Tips on Baking & Storing Cookies

Baking Tips:
1. Cookies should be baked at the middle rack in the oven so they can receive even heat from both top and bottom heat elements. For bar cookies, best to be baked closer to the bottom of the oven. Bake one try at a time unless otherwise specified.

2. Before placing the cookies, line the tray with baking paper or grease the tray with butter/margarine/shortening. Cookies that use lots of egg white and sugar content should be baked in baking paper.

3. Royal icing and glaze icing make the cookies soggy. After the icing has set, put the cookies back in the oven and bake in low temperature for 5 mins to bring back the crispiness.

4. Margarine can be used in place of butter (combination of half butter and margarine is also good)

5. Always use fresh nuts as nuts can turn bad easily.


Storing Cookies:
1. Store them in airtight containers after it cooled completely.
2. If cookies turn soft after being left in the open too long, you can re-bake them in an oven at low heat for 3-5 mins.
3. Cookies coated with chocolate, royal icing, and glaze icing have to be let set completely before being put into a container. Separate them from each other with a layer of greaseproof paper in between.
4. Sandwich cookies with filling like butter cream, jam, ganache and cream cheese should be served right after the filling is put in as the cookies get soggy quite quickly.

Cheese Cookies aka Kue Semprit Sagu Keju

I love the taste of these cookies, melt perfectly for every bite!

Ingredients A:
50 g unsalted butter
25 g margarine
150 g icing sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilli powder
1/2 tsp full milk powder

Ingredient B:
1 egg

Ingredient C:
50 g parmesan cheese, grated
50 g cheddar cheese, grated
170ml coconut

Ingredient D:
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
350 g tapioca flour

Method:
1. Put ingredient A into mixing bowl, cream till light. Add in (B) continue to cream till smooth and fluffy.
2. Add in C and cream again till well blended.
3. Add in the sieved D bit by bit, fold use spatula till well blended.
4. Place the mixture into the piping bag (can use shell nozzle for shape preference). Place it into the greased pan.
5. Bake at 150C for 15 mins, then down the temperature to 100C and bake again for another 15mins until well cooked and dry.
6. Keep in the airtight container.

Chocolate Peanut Cookies

Mandarin Orange Pudding

This recipe use canned mandarin orange (so far i only manage to find Hosen brand at supermarket here).

Cheese Muffin

Before baking

Ready to munch:

Pineapple Tarts

Oh! I just realised today that making these pineapple tarts was really time consuming!
I started to make pineapple jam this afternoon, spend about 2 hours cooking it.
Filling:
1 kg pineapple, pinch of salt, fine sugar, 6cm cinnamon stick.
Peel pineapple then cut into cubes, you can use blender to blend it till fine. Pour it into the non-stick wok. Add in the remaining ingredients and cook till it thicken. Set aside to cool. Pineapple filling cannot be shaped into balls if it is too thin. Make sure to cook it long enough till it thickness. This pineapple jam can be kept up to 2 months.

I started to lost interest and get tired making these tarts, so at finishing time, I didn't brush with egg yolk to make it shiny nicely, too lazy to do :P and also not really make the ball shaped properly *anyhow do, and these are the result: (taste is good, but appearance hmmm.. )



Next bake: I will make the jam on the separate day, bake it another day, instead of doing it whole day!

Cheesy Katthetong aka Lidah Kucing Keju

Today i am baking 'lidah kucing keju'. First attempt baking biscuit. Follow the recipe from Ny. Liem's book. Result? Delicious, all cheese lovers in this house love them so much! No more buying Ritz or Kraft cheese crackers anymore, order from Mummy! yum.. yum..

Troubleshooting

Burnt Fruit Cake:
Oven is too hot or the cake itself is cooked too near the top of oven.
Try to bake cakes in the centre of oven. If the cake appears to be browning too fast, or you prefer lighter colored appearance, place a circle of greaseproof paper with a small hole cut out of the centre over the top of the cake and continue baking.

Sponge cake not rising:
Oven too hot
Cake placed near the top
Too much eggs in the mixture (if use large eggs, may take out a couple of spoonfuls before adding the rest to cake mixture)

Sugarpaste/modelling paste/marzipan too hard:
If a solid crust has formed, need to cut this off and discard.
Can microwave any of the above for few seconds to soften them slightly if you find them too hard to knead, but be very careful in doing this to sugarpaste as it can cause the icing to fracture slighttly when you lay it over the cake. So always keep tightly wrapped in small plastic bags to prevent hardening.

