EASTER BISCUIT

EASTER BISCUIT

( Butterless)

This biscuit does not require any butter. Instead, it uses sunflower oil which is healthy and suitable for weight watchers. I find that the biscuit is a little bit hard and not crunchy. The interior is not crumbly at all. I would suggest adding half shortening instead of using all oil. Your could add cornflour or custard to make it crunchy.

INGREDIENTS

55g chopped walnuts

115ml sunflower oil

55g caster sugar

25g chopped raisins

1 egg-beaten

175g plain flour - sieve

1tsp baking powder- sieve

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD

1. Grease baking sheet.
2. In a bowl, mix walnut, oil, sugar. raisin and egg together.
3. Stir in flour and baking powder.
4. Add in vanilla essence.
5. Knead into a firm paste, add flour if necessary.
6. Roll out mixture into small size balls.
7. Flatten with finger or fork.
8. Bake 10-15min at 170C or until golden browned.
9. Makes 14-20pcs depending on the size.

KUIH BANGKIT (less flour)

KUIH BANGKIT

During Chinese New Year, Kuih Bangkit is one of the must cookie to be serve among friends and relatives. I don't know why but it has been a traditional since I was young. The sweet coconut milk fragrance attracts everyone attention even though it looks plain. It melts in the mouth, a little try, therefore you need some water to swallow, crisp and easily broken. I have baked this cookie twice this year. Don't add too much flour if the batter looks wet because it will turn hard if you leave it for 5-10min. Give it a go, I am sure you are gonna love it.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 100pcs)

225g tapioca flour

3 pandan leaves cut into 3inch long

30g butter

85g icing sugar

1 egg yolk

120ml thick coconut milk ( packet type accepted)

a drop of red coloring

toothpick

1 DAY BEFORE BAKING

1. Fry tapioca flour with pandan leaves for 3-5 min. Stir it constantly to avoid getting burnt.

ON THE DAY OF BAKING

1. Gather all ingredients.

2. Sieve tapioca flour.

3. Mix together egg yolk, butter and sugar.

4. Mix well.

5. Add 75ml coconut milk.

6. Stir well.

7. Add flour and knead until it form into a semi-hard dough. It should be a sticky dough.

8. Divide dough into 2 portion.

9. Roll out dough onto floured surface.

10. Stamp out with your desired cookie cutter.

11. Sprinkle a little flour around the baking tray.

12. Drop a little red coloring into a bowl. Use the toothpick to dab an "eye" onto the cookie.

13. Looks like this. Transfer all cookie onto the floured baking tray.

14. Bake at 170C for 10-15min until lightly browned.

LEMON CRUNCH CAKE

LEMON CRUNCH CAKE

Lemon has been widely used in various purpose such as beauty, dishes, baking, odor remover and best for sore throat. I like the taste of this lemon cake because it has the mild lemon flavor, a bit crumbly, buttery taste. What I like best is the crispy brown top which is lightly browned. Crunchy is the word. Unfortunately, the topping is too sweet for me. The next time I bake this cake, I will reduce the granulate sugar to half and half of the juice lemon too.

Crumbly interior

INGREDIENT

115g butter

175g caster sugar

2 eggs

finely grated rind of 1 lemon

55ml milk

175g self-raising flour

TOPPING

juice of 1 lemon

115g granulate sugar

METHOD

1. Grease and line a cake tin.
2. In a bowl, beat together butter, sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs and stir in lemon rind.
4. Fold in self-raising flour, alternately pour in milk.
5. Turn mixture into a cake tin and level the surface.
6. Bake 30-45min at 180C or until well risen, golden color.
7. While the cake is baking, make topping.
8. Mix lemon juice with sugar.
9. When the cake bake, remove from the oven. Spoon topping over hot cake.
10. Leave in tin until completely cool.

FRUIT CAKE

FRUIT CAKE

Fruit cake is a must during Christmas season. Here is a simple recipe to share with you. Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

INGREDIENTS

120g margarine / butter

170g sugar

340g dried fruit ( raisin, sultana, cherries, orange peel)

225ml water

1tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp mixed spice

2 eggs

120g plain flour

120g Self-raising flour

a pinch of salt

METHOD

1. Apply margarine / butter around the cake tin and the base
2. Mix margarine / butter, sugar, dried fruit, water, baking soda, mix spice in a sauce pan.
3. Heat over medium fire. Bring to boil and simmer for 1 min.
4. Pour into a bowl to cool.
5. Add in eggs one at a time.
6. Sieve both flour and salt into the creamy mixture. Mix well.
7. Pour into cake tin and level the surface well.
8. Bake for 1 and 1/4 hours at 180C.

TURKISH CINNAMON CAKE

TURKISH CINNAMON CAKE

Turkish Cinnamon cake is actually walnut raisin butter cake. I got this cake recipe from my Singapore aunt. However, it is a little crumbly when I cut the cake and dry. Maybe next time I would add in some milk. Overall, it is a nice cake to be share during teatime or Christmas.

INGREDIENTS

175g butter

100g sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 eggs

175g self-raising flour

50g cornflour

1tsp baking powder

50g chopped cherries

50g chopped raisins

100g chopped walnut

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

METHOD

1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence until pale and light.
2. Stir in eggs, one at a time.
3. Sift in both flour, baking powder.
4. Mix in raisin, cherries and walnut. Mix well.
5. Greased cake tin. Pour in and level smooth the surface.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 1 and half hour.

CHRISTMAS COCONUT CRISPS

Although you may find many types of coconut crisp or thins recipes in the web, I still prefer mine to contain sweetened desiccated coconut, the dry type. Sink your teeth into these sweet lovely crisps, fresh from the oven, you will be enjoying the light, crispy and crunchy taste.

