Best Ever Italian Almond Cookies

These are the BEST EVER, absolutely moreish and delicious Sicilian almond cookies you'll ever taste. With a thin and crispy crust outside, and amazingly soft and chewy inside, it's quite impossible to stop at one. The secret is to use roasted almond meal, which gives it a rich nutty and almost caramel-like flavour. Continue reading for the recipe.

Pineapple Tarts (2016 edition)

I told myself I was not going to make pineapple tarts this year. It's just too much effort and physically challenging (for someone of my age) and I figured I'd just wait for friends passing through Singapore to bring back tarts for me to eat. No thanks to Facebook, I keep seeing posts of pineapple tarts spilled across the page, made by my baker/foodie friends. I tried to resist the temptation, really (for almost a day). I admit I have a terrible weakness for pineapple tarts. I've made them every year since I moved to Sydney and had to D.I.Y. these CNY ("Chinese New Year") delicacies to satiate my cravings. After all, it's not CNY until you've had pineapple tarts (and bak kwa, but that's another story).

Almond Crisps (Almond Brittle)

 

Chinese New Year is less than two weeks away and I haven't started baking anything yet this year. Well, not until now, if you'd call throwing sugar and nuts together and melting them in the oven baking. I recently bought a packet of Bienetta Florentine Mix, which comes in powdered form. The simplest way to use it is to mix it with almonds, bake them and it miraculously turns into a crisp layer of caramelized almonds. Alternatively, you could substitute the Bienetta by using a Florentine recipe, which you can find in my previous post "Almond and Pretzel Butterscotch Brittle".

Melting Moments with Raspberries and Cream

These melting moments are absolutely heavenly! So good. Light, buttery, creamy and melts in your mouth. The balance between the sweetness from the vanilla buttercream and the tartness of the raspberry jam is perfect. These delightful little sandwich cookies were so popular that I had to make a second batch the day after, which I brought to work the next day only to have them all devoured by everyone. I guess the main difference between this recipe and others is that this uses custard powder, which gives it a sweet scent and flavour. It also uses baking powder which results in a light and crumbly texture. I can declare that this is now my favourite melting moment recipe, and if you try it out, I bet it'll be your favourite too! Also, don't forget to check out the recipe for quick and easy Raspberry Jam in my previous post. You can prepare the jam and refrigerate it a few days ahead until you're ready to make the cookies.

Pineapple Tarts and Nastar Recipe

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, I am reposting my recipe for pineapple rolls (see here, here, here and here for earlier posts). I hadn't actually planned on making pineapple rolls this year as I already made pineapple tarts (open-faced ones) a week ago. After seeing so many photos of pineapple rolls being posted on Facebook by friends and cousins, I just couldn't resist the temptation to make them too. Making pineapple rolls are just a little more tedious, messy and time-consuming compared to making open-faced tarts. However, despite the backache that usually comes as a side-effect of crouching over the table making these pretty little pastries, I very much enjoy the process of moulding, rolling and cutting the dough.

Green Pea Cookies with Aonori

This is the time when you will find many people busy baking cookies for the coming Chinese New Year, which falls on January 23rd this year. I remember how I would always look forward to CNY, when all the shops would be filled with mountains of festive goodies on display, with traditional Chinese new year music blaring from the speakers. The atmosphere is simply fantastic! In Singapore and Malaysia, you will find throngs of people at the shops and supermarkets busy stocking up on CNY snacks, drinks and other food. Almost every store will have some sort of hongbao lucky dip/draw. The clothing section at the department stores will be filled with a sea of red, as it is an auspicious colour this period and most people will try to wear something red on new year's day (although I sometimes get away with wearing pink or purple, or perhaps just a splash or speck of red somewhere).

