Chocolate swirl cookies / Chocolate melting moments

Made these when we had guests over last Sunday. The biscuit / cookie recipe from Tin and Thyme was perfect and it was filled with chocolate butter cream instead.

Chocolate swirl cookies
credit :-
https://tinandthyme.uk/2016/09/chocolate-viennese-whirls/?fbclid=IwAR0ZMq9xPhfnw2QEDWZ5ClMdw3v38rbLQbbzZUa-HDpXEqvssUnqhIbh0Ps

Ingredients

Viennese Whirls

• 200 g unsalted butter - softened
• 75 icing sugar
• 25 g cocoa powder
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 180 g plain flour (140g plain flour+40gm corn flour *will reduce corn flour the next round)
• pinch salt
• 1 tbsp milk

Butter cookies with meringue and apricot jam / Non-Plus Ultra

Some people call this poor-man's macaron..haha. Many consider this a retro cookies, it really deserves more love! I will be making these again the coming Christmases and when we have guests over. It is so easy and tasted good! Check out the link to see how it should look because meringue and presentation need some improvement.

Non-plus Ultra
credit : https://receptneked.hu/edes-sutemenyek/non-plus-ultra-5/?fbclid=IwAR33-i2lvAso08m96HPIg5g5Zk-l-RHo6gBE8_q8czJ0UD0jiYLy0ACM6Jo

video tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p16wD_haYuA

• 
  
• Ingredients
• Cookie dough :-
• 200gm All-purpose Flour
• 2Tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 sachets vanilla sugar
• 200gm butter, room temperature
• 2 egg yolks

• Meringue :-
• 2 egg-white 
• a pinch of salt
• 200gm powdered sugar (I find that less sugar works too)
• 1tsp lemon juice

• Filling :
• 2-3 Tbsp jam of your choice, a more tart jam will work better to counter the sweetness of meringue

Method :-

1) In a bowl, put in the flour, powdered and vanilla sugar. Mix well. Next , crumble in the butter, use fingers to work butter in until crumbly texture. Then put in the egg yolks and knead the mixture until it becomes a dough. Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 mins.

2) Pre-heat oven at 160`c. 

3) After 30 mins , take dough out from fridge, roll dough out , thickness about 0,5cm . Use round cookie cutter to cut into shape and place on a lined baking dish.

4) Make meringue by beating egg white with a pinch of salt. Beat for 1 mins to get the egg white frothy. Then add about 50gm of sugar, start beating again, after another min. add lemon juice and another 50gm of sugar. Beat and add sugar gradually until you reach shinny and thick consistency. not too runny. Pipe meringue onto cookie and bake in the pre.heated oven for 10-15 mins until nice colour.

5) Let it cooled before filling with jam. It better to make these a day before serving.

Or to make ahead of time, keep cookies in air-tight container without filling. Keep in the pantry. Fill with jam before serving.

Cottage cheese pastry bites

An easy recipe from my neighbour. As this pastry is quite rich, best serve them on special occasions.

Cottage cheese pastry bites

Ingredients :-

Pastry
200gm All purpose flour
200gm Butter, cold
200gm Cottage cheese
a pinch of salt

To glaze
Egg wash

Toppings (optional)
Grated cheese of your choice
Cumin seeds



Method :-

1) Pre-heat oven at 180°c

2) In a bowl, combine all pastry ingredients and knead until just combine. Don't over work it.

3) Let dough rest in fridge for 15 mins.

4) After 15 mins. roll out dough to thickness of 0.5 - 1 cm. cut into shapes that you wish.

5) Glaze pastry with egg wash.

6) If using, sprinkle your choice of toppings all over pastry.

7) Bake in oven for about 18 mins. or until golden brown.

Peanut butter chocolate rice cookies

Peanut butter is my weakness. I'm not kidding , I could eat a few teaspoons a day! Before the jar got finished, I decided to make these cookies for the husband to snack when he has to eat dinner late.

