Salted egg yolk cookies for Chinese New Year

I have admittedly not been posting anything on the blog for a while. Since June 2015, to be exact! Rest assured that I have continued to cook, bake and eat, but have just not gotten around to getting the recipes onto the blog – they do make it onto my instagram feed/stories though.

I first started the blog as a way to keep all my recipes in one place, mainly because I would otherwise forget what I put into a particular dish.  I have now fallen into the same habit, which is when I figured that I should start blogging again.

The salted egg yolk craze has been taking over recently – salted egg potato chips, fish skin, cookies etc. I’ve only tried the fish skin and potato chips (I prefer the former!), and can totally see why so many people have gone crazy over them. I have never actually tried salted egg yolk cookies, so actually had no idea what I was aiming for when I made these. I used a recipe I found online as a base, and went from there.

This recipe makes a slightly crunchy cookie, with a nice hint of salted egg yolk. I personally think it could do with a bit more of salted egg yolk, so may increase the ratio of yolk:flour next time. I’ll definitely also be trying to make a more ‘melty’ cookie to see which texture is better!

Salted egg yolk cookies

• 150g salted butter, softened
• 75g caster sugar
• 6 cooked salted egg yolks, mashed
• 300g flour
• 15g cornflour
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (for egg wash)
• Sesame seeds (for garnish, optional)

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy
2. Add the mashed salted yolks, and mix until just combined.
3. Add the flour/cornflour mix in 2 additions, again mixing until just combined. The mix should form a cohesive dough. You can test this by trying to form a ball from the dough – if it is too crumbly, add a any flavourless oil (corn oil, vegetable oil etc) 1 teaspoon at a time until the dough can be formed into a ball.
4. Roll the dough into rounds, and place on a parchment/silpat lined baking tray.
5. Preheat the oven to 165’C (fan assisted).
6. Gently brush the beaten egg onto the top of each cookie, and top with sesame seeds if you wish.
7. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 mins, until the cookies are just golden.
8. Leave to cool, then eat!

 

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Revisited: Chinese New Year Pineapple ‘nastar’ tarts

Ah, it’s that time of year again. The time of year where the baking madness begins.

Pineapple tarts are, to me, synonymous with Chinese New Year. It simply is not Chinese New Year without them. Having said that, they are one of the more time consuming treats to bake, when compared to something like almond or peanut cookies. Cooking the pineapple jam took almost 3.5 hours! (It’s worth taking the time to cook out the jam though, as there was one year where I had a lazy moment – leading to wet jam, and thus a perfect environment for mould…)

I thought I’d try a new recipe this year, and found a recipe from Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover. It had rave reviews, so I tweaked it marginally, and went with it. They turned out well, and I love the fact that it utilises one of my favourite ingredients: condensed milk! They do not end up milky or too sweet, so fear not.

I’ve learnt a lot since my first attempt at making these, and my tips for making pineapple nastar tarts are as follows:
– Roll out your jam into rolls beforehand.
– Pipe out rolls of pastry beforehand.
– Have your pastry at room temperature as it is easier to pipe/push room temperature dough through the nastar mould. (This may be different in a humid environment, but in a cold country/during winter I definitely recommend room temperature pastry.)
– Do not let your nastar mould get oily. You will totally lose your grip if this happens, and things will rapidly become more difficult.
– Be gentle with your pastry, as you do not want to destroy the beautiful zigzag nastar design on the pastry.

Chinese New Year Pineapple nastar tarts

Based on a recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover

Makes 80 large tarts (you may get more if you make smaller ones)

 

For the pastry:

• 350g salted butter, at room temperature\
• 100g condensed milk
• 470g plain flour
• 40g cornflour
• 2 large egg yolks

• 700-750g pineapple jam (I used 2 1/2 large pineapples)
  • roll into individual balls/logs, approx 3/4 tsp each

For egg wash:

• 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp milk (gently beaten)

Method:

1. Place the butter and condensed milk in the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Alternatively, you can use a spatula or a hand held mixer.

2. Add the egg yolks, and mix until just combined.

3. Add the plain flour and corn flour to the butter/condensed milk mixture in 2 additions, mix until just combined. The mixture should just come together to form a dough, and should not crumble when you roll it into a ball. If it crumbles, it is too dry – add some liquid. If it seems too sticky, add a little flour. This will change depending on climate( but not by very much).