Cashew Semolina (Sugee) Cookies

Semolina cookies are better known as sugee biscuits in Malaysia and Singapore. They usually contain ghee (or clarified butter) and ground almonds, and they have a delicate and fine sandy texture that melts in your mouth. The recipe for these cashew semolina cookies comes from Alex Goh's Baking Code, a book that I bought during my last trip to Malaysia. I had a packet of semolina that I had just opened last week to make Galaktoboureko (a Greek baked custard dessert), and so I decided to use some of it to make these sugee cookies.

Cranberry White Chocolate and Meringue Cookies

I have been craving for some Momofuku Blueberry and Cream cookies lately, and I haven't made them again since the first time I had a go at Christina Tosi's recipe. I really loved the taste and texture of these cookies, which are crunchy on the outside with a soft chewy centre. I decided to use the same recipe and substitute the blueberries and milk crumbs with cranberries, white chocolate and crushed meringue. I also added some lemon zest and lemon essence for a little zing.

Fudgy Brownie Cones

Brownies are supposedly one of the easiest things to make as the ingredients just need to be stirred together in a bowl, then poured into a lined pan and popped into the oven to bake. Well, I do bake quite often, but somehow, brownies have eluded me all this time. I think I might have baked a batch or two of them before, quite a long time ago, but they just aren't something I'd make often, mostly because I always feel guilty after eating them, non-stop. Addictive little things.

Earl Grey Biscuits and Buttery Shortbread Stars

These biscuits are super rich and can be addictive if you don't stop and tell yourself how much butter is in each one. This is the first time I'm making shortbread using a combination of flour and rice flour, and I must say it gives a really wonderful texture that is not too hard and not too crumbly either. Just right! The Earl Grey cookies are sweet, salty and fragrant with a hint of bergamot, and they go really well with a hot cup of coffee! As soon as we finish up these cookies, I might try substituting the Earl Grey with some other tea leaves instead, perhaps chamomile, chai or lemon green tea? :)

It's the Gingerbread Men!

Gingerbread boys bringing home a Christmas tree in their all-weather snowmobile

Christmas is in the air! I can just smell it..... No. Wait. That's just the sweet scent of gingerbread baking in the oven, and it's actually beginning to smell a lot like Christmas! I'd better stop before I break into a silly song because these funny little brown men that could very well be in their own commercial for Old Spice are making me think funny too.

Peaches and Cream Oatmeal Cookies

I was planning to make Peaches and Cream cookies using Momofuku's Blueberry and Cream Cookies recipe, but then, I came across this one for Peaches and Cream Oatmeal Cookies by Sunny Anderson. Seeing all the rave reviews, I decided to make these instead.

Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple Tarts

Ingredients

Pastry:
400g plain flour
250g cold butter, diced
2 egg yolks, cold
2 tbsp iced water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Mix the yolks with vanilla and iced water. In a food processor, pulse the flour, salt and butter until they resemble bread crumbs. With the motor running, add the yolk-water mixture and process until the dough starts to come together. Pour out the contents and gently knead the dough to form a ball. Flatten and wrap in clingwrap. Rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough about 1cm thick. Press out shapes with cookie cutter (dusted with flour) and fill with jam. Bake in oven for 15-18 minutes. Leave on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

To make pineapple jam, see here.

Almond and Pretzel Butterscotch Brittle

I was planning to make florentines and found this recipe by Pino Locantro which looked absolutely divine. As I was baking the first tray in the oven, I realised that I was meant to bake the florentines in egg rings (and not just use the rings to shape them). As I had only one egg ring, there was no way I could make florentines, unless perhaps I resorted to using muffin trays instead. The mixture had spread out on the baking tray and began to bubble and caramelize. I took them out just in time (except for some burnt bits around the edges) and waited for them (well, "it" would be more appropriate now that it was just one big piece of brittle) to cool. I must say these things are really addictive! Light, crisp and not at all hard like regular toffee brittle. It was sweet, salty, buttery and delicious. The recipe uses almond flakes and glace cherries, but I also added some chopped pretzels into the mixture, and they were good! I reckon these will be great served with vanilla ice-cream!

