Archive for January, 2011

Crispy Almond Flakes Cookies

I simply love nuts and at times the whole family goes nuts (just kidding). This is another recipe that I like and it is simple to make and yet yummy. When I decided to make this, I have to dig into my bag of recipes and after much searching, finally found it.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 Egg whites
70g Icing sugar
40g All purpose flour
128g Almond flakes
25g Butter (melted to room temperature)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degree Celius.

2. Beat egg white and sugar together lightly till sugar dissolves.

3. Add in flour and melted butter, mixed well.

4. Add in almond flakes and combine well.

5. Spoon mixture onto a non-sticking baking sheet (parchment paper) on a tray, then use the back of the spoon to spread the mixture to as thin as possible and into the shape you desire.

6. Bake in pre-heated oven for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

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Butter Cookies

We miss all the CNY goodies back home and the festive mood, so we are still to create a bit of festive mood and atmosphere for my 2 boys at home. This year, as my 2nd boy is bigger and more independent and both boys will play with one another, I have decided to bake more goodies for the CNY.

A couple of years back, a friend share this recipe she had learnt during one of her baking class with me and I simply fall in love with this melt in the mouth butter cookies.

And we simply love melt in the mouth cookies, so here’s the recipe for a melt in the mouth butter cookies:

Ingredients:
200g Butter
50g Icing sugar
140g All purpose flour
60g Corn flour
Chocolate chips/ cherry for garishing (optional, not in original recipe)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celius.
2. Beat butter and icing sugar till creamy.
3. Sift in flour and corn flour, mix well to a soft dough.
4. Scoop dough into piping bag and pipe dough evenly on baking tray.
5. Bake at preheated oven for 13-15 minutes or golden brown.

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Peanut Cookies

For the past one week, I have been skyping with my mum and I was telling her I miss all the Chinese New Year goodies back home. I was telling her I planned to bake pineapple tarts a couple of days before the Chinese New Year and she suggested why don’t I start baking peanut cookies first so that my boys have a few different cookies for the New Year.

I had baked this with my mum before when we used a mini-oven to bake, and she recalled the recipe and I wrote it down on paper and tried baking it earlier. It turned out so yummy that both my boys could not stop eating it and then followed by my dear husband.

Here’s the simple and yummy recipe for peanut cookies:

Ingredients:
300g groundnuts (peanuts)
275g flour
200g raw sugar
1tsp salt
225g canola oil (can use ghee or butter or oil by frying pig’s oil)
1 egg (For glazing)

Method:

1. Stir-fry or roast the groundnut till fragnant and not burnt by keep stirring. Leave it aside to cool.

2. Grind all the groundnuts into a food-blender till fine before it turn into peanut butter.

3. Mix all the dry ingredients groundnuts, flour, sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl till crumbly by using a spoon or fingertips.

4. Add in the oil small portion by small portion and knead the mixture together.

5. Add oil and knead till the sugar all melted and the mixture become smooth and shiny. And when you roll the mixture into small ball, it does not crumbles, you can stop adding in the oil.

6. Preheat oven to 200 degree Celius. Then roll the mixture into small balls and place them on parchement paper on baking tray.

7. Glaze with egg-wash before baking.

8. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

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Luncheon Buns

I am experiencing different methods of making buns or bread in the kitchen and this is one of the basic recipe I used. And this recipe is easy to handle for beginner. You do not need a breadmaker or a electric mixer to knead the dough though it is easier and faster if you have the latter.

Personally I used the electric mixer to knead the dough for me and the last bit, then after proofing, I hand-knead from there. So if you do not have a electric mixer, it will required your hand muscle to do the job and it can be tiring for the arms.

The dough can be used for any filling that you like, I used luncheon meat since we were at home and it was a gloomy, raining day that we were too lazy to go out and get other ingredient since we have 2 cans of luncheon meat in the cabinets.