4. Pipe out the pastry dough using your nastar mould, into 3 inch strips. If you do not have a nastar mould, you can wrap the dough up into the ‘enclosed’ version of pineapple tarts.

5. Place a ball of pineapple jam onto the pastry strip, and roll it up. Place on a silpat/parchment lined tray.

6. Repeat with all the remaining pastry and jam.

7. Brush the tarts lightly with the egg wash.

8. Bake in a 165’C oven (fan) for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Are these time consuming? Yes. But are they worth the effort? Definitely.

Happy baking!

Chocolate and matcha sable cookies

This is something I’ve made a few times now, but I have never gotten around to posting the recipe. The photos are also a few years old… Better late than never though!

These sable cookies do require some refrigeration time to allow for easy shaping/slicing, but I promise that they are not too fiddly, and are completely worth it. I loved the extra crunch from the granulated sugar, but R isn’t a fan and prefers it without (he says it is too sweet with the extra sugar).

Chocolate & Matcha sable cookies
Makes 40 cookies
Recipe from Okashi (Sweet treats made with love)

• 40g silvered almonds
• 130g plain flour
• 20g corn flour
• 20g cocoa powder (or matcha powder)
• 120g unsalted butter, softened
• 70g icing sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 egg yolk
• Granulated white sugar, for dusting (I use Demerara sugar) – optional

1.  Sieve plain flour, corn flour, and cocoa powder (or matcha powder) into a bowl.
2. Beat butter, icing sugar and salt in a mixing bowl on medium speed, until well combined.
3. Add egg yolk, and mix until just combined.
4. In two additions, fold the dry flour mixture into the butter mixture, till the dough is homogenous and well combined.
5. Add the silvered almonds, and mix through.
6. Roll the dough into two logs, wrap with clingfilm, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
7. Preheat your oven to 160’C (fan assisted).
8. Slice the cookie dough log into 8mm slices. Roll the cookie sides in granulated sugar, if you wish to do this.
9. Place the cookies on parchment/Silpat lined baking trays.
10. Bake for 20 minutes, till just firm to touch.
11. Leave to cool on a wire rack, and eat when cooled. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 10-14 days.

 

Chocolate chip cookies – without chocolate chips!

It’s been a while. However I don’t think I shall launch into my “I have been a terrible blogger lately” ramble, as it’s all becoming rather repetitive!

So let me get right down to it.

I recently received some chocolate balls from Lindt’s new “Hello” range. As I have yet to see in stores, I was naturally excited to try these out. My first thought was “I love the packaging”. It deviates slightly from the more formal packaging of other Lindt products, but I like the playfulness of these – and really, it would be nice to give someone a thank you gift which says “Hello, just wanna say thank you” wouldn’t it? Sure it’s a little bit cheesy, but we need cheesy in our lives sometimes.

I tried the “Crispy balls” and the “Chocolate balls” from this range. Now I should say that I absolutely LOVE Lindt’s Lindor balls, but these crispy little balls are my new favourite. Crunchy pastry balls, coated in chocolate and hazelnuts, rolled in cocoa powder to finish. They taste similar to Maltesers, but I think they are better. It’s the hazelnuts that do it – think a crunchy Nutella chocolate ball. So good!

The chocolate balls (nougat crunch & cookies and cream) were also good, but a little too sweet for my taste. They’re great for a quick sugar hit, but I found that I couldn’t really eat more than one at a go. And I like eating more than one in a go. The packaging of this was brilliant though, as you can open the box without needing to untie the ribbon – meaning the box looks pretty all the time.

As I found the chocolate balls a little too sweet, I decided to experiment and use them as “chocolate chips”. I simply chopped the balls up into small chunks, and substituted them into a chocolate chip cookie recipe. Thankfully it worked out pretty well. (Phew).

Please excuse the terrible photo – I was too lazy to arrange everything prettily, thus the use of the ugly chopping board/horrendous lighting. 

I used a mix of chocolate balls and crispy balls – the crispy balls didn’t retain as much of their crispiness once baked, but the chocolate balls were perfect. I’ve modified the recipe below to only include the chocolate balls.

I thought I’d be a little bit adventurous and stray from my usual chocolate cookie recipe, and tried out one of Nigella’s. Interestingly, my cookies came out more crunchy than chewy (the recipe stated that this was a fudgy chewy cookie, with and edge of crisp bite). I suspect my cookies were a little smaller than hers, which might explain it. Still good though.