Almond and Pretzel Butterscotch Brittle

150g (5oz) butter (if using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt)150g (5oz) caster sugar
45g (11/2oz) honey
30ml (1⅛fl oz) fresh cream
110g (4oz) (1 cup) almond flakes
A handful of thin salted pretzels, broken into pieces
15g (1/2oz) (2 tbsp) plain flour
70g (2⅛oz) glace cherries, chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6. Line two baking trays with baking paper, enough to come up the sides.

Combine butter, sugar, honey and cream in a pot or saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat and add almond flakes, flour and cherries, stirring continuously for 5 minutes on low heat. Stir in pretzels.

Remove from heat. Spoon half the mixture and spread a thin layer evenly on the baking paper. Leave 2-3 inches on the sides to allow room for the mixture to spread while baking. Bake in oven for approximately 6-8 minutes. The mixture will start to bubble and caramelize. When it turns a medium-brown colour and no longer pale golden, remove the tray from the oven. Leave to cool before breaking it up into pieces. Alternatively, you can cut it up into squares while it's still warm. Store in an airtight container.

Momofuku in My Kitchen: Blueberry and Cream Cookies

These cookies are so good the kids just can't stop going back for more! At some point, I might need to hide them somewhere safe. I found the recipe for these famous Momofuku cookies on Martha Stewart's website and decided that since I can't go to New York and buy some, I would just make them at home. This is a multi-step process recipe, but it really is quite quick and easy to make them. The original size of these cookies are large, so I made them half a size smaller and reduced the baking time slightly so that they maintain their chewy centres.

Here is the recipe:

Blueberry and Cream Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt (I only used 1/2 tsp)
• 1 cup (8 ounces) Plugra European-style unsalted butter (I used regular unsalted butter)
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup glucose
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup dried blueberries
• 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup Milk Crumbs

Directions

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix together butter, sugars, and glucose until well combined. Add egg and mix until well combined.
3. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add blueberries and milk crumbs and mix until well combined. Using an ice cream scoop about 2 1/8 inches in diameter, scoop dough into balls and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Transfer baking sheets to refrigerator until dough is chilled, about 15 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until cookies are golden brown and tops begin to crackle, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Milk Crumbs:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon nonfat milk powder
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup white chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 120C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Stir in melted butter until well combined. Spread mixture on prepared baking sheet and transfer to oven. Bake until dried and crumbly, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove milk crumble from oven and let cool completely.
3. Transfer milk crumble to a large bowl and fold in remaining 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons milk powder and white chocolate. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Crunchy cookies with milk crumble and juicy dried blueberries

Jammy Orange Almond Cookies

So much for the long weekend, we didn't get to go to the Sydney Aquarium like we planned to, due to rain that is forecast to continue until the end of the week. I had to keep the kids occupied with something other than TV and computer games at home, so I decided that we would make cookies together. That gave me a chance to try out the new car and dinosaur cookie cutters that I bought last week.

I still had the AWW Cookies cookbook that I borrowed from the local public library, and found a recipe for orange and almond shortbread cookies. Perfect! It was just a matter of combining all the ingredients together, chilling the dough, followed by cutting out the cookie shapes. The kids had a fun time making these cookies, although I must add that the cleaning up after that took 3 times longer than usual, compared to making them myself.

The cookies turned out great, and managed to keep their shape (and not melt into a flat amoeba-looking blob on the baking tray). The kids devoured them like little cookie monsters and just couldn't get enough of them! Z and I both like the ones with a drop of strawberry jam in the middle. The cookies themselves aren't really that sweet, so the jam, which is sticky and slightly chewy (from baking) provides a nice contrast and balance to the flavours and texture. We'll be making more jammy cookies from now on, and not only on rainy days! :)

Quick and Easy: Pink Macarons with Rosewater and White Chocolate Ganache

I was browsing through an AWW Cookies cookbook and came across a recipe for Pink Macarons. Surprisingly, they appeared to be one of the easier cookies to make compared to the other recipes in the book. I do love eating macarons, and the first time I ever tried them was when a friend kindly brought me some from Adriano Zumbo's. They were truly delicious, and I think the fun is in trying out different flavours, and then suddenly biting into one that tastes absolutely heavenly (if I remember correctly, they were the salted caramel and rosewater ones). The next (and last) time I had them were when G brought some home from work (someone went to France and bought him a dainty selection of macarons from Georges Larnicol). These mini macarons were lighter, drier and crisper in texture, and equally delicious.

