Homemade seaweed spring roll crisps

It's CNY again! Tested a small batch of deep-fried seaweed spring roll crisps few days ago. One flat type and one rolled type.

Making big batch! Decide to go with the flat type. Easier!

Process of making

Using this spring roll skin

Using this sushi type of seaweed

Lay a piece spring roll skin

Brush egg. I sprinkle white sesame seeds for more fragrance!

Press a sheet of seaweed on top

Cut into small pieces

Then deep-fried by my mum!

Done!

Adapted from: http://eatwhattonight.com/seaweed-spring-roll-crisps/

CNY 2016: Salted Egg Yolk Cookies / Monkey German Cookies

This year's CNY baking was a very last minute one as I lost the mood and motivation to bake. I only start to read up for recipes and ideas for what I want to try this year the day before I start baking! Plan was to bake 3 types of cookies, 2 of which are new tries. I don't need to bake a lot. Just dedicate 1 day of mass baking! Wash also once! Lazy! Haha!

The ugly side of baking. Mess in the kitchen plus dining area. Small production only. My 3 types of cookie doughs.

Started with the hottest cookies this year. The Salted Egg Yolk Cookies!

Salted egg yolk in the cookies

Flowery designs for the salted egg yolk cookies. Because no black sesame seeds at home.

Oops after baking, shape not so nice liao. So this is the famous salted egg yolk cookies. The smell from the oven during baking is heavenly! Hope it tastes good!

Second cookies is what I have been baking every year since 2011!

Remember my Sheep design melt-in-mouth German cookies last year? So cute right?

Want to make monkey design for the Monkey Year. And they end up looking like this! (Idea from here). Look like or not? It's very difficult to shape as the dough is very soft.

Before it goes into the oven!

Monkey cookies done! Have to hide them away, if not sure finish up before cny!

Too tedious to make so many 'monkeys'. Do the usual shape with the remaining dough!

Last one is a type of refrigerator (icebox) cookies which I have never tried before. Mainly because it needs to chill and shape repeatedly.

Too bad I failed so badly that I feel embarrassed to show. But must keep record still. It's supposed to look like monkey, only the top left one look slightly better. The rest er... all out of shape due to me very inexperienced in baking cookies (like only once a year haha). So disappointed as it takes up the most time. It's ok. I tried! And I think I know where I went wrong. I should keep the cookies in the freezer because the cookies were not hard enough. So went out of shape when I cut.

Salted Egg Yolk Cookies 咸蛋黄酥饼

Ingredients

85g butter, softened at room temperature
40g caster sugar
125g all purpose flour
10g corn flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
2 cooked salted egg yolks, mashed

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten to glaze
black sesame seeds to sprinkle

Method

1. Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.

2. Sift flour, corn flour, baking powder into the butter mixture and use a spatula to mix until the flour mixture is totally absorbed into the butter mixture.

3. Then stir in the mashed salted egg yolks and gather the crumbs to form a soft pliable dough. Wrap dough in cling film and allow it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

4. Line baking trays with baking paper and preheat oven to 170 deg C.

5. Place dough on a lightly floured surface to roll into 3 mm thickness and cut them into shapes using your desired cookie cutter. Brush the cookies with egg yolk and sprinkle sesame seeds on them and bake for 15 mins or until golden brown.

Recipe from: Min's Blog

Monkey design Melt-in-mouth German Cookies 德式酥饼

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
40g icing sugar, sifted
125g potato starch, sifted
80g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp cocoa powder

Method

1. Beat butter and icing sugar till fluffy and lighter in colour.

2. Sift in potato starch and plain flour, mix to form a soft dough. Divide the dough into 2 portions (1 smaller and 1 larger portion). Add cocoa powder to the larger portion. Wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3. Roll the body of the monkey 8g each using chocolate dough. Roll 2 smaller chocolate balls and place on the side of the head as ears. Roll and shape a small plain dough into banana shape, press flat and put on eye area. Roll and shape a larger plain dough into round shape, press flat and put on nose and mouth area. Use a skewer, make indentations for the eyes, nose and mouth.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 15 mins, upper rack (need not bake till cookies turn brown).

I wish everyone a prosperous Monkey Year!
May all be safe and healthy!!

祝贺大家：新年快乐，猴年猴到不得了!!

羊年吉祥（三）Hup Tou Sou Cookies 没有核桃的核桃酥

Third CNY cookies. Hup Tou Sou Cookies (Walnut cookies without walnuts) 没有核桃的核桃酥. The name so strange right? People say the traditional Hup Tou Sou has no walnuts. I have never tasted before. Since I have peanut oil and alkaline water leftover from mooncake making. I'm giving it a try.

