Cranberry Orange Cookies

Yummy! My hubby said these were so good. It was at Peabody's site that I first came to know of these cookies.

I like the refreshing taste of orange in this, with chewy cranberry bits that contrasts with the crisp cookie. The orange sugar coating adds some glitter to its outlook.

Ghraybeh Fustok @ Pistachio Shortbread - Cookies #1

I made this cookie twice in a day.

First I tried the one that I think is more traditional, with ghee and rosewater. I wasn't too happy with it and I tried another version that is more  modern I think, as it uses butter, vanilla and has cornstarch in it.

Armenian Boorma - AFF West Asian Pastry #5

Another pastry using the versatile Phyllo. The texture is so  delicate, but yet it doesn't break easily.
For Chinese New Year this year, I posted a peanut roll, that has almost the same concept, that is  baked rolled pastry that has been brushed with ghee and filled with sugary nuts. If a comparison needs to be made... I think the peanut version smells much better. Maybe it's because the peanuts weren't raw.

Bourma - AFF West Asian Pastry #3

Bourma is a rolled pastry made with kataifi/kunafeh.

Quite a challenge to make, haha.
I didn't want to deep fry in oil, but the original way, like how I ate it before, is in fried in ghee. Yummy!

Esh Al Bulbul @ Nightingale Nest - AFF West Asian Pastry #1

This month, AFF  brings you West Asia! A total of 19 countries in the group.
Most of us are more familar with the term Middle East, but because Egypt is not in Asia, that is why we cannot use the term Middle East but Western Asia of which includes Turkey as well.

Do visit Shannon's blog to read the introduction post. And don't forget to drop by Lena's for her round up!

Pistachio Lime Cheesecake - No Bake Cheesecakes #1

This cake was a feat!

I got to know that my BIL’s birthday was on the day itself at 1.30pm. I asked him whether he wants a cake, and he said yeah, cheesecake but egg free please. Then I searched for some cheesecake series and passed the phone to him, asking him to select the one he wants. He chose a lime and strawberry cheesecake.

I had no strawberries on hand but I happened to have some homegrown limes from my brother’s neighbor. That’s perfect! I don’t have limes at home usually and he’s one lucky man! And I also bought a good sum dairy products in baking the day before, so, making a cheesecake will not be too hard. A baked one will take too long as I had to get the cake ready that day itself and ah-ha, since he wanted it egg free, let’s just make a no bake cheesecake, a lime flavoured one.

Mixed Berries Almond Cake - Berry #1

This cake is quick to do and easy to eat.

I am in love with cakes made with almond meal. It is moist and delicious with a beautiful tender crumb.
The recipe is adapted from Tartelette’s poached pear cake and I have previously tried it before and it was like she said, slightly pudding-like. I reduced the cream this time, it was more cake like and everybody loved it.

Apple Almond Buns - Fruity Buns #3

Remember I made apple butter some time ago?
The only person who enjoyed this spread was Lydia and I, the rest all went uuurrghhhh because of the cinnamon.

I still had some apple butter left and when I saw this recipe, I just gave it a go since some Aussie relatives will be here. They are used to eating cinnamony stuff since they have been there for decades. It'll be a good chance to make these since the others didn't like this spread. The relatives enjoyed the buns and I'm happy!

Peanut Rolls - Nutty Treats #5

This is another treat I made for my demo. It was such a coincidence that I made so much stuff with nuts, LOL. Guess I went nuts this year.

This idea came in a sudden and I merged the idea of baklava with the popular CNY goodie that is the peanut puff (Kok Chai). Crispy fragrant pastry skin with sandy peanut filling. Ahh, Heaven for me. Baked rolls uses much less fat than deep fried.and again, peanut with ghee is match made in heaven. Yaya, I didn't use phyllo, but popiah skin is almost like it... just treat it like it :)

Almond Rocher - Nutty Treats #4

As some of you knew, I won a baking competition recently and one of the gifts was a course voucher at Academy of Pastry Arts. At first, I thought, the voucher will be wasted as I need to travel to KL again to attend it, and time plus distance didn't seem to permit.

Things happened with some twists and turns... I managed to grab a course on a weekend where we happen to be in KL for a wedding. And it was the right course, chocolate class. Of all the things that I can learn by myself, this is the one thing that I truly dare not attempt, Chocolate Tempering. It was an enjoyable 2-day course and I learnt the most important thing of all, how to temper chocolate. Besides that, I took home with me 6 delicious recipes, plus a big box of handmade chocolates!

FYI, that was REAL chocolate. Not the same like the budget friendly compound chocolate that I normally use that can be melted and used as I like it. Couverture chocolate is a bit temperamental to use, but absolutely delicious to eat.

Garlic Roasted Peanuts - Nutty Treats #3

I love eating garlic peanuts, normally they are fried.
Perfect beer food, and for me it's perfect Shandy food, LOL.

A lot of people like having peanuts for Chinese New Year because of the name that sounds like 'grow'. It's a lot cheaper to make these yourself than buying. Here, where raw materials aren't very cheap, I got mine at RM8.50/kg. And I chose to bake them instead of frying

If you love snacking on peanuts, give this a try, you might get addicted.
I have already hidden these from my husband.... LOL

Easy Makmur Cookies - Nutty Treats #2

I love kuih makmur. Melty and buttery on the outside, sugary peanutty on the inside! Heaven!

