Chinese Almond Cookies

I had some leftover almond that I needed to use up, about 1/3 cup of it.  Just nice that we finished the oatmeal cookies that I made for our snack so I wanted to use the almond to make cookies.  A fool proof recipe that I made before and also must be easy.  So I picked this almond sugi cookies recipe that I made dozen of times and added the chopped almond.

I really loved the extra crunch from the chopped almond and this cookie was very yummy.  So suitable for Chinese New Year too. 

Click this link for the recipe I used, except I double the recipe and added 1/3 cup of whole almond, chopped.  Need to double the recipe because of this shape, it's a much bigger cookie.  For the shape, just pinch a bigger dough, roll into ball and flatten it and lightly press it on the parchment paper.  For the almond essence, I did not double it.

The baking time is the same and use a scraper or frosting knife to remove the cookies to cool on the wire rack.  This cookie is pretty fragile but absolutely yummy!

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

What can represent Fall season more than pumpkin?  I just want to make something with pumpkin this time of the year.  I saw this pumpkin cookies recipe on joyofbaking Website and decided to give it a try.  The reason was simple because I never make it before.  This cookie is just like what it stated, soft and cake like in texture.  I certainly would prefer a more chewy one or crispy one.  I used sugar instead of brown sugar as stated in the original recipe, I wonder perhaps it might caused my cookies to be none chewy.  I also omitted the cream cheese frosting.  Anyway, my girls loved it nonetheless so I was glad.  Evy will bring this as her school snack.

As for me, I would love to play and experiment with this recipe some more, as I wanted a crispy pumpkin cookies instead of soft and cake like.  It's like eating a tiny piece of cake on the next day.

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:


(A)

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I omitted this)

1/2 teaspoon salt

(B)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (260 grams) light brown sugar (I used sugar instead of brown)

1/2 cup (120 ml) canola oil or corn oil (or other flavorless oil)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (215 grams) canned pumpkin puree

Method:

1.  In a bowl, sift together (A).

2.  Use a electric hand mixer or stand mixer and beat together eggs and sugar until light and smooth.  Add in the rest of the (B) ingredients, beat until blended.

3.  Add in sifted (A) and beat until combined.

4.  Use a cookie scoop and scoop into a parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake in preheated 325'F oven for 15-18 minutes.   Move to cool completely on wire rack before storing.

Rose & Vanilla Spirals Cookies

I was asked for this recipe from a reader last week.  Actually, I made this cookie a while ago back in 2005 and it was out of experimentation.  And I never made it again until today because I had to test out the recipe first.  I made that cookie in 2005 with simply threw more of this here and there and see how it was created.  The original recipe used mint extract and green coloring or strawberry extract and red coloring but I ran out of strawberry extract thus had to use the closes substitute which was rose extract.  Because this rose extract was already red in color thus the coloring was omitted.

This cookie dough was a bit soft at room-temperature thus had to use the scraper to move the dough and helped along with the rolling.  The texture of this cookie is crispy and then sort of melt in the mouth in the end.

The picture of my old post cookies can be found here.  It has the mint version.

Ingredients:


(A)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar

(B)
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
A dash of salt

(C)
1 tsp. rose extract

(D)

1 tsp. milk

Method:


In a large bowl, beat (A) with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add (B), beating well until when pressed with fingers, it stick together. Fold into a disk with your hands and separate the dough into half.  Mix one half of the dough with (C) and knead until even.  Mix the other half of the dough with (D) and knead until combine.  Covered both doughs with a plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.

Rolled out both of the doughs.  Place the rose dough on the surface, layer the white dough on top.  The dough might be soft and break easily, so use a scraper to help you along.  Roll it like a Swiss roll style.  Or you can alternate with white dough first and layer with rose dough on top and roll it out Swiss roll style.  Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
 
Preheat oven to 350'F. Take it out and cut it into 1/2 cm thickness and place on a parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges were slightly golden. Remove to cool on wire rack.  Store in air-tight container.


For me, it yield about 64 cookies.

Soft Whole Wheat Raisin Oats Cookies 2

I liked my Whole Wheat Oats Cranberries Cookies but it was made with butter.  It was delicious with butter, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to experiment it with oil.  To me, using oil is healthier than using butter.  I made this cookie big, as big as a palm of my hand.  I gave some away to a friend.  The rest we ate it all up.  It was good, seriously, and I don't miss the butter.  Even my hubby who normally don't eat my cookies, ate this, he said he needed the calories. (0.0)  My girls loved it especially Edda, after they tried it, they came and told me they are my number one fans again!  LOL!   How cute!  I guess I need to make them more oats cookies since this is about the only time that we eat oats in our house.