Ingredients:
250g Plain flour
20g Milk powder
120ml Milk
30g Sugar
1pkt Dry yeast
1/2 egg
1pinch salt
15g butter, soften to room temperature

Method:
1. Warm up the milk to about 60C and dissolve the sugar in it. Add the dry yeast and stir it to combine. Let it rest for 10 minutes till bubbles appear. At the meantime, grease a bowl for proofing.

2. Sift flour into a mixing bowl, add egg and yeast mixture and blend it well at low speed till you get a rough dough form.

3. Add in salt and butter, mix till evenly dispersed. Increase to medium speed and knead dough till elastic.

4. Then handknead on a floured surface to form into a ball. Transfer it to the grease bowl, use cling wrap or a warm wet towel to cover it and place it at a warm place of about 29C for proofing or in warm water for proofing about 45 to 60 minutes till it double in size. Start to preheat oven to 200C.

5. Punch the centre down and if dent remain meant dough is ready. Knead the dough on a floured surface and divide into smaller parts and knead into a ball each. Cover with cling wrap and let them rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

6. Flattening the dough and fill with your desired filling which I used luncheon meat.

7. After filling, seal up properly with the sealing part at the bottom and proof it a second time for 40 minutes till it double in size.

8. Egg wash the top and bake it in preheated oven for about 20 to 30 minutes or the top turn golden brown.

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Chocolate Pie (Chocolate Tarts)

I used to make chocolate pie too when I was in Vancouver and have the recipe somewhere in the house. When my older boy and I saw Cindy’s chocolate pie, my boy kept asking me to make one too. When I could not find my recipe, I asked Cindy who ever ready to share her recipe and the boys in the house had a great time after dinner one evening savouring the whole chocolate pie at one go.

When I was doing my cleaning up and packing in the kitchen one day, I found my original recipe and the different is the one I have used double cream and Cindy’s recipe was just cream. Nevertheless, this pie is as yummy as the other I used to make.

Chocolate Pie

Ingredients:

For the crust:
180g digestive biscuits
90g butter, melted

Filling:
280g your favourite dark choc of any brand, chopped
260g cream (Nestle cream according to Cindy.)

Method:
1. Blitz biscuits into fine sand using food processor. Stir in melted butter. Press mixture into a 24-cm tart tin. Chill in fridge while you prepare the filling.

2. Bring cream to boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and pour over your bowl of chopped choc. Stir it until cream and choc combine into a smooth and shiny mixture.

3. Fill the tart tin with the choc mixture and put it back into the fridge and chill for at least 4 hours. (Best to chill overnight.)

4. Use your creativity to decorate it to your liking before serving it.

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Chicken Baked Rice

Ingredients:
1 slice chicken breast fillet, cut into smaller pieces
200g lean bacon, cut into bits
1 cup champignon mushroom, prefer fresh ones, sliced (canned one can be used too.)
1 cup mixed vegetables
3 tbsps unsalted butter
1 can Campbell cream of mushroom
3 slice ham, cut into small pieces [optional, my boy requested]
1 packet Mozzarella cheese
2 cups rice grains
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 clove small onion, chopped into small bits

Method:
1. Cook the rice in the rice cooker as usual and prepare all the other ingredient.

2. Preheat the oven to 375F (190 degree Celius).

3. Heat up butter and stir-fry onion till fragrance, then add in the garlic and bacon bits and fry till garlic is golden brown.

3. When the rice is cooked, stir in the butter-onion-garlic-bacon mixture together with mixed vegetables.

4. Scoop some of the rice mixture into the baking tray, spread a layer of cream of mushroom then add the other ingredients like mushroom, chicken, ham, etc and sprinkle some cheese.

5. Add another layer of rice, a layer of cream of mushroom, the ingredients and sprinkle some cheese.

6. Add the last layer if rice, a layer of cream of celery and the ingredients. And this time sprinkle the cheese to cover all the ingredients.

7. Put into the preheated oven and cooked for about 20 minutes or till the cheese is slightly golden brown.

8. Served straight with salad and cream of mushroom soup.

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