I was introduced to this cookie by my ex colleague Hashita. Once bitten, never shy! I was crazily in love with it and was searching around for one that will match Hashita's mom's. Sadly, none!
Most tasted rather firm, rather than melt in the mouth. Even though the bought cookies used ghee as well, but it's not really that melty, compared to the ones Hashita gave me.

When I first made these 10 years ago, I toasted the flour, even when nobody told me so. I don't remember why I did that, but I think it's because of an advice I heard from an old friend that sunning the flour makes cakes lighter, and so I chose the toast instead of sunning, LOL. It's much quicker!
But then recent years after reading blogs, I do read some recipes calling for the flour 'disangai', that means to be toasted. ah-ha, so that step of mine was actually correct!

Barazek - Nutty Treats #1

Phew! My first Baking Workshop was over!

Thanks for all the support, be it with your presence at the exhibition or mentally through the encouraging words you left for me. Thank you all!
It was a great success and although being jittery after a long break from 'public speaking', I'm glad I got it done properly. It made me feel I was once teaching in school again, LOL.

For those who couldn't make it to the live demo, and would want have the recipes, don't worry. This week I will share 3 of the recipes to you. Today will be the first one.

Almond Cheese Buns- Cheezy Bread #2

Where’s the cheese? Can’t see it oozing right?

It’s in the dough. Kneaded in the dough. But frankly, I can’t smell or taste the cheese.

The buns are quite good, but not sweet enough for me. Well, it is not bland. But when the buns are filled with almonds, I would expect it to be sticky and sweet, rather than just ‘not bland’. It has to have that stick that I always expect with almond fillings. The next time around, I’ll double the filling’s sugar.
 

Chocolate Cream Cheese Buns - Cheezy Breads #1

It's been so long since I've posted about breads!
I think I should not be keeping these in my drafts any longer.

I saw this recipe in Veronica's blog and it loooooks soooo tempting.
But my cream cheese filling isn't as smooth as Veronica's. Maybe it's my itchy butt decided to chop up the cheddar slices and mix it in, LOL.

The recipe is egg free (if you skip the glaze) and with only that tablespoon of milk yields a pretty soft bun. I am impressed. Absolutely!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Bun

Shared by: Veronica's Kitchen
Original recipe source: Chef Alan Ooi

Dough
300gm bread flour
30gm cocoa powder
5gm instant yeast
65gm sugar
5gm salt
1 Tbsp full cream milk powder
190gm water
40gm butter

Filling
250gm cream cheese, room temperature
50gm icing sugar
2 slices of cheddar cheese, chopped

Topping
1 egg, beaten
Almond nibs

1.Combine dough ingredients and knead until window pane stage. (KA speed 4, 15 minutes)
2. Cover and let it proof til double.
3. Meanwhile, mix cream cheese with icing sugar and cheddar cheese, form into 10 blobs and keep chilled until time of use.
4. Divide dough into 10 pcs and wrap with filling.
5. Place wrapped dough onto a lined tray, and let it proof for 45 minutes, until puffy and big.
6. Preheat oven at 160(fan)/180C.
7. Brush the top of dough with beaten egg and sprinkle almond nibs over.
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until done.

Chocolate Chesnut Mousse Cake - Mousse Cake #2

I made this cake and sent it over to my SIL's in-laws (my hubby's sister's in-laws). We are in good relations with them and they always send us good free range chicken or river caught snakeheads. Well, I could only return them with bakes and Chinese New Year is always the time of gifting. They told me it tasted like cheesecake and they loved it.

Strawberry Almond Muffins - Strawberry #2

It was one of those hungry afternoons again.

I rumaged the fridge and saw this box of strawberries bought 2 weeks before and still looking pretty good untouched under the cling wrap. Then I took out some milk, ground almond and few eggs and this and that and some muffin liners recently given to me by fellow blogger HKChoo. I started baking muffins without a recipe.

Pesto - Going Nuts # 3

Recipe done in Oct 2010.

Yes you didn't read it wrongly, 2010. LOL. Had been waiting for a suitable theme.

Actually before this, I didn't know how pesto really tasted like. I had some pesto on pasta before in Italiannies or Tony Romas, but I didn't know what it was. My pasta didn't taste any tooo special. Just a hit of herbs, that's it.

Until I saw Swee San making her own pesto, I only knew what pesto is. Yeah, it sounds hard to believe. But I grew up eating Chinese and Malaysian food, knows heck about Italian food except bolognese and Pizza.

Almond Butter - Going Nuts #2

I never thought I could do this at home!
I thought I needed a Blendtec (see it blend an Iphone here)
But no, my trusty Panasonic could do it too,
Maybe not really as smooth, but I can accept that.

Peanut Chicken Feet Soup - Chicken Soup # 2

Woah...did I have you disgusted?

It's a pretty common soup for the Chinese. And pretty tasty too!
During confinement, we consume a lot a lot of chickens. And we end up with lots and lots of chicken feet or claws. Lots.