Cool on wire rack.

Okay, this cookie is soft and chewy.  I need to experiment with another recipe of mine because I like my cookies slightly crunchy.

Ingredients:

(A)
1 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
(B)
2 egg
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. kosher salt
(C)
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
(D)
2 cups roll oats 
3/4 cup raisins

Method:

1. In a big mixing bowl, add in (A), beat with electric beater until creamy. Add in (B) and beat again until combined. Then, add in (C) and beat again until well incorporated. Lastly add in (D) and stir with a spatula until well mixed.

2. Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn the oven to 350'F. Use two spoons and scoop some dough and place it on the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Place the cookie dough 1-1.5 inch apart as it will spread out when baking.

3. Bake for 10 minutes. Cookies will be brown on edges and soft in the center. Remove and let the cookies rest in the baking sheets for 2 minutes before carefully transferring them to cool completely on wire racks. Store cookies in an airtight container. 

~Yield 28 big cookies 

Valentine's Day Cookies

Chinese New Year falls on Valentine's Day this year so we see some of the Chinese New Year cookies this year were made into heart shape.  I didn't plan on making this cookies actually but I was left with some pineapple dough from making the Nastar.  So, I rolled out the dough, cut it with a lovely heart shape cookie press and put the middle with raspberry preserved.  Valentine's Day needs some red color right?  So, raspberry or strawberry preserved was the best choice for me.  Lovely isn't it?

Be careful not to put too much preserved in the middle as it would spilled out during baking.  But it was still okay, just scrape off the spill preserved when cool.  I baked them in preheated 350'F oven for 12 minutes.  I didn't apply egg wash on them because I didn't want to ruin the look of the raspberry preserved.

Here wishing all my readers a Sweet and Happy Valentine's Day and a Prosperous and Healthy Lunar New Year!!! 

Pineapple Tarts 2010

These pineapple rolls were also called nastar.  This was the first time I made a successful nastar actually because previously I just couldn't roll the pastry out from the nastar molds that I bought.  It was so hard that I just gave up.  When I went back to Malaysia in 2008, I saw another plastic nastar mold with a push stick to push the dough out, I quickly grabbed one.  And it worked!  It made my life so much easier with this new tool.

I spent the whole afternoon and only managed to produce 59 nastars, like shown above!  Like I said before, this was one cookie that took time to make and could be finished in on time.  My pineapple pastry and short-cut jam recipes can be found here. 

This pastry is soft and melt-in-the-mouth type. Some were not as pretty because after a while I just wouldn't be bother anymore.  :P  Great thing is it is just for home consumption.

Below is the picture of the mold I used to make this pineapple rolls.

Kuih Bangkit 2010

My kuih bangkit for 2010.  Same old recipe but using a new cookie cutter.  Too lazy to pinch pattern also.  I wonder how people got energy to make tons to sell?

Recipe can be found here.

Step by step pictures guide here.

Cornflakes Cookies without Flour Take 2

With the advice from youfei, I used honey instead of sugar to help it bind.  I added dried cranberries and walnuts to make it healthier but this is not a healthy cookies because it is packed with butter.  The butter made it really fragrant and when baked, it was really crispy.  This recipe is for those who seeks it, enjoy!  The sweetness is just nice, not overly sweet.

You can add any dried fruits, roasted nuts, chips for baking or anything you can think of  to make it uniquely yours.  Now I know what to make to bring it for Evy's classmates, the chocolate version would be ideal for little kids.  Without nuts, just raisin and cornflakes so all kids can enjoy it.  ^o^

Ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter (113g)

2 Tbsp. honey (you can add 1 Tbsp. of sugar for extra crunch)

3 cups packed cornflakes, lightly crushed

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Method:

1.  Microwave butter and honey until melted, about 2 minutes.

2.  Add in the rest of the ingredients.  Stir to mix well.

3.  Spoon teaspoon full into mini paper cups and bake in preheated 350'F for 10 minutes.

4.  Let cool completely before serving.

~Yield about 40 mini baking cups.

Note:  I found it to be oily, perhaps you can add half cup or one more cup of cornflakes into the mixture.  

