Cornflakes Macaroons

This is one of the popular cookies during Eid and it is really easy to make. I believe this is similar to the coconut macaroons but this is baked till dry and crispy. I love making this because it uses very little ingredients and you can be creative with what you want to add to it. For this, I have added crushed cornflakes and chocolate chips. I also tried with nutella and ground hazelnut, very addictive and delicious.

To make this, you need to be a little patient as it requires to be baked at low temperature for about 1hr or slightly less depending on your oven.

Here is the recipe that I used. I baked them at 140C for about 1hr. Some baked at even lower temperature of about 100C and baked at almost 2hr. Some slightly above 140C for about 45min. All these depends on your oven, I prefer to bake it at 140C as anything more I get cracks. But seriously it's up to you :) Remember that you have to bake it till it's dry.

Ingredients:

1/2 C egg white (about 3 egg whites)
155g castor sugar (original was 225g but it is extremely sweet for me, hence I reduced the amount)

150g cornflakes, crushed
200g chocolate chips, more if you like
2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
mini cupcake casings

Method:
1. Beat the egg white till frothy and slowly add sugar and beat till stiff peaks (glossy but not dry)
2. Stop the mixer and add the cornflakes and chocolate chips and fold gently till well blended
3. Arrange cupcake casings on tray and using a small cookie scoop, scoop into the casings
4. Bake at 140C in a preheated oven on the lowest rack for 1hr or till the meringue is hard both the top and bottom (don't be afraid to squeeze the bottom a little bit)
5. Remember to switch position of tray in between
6. Leave it to cool completely before storing in airtight containers


Happy trying !!

Pineapple Tarts revisited

I could not resist not making these during the CNY break.

Alot of readers were asking me about replacing the milk powder, so I tested it and replaced all the milk powder with plain flour. The result is still the same BUT without the milky flavour. It is still delicious and still melt-in-your-mouth if you follow the instructions in the post here. You can also reduce the milk powder if you don't want it to be too creamy but don't forget to replace it with flour!

Chewy Chocolate Chip cookie (Alton Brown)

This is my family ultimate favourite chocolate chip cookie. The dad and girls love chewy cookie but for me I am more for crunchy ones. This doesn't last very long, usually 1 day or 1.5 days tops. The recipe yields quite a big dough so I usually keep them in small portion and freeze them. Bake them as and when I need. It's dangerous to bake them a big portion because the cookie jar will be forever glued to them *LOL*

The dough will be a bit sticky. So it is advisable to refrigerate the dough before baking. This makes handling easier and you also don't want to end up with real flat cookies. Don't overbake the cookies as this will make them hard when cooled. Once you see the edges turned brown, you can take it out even though the centre seemed soft. Remember, this is chewy cookie not crunchy ;-)

Adapted from here

Ingredients
220g unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour*
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence/exract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (use the regular chips and not mini ones to give some height to the cookie)

* Do not replace bread flour with plain flour because the extra protein in bread flour gives the cookie a chewy character.

Method
1. Heat oven to 180C
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat
3. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside
4. Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl
5. Add the sugar and brown sugar
6. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed
7. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined
8. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined and stir in the chocolate chips
9. Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets
10.Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes, rotate the baking sheet for even browning
11.Cool completely and store in an airtight container

Choc Chip Macadamia Cookie

I made this cookies for the Masak-masak challenge #4 since it has been in my to-do list recently. The original recipe is by Gina from KC, you can get it here but as usual, I change it slightly to suit my taste ;-)

Ingredients
115g salted butter
180g Self Raising flour
1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
80g castor sugar
50g light brown sugar
1 egg, lightlybeaten
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1 1/2C semisweet chocolate chips
1/2C macamdamia, toasted and chopped

Method
1. Cream butter and sugar till creamy
2. Add egg and mix till well blended
3. Add in flour, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and chopped nuts and mix it gently
4. Chill the dough for about 15-30mins to set it
5. Scoop with a spoon or cookie scoop and line them in a lined tray
6. Bake in a preheated oven 170C for about 15-20 mins
7. Cool on a wire rack before storage

Enjoy!

Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple tart is a must in almost every household during festive seasons. For us, we like melt-in-your-mouth pastry and we have been using this recipe for a very very long time :-) The original recipe uses icing sugar, but we omit that as we don't like overly sweet tarts. For the pineapple paste, you can either make it yourself or buy it. When I am too busy or lazy, I usually buy the paste from baking supply store and modify it according to my liking. Cuts short the time.

I would recommend those who wants to do it to stick to 1 recipe. I have tried halving it and honestly, it didn't come out as good. I usually make kuih makmur with the same dough. So 1 recipe gives me 2 kinds of cookie. Hope you enjoy doing it as much as I have.

Ingredients
Pastry
500g butter, softened
700g plain flour
100g milk powder
100g icing sugar (I omit this but you can add if you want)
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
a few drops of yellow colouring (optional)

Method
1. Cream butter, icing sugar if using and eggs till creamy and light
2. Add vanilla essence and yellow colouring (if using) and mix well
3. Add flour, salt and milk powder into butter mixture, using your hand mix it till all the ingredients are well incorporated
4. Shape dough into a big ball, wrap and let it rest for 15min or more in the refrigerator
5. Shape the dough to your liking and top or fill with pineapple jam
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 10-15mins or till the sides turn golden brown

Important Note
* For melt-in-your mouth effect, it is very important that you do not overmix or overwork the dough. Once the ingredients comes together, stop.

This dough is a little sticky, I usually clip it myself instead of using the mold. If you are using mold, make sure that you flour it a little but not too much to prevent sticking.