I kept these in the freezer and each morning I thaw 2 pcs. for him for his afternoon snack. This way, the cookie softens in the centre.

Peanut Butter Chocolate chips Cookies

Coffesions of a baking sheet

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

113gm butter , room temp.

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg, room temp.

1 tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips/chunks/rice

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl mix togther flour, baking soda and salt set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream butter and brown sugar for 3 minutes. Add in egg, vanilla and peanut butter, mix for another 2 minutes. Add in flour mixture and fold in chocolate chunks. Chill dough for 1 hour then preheat oven to 350˙F/180˙c/Gas 4 and line a baking sheet with baking sheet.
3. Bake for 8-10 minutes. I like to take cookies out when they look almost done and let sit on pan for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Chinese New Year Baking : Almond London Cookies

Chinese New Year is once again around the corner (February 8th)! For this year, I thought aside from the staple pineapple tart, I should try my hand at another favourite cookies for the festival. When I saw a recipe for Almond London Cookies during my blog surfing, I knew I want to make these. These did not originate from London and I have no idea why this cookies exists in Malaysia. The cookie is basically a toasted almond wrapped with short cookie dough, bake lightly, then dipped into melted chocolate and finish off with a sprinkle of chopped/nibbed almonds.

For step-by-step tutorial, please go to Nasi Lemak Lover.


Almond London Cookies
Source : Nasi Lemak Lover (linked above)

150g whole almonds

30g nibbed almonds

170g butter (salted)

60g icing sugar, sifted

20g egg yolk (used 1 yolk)

300g cake flour (used plain flour)

300g chocolate

Method

1. Toast whole almonds in oven at 180°c for 13-15mins, and toast nibbed almonds at 180°c for 1-2mins. Set aside to let it cool completely before use.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar till light and pale.
3. Add in egg yolk, beat well to combine.
4. Add in cake flour, mix until it come together to form soft dought. Do not over work it.
5. To weight dough 6g each, wrap up a whole almond, and shape into oval shape.
6. Bake cookies at 160°c (fan forced) for 15mins or until golden brown, set aside to cool completely.
7. Melt chocolate over double boiler or microwave oven. Dip cookie in melted chocolate. Use a small fork, transfer coated cookie into a mini paper cup.
8. Sprinkle some toasted nibbed almonds on top. Chill in the fridge (~10mins) to set the chocolate before storing in air-tight container. Store in cool place to prevent chocolate from melting.

Holiday baking : Ischler cookies

Ischler cookies , a repeat from 2012.

French Macaron

This was done earlier this year, in May 2015. Looked  nothing like the real thing..haha. However, I just want to say , despite the crooked appearance, it tasted ok!

Chocolate swirl cookies

I've mentioned that I rarely bakes cookies or biscuits. We do tend to buy cookies / biscuits that have something to with chocolate. We ran out of bought snacks and since I have all the ingredients for this recipe, I quickly whip this up. I would be relying this as my go-to chocolate based cookies going forward. The quantity of sugar have been reduced to my taste which resulted in a more intense chocolate bite. For special occasions and a more decadent version, I intend to sandwich with chocolate butter cream!
Chocolate Swirl Cookies
via BBC Good Food
**I halved this recipe and yield around 24 medium-size cookies
Ingredients  200g softened butter  300g soft brown sugar (in my halved recipe, I reduced from 150gm to 75gm) 2 tsp vanilla extract  2 eggs  300g self raising flour (used regular plain flour) 80g cocoa powder  1 tsp baking powder  300g choc chips (eliminated)

My additions
++ rum, to taste
++ pinch of salt,  if using unsalted butter

Method

1. preheat oven to 180 c/ gas 4
2. cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in vanilla extract and eggs
3. in a separate bowl sift flour, cocoa and baking powder together
4. add flour mix to the creamed mix in stages( a third at a time) mix well. fold in choc chips until just combined.
5. spoon a tablespoon of the mixture on to a baking tray and just let it drop off the spoon, repeat until you have used up all the cookie mixture.
6. bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes, when you remove the cookies from the oven they will still be soft, leave to cool completely on the baking tray, where they will continue to cook slightly,when completely cold move to a cooling rack. then enjoy!