Chocolate Covered Cornflakes Cookies

From the boo boo of my previous post, I created this Chocolate Covered Cornflakes Cookies.   This is a yummy cookie.  Almost like my chocolate clusters yet a bit different.  Since some of the cornflakes cookies that I made early won't stick together, I have resorted to use chocolate to bind them together.  I couldn't waste a bowl of fragrant buttery and crispy cornflakes mix.  Chocolate is excellent especially in this cold weather (super cold winter here), I don't even have to store it in the refrigerator.

Closer view of the cookies.

My two trays of cornflake cookies, now finished, all in our tummies. :P

Ok,  back to the draft on this cornflake cookies, if I failed again, more chocolate one will be created.  Even though the chocolate ones are delicious, but this plain one has it own place in our hearts, even my girls who love chocolate wanted to eat this too, Evy said both were good.  To me, this is more suitable for warm weather as chocolate will melt if it's warm. 

Cornflakes Cookies without Flour

If you are my avid reader or someone who have tried my Chinese New Year cookie recipes, you should know I have been making cornflakes cookies for years. The one that uses flour and oil/butter. This year I wanted to try something different. Cornflakes cookies without flour and I am still experimenting with the recipe. Let me perfect it first before I share it with you because I am having problem for some to stick together. I ended out creating another version of this cookies, the chocolate covered cornflakes cookies which is equally delicious if not more.



Sharing pictures of this delicious treat for now. Recipe will be share once I perfected it. First, I need to go buy more cornflakes cereal.

Green Curry Paste Cookies

I had been thinking...whether to create new Chinese New Year cookie recipes for 2010. I came across Laksa Cookies last year but never tried it. 1) Living aboard good laksa paste was hard to come by. 2) I am too lazy to make my own paste (too much extra work just to make a cookie). And then it kind of strike me that I knew a good Thai green curry paste and in fact I had it at home. So, why not make a Green Curry Paste Cookie instead of the Laksa cookie for us who live overseas? Hence, this cookie was inspired by Laksa cookies and I was eager to try it out. So, sharing with you my tried and tested Green Curry Paste Cookies. This cookie is crunchy and very spicy! Definitely for adult who likes it spicy. And of course tasted like Thai green curry! 





Ingredients:

(A)
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup icing/powder sugar
(B)
50ml coconut cream
1/4 cup packed Thai green curry paste ( I used Mae Ploy)
(C)
1 + 3/4 cup all-purpose/plain flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Method:

1. Hand whisk (A) until blended.

2. Add (B) and hand whisk well.

3. Lastly add (C) and use a spatula to stir it together. When it almost come together, use your hand and knead into a dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4. Roll the dough out and cut out with the desired shape of your cookie cutter. Place on parchment paper lined baking pan.

5. Bake in preheated 300'F oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

~Yield about 53 cookies with my rose shape cookie press cutter.


This is how the flower cookie cutter press looks like.  I forgot whether I bought it at Giant or Jusco supermarket in Malaysia.

Pandan Sesame Pizzelle Cookies

This is a new Chinese New Year cookie recipe I invented for 2010. I didn't know how to name it so I just name it as it because this cookie is baked in a pizzelle maker. It stays crispy after it's cold and it stays that way which I like because I didn't want to bake or toast it again. This was a recipe I accidentally created last year but it was a plain version. For this year, I added pandan paste and additional white sesame seeds. Since the majority of the flour used was rice flour, to me it tasted like rice cookie with the fragrant of coconut milk, sesame seeds and Screwpine leaf (pandan). Edda loved this and has been asking for it everyday.




Ingredients:

125gm rice flour
100gm cornflour

85gm all-purpose flour

250gm sugar

200ml coconut milk

3 eggs

1 tsp. pandan paste
1 Tbsp. black sesame seeds
1 Tbsp. white sesame seeds

Method:

1. In a big bowl, use a hand whisk and whisk coconut milk, eggs, pandan paste and sugar together. Then, add in all the flours and whisk again until blended. Lastly, add in black & white sesame seeds. Whisk and mix well to combine.

2. Heat Pizzelle press and brush with a little oil and pour about a tablespoon of batter in the middle of the press. Close the lid and bake until the light indicator tells you that it's done. Remove with a chopstick and let it cool completely before storing. [I used setting 4 on Cuisinart pizzelle press.]

