Bah Kwa Cookies

What's Chinese New Year without Barbecued Pork aka Bah Kwa? The fragrant and savoury slice of meat is one of my family favourite and it sure is interesting how we can include something so sweet and yet savoury into cookies. 

I was baking more of the Pineapple Roses for Chinese New Year yesterday and I had some dough left. So with Gwen's inspiration, I baked some Bah Kwa Cookies that melt-in-the-mouth using the same melt-in-the-mouth dough used for the Pineapple Roses. 

Using a higher temperature, these cookies browned faster than that of the pineapple roses which were pale. These cookies are crunchy on the surface but melts in the mouth. The bah kwa gives a really good salty/savoury chewy texture. Also, being tiny in size, these cookies are really easy to pop and savour in one mouth. Try these cookies today! 

Bah Kwa Cookies Recipe

This recipe yields about 100+ pieces of  5cm round cookies

250g unsalted butter (room temperature)

50g icing sugar

2 egg yolks (I used 55g eggs)

360g plain flour

2 tbsp corn flour

1/4 tsp salt

400-600g bah kwa, depending on preference

Kueh Lapis Legit: Revisited

So as Chinese New Year is approaching, I try to bake as many goodies as I can despite my busy school schedule. Apart from the Pineapple Roses/Stars, Almond Cookies and Cornflake Cookies, I baked 3 Kueh Lapis Legits last night. 

This time round, I baked 2 lapis concurrently to save time and effort to some sort as I allowed one layer to bake while arranging the next layer. As on of my tins was shallower, I baked a third smaller lapis as well. This time round in place of Liv Butter, I tried Golden Churn butter which is usually recommended for Kueh Lapis Legits. The slice I tried last night wasn't to my fancy.. I'll try another slice tomorrow (as I've brushed my teeth this evening already) and make a decision as to which butter I prefer. In any case, here's the link to the recipe for the Kueh Lapis Legit I did in July 2012. 

Have fun baking it! 

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: 

Almond Cookies

Almond Cookies.. where do I begin? Tiny yet packed with flavour.. Even though the cookie is tiny, it's sweet but yet packed with the fragrance of ground almond! It's kinda irresistable.. so much so that I keep popping one after another into my mouth! Just this inability to control the popping of CNY snacks.. uurgh! Just when I need to shed some weight for the big day!

In any case, even though I don't really fancy the Chinese-ness of Chinese New Year cos' it's usually associated with loud festive Chinese music for my family, some family visits and maybe some good food! The only thing I love about Chinese New Year is the abundance of good food! Love Letters, Pineapple Tarts (Oh I so wanna bake these again!), Kueh Bangkit, Barbecued Pork and the list goes on and on.. and oh yes, the ultimate favourite of mine? MANDARIN ORANGES! 

Chinese New Year is so much about food and more food! So.. if you have the luxury of time, why not try this relatively simple to prepare Almond Cookie? The only difficulty/set back in this is that the moulding of the cookie is tricky but I found a way to combat that.. Other wise, this is relatively manageable and is worth a try! This recipe was given to me by Sally who took it from Alan Ooi's book.

Cornflake Cookies,

I'm so glad I tried out this recipe that a really dear friend and mentor Molly shared with a bunch of us girls. This recipe is really simple and it tastes great! Crunchy yet not too heavy! This cookie is perfect for Chinese New Year.. or actually, just about any time of the year! 

This recipe is really simple and I believe that it's easy enough to even have your kids around to bake with you! This is one of those rare 1/5 level of difficulty recipes I have on the blog! So, quick buy some Kellogg's (I only like these!) and some good quality butter (if you're gonna bake such awesome cookies, why not use good butter? more fragrant too!) and start baking!