lovely simple gifts to make! Also fun for the kids too :). Here's a simple batter recipe that one can make abundantly and you can freeze it for almost a month too!

And if you want them to 'melt' into your mouth, substitue the granulated sugar for icing sugar ;)

Makes 36 x 10cm cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (225g) butter , softened 
• 1 ½ cup (300g) caster sugar / granulated sugar (or 1 cup icing sugar)
  
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 ½ cups (460g) plain flour 

Method:

1. Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon, then add the egg yolk and vanilla and briefly beat to combine. Mix at high speed.
2. Sift over the flour and stir until the mixture is well combined - you might need to get your hands in at the end to give everything a really good mix and press the dough together. Start off at low speed. Be careful not to over mix as the dough will harden.
3. Place dough into an air tight gladwrap and place it in the refrigerator for an hour.
4. Sprinkle some flour on a piece of parchment paper and place the dough on top.
5. Sprinkle flour over a rolling pin (or use a wine bottle) before rolling the dough. If it gets soft, place it in the fridge once more.
6. Thickness should be ¼ inches.
7. Place it in a fridge for an hour once more before cutting them up.
8. Bake in an oven for 12-15 mins at 180 deg C.

This is the season to be jolllyyyyyy...