Whole Wheat Oats Cranberries Cookies

I loved cookies! A cookies lover since young and coming from Asia, we were used to the hard and crunchy cookies. I only got introduced to soft or soft and chewy cookies when I came to America. It got some getting used to but frankly I am still not use to the soft cookies. My hubby brought back some cookies from his office and it was so soft that it disintegrated into pieces, not only that it was very sweet too. It was nothing like eating cookies at all, more like eating soft dough. Needless to say, I am still not a fan of soft cookies but I like the chewy and soft cookies (yet not too soft) like the one I made here.

I am also for healthier cookies so I experimented with whole wheat flour, rolled oats and dried cranberries for this cookies. I made this cookies before using all-purpose flour and the texture was different, with AP flour the cookies spread out and chewier. With whole wheat flour, it didn't spread out as much during baking. Regardless, it is still a tasty cookies to us. You can change the dried fruit to what you have a home. A healthier cookies to make to give to your friends during this Holidays season eh?





~Yield about 33 cookies. Feel free to double the recipe!

Ingredients:

(A)
1/2 cup (1 stick/113 g) butter, soften
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
(B)
1 egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
(C)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
(D)
1 cup roll oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method:

1. In a big mixing bowl, add in (A), beat with electric beater until creamy. Add in (B) and beat again until combined. Then, add in (C) and beat again until well incorporated. Lastly add in (D) and stir with a spatula until well mixed.

2. Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn the oven to 350'F or convection oven to 325'F. Use the smallest cookie scoop and scoop cookie dough on parchment paper. Place the cookie dough 1-1.5 inch apart as it will spread out when baking.

3. Bake for 10 minutes. Cookies will be brown on edges and soft in the center. Remove and let the cookies rest in the baking sheets for 2 minutes before carefully transferring them to cool completely on wire racks. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Granola Cookies

With the start of a new school year I have to prepare healthy snack for Evy to bring to school. Luckily her kindergarten is only half day so I only have to worry about her snack for now. Her school stresses on healthy snack and no soda for kids which I like. I made this cookies for her to bring to school. It has honey, raisin, dried cranberries, walnuts and oats (like ingredients for Granola) and I mixed it all and made it into cookies. My kids seem to enjoy cookies more instead of granola alone. So, this is a great choice for them.

~Yields 32 cookies

Ingredients:

(A)

1 egg, beaten

125ml canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup honey

(B)

1 1/4 cup self-raising/rising flour

1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Put (A) into a bowl. Whisk well. Add in (B). Mix well with a spatula.

2. Use a small cookie scoop and scoop into balls. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper 1.5 inch apart.

3. Bake at preheated 350'F oven for 15 minutes. Or baked in preheated 325'F convection oven for 13 minutes.

4. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring it to cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an air-tight container.

Kai Chai Beng (Chicken Biscuits)

I love Kai Chai Beng or chicken biscuits, not sure why it is called that because no chicken is used in the recipe, but this cookie is crunchy and fulled of flavor. In Malaysia, we have two types of chicken biscuit, the fat variety (softer in texture) and the thin variety. Even though I like it but I never thought of making it myself because I don't buy Nam Yee. Then, on this recent trip to the Asian store, I spotted Nam Yee was on sales and it was placed in the front, so I just grabbed one, like it was calling me to pick it up. By the way, this chicken biscuit is different from the Western chicken biscuits that we see in the supermarkets.



Today, I am making the thin variety as I like it crunchy. I got the recipe from Lily's and I modified slightly to use what I have in the house. I cut down on the salt and added more dark soy sauce to compensate the honey that I substituted. The chicken biscuits turned out so crunchy and delicious, even my hubby could not stop snacking on it. Now I really have no reason to buy anymore since the homemade one is so good.


The finished dough.

Ingredients:

(A)
10.5 oz. self rising flour
4 oz. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. five spice powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. chicken stock granules
1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic
80gm. white sesame seeds
4 oz. candied winter melon strips (tong tung kwah), finely chopped or cut and process it fine in a food processor


My lazy method that worked!

(B)
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. honey
2 pieces Nam Yee (red fermented beancurd), mashed
4 drops dark soy sauce
100ml. oil


Assorted shapes! I made four trays with this recipe.

