Crunchy Rice Crispies Jumbles

These are really crunchy and one piece is not enough! I baked these for my grandsons who are cookie 'monsters'. Hmmm.... which kid isn't?

Ingredients:

115g butter
90g caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
175g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
75g rice crispies (I used Kellog's)
50g mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
a few glaced cherries, optional


1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add egg and vanilla essence and cream well.

3. Add flour sifted with bicarbonate soda and mix well.

4. Add rice crispies and chocolate chips and mix well.

5. Spoon mixture onto lightly greased tray, spacing the batter to allow for spreading.

6. Bake in preheated oven 150deg C for 25 to 35 minutes. Slow bake to get the rice crispies crunchy.

 

 

Rugelach

What is a Rugelach?
It's a cookie made with cream cheese dough, rolled around a filling of a variety of nuts, dried fruit, chocolate and jam.

I came across this recipe from Dorie Greenspan book. I wondered what it would taste like.
No wondering anymore! I baked it today and had a yummy time savouring a few pieces!

Ingredients: (from Dorie's)

For the Dough:

4 ozs cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Let cream cheese and butter softenn slightly.

2. Put flour and salt in a food processor and scatter cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine for 6 to 10 times or until the dough forms large pieces. Do not let it form into a ball.

3. Gather dough into a ball (no kneading) and divide it in half. Shape each half into a disk and wrap in cling wrap individually and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 1 day.


For the Filling:

2/3 cup raspberry jam/ apricot jam/ marmalade, microwaved for 20s to liquefy
2 tablespoons sugar, mixed with 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used pecan)
1/4 cup moist dried currants (I used mixed fruit which is soaked in liquor meant for fruit cake)
4 ozs mini chocolate chips

Set aside until dough is ready.

For the Glaze:

1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons coarse sugar for sprinkling


To shape the cookies:

1. Take one piece of dough and leave the other piece in the refrigerator.

2. On a floured surface, place a plastic sheet over the dough and roll it out into a 11 to 12 inch circle.(I rolled a 10-inch). Dough tends to soften quickly and get sticky.

3. Spoon a thin layer of jam over the dough and sprinkle half the sugar mixture. Scatter half the nuts, currants and chocolate chips. Place plastic sheet over and gently press the filling into the dough.

4. Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut into 16 pieces. ( Easier to cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into 4 pieces)

5. Starting from the circumference, roll each piece to the centre. Remove and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

6. Glaze with egg and sprinkle some coarse sugar.

7. Bake in preheated oven 160deg C for 20 to 25 minutes.

All for Rugelach!

Unglazed!

Glazed and baked! They look like grilled ribs!

Pastry for Pineapple Tarts

I am posting this for some friends' request for the recipe.

This cny, I made healthy pineapple tarts.

The pastry for the first batch was made with 100% olive spread and the second batch, I decided to use 50% olive spread and 50% butter.

The pastry is more suitable for the wrapped tarts. For the cut-out type, just add more flour, a little at a time to get a stiffer dough that can be easily rolled out and cut.

The Recipe:(makes about 35 pieces)

75 g olive spread

75 g butter, softened

25 g cream cheese (used low fat)

15 g icing sugar, sifted

3/4 teaspoons vanilla essence

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

175 g cake flour or Hongkong flour

15 g cornflour

1 egg yolk

1 egg yolk, mixed with 2 teaspoon water for glazing

1. Cream olive spread, butter, egg yolk, salt, vanilla essence and icing sugar till just combined. Don't over mix.

2. Add in cornflour and flour. Mix quickly by hand to get a soft dough. Cover and rest for 15 minutes.

3. Use a measuring spoon to scoop even amounts and roll into balls to wrap the pineapple jam.

The size of the jam and pastry is up to personal preference.

(I used a half tablespoon for the pastry and a teaspoon for the jam. I levelled off both ingredients and rolled them into balls.)

4. Use a pastry crimper and make patterns to your fancy. Place on baking tray and glaze with egg yolk. Use a suitable-sized brush to do the egg glaze. Don't over-glaze as too much egg will flow to the tray and the tarts will end up having a dark rim at the bottom.

5. Bake in preheated oven at 160 deg C for 14 minutes. The wrapped tarts will crack a little while baking. Once cooled, they will return to their original shape/size. This is due to the jam expanding when heated up.

My first batch - 100% olive spread used

The second batch - 50% olive spread + 50% butter

Verdict: Definitely the second batch tasted better than the first! The first batch had a slight hint of olive oil flavour but was not detected in the second batch. I will continue to make both types as I like the taste and texture!

Cookies and Sweet Meat

These are what I've been busy with for the past few days. The variety of cookies I made for this cny is fewer compared to previous years. It seems like the variety and amount baked is on the decline each year. Maybe next year, it will be minus one or two!

