Cutlery Cookies - The Fork & The Spoon Cookies

I was packing up the cupboard in my office and I found these cookie cutter. My colleague had visited China last year and she had bought this cutter for me as a souvenir. This is cute isn't it??? It came just nice for the new cookie that I had wanted to try out.

I realised that recently my girls had been pretty keen on the cookies that I had been trying out.. It had been quite a while since their last thrill on my baked cookies.. Probably this time round, all these new cookies attempts were very cute & interesting??? I would think so too.:-D

The girls were all very excited as these forks & spoons were very cute. And plus the fact that they can dip them into the chocolate sauce. Only one problem was that I couldn't find anything to let my cookies stand while waiting for the chocolate to set in... No choice, I tried using my cooling rack, with its little holes to hold them.

This cookie dough was much more easier to roll on as it did not have any egg contents. I had also cut down on the sugar level as I do not want the cookies to be too sweet.

After cutting out the shapes, I had used the letters to endorsed the girls' name on the cookies...

All of them can't wait to lay their little hands on the cookies and kept asking me if the cookies were ready..

Here's Mimi, she is one of the persistent one... as the elder sisters had to go to bed early for school tomorrow, Mimi had been hanging around the kitchen, waiting for the cookies to be ready..

These little cookies were all nicely packed up for school tomorrow.

While the 3 of them were enjoying the cookies in school, their classmates were also very envying them as the cookies had their names on it... A little time consuming to bake these cookies...but the thought of it, when the cookies were very popular with the girls and that they were gone the very next day, made all the effort worthwhile..:)

Recipe as adapted from 每天都是餅乾日 by 安星美 

Ingredients:

(yeilds about 20 pieces)

120g plain flour

30g almond powder

65g icing sugar (I used 50g)

pinch of salt

20g whipping cream (I used milk)

60g butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla essence

120g chocolate for dips

How to bake:

1. Add the butter, icing sugar & salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well.

2. Add in the milk until well corporated.  Add in the vanilla essence, stir well.

3. Add in the sieved flour and almond powder into the mixture, mix well until you get a dough.

4. Roll out the dough until 0.3cm thick and cut them using the cookie cutter.

5. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven of 170~175C for about 10 mins. Remove the cookies from the tray and let it cool on the rack.

6. Dip the cookies into the chocolate and let it set. Ready to be eaten & packed:)

HAVE FUN!!!

Apple Bread Pudding苹果面包布丁

Hahahaha... sometimes when I think back, I might be outdated... Reason being.. I am always late.. Regardless being the Aspiring Bakers Theme I hosted for October, I didn't even posted any entry for myself, being late for Bake Along, THB, and many others.... hahaha, till sometimes I also can't remembered which recipe I had used...

Today I had an Apple Bread Pudding, topped with raisins & chocolate chips....

I have gotten this recipe from one of the cookbook I had bought from Taipei... Regretted not doing my "homework" in SG to see what books I could have gotten from there... I shall do my "homework" and buy more books when I am in Taipei next March... Hehehehe...

This apple bread pudding was surprisingly easy to prepare and bake.

I hadn't baked bread pudding before, so I wasn't too sure of how I should go about it. Plus the cookbook are in chinese, so taking my time to read and making sure I had followed and gotten the steps and ingredients correct:-p

Well, pudding turned out well and delicious. I was glad that I had added some chocolate chips in the pudding, and I should hve added more as it would really turned out very tempting with a combination of the apple & chocolate chips... I will omit the raisins next time or lessen them as they are not my favourite...:))

It was delicious indeed, and I couldn't help myself finishing one pudding after my photo-takings...

Here, have one too and enjoy....:)

Ingredients:

2 pcs of diced bread

1 apple, cored, peeled & diced

5g butter

1 tbsp sugar

30g raisins soaked in 1 tbsp of Rum

2 eggs

200ml milk (i use lo-fat milk)

40ml whipping cream

20g sugar

Method:

1. Cook the diced apple with the butter under low heat. Add in the sugar and cook for awhile.

2. Put the apples, bread, raisins into the ramekins. Set aside.

3. Prepare the egg mixture. Beat the eggs, milk & whipping cream until well combined. Add in the sugar and mix until the sugar had dissolved.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the ramekins and baked at 190C for about 35-40mins.

Swan Cream Puffs / Cream Puffs

I know I am always late... late for my postings...

Seeing my fellow baking friends whom had already baked cream puffs in September for the Bake-Along theme, Lena  and Mui, both of them had also attempted on the swan puffs. When I saw their puffs, I was envy, admiring how beautifully their swan puffs had been baked.

Recently, I had also saw some FB bakers, baking these swan puffs too... So pulled up my socks and started my challenge once again!!!!

These swan puffs recipes were adapted from Kevin Chai's. His recipe had stated 3-4eggs..., so I had used only 3eggs. I guess it would have been better to use 4eggs instead, as my batter was rather thick and it did not had the smooth, sateen feel...  Ended up the cream puff texture was abit tough, but overall was quite alright... :-D

So let me try 4 eggs in future...:-D

As I couldn't buy the instant custard cream, I had use the vanilla cream that I had used for the Hokkaido Cupcakes.

So how did I fare for these swan puffs?

Recipe as adapted from Kevin Chai's Dainty Desserts

Puff Ingredients:

200ml water

25ml fresh milk

80g butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

170g high protein flour(cake flour)

3-4 eggs

Method:

1. Combine water, milk, butter, salt and sugar. Bring to boil.

2. Add in flour, use a wooden spoon, vigorously stir over medium heat until mixture leaves side of pan. Remove from heat.