The ones I made here are crisp on the outside, and light and slightly chewy inside. Despite the simple recipe, they actually turned out well (apart from some of the cracked ones that was probably due to inadequate standing time prior to baking). I found the recipe easy to follow and the chocolate ganache filling was quick to prepare (compared to buttercream which requires a bit more work). Also, it makes a small batch of 18 macarons using only 3 egg whites, so that makes it more manageable especially as a first attempt (in case they don't turn out).

A few things I should not have done was to use a self-made paper piping bag, without a nozzle (as I didn't have a plain nozzle at home). This made it a little tricky to pipe out, which is why I just bought a plain nozzle over the weekend! Another thing to note is that I should only bake one tray at a time. By baking both trays together, the ones on top formed "feet" but the ones below baked too slowly that the "feet" didn't form at all. Well, so now I know!

Pink Macarons with Rosewater and White Chocolate Ganache

(makes 18)

Adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly

Ingredients

3 egg whites (use large eggs)

2 tbsp caster sugar

Pink food colouring

1 1/4 cups (200g) icing sugar, sifted

1 cup (120g) almond meal

2 tbsp icing sugar, extra

Method

1. Make white chocolate ganache.
2. Grease and line oven trays with baking paper. Combine sifted icing sugar and almond meal and mix with a hand whisk for 30 seconds until evenly mixed.
3. Beat egg whites in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar and colouring, beat until sugar dissolves and peaks are just stiff. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Fold in icing sugar and almond meal mixture, in two batches.
4. Spoon mixture into a large piping bag with a 11mm plain nozzle. Pipe 1 1/2 inch diameter rounds, 1 inch apart, onto trays. Tap trays on bench top to allow macarons to spread slightly. Dust with sifted extra icing sugar and stand 20-30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 150C (130C fan-forced). Bake macarons one tray at a time for 15-20 minutes until firm to the touch, but don't let them brown or colour. Stand 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
6. Sandwich macarons with ganache and dust with a little icing sugar if desired.

White chocolate ganache fillling:

100g white eating chocolate, chopped coarsely

2 tbsp thickened cream

A few drops rosewater / rosewater essence, to taste

Stir chocolate and cream in a small bowl over a pot of simmering water over low heat until melted and smooth. Add rosewater to taste. Cover and refrigerate until mixture is spreadable.

Baked Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

The last time I made these were for Z's birthday party last year. This time, I'm making them to fill his school lunchbox so that he can have them for morning tea. He absolutely loves these (and so do we) and if you don't think about the butter and sugar that goes onto them, they are a healthy baked snack! And they don't crumble and leave crumbs everywhere, nor do they leave a sticky mess on little hands. And they also taste great topped with some warm mashed banana!

A real easy one to prepare (if you're using store-bought tortillas of course, or you can use pita bread if you like), try it out:

Baked Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

Ingredients:

Tortillas

Cinnamon sugar (Caster sugar combined with ground cinnamon)

Melted butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Line baking tray with greaseproof/baking paper.
2. Brush a generous amount of butter over each tortilla and top them with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar. The sugar will caramelize in the oven and create a crunchy sweet buttery crust. If you like, you can butter and sugar both sides of the tortilla (which is easier done after you have cut them into eighths).
3. Cut the tortilla into eighths using a sharp knife or pizza cutter. Arrange them on the baking tray and pop them in the oven (upper rack) for 6-8 minutes until lightly browned, and sugar caramelized. Be careful as they brown and burn quickly.
4. Remove from tray, leave to cool and store in an airtight container.