Method:

1. Measure the ingredients (A) and put it in a food processor, pulse to mix well.

2. Add (B) in a bowl, whisk with a hand whisk until blended. Pour into the food processor and pulse until a dough is almost formed. Pour into a big bowl and knead with hand until a dough is formed. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

3. Pinch pieces of the dough and roll between a piece of wax paper with a roller, and then cut it with a pastry crimper (as picture shown above). Place on parchment lined baking tray with some space between them as the chicken biscuit will puff up during baking.

4. Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 10 minutes or less, remember to check the oven when you can smell it. Do keep an eye on it as it burn easily. I used convection oven and it was baked in 6 minutes or less. Baking time also depends on the thickness of your cookies. Cool on wire rack then store in air-tight container.

Roasted Edamame Cookies

This is the cookie I invented while making my green pea cookies. While making that cookies, I remembered I still have half a bottle of dry roasted Edamane in my pantry. This is definitely a great way to finish my roasted Edamane as this cookie is delicious, way better than munching the roasted Edamane alone. This is an Asian Chinese style cookie. The cookie is very delicate and when you bite into it, it is crunchy with bits of Edamane and yet it has the melt-in-the-mouth feel. Sooooo good! Now, I am going to use my unfinished roasted Edamane to make this delicious cookies, it will make such a great gift for my healthy friend too. If you love dry roasted Edamane, you will love this cookie, go ahead give it a try! :) My girls and I totally loved this cookies.





Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups lightly salted dry roasted Edamame
(A)
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup icing sugar
(B)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
130ml canola oil



Method:

1. In a food processor, process the dry roasted Edamame until fine. Pour into a big glass bowl.

2. In the big glass bowl, add (A) and stir with a spatula until combined. Then, add (B) and mix with your hand until a dough is formed or stick together when squeeze with your palm. Use a small cookie scoop and scoop even sizes of cookie dough on parchment paper lined baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart. After that, flatten the cookies with a fork in a circular motion like picture above.

3. Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 12-13 minutes. Cool on wire rack completely before storing them in an air-tight container.

~Yield about 31 cookies with the small cookie scoop. This recipe can easily be double to make more cookies.

Green Peas Cookies

This was one of those unplanned baking day. I was snacking the green peas with Edda which we bought two weeks ago and then "ding dong". Finished one packet of this green peas had been slow and I really wanted to get rid of it fast instead of seeing it in front of my computer all the times. And then while snacking some today, the idea of making it into cookies came into mind. I always loved green peas cookies and I know it will get eaten faster than just the green peas alone. I only left with 1 cup of green peas and thus my experiment began and luckily the cookies turned out well. While making this cookie, another idea came to mind, you will have to stay tune to see what new cookies I will invent in the future. ;)

This green peas cookie is melt-in-the-mouth soft but with the crunchy bites from the crushed green peas. This recipe yields 49 cookies for me. It is a sweet cookie, you can slightly cut down on the icing sugar if you prefer it less sweet.



Ingredients:

1 cup salted green peas (the one you bought at store)
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup icing sugar
125ml canola oil

Method:

1. In a food processor. Process the green peas until fine.

2. In a big bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well with your hand. A dough should formed, if not add a little more oil to bind.

3. Take some of the dough, roll with your hands into a log shape, pinch about 1/2 inch off and shape into round shape. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Finish the rest of the dough.

4. Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 15 minutes. Place on wire rack to cool completely before keeping it in an air-tight container.

Healthy Whole Wheat and Oats Cookies

The recipe I promised. Sharing with you my healthy whole wheat and oats cookies made using canola oil. No fragrant of butter but each bite leaving you feeling less guilty. Canola oil has lower saturated fat, zero trans fat, higher monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat which are better for your heart. Whole wheat and oats are also recommended heart healthy diet so this cookie is sure a healthy cookie to me. Still no over indulgence, limit to 2-3 cookies per day. Any over snacking will result in gaining weight as you know. But of course it is better to snack on some thing healthy for you instead of bad for you. This is a crispy cookie and sort of addictive (well to me).



Ingredients: (Yields about 40, 1.5-inch cookies)

(A)
1 egg
125 ml. canola oil
1/2 tsp. PURE vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup white granulated sugar

(B)
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats (or instant oatmeal)



Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350'F. In a bowl, whisk together (A).

2. Add (B) and mix with a spatula until combined. Use your hand if needed.

3. Shape into a 1-inch ball size dough and press to flatten. Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Arrange 1 inch apart as this cookie will expand slightly while baking.

4. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before transfer the cookies to cool completely on wire racks. Store in air-tight container.