PANDAN COOKIES

Pandan leaves or Screwpine leaves

Seriously speaking, my family love pandan jellies very much. However, I have never heard of Pandan Cookies before until I stumbled upon a recipe book which provide various of New Year cookies by Alan Ooi. Thought that I might as well give it a try since my garden has bountiful of pandan leaves which kept growing non-stop. In English, Pandan is called "Screwpine Leaves". Some supermarket and wet market sells them in bunches. Otheriwse, look around your neighbours outside garden and you might be lucky enough to stumble upon these pandan leaves. By the way, you can use pandan essence or squeeze the juice from original pandan leaves if you have them. Just cut 8 pieces of pandan leaves into 3-4 inch length, put them into a juice blender with 3 tablespoon of plain water and blend them. Use a strainer to collect the pandan juice. If you don't like dessicated coconut, leave them out or replace them with oats, crush cornflakes or chocolate chips instead. The original recipe uses dessicated coconut and they taste delicious since I love coconut too. Enjoy !!

I used squeeze out pandan juice so the cookies doesn't look so greenish

( Recipe adapted from New Year Cookies by Alan Ooi )

Ingredients

140g butter

70g icing sugar

1/2 of an egg

1/2 tsp pandan essence or original pandan juice squeezed out

170g plain flour

1 tbsp cornflour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Decoration:

50g dessicated coconut

Some red cherries-diced

Step-by-step method:-

Step 1.

Prepare all the ingredients and preheat the oven at 160C.

Step 2.

Beat butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy and creamy.

Step 3.

Pour in egg and pandan essence. Beat lightly . Add in flour, cornflour and baking powder. Mix well until it form a soft dough.

Step 4.

Roll the dough into marble size balls. Lightly press the balls and coat them with dessicated coconut. Press a red cherry in the middle of the each cookie.

Step 5.

Put them into lined baking tray. Bake at 160C for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool the cookies before storing them in airtight containers.

Makes approximately 50 pieces

CHOCOLATE CHIPS MUFFIN

Muffin mixtures are very quick and easy to make. It is important not to over-beat the batter too much. Ensure that all ingredients are all well blended. You can actually use cake recipes to make muffins. Muffins are easier to bring along when you are at work, in the car, picnic trip or in school compare to cakes which requires cutting, paper plates or tissue paper which create lots of hassle. The inner texture is soft, a little moist and spongy. Muffins with tea or coffee are a great treat during tea-time.

Ingredients

150g SR flour

3 tablespoon icing sugar ( 60g )

120ml skimmed milk ( I used soymilk )

2 tablespoon margarine ( 80g )

1 large egg - beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

15g raisins- chopped into dices

15g red cherries- chopped into dices

15g chocolate chips

Step-by-step method:-

Step 1

Preheat oven at 180C. Line muffin paper cups into muffin tray or foil cake cups. Sift flour and icing sugar in a big mixing bowl.

step 2.

Rub in margarine and knead with your fingertips until it resemble breadcrumbs. It should look like the above picture. It should be dry not wet.

Step 3.

Pour in skimmed milk or soymilk and stir well with a fork. You needn't use a cake mixer.

Step 4.

Add in beaten egg and vanilla essence. Mix well but don't over-beat the batter.

Step 5.

Add in chopped raisins and red cherries. Stir again.

Step 6.

Scoop some batter into muffin paper cups until 2/3 full. Sprinkle some chocolate chips on top.

Step 7.

Bake at 180C for 25 minutes. Use a toothpick or cake tester to test the muffin inner texture. It should comes out clean. If it is wet, bake for another 10 minutes.

Makes around 8 pieces depending on your muffin paper cups size.

CHINESE STEAMED SPONGE CAKE

Steamed sponge cake is moist and not so spongy. Not bad for a change.

( Chinese Steam Sponge cake taken from Google images)

Ingredients

5 large eggs

200g castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Sift twice

200g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Grease side of round cake pan with butter.
2. line the base with non-stick baking sheet.
3. Bring water in a large steamer to boil over high heat.
4. Place eggs in a bowl of electric mixer and whisk for 3min until frothy.
5. Add sugar. Continue to beat until pale and fluffy.
6. Beat in vanilla essence.
7. Carefully, fold in sifted dry ingredients 1/3 at a time. Keep beating.
8. Pour mixture into pan.
9. Wipe the steamer cover and wrap a large tea towel to prevent water from the cover dripping into the sponge cake.
10. Steam over boiling water for 40min.