Pineapple Tarts II

These melt-in-the-mouth tarts are a must during the Chinese New Year; which falls on Feb 19, this year. To make this recipe even easier, I've replaced fresh pineapple with canned ones.

Pineapple Tarts

via IndochineKitchen

Yield 700 g cookies

Ingredients:

For pineapple jam 2 kg pineapple, roughly 4 medium sized pineapples 600 g sugar 3 cloves 5 cm cinnamon stick For cookies 200 g butter 50 g confectioners' sugar 40 g powdered milk 280 g flour, low gluten or all purpose 20 g cornflour 2 egg yolks For egg wash 3 egg yolks 1/4 tsp condensed milk

Directions:

For pineapple jam Puree pineapple in an electric blender till smooth. Combine puree with sugar, cloves and cinnamon stick in a pot. Cook over low heat for 3-4 hours, stirring continually. When it thickens and can be piped or rolled, remove from heat. The jam will thicken during cooling. Prepare this one day in advance. You will end up with 500-600 g pineapple jam, enough for one batch. For cookies Preheat oven to 150 degree Celsius Sift flour, powdered milk and corn flour twice. In a mixer bowl, combine butter and sugar. Cream till light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes, over high speed. Add egg yolk, one at a time. Beating well. Add flour mixture into the bowl and beat over low speed using paddle attachment. Do this for 4-5 minutes, until everything is mixed well. Work with 50 g of dough one at a time. Roll dough between plastic sheet to 0.2 cm thickness. Pipe pineapple jam on top of the dough. Roll the dough to cover up the jam completely. Use a pair of scissors to cut them up into 4cm log and arrange on greased pan. Brush with egg wash mixture twice using small pastry brush. Bake in preheated oven till golden, 15-20 minutes. Let cool and store in airtight container.

No bake biscuit cake

No-bake desserts are ideal for hot summer days; which this is one of them. This "cake" takes very little effort but delivers on flavours.  Get this done a day ahead of serving.

No-bake Biscuit cake

Ingredients

For the "cake" layer
adapted from Padhuskitchen

1x220gm packet of wheat biscuits, like the Marie biscuits. Used only 24 pcs. I used local brand "Albert"
1 cup of strong expresso / instant coffee

For the Chocolate frosting
adapted from Kwanster

100g chocolate, break into pieces
64g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50-64gm confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Pinch of salt, sifted
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. sour cream , room temperature **12 or 20% fat
added rum for extra flavour


Preparation :-

1) Brew/ make 1 cup strong coffee, set it aside to cool.
2) Line loaf baking tin with cling film for easy removal when it is ready.
3) Once coffee is cooled, get started with the chocolate frosting :-

1. Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Set aside to cool until just barely warm.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale.
3. Gradually mix in the sifted confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and salt, beat until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate and then the sour cream.
5. Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well blended.

4) Start assembling the "cake" by dipping biscuit into coffee to soften biscuit a little. Dip piece by piece to create a base layer for the cake. Once first layer is form, spread 1/3 of the frosting over it.
5) Create second biscuit layer by dipping into coffee followed by spreading the second portion of the frosting.
6) Finally create the third layer and spread on the last portion of the frosting.
7) Leave it in the fridge for at least few hours to let it set. You can make this one day ahead before serving.
8) Serve this cold or slightly below room temperature.

Stained glass biscuits

Stained Glass Biscuits via   You too can cook  
 ** I have copy and paste the whole recipe for my easy reference. Please visit the link provided for detailed step-by-step
Ingredients 250gm All purpose flour 100gm Granulated sugar 100gm Unsalted butter, slightly cold 1 Egg 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract 2 Tbsp Milk , or as required 2 pinches Salt 1/2 tsp Baking powder Hard candies - As required (Different flavors and colors preferably) 

• Take a mixing bowl add flour, salt, baking powder and sugar, whisk well using a hand whisk. 