These pineapple tarts are quite healthy to eat. In fact I used two different types of pastry.

For the healthier version, I used olive spread and a little egg. The other version was half butter and half olive spread. This is in line with my self-created healthy-eating programme.

At least I can enjoy the tarts without feeling so guilty.

The healthy ones - no butter used.

All egg-glazed and waiting to be baked!

Half butter and half olive spread! Just as yummy!

The chocolate chip cookies is an improved version of my previous bake. I made a little adjustment to get the preferred texture. It is really full of mini chocolate chips with eat bite!

These peanut cookies are not the crunchy type. They have to be handled carefully or it will simply break into pieces. But they are wonderfully peanutty and melt in the mouth with each bite.

Why pay $50 or more for a kilogramme of sweet meat? The price of sweet meat or bak kwa has been escalating over the years. I simply refused to pay so much for it though I love to eat it.

There must be a way to beat these exorbitant prices!

Thus I decided to make my own sweet meat. I've been quite encouraged by some recent postings of fellow bloggers making sweet meat. Homemade sweet meat? Why not?

I have on hand a few recipes and I played around with the seasonings from the various recipes, tweaked a little here and there and came up with my version. Hmm... That was easy enough.!

My version is very much healthier; I used premium lean meat with minimal fat. It turned out good and tender despite all the leanness. My hub said it's good, so happy ending!

(The premium meat cost me $14.50 and I got slightly over a kilogramme of sweet meat!)

Raw, seasoned minced meat on a parchment paper

Using a rolling pin to flatten the minced meat

This tray just came out of the oven after ten minutes,

just to firm up the meat before slicing

These are sliced and ready for grilling!

But I wrapped them and stored in the fridge for cny.

Sugee Cookies

It's been four weeks since I last baked. With the CNY round the corner, I have to bake something to give away. I don't like buying CNY cookies as they are usually overly sweet.

I baked sugee cookies which is first on my list. It has always been the first cookie to be baked. Sugee cookies keep well and last a long time. Though I am into eating healthy, that does not mean my relatives and friends have got to be in the same boat.

The Recipe:

200g ghee (used QBB)

150g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk

330g plain flour

egg glaze, optional

1. Cream ghee, sugar, vanilla essence and egg yolk till well mixed.

2. Sift flour, baking soda and salt. Add flour to ghee mixture to form a dough.

3. Roll dough into small balls place on ungreased baking tray. Glaze with egg.

4. Bake in preheated oven 165 deg C for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the preferred colour of cookies. Cool and store in airtight container.

The cookies are actually much lighter in shade. Guess it's my bad photography that made them look 'tanned'. Anyway I like the cracks on the sugee cookies which are their trademarks, liken to the 'feet' of macarons!

Peanut Blossoms

Sounds interesting? Well it certainly did to me when I saw it in the book which I bought in June. In fact I did my bedtime reading and bookmarked quite a number of recipes in this book. I was taking a long time to try out the recipes until I read about this very same cookie on Shirley's blog.

Well, I decided to give it a shot!

48 Hershey's Kisses brand Milk Chocolate

3/4 cup Reese Creamy or Crunchy Peanut Butter (I used Skippy)

1/2 cup shortening (used butter)

1/3 granulated sugar (didn't have any, so used fine sugar)

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk (used UHT)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (used plain flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

extra granulated sugar to roll unbaked cookies (didn't used it)

1. Heat oven to 190 deg C. Remove wrappers from chocolates. Set aside.

2. Beat peanut butter and shortening with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.

3. Add sugar and beat till fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla and beat well.

4. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt, gradually beat into peanut mixture.

5. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional granulated sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet.

6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into the centre of each cookie. Cookie will crack around edges. Remove to wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 48 cookies.

The Book - I was attracted to the pictures.

I an not sure about Shirley, but I definitely won't want to bake this again unless I tweak the recipe. It's not crunchy enough for me. Perhaps it could be the butter which I substituted. It's a pity cos they are cute-looking!

White Chocolate Chips and Hazelnut Cookies

I've been busy for nearly a week, clearing stuffs and spring-cleaning. Some of my things are as old as the hills, errr... more than 45 years old. Goodness! What was I thinking! Maybe I was hoping that they could be preserved as antique or maybe I would slim down to my former S size. Hmmm fat hope!

Some of the usable stuff would probably go to charity, others I would try to sell off on Ebay like my kenwood major metal mixing bowls, K beater and whisk, murooku press set etc.

I baked these cookies just before I began spring-cleaning. They came in handy during my 'coffee breaks'. :) They were my energy boosters!

The cookies are super crunchy and the hazelnuts gave them a lovely flavour.

Look at the size of the cookies!

