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.

Hungarian Fairy Cake { Tündérsüti }

Hungarian Fairy Cake { Tündérsüti }
recipe via Tundi Konyha

Ingredients

For the dough
200gm Plain flour
80gm Powdered or Confectioner's sugar
100gm Butter, room temperature
2 Egg yolks
1 tsp Baking powder
1 pkt vanilla sugar
pinch of salt

For the filling
1 packet "puncs" / strawberry pudding powder
200ml Cold Milk
4 Tbsp sugar
180gm Sour cream, room temperature (normally 20% fat, but I only had 12%)
2 Egg whits
Rum extract, to taste
small drop of red food colouring

Powdered sugar for dusting

Method
1) Pre-heat oven to 180°. Prep cake tin (17.5x23.5cm) by greasing and flouring it. Set aside.

2) Make the dough by mixing  mixing flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and pinch of salt. Then add in butter by gently pinch butter into flour mixture until crumbly. Create a well in the centre of the bowl, pour in the egg yolks and gently knead into becoming a soft dough.

3) Divide dough into 6:4 portions. Roll out the bigger dough to the size of the bottom of baking dish. Place in the baking dish. Place the baking dish in the fridge to let the dough rest. The smaller portion of dough, wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge too.

4) While the dough is resting, prepare the filling. In a sauce pan , pour in cold milk, then slowly mix in the pudding powder and powdered sugar. Cook the pudding on stove top until thickens.

5) When pudding has thickens, carefully mix in the sour cream. This process will easily split the mixture. What I did was, take a little of the hot pudding, and add into the sour cream and then pour the whole sour cream mixture into the  hot pudding and quickly whisk it to avoid splitting. Then put in the rum and red food colouring, mix well. Set aside

6) In a bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. The slowly fold into pudding mixture.

7) Take out the baking dish from the fridge, pour the filling over the dough base. Finally roll out the smaller portion dough, cut into strips and lay a criss cross pattern on top (see pic from recipe link above).

8) Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins. until pudding is firm nad pastry is golden brown.

Grapefruit Cake

photo via Andrew Zimmern

Unfortunately I didn't managed to take a photo of the actual cake, before it was demolish and became "unphotogenic". I'm posting still the recipe because it was surprising good!

Grapefruit cake
recipe via BlissfullyScrumptious

Ingredients
40gm Sugar
1 Egg
50gm Butter, melted
50gm Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
a pinch of salt
50ml Grapefruit juice

Method
1) Pre-heat oven to 180˙c
2) In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Set aside
3) In another bowl whisk sugar, egg and melted butter until combine. Pour in the grape juice and flour mixture (1). Whisk until just combine, do not over mix!
4) Pour cake batter into greased loaf tin and bake for 20-25 mins.

Chinese New Year Cake / Nian Gao / 年糕

When it come to taste of Chinese foods, we work on the basis of sweet, sour, bitter, and spiciness. Another element which is also very important is the textures. Some of the favoured texture is stickiness, crispiness and bounciness of foods; which can be found when you're enjoying dim sums. To achieve stickiness, glutinous rice is used.

This Chinese New Year cake symbolises "raising oneself higher in each coming year" or 年年高升. You can read more on wiki.

My cake turned out very pale despite after almost 8 hours (!) of steaming. The cake is suppose to be dark caramelised colour. I know what I did wrong, and will improve on it the next Chinese New Year.

I made this based on recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover.

Chinese New Year dishes : Yusheng / Yee Sang / 鱼生

I love this "salad" dish with raw or smoked fish during Chinese New Year. The crispy crunch of the fried wonton, contrast with the fresh fish and vegetable toss in plum sauce is my idea of heaven!

For recipe, please refer to my recipe from last year.

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.

Beetroot Soup

The beetroot I got was more red than purple. So, when I serve this soup, my husband said it looks like its for dracula :D If you love beetroot you'll love this soup. It's simple (once you get the beef stock ready) to make and great to warm the tummy during this winter weather.


Beetroot Soup
source : Poh's kitchen

Ingredients

50g butter

1 large brown onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

500g beetroot, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thinly

1 ½ litres beef stock* (pre-made)

3 tbs plain flour

180ml (¾ cup) passata / tomato puree or tinned crushed tomatoes

300g desiree potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

3 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp table salt OR to taste (double if using sea salt flakes)

¼ tsp freshly cracked white or black pepper

250ml (1 cup) sour cream or crème fraiche

4 tbs chopped flat leaf parsley

Beef Stock

2 kg beef bones

2 carrots

2 medium brown onions, with skins roughly chopped

3 litres water

2 sticks celery, with tops and roughly chopped

1 bouquet garni (2 sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme and 1 bay leaf)

10 - 12 black peppercorns

Method

1. Heat butter in a large non stick saucepan on medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft but not coloured. Add beetroot and carrot and sauté until tender, then pour in beef stock. While this is heating up on the stove, whisk plain flour into three tablespoons of the tomato puree. Whisk with the remaining tomato puree and combine with rest of soup mixture. Cover and bring to the boil. Add the potatoes, balsamic and sugar. Simmer until potatoes are tender and then add the salt and pepper. Blend in a blender or with a stick blender until silky smooth. Serve with a generous dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche, sprinkle of parsley and pirozhki.

Beef Stock
1. Preheat over to 200ºC and bake bones in a roasting dish for half an hour. Add the carrots and onions and bake for another 20 minutes. Transfer the contents of the roasting dish into a large stock pot and pile in the remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, then lower to a simmer, for four hours, skimming the frothy impurities off the top as you go along. Strain the stock through a fine sieve to remove then discard all the solids. Cool and refrigerate so all the fat solidifies and is easily removed and discarded.