Into the oven now.

Freshly baked.

Though the ingredients are so simple, just flour, sugar, a bit of butter, no eggs, the cookies surprisingly taste so good! Crunchy, fragrant, sweet and a bit salty. The key ingredients should be the peanut oil and alkaline water which give the cookies a special taste.

I have some problem with the amount of peanut oil from the original recipe. Maybe because I always prefer to weigh liquid ingredients in grams instead of ml, which may not be the same - 150ml may not be equivalent to 150g. So I added the peanut oil slowly until a dough is formed. I used only 100g peanut oil in the end.

Hup Tou Sou Cookies 没有核桃的核桃酥

Ingredients (I make 56 pieces, of sizes from 8-10g)

250g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
125g sugar (can be reduced further for me)
1/2 tsp fine salt

20g salted butter
100g peanut oil or cooking oil (original is 150ml)
1/2 tsp alkaline water 碱水

Method

1. Add all dry ingredients except butter, peanut oil and alkaline water in a mixing bowl. Rub butter with flour mixture till crumble. Slowly add in peanut oil and alkaline water and mix together till a soft dough is formed. Initially the dough is very wet, after few good knead and it will become a smooth dough.

2. Weigh dough into 8-10g each and roll into small balls (initially I used 10g and then reduced to 8g because I prefer smaller size), and place on a baking tray.

3. Use a suitable bottle cap to press on the centre of each cookie to create a round pattern. (I use finger)

4. Brush with egg wash (egg yolk) and bake at 170 deg C for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Recipe adapted from: Nasi Lemak Lover

Done with 3 types of cookies this year. Wanted to try more recipes but not much time and we already have too much goodies at home. So shall end the baking here. Not a lot compared to others but we love all these 3 that I have made.

I wish everyone a prosperous Goat Year!

May all be safe and healthy!!

祝贺大家：新年快乐，羊羊得意，羊眉吐气，羊年吉祥!!

羊年吉祥（二）Bak Kwa Cookies

Second type of CNY cookies. Wanted to try this long ago. Finally did it this year! Yes the bak kwa cookies!

Got some Lim Chee Guan bak kwa at home this year. Cutting the bak kwa into small pieces is a bit troublesome though. Heh!

Easy recipe too. No need shaping, just roll into balls. I made 10g each. I like my cookies small so that I can just pop the whole thing into the mouth. :)

Super addictive! Yummy! I'm digging out all the goat year red packets. :)

Bak Kwa Cookies

Ingredients (I make 46 pieces)

125g butter, softened
35g icing sugar, sifted
40g small egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flourm sifted
65g Bak Kwa, mini diced

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg and beat till well incorporated.
3. Add vanilla and mix.
4. Add the flour and bak kwa, and mix thoroughly.
5. Wrap and chill the dough for at least 30 minutes until firm.
6. Roll each ball into 10g each. Place it on a baking tray, spacing out evenly.
7. Bake at 180C for 16-18 minutes, or until it turned slightly brown.

Recipe from: Anncoo Journal and Passionate About Baking

羊年吉祥（一）Sheep design melt-in-mouth German cookies

It's 1 week away from CNY. And I finally start baking cookies for CNY. After having charity bake sale for two consecutive years, I decide to take a break this year. Too tedious! But I am still baking for family. So starting later for freshly baked cookies.

First cookies today - the very popular sheep cookies using melt-in-mouth German cookies recipe. Have been baking this every year since 2011 because it's easy and delicious. Though it's the year of goat, sheep seems to be more popular. Cute what! I learnt this sheep design from FB.

Meh Meh before baking.

Meh Meh after baking. The sheep expand a bit and become rounder and smoother.

Cookies completed! Too cute! So fun to bake when u are not stressed to complete for orders. Love these cookies very much, except the dough is very soft and needs to chill in and out of fridge for better shaping in this terribly hot weather. It is advised to chill the dough in 2 portions and work on 1 portion first, then the other, as the dough will soften very fast *.

You can use this design for closed type pineapple tarts too. But hmm I'm not making any this year. Scared already. Some more I don't like to eat pineapple tarts one, remember? ;)

Recipe again which is same as the original post. Add in some modified parts.

Sheep design melt-in-mouth German cookies

Ingredients (I make 39 pieces)

125g butter, softened
40g icing sugar, sifted
125g potato starch, sifted
80g plain flour, sifted

Method

1. Beat butter and icing sugar till fluffy and lighter in colour.

2. Sift in potato starch and plain flour, mix to form a soft dough. Divide the dough into 2 portions, wrap and chill for at least 15 minutes (read above *).