• Add butter and mix well to this flour mix and mix well using your fingers. 

• Lightly beat egg using a spoon and add it to the mixture, mix well. If your dough is crumbly add milk and knead well to make a soft dough.

• Now wrap the dough in a plastic wrap or just place in a bowl and cover with a lid, then let it rest in a refrigerator for half an hour or until the dough chills and is not soft. 
• Then line a baking tray with parchment or butter paper and set aside. 
• Now place the chilled dough on a rolling board (pastry board / chapati board) and roll it flat until it is thin. 

• After rolling, cut into shapes using a cookie cutter. 

• Then cut out some shapes, in the center using a smaller cookie cutter/mini moulds/any bottle caps. You can be creative here with the design and use your own ideas. (You can prick some holes using a skewer or toothpick or a straw on the cookies to hang it and use as decorators) 

• Then transfer the cut out cookies carefully onto the lined baking trays. 
• After transferring the cookies onto the lined baking tray, place the tray in refrigerator for 10 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 175°C (350 F) for 10 minutes. 
• After chilling, remove the tray from refrigerator and slide the tray into the center rack of the preheated oven. 
• Bake the cookies for 8 minutes at 175°C (350 F). (If your cookies are too thin then bake for 5-6 minutes)
• Meanwhile, unwrap the candies, separate them color-wise into individual plastic bags or ziplock bags and crush the candies using the rolling pin or meat tenderizer, set them aside.
• Now after 8 minutes, remove the cookie tray from the oven.
• Spoon small amount of crushed candies onto the center of the cookies inside the cutout holes. Do not load too much.
• Now slide the tray again into the oven and bake for another 5 minutes or just until the cookies start to brown on sides and the candies gets melted well. It will be bubbling at this stage. (If you take long to fill the cookies with candies then preheat the oven for 5 minutes before baking again)
• Now remove the tray from the oven and set aside until the cookies cool down completely. When done gently remove the cookies from the parchment paper or butter paper. 
• Then set the cookies aside for it to cool completely. Do not attempt to remove the cookies before they completely cool down. (Do the same with the rest of the dough and bake the cookies similarly)
• Store in airtight containers, use as decorators or gift wrap them.

Biscotti

I haven't posted a recipe because this was a way to salvaged a too dense cake by drying the sliced failed caked in the oven until it turn crispy just like how a biscotti  should be;)

Oat meal cookies without butter

When clearing the pantry, I found a jar of oat meal unused for quite some time. I thought using it to bake would be a nice change. Since I normally do not stock-up on butter, I needed a cookie recipe that doesn't include butter and what a great recipe I found on A Foodie Loves Company .!
I am pasting the whole recipe here. The only tweak I did was totally eliminate the  1 1/2 cups of sugar from the recipe and the result is definitely sweet enough for me .
No Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from: All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt
cinnamon, to taste  1/2 to 1 cup white or brown sugar 1 c brown sugar
1 1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350  2. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, and oats.   3. Make a well in the center and add canola oil, eggs, and vanilla   4. Mix together with a spatula. Form the dough into balls and place on cookie sheet slightly flattening them out   5. Bake 10-12 minutes

Ischler Cookies

For this Christmas, I've written Ischler cookies in my baking list, thinking that I would use the recipe featured here before but then I came across this one from The Eccentric Cook . Hers look absolutely scrumptious, so I thought "why not give it a try?".
These turned out crumbly and nutty, just the way I (or we) like it! Since these cookies are better the longer you keep them, you could bake them few days before serving. Just keep in an air-tight container and store in a cool place.
Ischler Cookies
makes about 15 cookie sandwiches (or depending on the cutter you used)
source : http://theeccentriccook.blogspot.hu/2012/12/ischler-cookies.html