This is for evie, I got this recipe from the internet but can't remember the site. When I make my own filling, I don't have exact measurement. It's more of estimation but generally it is similar the one below but I omit the clove and star anise because I don't like the filling with spices :-)

Ingredients
Filling
4 sweet fresh pineapples (about 1 kg total weight) or crushed canned pineapple
600 g granulated sugar (you can adjust this according to your level of sweetness)
4 cloves
1 star anise

Method
1. Grate pineapples and squeeze out juice using a muslin cloth or use the strainer to drain the juice, keep aside
2. Chop or blend pineapple meat until fine
3. Combine with sugar, star anise and cloves in a heavy-bottomed pot and cook over low heat until almost dry
4. Stir constantly until mixture is gluey and thick, the consistency of thick jam
5. If too dry, add abit of pineapple juice
6. Cool and store in refrigerator

Swedish Thumbprint Cookie (Rosenmunnar)

Still in the process of clearing up my freezer and pantry, I decided to make this very easy but rich and buttery cookies. I used the recipe was shared by Jasmin at KC with slight modification.

I used strawberry jam for this, but you can use any flavour or even nutella :-)

Ingredients
227g butter, softened (original 225g)
100g icing sugar (original uses castor sugar)
250g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (original doesn't use this)
Enough strawberry jam

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add sifted flour and vanilla essence, and mix well
3. Shape dough into 1/2 inch diameter balls and place on a lined cookie sheets
4. Imprint your thumb in the center to make an indentation
5. Fill with your favorite jam or preserves
6. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown at the edges
7. Remove to cool on wire rack

White Chocolate Cream Biscuit (Shiroi Koibito)

This is a popular Japanese biscuit also known as Shiroi Koibito which I think is from Hokkaido. I love this biscuit and it is good even on it's own without the cream.

with the fillings

the template that I used

The recipe is adapted from Alex Goh's 'Temptation of Chocolate' with just minor adjustment to the sugar. I would say the white chocolate cream is also so-so, so you may want to use your own better ganache recipe.

Ingredients and Method
Biscuit
85g sugar (original is 100g)
90g butter
2 egg whites
85g flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy
2. Add egg whites and cream until batter is smooth
3. Add flour and mix till well blend
4. Pipe the mixture into rectangular shape or use the template to shape it
5. Bake in the preheated oven at 160C for 10mins or until the edges turned golden brown
6. Leave them to cool
7. Once cool, sandwich 2 biscuits with chocolate cream

White Chocolate Cream
100g shortening
40g icing sugar, sifted
200g white chocolate, melted

1. Beat shortening and icing sugar till light
2. Add melted chocolate and mix till well combine

Coffee Cookie

This is a must for coffee lover *wink* This recipe was a contribution from an online friend Aishah at M4M. My daughters love this cookie.

The recommended instant coffee powder is nescafe but I use my favourite, BRU coffee instead.

The dough is very soft, so you need to use either piping bag or cookie presser to shape it. Rest it in the fridge for 30mins for easier handling.

Ingredients
1 egg
9oz/250g butter, softened
6oz/170g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
11oz/330g plain flour
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
some chocolate rice for decoration

Method
1. Beat sugar and butter till white and fluffy
2. Add vanilla essence, egg and coffee powder and mix well
3. Once well blended add in the flour
4. Use a cookie presser or piping bag to shape the cookie
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C till the cookies turn golden brown

Choc Chip & Walnut Cookie

The recipe I used for this cookie was taken from allrecipes.com but I made some modification to it. It is supposed to be like Famous Amos cookie but personally, other than the texture, the taste is not there yet. I still need to do more experiment for get the taste that I want. Nevertheless, this is a great tasting cookie - the texture is light and crispy but not overly crispy. Something that I like :)

The original recipe uses 1 cup butter. I have modified it to add a bit of shortening to retain the shape. My first attempt using the original recipe gave me a flat cookie.

Here are some of the other tips that you can follow to minimise flat cookie which worked for me :)

- Use good butter. Ingredients should just be cream and salt. Example of good brand Lurpak, Golden Churn etc
- Do not overbeat the butter. Beat until the mixture turns fluffy and well mixed, then stop
- Chill the dough before use
- Make sure the tray used is not hot

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar (can use demerera or light muscovado sugar)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (you can use less but make sure the butter and shortening makes up 1 cup)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 - 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used about 1 1/2 cup)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree celsius
2. Thoroughly cream sugars, butter, shortening, oil, egg, milk and vanilla.
3. Add dry ingredients, nuts and chocolate chips.
4 .Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes. (Cookies are light in color when done.)

Enjoy !

Sugi Cookie

I apologize for not updating the recipe fast enough. Work and house chores were catching up on me and I finally got some time to update :)

The sugi cookie recipe is Chef Devagi's recipe which you can get it from QBB website. But anyway, here is the recipe for those who are interested.

Ingredients
250g ghee
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
500g plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda (using this will give the cracking effect)
170g icing sugar
3/4 teaspoon fine salt

Method
1. Melt ghee over low heat or use the microwave oven for about 10-15secs and leave it to cool
2. Add vanilla essence to cooled ghee
3. Sift flour, bicarbonate soda, icing sugar and salt into mixing bowl
4. Pour ghee mixture in flour mixture and knead well to form a firm dough.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
6. Roll dough into melt-in-your-mouth ball sizes and place on greased tray and bake for 25 - 30 minutes till cooked but not brown. The cookies should be white and crumbly in texture.