3. Roll the body of the sheep 8g each. Roll 2 smaller balls and place on the head (just estimate roughly same size or bigger than the chocolate chips). Press a line on each ball (I use back of knife). Place 2 chocolate chips as ears. Place 2 black sesame seeds as eyes. You can also add a smile for the sheep using a piping tip.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 15 mins, upper rack (need not bake till cookies turn brown).

CNY Cookies 2014

After baking for the charity bake sale, I managed to bake a few more types of cookies for my family just before the New Year.

The Chinese Peanut Cookies that I already bookmarked very long ago and I needed to use up the peanut oil leftover from the mooncake making few months ago. I went for the easy way of using readymade peanut powder. Maybe next year, I shall blend peanuts on my own.

I'm going crazy about flower design this year. Just so in love with the cutter!

The recipe is taken from Do What I Like. I wonder why I took so long to try making peanut cookies, cos it is so easy, just mix, roll and bake and only need a mixing bowl that's all! And it just crumbles in the mouth full of peanut fragrance. I like!

Ingredients
200g ground peanut powder
200g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g icing sugar (I reduce to 90g still a bit sweet)
1/4 tsp salt
100g - 150g coarsely chopped peanut bits (or more)
100g peanut oil or more/corn oil (I added more than 100g)

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

Method
1. Put 200g peanuts in a wok and dry fry over low heat till crunchy. Remove the thin membrane and put into a blender and blend till powder form.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, ground peanut powder, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined. Toss in the chopped peanut bits and mix well.
3. Add in 100g peanut oil or more and mix till a piable dough is formed.
4. Shape as you wish. (I make 10g each, I feel a bit too big as I prefer small bite size)
5. Apply egg wash.
6. Bake on a lined tray at 165C for 20 minutes or till golden brown.

Notes:
1. Don't add in all the oil in one go. If dough is too dry, you can add more oil. If dough is too wet, you can add more flour.
2. For the shaping, you can do it in the round balls style or use a bottle cap instead. Put a piece of glad wrap over the bottle cap and press in enough dough - about 9g for this Watson's cap. Lift up the glad wrap and release the shaped cookie onto the baking tray.
3. Use corn oil if you are a "waist-watcher".
4. Use icing sugar instead of castor sugar to get a finer textured cookie.

Recipe is taken from Do What I Like

Next, I made the egg white crisps using the extra egg whites. I made them few years ago. They are originally called Almond Crisps posted by Elyn. I just made the plain version. They are paper-thin and very crispy! Super addictive to eat!

Ingredients
1 egg white (about 40g)
25g fine sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla essence
20g self-raising flour (or plain flour with a pinch of baking soda)

Almond flakes for decoration.

Method
1. Mix egg white, sugar and vanilla essence till sugar is dissolved.
2. Add sifted self-raising flour and mix well.
3. Spread a small amount of batter on the baking paper using the back of the spoon as thinly as possible (almost see-thru). Thinner, crispier.
4. Sprinkle a few almond flakes on top.
5. Bake at 170 degrees for 5 mins or until golden brown.
6. Remove from baking paper immediately. Once it’s cool, keep in air-tight container.

Notes:
1. Do watch the oven during the last minute as it may burn fast.
2. If it burns too fast, lower the temperature according to your oven.
3. Please use non-stick paper, if not your cookies will be stuck (Use Glad baking paper).
4. Please store as soon as it cools, or else it will turn soft.
5. Feel free to add anything u like. Almond, sesame seeds... I tried green tea powder before, also nice!

Playing with different colours for German cookies using the strawberry powder, yam powder and charcoal powder from my Hong Kong trip.

Lastly, my favourite cookies that I have to make every year.

Feeling quite sad. I lost my mini cashew nut cookie cutter after baking this batch of cookies. Left it beside the basin after washing. And it was dinner time, I think someone accidentally throw it away with the rubbish. Couldn't find it anymore. Super sad. This cutter was more than 20 years from my mum. Now I lost it. Don't know where I can find same shape and same size cutter again. My cashew nut cookies will never look the same anymore. :(

Chinese New Year Cookies Bake Sale 2014: Thank you for your support!

Today is the first day of Lunar New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I would like to thank everyone who has supported my CNY bake sale. This year, I have made a total of 26 containers of pineapple tarts and German cookies. Thank you Mary, Jesslyn, Jessie, Nan Lau, Marissa, Jamie, Fen Fen and Meifeng for buying my homemade CNY cookies. I hope you all like the cookies. I'm also sorry that I had to reject some orders. Hope there will be a bake sale next year.

