Famous Amos alike Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been so unmotivated of late. It's been my vacation but all I've been doing is resting. I guess I've been too tired during school term. Being free this afternoon and having already washed my kitchen twice this morning, I was determined to bake something. 

I chanced upon this Famous Amos alike recipe online when doing my research and I decided to give it a try! This recipe is tasty but if I were to bake it again, I'm bound to add in my favourite stuff like butterscotch chips and pecans! Despite being teaspoon sized, these cookies were larger than their famous cousin as the baking soda did probably help them spread a little. Now, I need to hunt for butterscotch chips! 

This recipe is fairly simple so I'd rate it a difficulty level 2 out of 5! It took me about 1.5 hours to bake 100 cookies. 

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

Pineapple Roses

So Chinese New Year is approaching and what is Chinese New Year without Pineapple Tarts? The last time I made Pineapple Tarts successfully was 2 years ago when I was adventurous enough to cook my pineapple paste from scratch. It was sure a lot of fun and a lot of satisfaction but as time isn't on my side this season, I decided to try out the Sarawak Pineapple Paste from Ailin that's so highly raved. Well, true enough, I love the pineapple paste that's not too sweet yet it's not too sour. For me, it's just right, even though it's not as fibrous as I'd like it to be. Then again, with store bought paste, this is really good enough at $6.80 for 1kg. So this time round, I love these Pineapple Roses.

This recipe was taken from food4tot. Even though the paste is meant for Nastar tarts, it worked perfectly fine for the close tarts I did. They melt perfectly in the mouth and that's just about the only complain I have of these tarts: they are way too crumbly and fragile! Then again, even though it's a mess to manage it after it's baked, it's all worth it as the tarts are so 'melt-in-the-mouth-and-oh-too-good-to-be-true' good.

So, give this recipe a try! (:

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!

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Cookies

Sin Li was craving for some chocolate chip cookies the day we were out and so we headed to my place to bake us some! These Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Cookies were pretty simple to bake and were fun to eat! (:

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe

This recipe yields 30 - 40 small cookies

Ingredients: 

105g castor sugar

57g butter, unsalted

45g corn oil

1 egg

1/4 tbsp milk

128g all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla extract

80g dark coverture chocolate buttons

40g peanut butter