Chocolate Cookies - Charity 2017

I chanced upon this charity donation from Lighting Hearts Lighting Homes to bake cookies for the beneficiaries as part of the spirit of Deepavali/Diwali. So happy that LHLH has set a National Record for the most number of homemade cookies for a good cause and I am proud that I can be part of the team of bakers. Hope to have more of such opportunities in the future.

Recipe as given by LHLH:

Ingredients

Sift the following ingredients onto a bowl:
400g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt

Cream together in a mixer:
300g UNSALTED butter
250g caster sugar

Prepare in a bowl:
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

270g Mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175-180 deg C, with fan.
2. Cream butter & sugar till light and fluffy
3. Add in egg gradually
4. Fold in the flour and mix well into a dough
5. Add in mini chocolate chips to the mixture
6. Shape cookies (about 6g)
7. Bake for about 15-20 mins

Cranberry Cookies (Orders 2017)

I am indeed fortunate to be given this opportunity to bake these Cranberry Cookies for a huge event. It was a great challenge and achievement for me.

Cranberry Cookies

I was tasked to experiment on recipes with milk powder and I am lucky to chance upon this recipe from Kenneth Goh. Somehow my dough was not as pliable enough so I had a hard time getting the dough into the rectangular shape. The cookies were amazingly crunchy and tasted buttery. I guess this is the perfect recipe for the task given.

Ingredients

200g cake flour
100g butter (at room temperature)
75g icing sugar
75g diced dried cranberry(soaked)
One egg, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons of milk powder 

Directions

1. Cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg and beat until well combined.
2. Sift in the cake flour and milk powder, add the diced dried cranberries. Use the machine lowest speed to stir for about 1 minute until a pliable soft dough is formed
3. Transfer the dough out and place on a piece of clingy wrap. Shape it in a rectangular shape with a square face. Put the dough in the freezer and freeze until the dough is firmed enough for slicing. It took me about 30 minutes.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 160 Deg C.
5. Take out the frozen dough, cut the dough into small pieces with a thickness of about 5-7 mm. Bake the cookies in the pre-heated oven of 160 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes or until the cookies are crispy. 

Biscotti

Thanks to Miki for this recipe. I have wanted to try making Biscotti for a long time and when I saw this recipe, I was so motivated to try it. Indeed it is not too difficult to make but perhaps I have overbaked it and thus resulted with quite a tough crunch.  

Recipe adapted from Miki Mak

Ingredients

3 Egg Whites
120g All Purpose Flour (sifted)
90g Castor Sugar
120g Whole Almonds

Directions

1. In a stand mixer, whisk egg whites in medium speed till foamy. Gradually add in sugar then whisk in high speed till stiff.
2. Stir in sifted flour and almonds.
3. Pour mixture in a lightly greased dish.
4. Bake 180'C for 30 minutes till light brown.
5. Remove from oven, let it cool in the dish.
6. When it's completely cooled, remove from dish and sliced thinly.
7. Place on a lined tray, bake 130'C for 35-40 minutes till crispy and crunchy. (Baking time depends on the thickness).
8. Let it cool completely before storing in an air tight container.
9. The left over bread (before slicing), can wrap with aluminum foil and keep in the freezer for 1-2 weeks. 

Nestum Cookies

Another recipe which has milk powder for my experiment. Few mistakes made, I used Corn Flour instead of Corn Starch and the cookies were under baked (even though I baked for 20mins as stated) which resulted in a chewy texture. The dough was kind of sticky which I am not sure why and so I added more flour. Also, I find the cookies  a little too sweet. I will give it a try again.

With modifications :

Ingredients

100g butter
120g sugar (reduced from 135g)
100g plain flour
50g potato starch or corn starch
50g milk powder
1 egg
1 tbsp Nestum Cereal
Some Nestum cereal (for coating)
  

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs gradually and beat until well combined.
2. Add in sifted milk powder, plain flour, potatoes starch and a tablespoon of Nestum cereal. With low speed to stir for a min until well mix to form a pliable dough. Scoop a teaspoon of dough, roughly shape round and put in a bowl of Nestum Cereal to coat the dough.
3. Put in paper cups and bake in preheated oven of 170 Deg C for 25 mins until golden brown.

Almond Crisps (2017)

Time of the year when I had so much egg whites left after making all the pineapple tarts and I will bake my favourite Almond Crisps. This time, I made some a little too thick and thus not as crunchy as compared to those thinly spread and baked to darker brown. Will take note for next year bakes.

German Cookies (Orders 2017)

Another great accomplishment for an order of German Cookies. Very satisfied with the overall packaging and a personalized tags. 