The Recipe:

130g butter, softened

70g caster sugar

70g fine sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

150g Self-raising flour

150g plain flour

200g mini white chocolate chips

120g hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar till light before beating in egg and vanilla extract.

2. Add in sifted flour and nuts and white choc chips. Mix well.

3. Roll into balls and flatten. The dough should not be dry.

4. Bake on lightly greased tray at preheated oven 160 deg C for 12 minutes. Cool and store in airtight container or eat them all up. (I got about 37 pieces of diameter 6 cm.)

They are quite addictive.

Crr........crunch!

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today I baked some cookies for tea.

Very crunchy and full of choc chips!

The Recipe:

125g butter, softened

90g caster sugar

90g light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

150g Self-raising flour

150g plain flour

250g semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used mini ones)

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat well.

3. Mix in chocolate chips and then flour.

4. Roll cookie dough into balls and place on lightly greased tray. Flatten and bake in preheated oven 160 deg C for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool and store in air-tight container.

And now you can have a cuppa tea!

I doubled the recipe and it yielded 67 cookies.

Viennese Chocolate Sables

This is another of Pierre's recipes. These cookies are soft, crumbly, buttery and chocolatey. They have the melt-on-the-tongue texture. Truly delightful which I couldn't help but ate several when they were partially cooled.

I made half of the recipe which I regretted after taking the first bite! To add to my woes of making less, I practically burnt the first batch! :(

Charred and Bitter!

I should have known my oven's performance and gone with my experience. But I thought there could be a reason why Pierre recommended the baking temperature of 180 degrees C and the baking time between 10 to 12 minutes. I guess the short baking time threw me off my guard! Barely into 6 to 7 minutes of baking, the smell of burnt cookies pervaded the air in the kitchen. Sob! Sob! The whole tray of cookies was ruined and ended up in the bin!

Once bitten, twice shy! I reduced the temperature to 150 degrees and baked for 10 minutes. The second batch turned out fine. Phew! (wipes sweat)

Just right!

The Recipe:

260g all-purpose flour, sifted together with cocoa

30 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder or Valrhona ( I used Valrhona)

250g unsalted butter at room temperature

100g icing sugar, sifted

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoons egg whites (lightly beat 2 large egg whites and measure out 3 tablespoons)

Extra icing sugar for dusting (optional)

1. Lightly grease baking trays and preheat oven to 180 deg C (original from book, but I adjusted to 150 deg C). Prepare a pastry bag fitted with an open star nozzle.

2. Cream butter, salt and icing sugar till light and creamy. Stir in the egg whites (it's okay if mixture curdles).

3. Gradually add in the flour and cocoa and mix well. Do not overmix.

4. Fill up pastry bag and pipe out "W" shapes.

5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Crumbly morsels!

Taralli

I have this newspaper cutting of a taralli recipe which I singled out one night to be on my to-do list.

Taralli is a kind of Italian snack or biscuit which can be sweet or savoury. There are many variations.

I googled for more info and recipes. Most recipes use yeast and white wine and the boiling method before baking. The recipe that I have does not use yeast but requires white wine and extra-virgin olive oil which I don't have either.

Then I came across a recipe which uses red wine (which I have) and baking powder.

Here are the two recipes which I tweaked to get my own.

From the newspaper cutting:

1 cup white wine

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

5 cups plain flour

2 tsp black pepper or chilli powder or chopped fennel seeds

1/2 cup chopped almonds

Whole almonds to decorate

1 beaten egg for glazing

From turosdolci.wordpress :

5 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 cup red wine

1 cup oil

egg glaze

My tweaked version:

5 cups plain flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp cumin powder (didn't have any fennel)

1 cup red wine

1 cup olive oil

1/2 almond nips

egg glaze

How I Did It:

1. Sift all dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl.

2. Add oil, wine and almond and mix into a dough. Wrap in cling film and rest for 30 minutes.

The dough looks like meat due to the colour of red wine.

3. "Take golf ball-sized pieces of dough and roll between palms of hands to make finger-thick lengths. Form lengths into a loop by pinching the ends together."

4. Place loops on oiled tray. I lined the tray with foil and then oiled it. (makes washing easier)

Egg glaze the top.

The loops on a lined and greased with oil tray.


The egg-glazed loops

5. Bake in pre-heated oven 160 deg C for 40 minutes or when it becomes crispy.

6. Cool and store in air-tight containers.

The baked loops

The inside of a loop

I love the crunchiness and the not-so-sweet peppery taste. It is after all a healthy snack.

I will definitely make this again though it burns a little hole in the pocket because of the red wine. ;P

I will also adjust the size and make them thinner and smaller.

I will also try boiling the loops before baking to find out the difference in taste and texture.

Almond Shortbread Biscuits

GM: Would you guys want to bake cookies today?
N & J: Yay!
J: GM, have you got everything ready?
GM: Not yet.
N: Do you have cookie cutters?
GM: Oh yes, I certainly do. Wait till we get home, then I will get everything ready.

