Chinese New Year Cookies

To me Chinese New Year season should have some cookies and sweets place at home whether its store bought or hand made. Thus will try to find time to make at least one type of cookie for festive season.
Pineapple tarts, kuih bangkit, kuih makmur and my helper did the pork floss roll.

Pineapple is a must that I would do for Chinese New Year. This time tried an old recipe from a friend's mum recipe collections. Saw that Lurpak butter was on offer so bought some and made the tarts, this year didn't have time to cook pineapple paste so use store bought paste and add a little blended pineapple pulp, cook it till dry then add the store bought paste and mix till soft and manageable texture.
 

Pineapple Tarts

Ingredients:
700g plain flour ( I use up the left over top flour)
450g butter
4 egg yolk
2 egg white

Method:
- Rub butter into flour till well combined. Add in eggs to flour mixture to form dough. Put the dough in a plastic bag and chill in fridge for 15min.
-Place a batch of dough between two large plastic sheets or baking paper, roll it about 3-4 mm thick, sprinkle a little flour on the surface and place cutter on it and cut out the shape. Place on baking tray line with baking paper, roll pineapple paste into round ball and place on cut out dough.
- Glaze tart with some beaten egg, and bake in 170-180 deg oven for 20min.

There were some left over dough from the pineapple tarts, thus I wrap it with ground peanut and form into kuih makmur...

This year did Valarie's kuih bangkit again, as last minute didn't manage to find fresh coconut milk, store bought one still works out fine.

Kuih Bangkit

Spiced Carrot Muffins

Quote from the book Muffin Galore-These muffin are really mini carrot cakes-perfect for lunchboxes and afternoon tea.

Made a batch of these muffins for office breakfast party on xmas eve, was dwelling on whether to put topping on the muffins as I thought some colleagues may not like to have cheese topping, finally decided not to add any toppings.

(Makes 12)
Ingredients:

300g plain flour
225g caster sugar (I reduce to 200g)
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp gound cinnamon
1 tsp salt
175ml vegetable oil (I use melted butter)
175ml milk
3eggs, lightly beaten
100g peeled carrot, grated
120g walnut, chopped
150g raisins

For topping (I didn't do)
85g cream cheese or full fat soft cheese, softened
40g butter, softened
125g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180deg C/350deg F/ Gas mark 4. Grease a 12cup muffin tin or line the cups with paper muffin cases.

2. For the muffins, mix the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl or jug, mix together the vegetable oil, milk and eggs. Add in the grated carrot, walnut and raisins to the dry ingredients, mix till combined. Add the well ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients. Mix briefly until just combined.

3. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, dividing it evenly. Bake in the oven for 20-25min. or until risen and golden. Cool in the tin for 10min, then turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

4. For the topping, beat together the cream cheese or soft cheese and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla extract until the topping is thick and speadable. Spread a large tablespoonful of the topping mixture on top of each muffin before serving.

Roast Turkey and Logcake

My sisters and their families came to my place for gathering during Christmas day. Each brought some food, which includes honey baked ham, roast pork, macaroni cheese, I did a roast turkey and some other simple dishes. Try my luck on a logcake too but my skill of doing the swiss roll sucks, end up the cake looks alittle collapse.
Thanks fellow blogger friend C for the beautiful Christmas card, all say the card it's a nice gift for the festival.

Valerie's Fruitcake

Learn this cake at Ms Valarie's class last year. This is the second time that I made the cake, thought that fruit cake will be nice addition for the office's Christmas party besides the usual turkey and logcakes. This time I replace the brown sugar with molasses, those who taste it said its nice as its not so sweet, also its not as hard as those selling outside.

Orange Poppy Seed Muffin

My friend Y(thanks Y!) gave me some poppy seeds many months ago, almost forgot about it till recently that this ingredient pop up in my mind, thought that muffin was the easiest recipe to use up this ingredient.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup (310g/10oz) self raising flour
1/4 cup (40g/ 1 1/4 oz) poppy seed
1/3 cup (90g/3oz) caster sugar
125g (4oz) unsalted butter
1 cup (315g/10oz) orange marmalade
1 cup (250ml/8 fl oz) milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp finely grated orange rind


Method:
1. Preheat the oven to moderately hot 200deg C (400deg F/Gas 6). Sift the flour into a bowl,. Stir in the poppy seed and sugar, make a well in the centre. Put butter and 2/3 cup (210g/7oz) ot the orange marmalade in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until butter has melted and the mixture is combined. Cool slightly.

2. Whisk together the milk, eggs and rind in a jug and pour into the well. Add the butter and marmalade. Fold gently with a metal spoon until just combined. Do not over mix- the batter should still be lumpy. Overmixing will make them tough.

3. Fill each muffin paper cup or muffin tin hole about three quarter full and bake for 20-25min, or until muffin are risen, golden and come away slightly from the tin. If use cup, skewer should come out clean when poke into the centre of the muffin.

4. Heat the remaining marmalade and push it through a fine sieve. Brush generously over the top of the warm muffin Leave them to cool on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temp.

New York Cheesecake

Thought of doing a cheesecake to use up the sour cream before it expires, try this recipe as its quite small portion compare to other cheesecake recipes, this portion is just nice for my family. Although this is a rich cake but all like it. Recipe from 孟老师的下午茶...

(I use a 7" cake ring althought the book recommended 6" springform pan)
Ingredient:
A. Base : 120g digestive biscuit  30g unsalted butter - melted
B. Cheese filling: 400g cream cheese- thaw at room temp for about half hour
                          75g caster sugar
                          2 eggs
                          130g sour cream
                          10g cake flour
                          grated lemon peel from 1 lemon
                          2 tbsp lemon juice
                          1/2 tsp vanilla essence


Method:

1. Base: Break biscuit into small piece, put into a plastic bag, use a rolling pin and pound the biscuit into fine crumbs. Add melted butter into biscuit crumb and mix till well combined, press the biscuit crumb into 7" spring form tin or lined cake ring. Chilled for about 15min.
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar using low speed in mixing bowl till cheese is soft, add in egg one at time, mix till well combined then add the next egg. Add sour cream and flour and mix till well combined, lastly add in lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla essence, mix well.
3. Pour cheese batter onto biscuit base, place cake tin in a tray, place the tray in oven, pour in a cup of hot water in the tray, bake cake over double boil at 180 deg for 20min, then lower 10 deg and bake for further 40min.
4. Turn off oven, open a little gap of the oven door to let cake cool for about 15min, remove cake ring/tin,let cake cool completely place cake in fridge and chill for 5 hours before serve.

Madeleine

Wanted to bake something since I haven't been baking for a while, browsing thru the book 孟老師的下午茶, thought this recipe was quite fast to do and portion was small, this recipe taste nice and not very sweet.

(per recipe yield 15 pcs)
Ingredients:
100g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
100g egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence
100g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
orange zest from 1 orange
1tsp orange liqur


Method:
1. Mix butter, sugar and salt over doble boiler till well combine. Remove from double boiler, leave to cool, add in egg, vanilla essence and mix till well combined.

2. Add in orange liquor and orange zest and mix till well combined.

3. Fold in sifted cake flour and baking powder till well combined.

4. Spoon batter into madeleine mould, bake at 180 deg C for 20min or till golden color.