3. Beat the dough in a mixer until cool completely. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until smooth and satiny.

4. Spoon dough into piping bag and pipe out a big rosette and swan's head & neck. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C(200C) for 25mins. Leave to cool.

Custard Ingredients:

100g instand custard powder

120ml fresh milk

200g fresh whipped cream

1/2tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Stir instant custard powder with milk, then combine with the whipped cream and vanilla essence until well-combined.

To assemble, cut the puff into half, trim the top layer to form wing shape and fill the bottom layer with custard.

Garnish with fruits, wings and head.

Dust with icing sugar.

Have fun:-D

Hokkaido Cupcakes 北海道蛋糕

I had finally made my Hokkaido Cupcakes today... These Hokkaido Cupcakes had always been a to-bake list. And I saw this recipe from Baking Wonderland, one of this baker, Ann Chin, had this Hokkaido Cupcakes, and they were so pretty... So I decided I should try this recipe asap... And here we have, my freshly baked Hokkaido Cupcakes:-D

These Hokkaido Cupcakes were simply so delicious. Thumbs up!!!!

Cake texture was really excellent, soft and it melts-in-your-mouth texture.

As for the vanilla custard cream, it was really tasty too. I have used about 1.5 tsp of the vanilla essence and it gave the custard cream a very nice fragrant.

My girls, Nic wasn't keen, whereas Nat & Mimi tried the Hokkaido Cupcakes... So what were they reactions??? Nat liked the cupcake, but her favourite was the strawberry & especially the custard cream, and Mimi, she just ate the strawberry... -_-"

So here as originated from Ann Chin from Baking Wonderland:

(I have stated the English Version, not sure if they are correctly translated... hehehehe... pardon me...:-p)

北海道蛋糕食谱～Hokkaido Cupcakes Ingredients:

A = 牛奶(Milk) 135克，植物油(Canola Oil) 45克，幼糖(Sugar) 30克。
B = 低筋面粉(Cake) 135克。
C=蛋黄(Egg Yolk) 135克。
D= 蛋白(Egg White) 270克，幼糖(Sugar) 60克，塔塔粉(Cream of Tar Tar) 1/2tsp。

做法：[METHOD]1.将A煮至热（不需要滚），把低筋面粉加入拌匀，待凉后再加入蛋黄，要一边搅拌一边加入, 然后放一边待用。(Cook A in low fire(warm-do not need to be boiling stage), add in the B and mix well. After the batter has cooled, add in the egg yolks while whisking. Leave it aside for later use.)2. 把蛋白打至发泡加入半份白糖和塔塔粉，继续搅拌至蛋白呈现细腻才加入剩余白糖，
继续打至硬性发泡即可。(Beat egg white with cream of tar tar & sugar till stiff peak forms)
3. 把2/4蛋白加入蛋黄糊里搅拌均匀，再倒回剩余蛋白里，轻轻拌匀即可。(Add 2/4 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter, mix well. Pour mixed batter into the remaining meringue and mix until well combined)
4. 把面糊舀入纸杯里，7/8分满就好，然后以预先预热上下火180度的烤炉里，烤约15 分钟或至熟即可！(Pipe the batter into the cupcake cases till 7/8 full. Bake in a preheated oven of 180C for about 15 mins)
5. 待凉后才挤入香草奶油馅和装饰，然后冷藏才好吃的！(Once cooled, pipe in the vanilla custard cream into the Hokkaido Cupcakes and decorate as desired. Dust with icing sugar for the finishing touch. Chilled the Hokkaido Cupcakes as they are best eaten chilled:-D)
分量可做19个 (Recipe can yeilds about 18-19 cupcakes) 

自制卡仕达酱（香草奶油馅）(Vanilla Custard Cream)材料A:
蛋黄(Egg yolk) 45克
幼糖(Sugar) 40克
材料B:
低筋面粉(Cake Flour)10克
玉蜀黍粉(Corn Flour) 10克
材料C:
牛奶(Milk) 250克
幼糖(Sugar) 10克
香草精(Vanilla Essence) 适量(I use about 1.5 tsp)
材料D:
牛油(Butter) 20克
材料E:
Topping cream 100克

做法：[METHOD] 1. 将材料A打至浓稠（蛋黄颜色变白 ） (Beat egg yolks & sugar until white & creamy)
2. 加入材料B拌匀，备用。 (Add in B until well combined. Keep aside)
3. 将材料C煮滚，熄火，在把一半份量倒入2里，要一边搅拌一边倒入，
然后把以上混合物筛过后倒入剩余的热牛奶里搅拌均匀 (Boil C. Pour half of the boiling milk mixture into the egg yolk batter. Mix well and pour it back into the balance milk and mix well.
4. 继续用小火把以上混合物煮至浓稠即可，熄火后趁热加入牛油拌匀。(Continue to boil the milk mixture over low fire, stir till you get a thick consistant texture. Turn off the fire and stir in the butter till melted.)
5. 用保鲜膜盖在蛋奶酱上面防止表层结皮。待凉备用。(Use a cling wrap to cover the custard cream to prevent surface from skinning. Keep aside)
6. 最后，把材料E搅拌至看见纹路（类似湿性发泡）后，把它加入蛋奶
酱里拌匀再冷藏，就变成美味的自制卡仕达酱。(Lastly, whipped the topping cream till peak forms. Mix it together with the custard cream. Keep chilled before piping it into the cupcakes)

  

 So try these Hokkaido Cupcakes now!!!!