N: GM, what's that yellow and white thing in the bowl?
GM: Oh, that's butter and icing sugar.(pointing)
N: J, come! GM is starting to make cookies!
J: What's that white thing? What are you doing? Why?
GM: It's flour and I am sifting it to remove any lumps.

Well, I could go on with the long conversation I had with my grandsons while preparing the dough for them to make cookies.

Kids are always full of curiosity and ask a lot of questions. When I was a kid, I hardly had the chance to ask.
"Children should be seen and not heard" was the age-old adage. But not anymore with this new generation of kids - they do not hesitate to question. Sometimes the questions they pose can be quite embarrassing. BUT we cannot ignore such questions. It's better that we, as adults or parents, should try to give them an appropriate answer to satisfy their curiosity rather than they obtain their answers from 'unreliable' or 'unsavoury' sources.

Now to get back to the cookies!

I used half of this recipe from "The Hawthorne Series of Biscuits, Cookies & Shortbread".

Ingredients:

125g butter
1/3 cup caster sugar (I used icing sugar)
1 teaspoon almond essence (I used vanilla)
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1/4 cup rice flour, sifted (I didn't have any, so I sub with same amount of plain flour)
1/2 cup self-raising flour
60g blanched almonds (I omitted these)


Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar till creamy and fluffy.

2. Add in the essence and egg yolk and cream to combine.

3. Add flour to form a soft dough.

4. Roll dough into a log shape, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5. Slice the dough into 3mm rounds. Place on tray and press an almond on top.

6. Bake at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes. (I baked at 150 deg C for 20 minutes.)

I did not follow step 4 and 5. I showed my grandsons how to flatten the dough and cut out with cookie cutters. Then they placed the cookies on the tray and press MM candy on top.
I should have bought the baking MM which will not crack or discolour the cookie.






This is what the almond shortbread biscuits should look like from step 4 & 5.(Taken from the recipe book)

Wholemeal Nestum Biscuits

What I used:

A
100g butter
100 ml olive oil
130g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

B
200g plain flour
90g wholemeal flour
80g nestum
1 teaspoon baking powder


What I did:

1. Put all the dry ingredients B in a bowl and whisk for a few seconds to mix well.

2. Cream all the ingredients A for 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Add in the dry ingredients and mix into a dough.

4. Roll out into balls and place them onto baking tray and press lightly with a fork to flatten.

5. Bake in pre-heated oven at 140 degrees C for 30 to 40 minutes or till golden brown.

6. Cool and store in air-tight containers.

Macarons

I've read a lot about making MACARONs. The feedback was that macarons are supposed to have "feet" after baking. It means that every piece of the macarons should rise like a little smooth mound and have a rough-looking edge around the base after baking. Judging by the numerous attempts that many had to get it right sounded intimidating and I hesitated........

Well, I decided to take up the challenge and this was what came out of it.

Ingredients for plain macarons:

80g egg whites, to be left overnight before use
65g caster sugar

80g ground almond
140g icing sugar
colouring (optional)

Method:

1. Put almond and icing sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times. This is to make the ground almond extra fine and well-mixed with the icing sugar. Sift the almond mix.

2. Put egg white and sugar in a bowl and warm it in a container of hot water just to dissolve the sugar. Do not overheat.

3. Whisk egg white mix till soft peaks, then add a drop of colouring if required.

4. Continue to whisk till it is stiff but not dry. Do not overbeat.

5. Gently fold in the almond mix in four portions into the egg whites. The batter should be slightly thicker than a cake mix.

6. Fill up a piping bag and pipe out round shapes onto a tray lined with ungreased parchment paper.

7. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Then baked in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees C for 20 to 25 minutes.

8. To remove the macarons, place the parchment paper on a piece of damp cloth and slowly use a spatula to remove them.

9. Cool and sandwich with any cream of choice.




I am quite pleased with the results, but I won't make them again as I find them toooo sweet!
I stored the macarons plain and only sandwich it with nutella or peanut butter when I want to eat them.

Cheese Logs

Something savoury and these go well with a nice cold glass of shandy or beer!

Ingredients:

1 packet Kraft Cheddar Cheese, finely grated
250g butter
About 350g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
50g sugar (optional)
1 egg for glazing

1. Cream butter and grated cheese for 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Add in flour in portions till you get a soft dough.
3. Fill a cookie press and pipe out a long 'stick' and cut to lengths preferred.
4. Glaze with egg and baked at 160 degrees C till golden brown.
5. Cool before storing in an air-tight container.

For a spicy taste, you can add chilli powder, black pepper or paprika before creaming.
Add garlic powder or any of the dry spices for a preferred taste.