Beary Hugging Cookies

I saw these cute cookies in Facebook and thought of trying out. I used my Winnie Pooh Cookies recipe and with the bear cutter I bought. It was really cute seeing the bears hugging the Almond Nuts but somehow the nuts turned hard after baking.  Guess have to think of a way to have the cute look and perfect taste with the nuts too.

Ingredients

100g butter (softened at room temperature)
80g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
180g cake flour
20g corn flour

Almond Nuts (Whole)

Directions

1. Sift cake flour and corn flour together and set aside. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. With electric mixer, add sugar to the butter in 2-3 additions and cream till the mixture turns pale and fluffy.

3. Add in egg yolk and mix well.

4. Add sifted flour mixture in 2-3 additions, stir with a spatula to form a soft dough.

5. Place dough in a plastic bag and flatten with rolling pin.

6. Refrigerate the dough for about half an hour.

7. Remove dough from fridge. Roll out dough on slightly floured work surface and cut out with slightly floured cookies cutters.

8. Bake at pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 15-20 mins. (cookies should not turn brown).

9. Let cool and store in air-tight container.

German Cookies (2016)

I have been baking these German Cookies for years and definitely no excuse for Chinese Lunar New Year. Tried adding green tea powder and amazingly it tasted yummy! Will bake more next year. Thanks to my friends who supported my bakes this year. 

Almond Crisps

2nd Attempt

1st Attempt

I am so glad that I found this recipe (I named it Almond Crisps as it is very crispy). After all the making of pineapple tarts, I was left with so much egg whites. With this recipe, I managed to clear all the egg whites. These snacks are not only crispy but very addictive too. Though the mixing of the ingredients is quite straight forward, however the spreading of the mixture on the baking tray needs a little patience as you will have to spread evenly and thinly to ensure even browning of the whole crisp. My first attempt was a failure and the centre part of the crisps turned out chewy while the sides were already very brown.  My 2nd attempt was a success, turning out perfect with even browning throughout. 1 lot can make 4 trays and into a large container. I am going to make this next year again.

Ingredients

150g sugar
80g cake flour
250g egg white
50g melted butter
250g Almond Flakes

Directions

1. Mix sugar and flour.
2. Add in egg white and mix lightly until sugar dissovles.
3. Add melted butter and mix well.and add in Almond flakes. Mix well and keep in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
4. Line the tray with parchment paper. Spread the mixture thinly on the tray. Bake at 150 Deg C for 15 mins till brown.
5. Crack the large piece of crisp into smaller pieces. Store in airtight container when cooled.

Chocolate Chips Cookies (2016)

As usual without fail, Chocolate Chips Cookies are a must for Chinese Lunar New Year. This photo was well taken by my younger daughter, and I love it! 

Pineapple Tarts (2016)

Last year, I was not able to bake my favourite Pineapple Tarts as my oven broke down and this year was extremely busy as I was trying out different patterns. It was indeed great satisfaction from making modifications to the recipe and concluded with the perfect recipe for my pineapple tarts. Not forgetting the compliments from friends, relatives and colleagues. Thank you everyone :)

A few pointers to take note. 

1) I have tested with full SCS butter and I did not like the dough texture as they were too crumbly. The result with mixing Buttercup made it a little crunch and easy to mould as well as handle after bakes.

2) An expert asked me to add 1 tsp of Glucose so that the dough will have more crunch. I felt it did not make much different as I missed out in some lots and still have the same crunch I wanted.

3) I tried several egg wash and concluded with this best combination.

4) Thanks to my friend, Rachel who asked me to try using 3D fan mode (for Bosch oven) so I can bake 2 layers at the same time, saving electricity and time baking 1 tray at a time. 

5) I tried using the Premium Pineapple fillings from Phoon Huat but I found it was sour this round, so I switched to the grade 1X (as shown below) and cheaper too.

6) In order to speed up the process, I must remember to weigh and roll the pineapple fillings a few days in advance from the day of baking.

Ingredients

300g Buttercup
50g SCS
100g condensed milk
1 tsp glucose (optional)
510g plain flour
2 egg yolks


1 pkt pineapple fillings
150g Organic pineapple juice

Egg wash - 2 eggs with 1 egg yolk and few drops of oil.

Directions

1. Cream butter and condensed milk till light.
2. Add in egg yolk 1 at a time, and beat until well combined.
3. Mix in flour till soft and not sticky dough.
4. Roll pineapple fillings into balls of 5g.
5. For Flower pattern : Flatten the dough and cut out the flower shape with mould. For close up pattern : roll dough into balls of 7g, wrap fillings and roll into a smooth ball.
2. Apply egg wash with a brush and bake at 160 Deg C for 20 mins or till golden brown. 