Recently, I found 3 types of recipes for Coconut Crisps. All of them uses the same method, temperature and time to bake. However, they differ in ingredients and decoration.

After browsing through and fro over these 3 recipes, I had decided to give a try on Christmas Coconut Crisps found in Alan Ooi web, with a slight modification.

When piping the mixture onto the line baking tray, do not pipe too much because you will need a big space to spread the crisp, which means, you can only have 5 piece of crisps per tray. It It will take ages for you to bake 60 pieces! So, pipe a little, use the back of the spoon to flatten the mixture, spreading and thinning the cookies as thin as possible. You can replace the desiccated coconut with sesame instead for the decoration.

Once the crisps are removed from the oven, quickly store them into airtight container because they will turn soft rather quickly.

Here is the recipe:

CHRISTMAS COCONUT CRISPS

(makes 60-80pcs)

INGREDIENTS

50g butter

50g shortening

120g icing sugar

100g egg white ( 3 eggs)

120g flour

20g desiccated coconut

FOR DECORATION

20g desiccated coconut

METHOD:-

1. Gather all the ingredients; icing sugar, flour, desiccated coconut..

2. Shortening, butter and egg whites ( approx. 2-3 eggs)

3. Beat butter, shortening and sugar until fluffy.

4. Add in egg whites. Beat well.

5. Add in flour and desiccated coconut.

6. Blend well.

7. Lightly grease baking sheet.

8. Fill in the batter into a piping bag.

Pipe a little batter onto the baking tray/sheet.

9. Use the back of a spoon to flatten, spreading and thinning it.

10. Sprinkle a little desiccated coconut on top.

11. Bake them at 170C for 10min.

12. Crispy, brownish cookie.

WALNUT COOKIE

WALNUT COOKIE

(makes 60pcs)

INGREDIENTS:

180g butter

100g sugar

1 egg

170g SR Flour

1/2 tsp spice powder

30g chocolate chips

70g walnut chopped and roast ( leave some for decoration)

60g desiccated coconut

METHOD:

1. Mix butter and sugar until creamy.
2. Add in egg. Mix well.
3. Sift SR Flour and spice powder in another bowl.
4. Add to creamy mixture.
5. Add in chocolate chips, walnut and desiccated coconut. Mix again.
6. Drop by round 1 tsp, 2inch apart onto grease baking sheet.
7. Decorate with chopped walnut.
8. Bake 180C for 10-15min.

PEANUT ( GROUNDNUT ) COOKIES

PEANUT COOKIES!

Peanut cookies are one of the Chinese New Year cookies which are easy to make. Peanuts are inexpensive and you can get them easily in supermarkets or mini markets.

The first time I baked this cookie was 2 months back. My friends said that these cookies were delicious, full of nuts aroma but just a little too sweet for them.

This is my 2nd time baking this nutty cookie again. Our family love them too. I followed wlteef.blogspot posted receipe and as usual, it never fails for me. It was a breeze. Thanks for the wonderful receipe.

However, I had reduced the sugar to 80g instead and increased the corn oil because the batter kept falling apart...was too crumbly. I used muffin paper cups instead of baking sheet to avoid the cookies from sticking together as they will expand when baked. Don't be bother of the cracks on the surface. It was the baking powder.

PEANUT COOKIES

(followed wlteef.blogspot.com receipe)

Ingredients

200g ground peanut powder ( I ground peanut powder coarsely)

200g sifted flour

1/2tsp sifted baking powder

80g icing sugar

120g corn oil

cashew nut/peanut for deco (optional)

FOR GLAZING:

1 egg yolk-beaten with 1tsp water

Method

1. Gather all ingredients. Preheat oven at 180C.

2. Fry the peanuts

3. Ground peanuts coarsely

4. Sift all dry ingredients

5. Mix flour,baking powder, ground peanut powder,icing sugar in a bowl until well combined.

6. This is how it looks like after mixed

7. Add oil gradually and knead at the same time. Don't add all in one go.

8. If the dough is dry, add oil

If dough is wet, add flour

9. Shape as u wish or use cookie cutter

10. Put a piece of nut on top. Apply eggwash

Transfer to muffin paper cups.

Don't grease the cups. cookie (optional)

11. Bake at 20min until golden browned

Makes 62pcs

Crunchy N crispy cookies!

NESTUM FAMILY LEMON CAKE

LEMON CAKE

I noticed that many bloggers posted that Nestum Cake was easy but a little too sweet.

However, I don't think so. Firstly, it's greasy, wet and very,very SWEET. Might get diabetics you know.

This is my first attempt and I just added lemon rind and juice. To my dismay, it turned out unsatisfactory.

Maybe it's due to the lemon.

Eventhough I tried to bake this NESTUM CAKE according to the posted receipe at shw.mamafami.fotopages.com, it turned out wet inside, tasted too sweet, oily and many tiny holes. Though it is edible but too oily for everyone in my family.

Can anyone give some advice what went wrong?

Tiny holes on the surface

NESTUM LEMON CAKE

(taken from NESTUM CAKE receipe)

Ingredients

250g butter

250g castor sugar ( I reduced to 180g )

4eggs ( I had 3 eggs only)

Juice of 1 lemon

Lemon rind

200g SR Flour

50g Nestum Cereal

100ml Milk

Method

1. Prepare all ingredients. Sift flour.

2. Lemon rinds

3. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy

This is how it looks

4. Add eggs one at a time

5. Beat until creamy

6. Fold in sifted flour and lemon juice alternately

7. Add lemon rind and Nestum cereal

Mix well

8. Pour into greased cake tin

9. Bake 160C for 1 hour. Don't open oven during the 1st 30min bcoz cake will sink