Nastar Pineapple Rolls (Pineapple Tarts)



Celebrate CNY with pineapple tarts :)

The quest is over. Loving these buttery melt-in-your-mouth pineapple tarts.  You may also click here to view my other post on Pineapple tarts.

Nastar Pineapple Tarts / Rolls

Ingredients

Pastry:

300g good quality butter, at room temperature

80g icing sugar

3 egg yolks
3 tbsp ghee

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp fine salt

Sift together:

420g plain flour

50g corn flour / custard powder
1 tsp baking powder

Lightly beat together for egg wash:

1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp condensed milk

2 tsp fresh milk/water
Pinch of salt
A drop of yellow food colouring

Filling:

2 medium-sized pineapples (about 1.4kg after peeled and cored), cut into chunks (or 2 cans (about 800g each) pineapple chunks in natural juice, or you can mix both)

300g - 400g sugar, or to taste

2 tsp lemon juice (or depending on how sour/sweet the pineapples are)

1 inch cinnamon stick

4 cloves

1/2 star anise

Method

 

Blend the pineapple chunks with a food processor. Make sure they are fine enough that you can't feel any course chunks when you rub them between your fingers. Pour into a sieve to drain some of the excess juice, but not too dry. Cook pineapple and spices in a wide heavy-based saucepan over medium-high heat until it begins to boil. Lower heat to simmer (or use high heat but stir continuously and watch it to make sure it doesn't burn). Add the sugar and stir for about 30-40 minutes or until mixture is dry, thick and amber in colour. Halfway through, check for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary. Add lemon juice to taste. Leave aside to cool, refrigerate for a few hours and roll into small elongated pieces (about half teaspoon of pineapple jam each) to be used as filling.

Line baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Cream butter, ghee and sugar until light. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Then add vanilla and salt and beat until fluffy. Fold in sifted ingredients and mix into a firm dough. Put dough into a nastar mould and press out into a strip of about 2-inch lengths. Place a piece of pineapple jam on one end and roll up pastry to enclose the jam.

Put the rolls on prepared trays. Brush with egg wash (optional), and bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 15-18 minutes or until it starts to turn golden. Do not overbake as it may turn out too hard, and probably burnt too! Remove from oven and leave on tray for about 5 minutes. Then transfer to wire racks to cool. Store in airtight containers.

Rolling out the pastry using a nastar mould
(Background: Pineapple jam rolled into little balls)



Assembling the pineapple rolls



Just need to brush some eggwash on the pastry before popping them into the oven

Ran out of pineapple jam, so I used the extra dough to make butter cookies for the kids

Mmm....pineapple... (just noticed the pineapple slicer though)

Toll House Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies are sensational! Crispy around the edges and slightly chewy in the centre with just the right amount of sweetness. The recipe comes from a book by Alex Goh that I recently added to my cookbook collection. I hadn't planned on making any cookies that afternoon as I still had some lemon loaf from the previous day. I had brought Z to the supermarket and he insisted that he wanted to buy this box of chocolate chip cookies. I don't really trust most of the baked goods that are made and sold in-house by the supermarkets as I believe they are overloaded with sugar and probably preservatives and other additives as well. So I told him that I'd make cookies for him instead. I was hoping he would have forgotten about it after we got home, but right after lunch, he said, "Mummy, can you get all the ingredients first?". I paused for a while (as I was busy washing the dishes) before I realised what he was asking. Just as well, since J was asleep, I quickly pulled out the recipe and proceeded to get everything ready, which didn't take too long. I just had to wait an hour for the dough to firm up in the fridge before shaping and placing the cookies on the baking tray, and they only took 15 minutes in the oven. I never used to like chewy cookies, but these are buttery, thin and light in texture with a slight chewiness and a hint of hazelnut meal which makes them just a little special :)