Chocolate “ball” cookies
Adapted from a recipe in Kitchen, by Nigella Lawson
Makes 20 cookies, measuring approximately 2″ diameter

• 150g unsalted butter
• 80g soft brown sugar
• 80g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, fridge cold
• 300g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 300g Lindt chocolate balls, chopped into 1cm chunks
• 100g chopped nuts (I used almonds)

1. Preheat the oven to 170’C.
2. Melt the butter, and let it cool slightly. I used a microwave to melt the butter, but you can do it on the stove if you wish.
3. Place the brown and caster sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer. Pout the melted butter over the sugars, and beat with the paddle attachment until just combined. (Or use a regular hand held mixer)
4. Add the vanilla extract, cold egg + egg yolk. Beat until the mixture is light and creamy.
5. Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda to the bowl in two parts, mixing until just combined.
6. Carefully fold in the chopped chocolate balls and chopped nuts.
7. Shape the cookies into mounds of dough, and place on a parchment lined baking tray.(You can use an ice cream scoop/a spoon/measuring cup to do this, depending on how large/small you want your cookies to be.) Leave at least 5cm between the mounds as they will spread whilst cooking.
8. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until edges are lightly toasted.
9. Cool slightly on baking rack, then enjoy!

Disclaimer: I received the review samples courtesy of Lindt, but all the views expressed above are my own. 

Non watermarked photos are courtesy of Lindt.

Chinese New Year: Almond cookies, with crunch!

Most Malaysians equate Chinese New Year with a few important things = family, friends, FOOD, and well, food. And let’s face it, it wouldn’t be Chinese New Year without all those typical CNY cookies – pineapple tarts, peanut cookies… and so forth.

I made some almond cookies last year, but wasn’t altogether pleased with their texture. You see, to me almond cookies should have a slight crunch, yet be slightly melty. My version from last year tasted good enough, but it didn’t have much of that ‘crunch factor’. I know I’m being pedantic, but if you’re going to stuff yourself with cookies, it might as well be ones you love!

I found this recipe in one of the cookbooks I bought in Penang (oh yes, I totally buy local cookbooks whenever I go home – then lug them all back to London), and thought it looked promising. And it did deliver!

These cookies have a nice crunchy/firm exterior, with a slight melty interior. If you have never tasted such almond cookies, you must think I am completely bonkers. I know it sounds mad, but it works. Remarkably well, might I add.

As always, I managed to eat 5 cookies in the first hour post-baking. I then had to take fairly drastic action to keep them all away in a sealed container, so I can’t get to them before Chinese New Year comes along! Yes, I am THAT lazy. If it’s sealed/hard to get to, I rather not eat it. Ha!

If you prefer a soft/completely ‘melt in the mouth’ almond cookie, you’ll prefer my recipe from last year. But if you prefer one with a slight crunch, try this one. I think you’ll like it!

Chinese New Year Almond Cookies
Adapted from My Secret Recipe Series: New Year Cookies by Alan Ooi
Makes approximately 50-60 cookies, depending on size

• 100g ground almonds
• 150g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar (I might cut down the sugar to 75g next time, as I prefer a less-sweet cookie)
• 3/4tsp baking powder
• 3/4tsp baking soda
• pinch salt
• 100ml corn oil, or other flavourless oil (you may need a little more/less oil depending on the climate you are in)
• 1 egg yolk, beaten

1. Sieve the flour, caster sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into bowl of your stand mixer.
2. Add the ground almonds to the flour/sugar mixture.
3. With your mixer on medium speed (with the beater attachment),* slowly trickle in the corn oil into the bowl containing the flour/sugar/almonds. Mix until a cohesive dough forms. You may need more or less oil depending on the humidity/moisture levels – the aim is to reach a dough which is just able to hold it’s shape (and doesn’t crumble) when you attempt to roll it into a ball. It’s rather dry here in London at the moment, so I had to use an extra 10ml of oil before the dough came together.
4. Heat the oven to 180’C.
5. Roll the dough into ~2.5cm balls, and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper/a silpat mat. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
6. Using a pastry brush, lightly glaze the tops of the cookie balls with the beaten egg yolk.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cookies become slightly golden.
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack, then tuck in.

* You don’t need a stand mixer to do this, you can use a handheld mixer/food processor/a spatula. I use my stand mixer because it’s permanently out on the counter, which makes it the easiest option. I told you I was lazy.