Almond Cookies and Horlicks Doggies Cookies - Chinese New Year Bakes

Back to more baking!

In the past, my mum and aunts gather on a yearly basis to bake cookies for cny. However, for many years, it hasn't been the case. I remember about a few years ago, my aunt, who loves to bake too, started bringing home-made cookies to cny visiting for us to try. They were really yummy! Since I started my baking journey last year around Feb, I thought it is a good time to try to bake some cookies. However, as it is my first attempt, I decided to make just a small batch.

The first one I did was almond cookies. As you can see, the cookies are about the size of a 'tang yuan' - the traditional type without fillings. It's cos' DH and I prefer to have smaller cookies.. somehow, they taste more delicious. =)

Overall, they are pretty easy to make but just a little tedious in rolling about 100+ pieces at one go. Haha.. Picture and recipe as follows:

Ingredients

300g plain flour

100g almond nibs (Roasted)

75g icing sugar

90g cooking oil

50g corn oil

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 egg (For brushing)

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 160 deg c. Prepare trays by greasing them with a thin layer of oil.

2) Sieve plain flour, baking powder and baking soda into a big bowl

3) Add salt, icing sugar , baked almond nibs & mix well

4) Add in Corn Oil and cooking oil, knead into a dough, roll each portion of flour dough into a round ball, brush with egg. Bake at 160 degree for 20 mins.

Being the last Saturday before cny, I also made another batch of cookies! It's from Happy Home Baking's website and the doggies look soooo cute. =)

DH had a big hand in making all the cookies but after 2h, he is really trying all ways to entertain himself. Notice all the doggies with different expressions!

One of my fav is the sleeping doggy biscuit in the foreground. Hee..

Look at the last few cookies.. Haha.. we were experimenting and seeing who can make the most creative (or freaky) cookies.. hehe.. All in all, it was a fun but tiring day. For those of you who are interested in the recipe, you can find it here. The final product has a nice buttery taste with a hint of horlicks. =) Go try it!

Long time no bake =(

Sigh.. it's been about a month into the new year and sad to say, I have only baked twice!! This is a busy year for me as I am taking additional classes to further my studies 3 nights a week. With the work commitments and readings I have to do, I haven't been able to bake much. =(

I was away in the states for about a month in Dec thanks to DH and bought tons of baking stuff! =D Most of which I have not been able to use yet cos of my busy schedule. =(

The first bake I did was so horrible that it can only be considered a disaster. I made a pandan chiffon (again) as DH likes it. However, I was eager to try out my new silicon pan and I used it to bake. However, everything turned out very very mishappen. They were barely edible.

Then, for a family gathering, I made Strawberry Jelly Hearts (without the hearts as I had no time to buy strawberries) for it. It was very very well received. =) Everything was finished within 1 minute! My cousins and aunts were literally snatching the pieces from the plate. Hee..

After that I baked Mexican Wedding Cookies. Only marginally successful... Doesn't look like much but was super sinfully yummy. =)

It was a pity I did not take any photos this time round. I will the next time!

Chewy Chocolate Brownies

Ok..so this doesn't look like a typical brownie (Usually rectangular). But I guarantee you, it definitely taste like one!

It's been some time since I updated my page. Actually, I have been baking very very frequently. Unfortunately, most of them are not particularly successful. =(

This particular bake is from taken from Happy Home Baking's blog. Since the first day I stumbled across her blog, I've been constantly fascinated with her posts and this one on chocolate brownie caught my eye. I always thought it would be difficult to bake it and so didn't do it till last saturday when my hubby was called away to serve the country. With extra time on my hands, I tried out her recipe and it was delicious!!!

As you can see, I overbaked it slightly as I was not sure of the baking time. I wanted to bake it exactly like hers but in the end, as I did not have the proper tin, I decided to use my 12-piece muffin pan. The edges were a little crumbly due to my overbaking, but the rest of the brownie was moist, extremely chewy and fudgy. Just the way I like it. =) When they are warmed and topped with vanilla ice cream, they are mad yummy! I will definitely bake this again SOON!!

Coffee Chiffon

Another Chiffon cake! I love chiffon cakes for it's light and airy texture, as well as the spring in each bite. =) This is a far more successful chiffon cake as compared to my Pandan Chiffon made about a week ago. Well, at least it didn't collapse in the oven! This recipe is taken from Small Small Baker's blog.

I find this recipe very interesting as it uses self-raising flour instead of the usual cake flour. According to Chef Judy whose class I attended, self-raising flour has a higher gluten level compared to cake flour and it also has baking powder added to it. Hence, if we overmix, there is a chance that the cake will be tough. I was thus a bit apprehensive about trying out this recipe as I always mix quite a bit. Haha.. In the end, as my MIL had 3 kg of self-raising flour given to her, I baked it, in an attempt to finish up the flour. The resulting cake is a very soft and tender cake! I am a coffee lover and like the slight bitter after taste given by the coffee. However, my hubby prefers the pandan flavour and I guess I will not be baking this flavour as often as I like.

Pandan Chiffon

My first successful (sort of) chiffon cake! Had quite a few major failures with my sponge and chiffon cakes and was sooo discouraged. =( Lucky for me there are a lot of really helpful people around such as HHB and her advice really helped me a lot. I was perfectly contented to continue baking chiffon in my round tin but HHB pointed out that the tube is the ensure that heat can be conducted properly. Hence, I took the plunge and bought the tin. =)

As you can see, it's not perfect yet, as the cake shrank slightly while in the oven, resulting in a cake with a slightly dense layer at the bottom. Well, I guess I'll try again. =)

The recipe I'm using is one which I got from a baking class I attended with Creative Culinaire. Their recipes really yield yummy cakes! I actually baked 1 after another cos the first one I baked was finished by my hubby and me right after it cooled. =)

My tin is a 6" tin so I scaled the entire recipe to 2/3 of the original recipe as shown below.

Ingredients (for a 7" chiffon tin and 6 cupcakes)

3 Egg Yolks

20g Sugar

Pinch of salt

20g Corn Oil

36g Coconut Milk

54g Cake flour, sifted

1/4 tsp pandan paste

3 Egg Whites

50g sugar

1/8 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method:

1. Mix egg yolks and 20g sugar.

2. Using a hand whisk, mix corn oil, coconut milk and pandan paste till well blended.

3. Add in sifted cake flour, mix till smooth but do not overmix.

4. Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy and slowly pour in the 50g sugar. Whisk till

stiff peak.

5. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the flour mixture to lighten it.

6. Fold in the remaining egg whites.

7. Scoop/pour the batter into chiffon tin till 2/3 full. Scoop the remaining batter into

cupcake/muffin liners.

8. Bake at 190 deg c for about 30 min or till cooked.

Cookie cake

Ta-dah!!! This is the first entry of my blog. =) After baking for about 6 months or so, it's sad that most of the time, my bakes are barely edible. This is despite attending a class to learn the basics of baking. Sigh.. Think I definitely need to practice more. =(

I also don't know how I got the courage to do this, but I wanted to bake something for a dear old friend, YP and decided to bake something which do not need to be refrigerated and also has a greater chance of success. =p Hence, I decided on a cookie cake.
The recipe for this cookie cake is by Anna from Sugar-inc. Thanks Anna!

I did change the decoration though. The deco done by Anna was really nice and I wanted to follow it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the Meringue Powder from Phoon Huat as it was out of stock and I had no choice but to think of alternative ideas. So I used mini oreos for the borders and mini M&Ms for the letters, all 'glued' to the cookie with nutella!

I did not actually get to try this, but according to YP, she did say that it's pretty yummy.. so I'd say it was a success. Yippee!!!!