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.