*Note for my own ref : I used 3D fan mode to bake 2 layers at 1 go (rotating the trays in between bakes)

Chocolate Chips Cookies

Made these Chocolate Chips Cookies for my dearest colleagues for our party on 18 Dec 15. I managed to get the Christmas bags from BC Market in time and hope my colleagues like the cookies.

Hello Kitty Cookies

Making my favourite Hello Kitty cookies had always in one of my To-Do list item and finally I made it!. I used one of my butter cookies recipe and added coloring for the red ribbons and yellow nose while I used melted converture chocolate to color the eyes and whiskers.  I am so delighted to see the finished cookies. 

Milo Cookies

Thanks to Sharon Lam for this recipe. I love Milo and always wanted to have it in my baking. These cookies are the chewy type instead of crunchy ones.  I preferred the crunchy texture more but my kids love the chewiness. Overall, a good to keep recipe.

I am sending this post to Little Thumbs Up September 2015 - Milo organised by Bake for Happy Kids and my little favourite DIY.

Recipe with slight modification

Ingredients 

190g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
100g Milo
Pinch of salt
125g butter
110g brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essense

Directions

1. Mix all dry ingredients together (plain flour, baking powder, milo, salt)
2. Whisk eggs and sugar until creamy.
3. Add in egg and vanilla essence. Mix till well combined.
4. Add half the dry ingredients and fold well. Follow by the other half .
5. Scoop batter using 2 teaspoons (shape as round as possible) and drop onto baking tray, leaving some space between (as it will expand while it bakes).
6. Bake for 10 mins and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Chips Cookies & Muffins - Orders (Sep 15)

Baked Chocolate Chips Cookies for Teacher's Day Gift

 Also did these Hershey's Chocolate Muffins

Thanks to Felicia for the above orders for her kid's Teachers..

A Special Gift

30 April 2015 marked my last day working in Fong's Engineering & Manufacturing Pte Ltd (21 months as Senior Secretary). It was really a memorable working experience with nice bosses and friendly colleagues. I made this decision with a heavy heart to leave the company due to my health condition. A sign to ask me to take a break and rest my body well in order to take up my next life challenge. 

I have baked Butter Cookies for my bosses and colleagues as a memory and also to thank them for taking care of me. Specially hand written everyone names on each packaging, hope that they will like this little gift from me.  

Candy Tinted Cookies

In my previous recipe Cherry Blossom cookies, I filled the centre with strawberry jam but I wanted to experiment on this recipe with hard candy as I am quite curious to see the tainted glass-like centre piece. Indeed, it came out fantastically pretty with a see-through centre. I am glad that I bought this blossom mould which came in handy for all types of cookies.

Ingredients 

180g plain flour
120g butter (at room temperature)
60g icing sugar
Ricola Sweets (crushed)

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 160 Deg C.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the flour, stir until well mixed.
3. Transfer dough to a floured surface (the texture will be a little wet to handle, just dust with some flour). 
4. Roll the dough and dust the mould. Press out the flower design and remove the centre dough. Place the crushed candy sweets in the empty centre. 
5. Bake for about 10mins (Note : cookies do not need to be brown). 

Best Ever Butter Cookies

I have been searching for a crunchy butter cookies recipe for a long time and I am glad that I coincidentally found this recipe. These are easy to make and yummy cookies which are not only suitable for Chinese New Year but a great snack anytime.

Ingredients 

180g plain flour (sifted)
120g butter (at room temperature)
60g icing sugar (sifted)
Diced cherries

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 150 Deg C.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the flour and mixed into dough.
3. Put dough into puncher and press out flower. Top with diced cherry.
4. Bake for 10mins or lightly brown. 

Chocolate Cornflakes

I have been baking Honey Cornflakes over the past few years and I have decided to try out these Chocolate Cornflakes that do not require any baking. However, this needs to be quick in transferring into paper fillers as compound chocolate harden quickly. With the help of my maid, I did 3 lots in no time and was happy that it turned out as nice as Honey Cornflakes.

Ingredients 

150g  Compound Chocolate
10g butter
100g cornflakes
Thousands & Hundreds

Directions

1. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave.
2. Pour melted chocolate mixture into cornflakes and mix until cornflakes coated completely with chocolate.
3. Scoop cornflakes into paper fillers and sprinkle Thousands & Hundreds.
4. Leave to harden in room temperature and store in container.