In addition, I also received a last minute order from my blog reader Meek. This is my first chiffon cake order! Thanks for giving me confidence in my chiffon cakes. I decided to include this in my bake sale as well.

This year, I did not indicate how much to donate (unlike last year, I donated $1 for each container sold). Instead, I will donate a sum of $50 to "Make-A-Wish Foundation® (Singapore) Ltd" which helps make wishes come true for children with life-threatening medical conditions and bring them hope, strength and joy. Thank you Mary Ng for donating an extra $14 in addition to the cookies bought and support my bake sale for the second time!

So on the first day of the Chinese New Year, I contributed $50 in the name of "Small Small Baker" through sggives.org charity donation portal. Although it is only a very small amount, it's the heart that counts. Hope everyone can start doing more for the less fortunate.

I wish everyone a Horse-picious Year!

May all be safe and healthy!!

祝贺大家：新年快乐，出入平安，马到成功，马年大运!!

Pineapple Tarts with SCS Butter

I finally start my CNY baking yesterday!

I am very happy because I am invited by SCS butter to try out and feature some of their newly created recipes for Chinese New Year using SCS Butter. I think I mention before, I grow up eating SCS butter. I love spreading my bread with SCS butter since young! My mum was using SCS when she baked CNY cookies last time, and until now, I still continue using SCS butter, especially for all my cookies during CNY!

I was given a list of recipes, both sweet and savoury. I tried out two of their recipes yesterday - the open and closed pineapple tarts. A good warm up for my upcoming baking for bake sale. :)

Coconut-Dusted Golden Pillow Pineapple Tarts

This is a very special recipe that is worth trying! I never thought of coating the pineapple tarts with desiccated coconut before. It makes the pineapple tarts more fragrant!

Ingredients (I make 80pcs cos I like mini tarts)

250g SCS Salted Butter
100g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cold milk
400g plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup desiccated coconut, more as needed
650g pineapple paste

Method

1. Cream butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg yolk, vanilla essence, salt, baking soda and cold milk. Fold sifted flour into the mixture and mix until the dough just comes together. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 mins.
2. While the dough chills, divide the pineapple paste into balls of 8 g each. (I skip the steps of making pineapple filling on my own.)
3. Take a heaping teaspoon of dough and use hands to flatten it. Put the pineapple filling in the middle and wrap it with dough. Remove any excess dough and mold it to your preferred shape. Dust with desiccated coconut.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Arrange the tarts on a lined baking tray and chill the cookie dough pieces for 10 mins.
5. Bake tarts for 25mins (I bake about 20 minutes) or until the dough has turned golden brown, rotate trays halfway through baking time.
6. Allow pineapple tarts to cool before storing them in airtight containers.

This is how the tarts look before they go into the oven. Pretty! The dough is quite soft to handle. So do put it back to chill if it becomes too sticky.

Tada! My pineapple tarts look great and unique after dusted with the coconut!

At the same time, I also did the second type of pineapple tarts.

Flower Pineapple Tarts

The ingredients for this recipe is really simple. It is actually an eggless recipe too.

Ingredients (I make 38pcs)

230g plain flour, sifted
50g caster sugar
90g SCS Salted Butter
35g SCS Spreadable Butter (I use all salted butter)
2 tbsp evaporated milk, more as needed
300g pineapple paste

Method

1. Combine flour, sugar and butter in a bowl and mix using your hands. Once crumbs are formed, add the evaporated milk one tablespoon at a time and knead until the dough comes together. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
2. While the dough chills, divide the pineapple paste into balls of 8 g each. (I skip the steps of making pineapple filling on my own.)
3. Dust the working surface with flour and roll out the pastry to about 0.5cm thick. Use a flower cookie cutter to cut out each piece of dough. Arrange them in small baking cups on a lined baking tray.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Place the pineapple balls on top of each piece of cookie dough. Make a small flower using a mini flower cutter. Place on top of the pineapple balls (optional).
5. Bake tarts for 20mins or until the dough has turned golden brown, rotate trays halfway through baking time.
6. Allow pineapple tarts to cool before storing them in airtight containers.

The flower pineapple tarts before baking, so pretty right!

I love them so much! Take a piece!

Thank you SCS butter for sponsoring the butter! I will like to try out other recipes if I have the time after my CNY baking. Do check out their Facebook page for more ideas!