Ingredients

200 grams flour

100 grams ground walnut or almond meal

1/2 tsp salt

150 grams butter

50 grams sugar

1 lemon's zest

1 Tbsp rum

for the filling

fruit preserve of your choice

for the chocolate coat

180 grams chocolate

2 Tbsp oil

Process

For the linzer cookie dough, mix the flour, ground walnut, salt and sugar together. Cut the butter in it. Add in the lemon zest and the rum. You can use an electric mixer but I found that after a while you should switch to working with your hands. The dough will be very crumbly but after 5 minutes it will come together. Form the dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Dust a bread board or your counter with flour and roll the dough into about 1/2 cm. I didn't really know how thick 1/2 cm is in a dough form so I just trusted my eyes. It should look like this:

The dough will be very sticky so it will be a bit tricky to roll it out but sprinkle some flour on it and you'll be fine. It's essential for the dough to be this sticky, that's why it will have the perfect crumble to it. 

Preheat your oven to 170C or 350F.

Cut rounds in the dough with a cutter. My cutter was too small so I just used a glass :)

Once you cut all the holes, collect the remaining dough and roll it out again and cut the rounds the same way.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake them for 12-13 minutes. They should have a very light color, don't wait until they brown because it will dry the cookies.

Chill the cookies for 10 minutes. Then take one cookie and spread a fruit preserve of your choice on it lightly.

Press the other side of the cookie on the preserve and repeat the same method with all the other cookies.

When you're done, melt the chocolate and oil over boiling water. Place the cookies on a cooling rack. Put a baking sheet or foil under it. Then pour the chocolate over the cookies.

The chocolate will need time to harden so it's advised not to touch for a couple of hours. Decorate the cookies with an almond or walnut on top! The cookies taste better after time so if you make this for a gathering, make it 1 day prior! 

Chocolate chips and raisins cookies

As much as I like chocolate chip cookies, I haven't tried baking them before this. Turns out, it is so easy to just bake it at home with just some basic pantry staples.

Chocolate chip & Raisins cookies

source : ohbin

Ingredients :

100g butter (room temperature)
80g caster sugar
1 egg *
170g flour (sifted)
1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted)
1/8 tsp salt

170g choc chips

60g walnuts (chopped into small pieces)**

* I've used only left over egg white, as a result, the cookies weren't yellow in colour. 

** Replace walnuts with raisins (soaked in milk for one hour prior to baking, just drain milk before putting into cookie mixture)

Method:
1) Pre-heat oven to 180°c
2) Mix butter + sugar until fluffy.

3) Crack in egg and mix
4) Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.

5) Put in choc chips and walnuts, mix a bit.
6) Put a tsp full of dough onto the baking tray (with baking sheet on it) and bake for 10-15mins

Apricot Butter Biscuits

Apricot Butter Biscuits { Thumbprints cookies }
source : Orang Blossom Water

Ingredients
1 cup (226 g) butter, at room temperature  
3/4 cup sugar **will lessen sugar the next time
2 large eggs yolks  
1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 cups all purpose flour  
1/2 tsp salt About 
1/2 cup apricot jam  
1/2 zest of lemon
 
Method :-  
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed beat butter and sugar until smooth.  
Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until well blended. 
Mix in the lemon zest Stir in flour and salt and beat just until dough comes together. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. 
Place about 1 inch apart on buttered or cooking parchment lined 12 by 15 inch baking sheets. 
Press your thumb gently into the center of each cookie to make an indentation.  
Bake cookies in a 325 °F (163 °C) oven until lightly browned, 18 to 20 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. 
Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon jam into the center of each cooled cookie.

Walnut cookies

Chinese new year is fast approaching, this year falling on valentine's day! This cookie is one of the must treats during the festive season. Coarsely ground peanuts are the main ingredients ; however, I have substituted it with left over ground walnut which worked out fine .
Recipe from here