PANDAN KAYA MUFFIN

Kaya, comes from the word meaning "rich" in Malay. It is a coconut egg jam,whereby the jam is made from coconut milk , eggs, mixed with extracted juice from pandan leaf for fragrance and sweetened with sugar.

( Pandan Kaya Muffin taken from Google images)

( pandan leave or screwpine leave)

Ingredients

150g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg-beaten

40g castor sugar

50g butter, melted

100ml milk mix with 1/2 tsp pandan paste or 1 tbs pandan juice

12 teaspoon of kaya (coconut jam)

Method

1. Grease muffin tin.
2. Sift flour, baking powder into a bowl. Add salt.
3. In a large bowl, combine egg, sugar and butter.
4. Add combined milk and pandan paste. Mix well.
5. Fold in sifted flour ingredients.
6. Place a spoonful of mixture on to the base of each greased muffin hole.
7. Use a teaspoon to make a hole in the centre.
8. Fill in a teaspoon of kaya (coconut jam).
9. Then cover the top of the kaya with a tablespoon of batter until 2/3 full.
10. Bake 200C for 35min or until skewer inserted into the middle of muffin comes out clean.

SWEET CORN MUFFIN

Sweet corn are sweet either bake with bread, cakes or muffins. Most people like to eat steam cup sweet corn for snacks.

Here is a recipe for easy sweet corn muffin.

( sweet corn muffin from Google images)

Ingredients

215g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

60g castor sugar

3 large eggs-beaten

90ml low fat milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

75g butter, melted

175g cream style sweet corn

Method

1. Lightly grease muffin tin.
2. Sift self raising flour and baking powder in a bowl.
3. Stir in sugar.
4. Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and butter together.
5. Add to flour mixture together with sweet corn.
6. Beat for another 30 seconds.
7. Spoon into greased muffin holes until 2/3 full.
8. Bake 190C for 25min or until skewer inserted into the centre of muffin comes out clean.

STRAWBERRY MUFFIN

(photo taken from Google images)

Strawberries may taste sour if eaten raw. Mix them together with muffins, give you a wonderful taste.

Ingredients

250g plain flour

4 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp salt

75g light brown sugar

2 large eggs-beaten

75g butter, melted

150ml milk

250g fresh, ripe strawberries, dice

Method

1. Preheat oven 220C.
2. Grease muffin hole or line with muffin paper cases.
3. Sift all dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Add salt.
5. Beat sugar and eggs together.
6. Add butter and milk. Mix well.
7. Stir the sugar mixture into the dry ingredients.
8. Add in dice strawberries.
9. Mix until all well blended.
10. Spoon into muffin hole or paper case until 2/3 full.
11. Bake for 25 to 30min or until the skewer inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean.

BASIC MUFFIN

This is recipe for basic muffin if you like it plain.

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs-beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Line 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Preheat oven to 190C.
3. Sift flour, baking powder into a bowl.
4. Stir in salt. Set aside.
5. lace sugar, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla essence in a bowl. Mix well.
6. Add combined dry ingredients and beat until blended.
7. Spoon into muffin pan until 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 20min or until skewer inserted in the centre of muffin comes out clean.

KUIH BANGKIT

KUIH BANGKIT

Ingredients

350g tapioca flour

5 pcs pandan leaves , wash and cut into 2inch length

1 tsp salt

2 large egg yolks

140g castor sugar

150ml thick coconut milk or packet type

20g butter, melted

1/8tsp baking powder

Method

1. Fry tapioca flour with pandan leaves until light. Discard pandan leaves. Leave 15min to cool before use.
2. Set aside 80g flour for dusting.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Whisk egg yolk with sugar. Add 20g butter. Mix well.
5. Alternatively, add tapioca flour and coconut milk. Keep mixing until well blend.
6. If the batter is sticky, add a tablespoon of tapioca flour.
7. Leave it aside for 10min to 30min with a towel cloth. The batter will harden.
8. Sprinkle some flour onto baking pan. Don't grease or use any baking sheet.
9. Sprinkle some flour onto baking board. Roll into 1cm thickness. Use any cookie cutter to stamp out shapes. Dip a toothpick into red coloring and place a dot on each cookie.
10. Bake 170C for 15min or a little brownish.

TIPS:

• Fry tapioca flour 1 day earlier because if the flour is still warm, batter will become very sticky.
• Do not too much tapioca flour if the batter is wet because it will harden when you leave the dough aside for 10min to 30min.
• If the batter has too much flour, cookie takes much longer time to bake.