Cracked or fractured in sugarpaste:
Occured if too much kneading or microwaving beforehand.
Unless you find them particularly offensive, the cracks are usually best left alone or covered with a decoration, but here are alternative solutions to try if you wish. On recently applied sugarpaste, take a small lump of the same colour sugarpaste and polish it on a shiny surface. Then gently rub the area using small circular motions and tiny cracks will disappear. Alternatively, wait until sugarpaste has dried, then spread a little royal icing in the same colour as the sugarpaste over the cracks. Carefully scrape away the excess using a kniife and you should find the fractures have filled.

Blocked Icing Nozzles:
To stop nozzles getting blocked with old icing, use a small paintbrush to give them a good clean washing up. Also, try to avoid poking thing such as cocktail stick into the ends as this can force them to out of shape. Make sure you sift the icing sugar before making up royal icing to get rid of lumps, and don't miss any crusty bits of dried royal icing into fresh before piping as this can cause blockages too.

Storing Leftover

EGGS:

• Leftover egg whites can be stored covered in fridge 7 to 10 days. To freeze the whites, place in a plastic ice cube tray, the remove the frozen cubes to a plastic freezer bag for storage. Thaw frozen whites in the fridge.
• Lefover egg yolks can be covered with a bit of water and stored in a covered container in the fridge 2 to 3 days. Leftover yolks can be used in custards, scrambled eggs, egg pastries and cake fillings.

Fondant, gum paste:

• Leftover gum paste can be placed in a separated small plastic bag (if you have already colored them) and then keep all together in a covered air tight container to prevent drying for future use.

My Reading

These books are for my pleasure reading:
1. Professional Cake Decorating by Toba Garrett from www.wiley.com/culinaryandhospitality
ISBN 9780471701361

2. Perfect Party Cakes Made Easy by Carol Deacon from www.hollandpublishers.com
ISBN 9781843304746

3. Decorating Cakes and Cupcakes bty Betty Crocker from www.bettycrocker.com
ISBN 9780471753070

Record

I need to list some of my purchase for future use:
Phoon Huat:
Cup souffle white (50 x 3.9cm) $6.55
Cup souffle white (60 x 4.4cm) $4.40
Digital Scale kitchen 5kg $48.91
Wilton Piping Tip Standard no. 2 $1.70
Wilton Piping Tip Standard no. 30 $1.70
Wilton PipingTip standard round no. 2 $1.70
Wilton Piping Tip no. 30 $1.70
Wilton Fondant Tools $19.67
Measuring cup/spoon $3
Angled spatula 7" $3.47
Spatula plastic medium $4.59
Oven thermometer $10.09
Ring cutter 6.5cm x 3.2cm $2.75
Dough cutter with plastic $3.77
Cake board (8x8" square) 5 pcs $2.75
Egg separator $1.40
Baking Pan Square 7x7x1.5" $5.50
Square Tray for cookies $7.20

Redman Top Flour 1kg $2.60
Corn flour $0.90
Custard powder $2.19
Caster Sugar 1kg $2.10
Fine sugar $1.30
Redman Yeast instant dry $1.70
Choco Coating Tulip 1 kg $5.10
Baking Powder King 50g $1.08
Redman Flour self-raising 1kg $2.50
Flavoured Emulco Chocolate 90ml $3.24
Greenfield unsalted butter 250g $2
Shortening 500g $2.80
Tempura flour mix 200g $1.20
30 pcs eggs $7
Fla Rum 25ml $1.54
Emplex 50g $2.29
Cream of Tartar 50g $2.03


Sun Lik Trading Pte Ltd
Dove brand Improver Sponge SP (Japan) 200g $2.50
Bakels Ready to roll White Icing 750g $8.50
Cocoa Powder $3.30
Wilton Coloring (12pc) $23.50
Square tin $8
Triangle plastics $0.90
Golden money shaped mould $3.50
Fish shaped mould $3.50
Sprinkles $2.50

Giant IMM
Bake King Chocolate Rice 60g $1.55
Van Houtten Cocoa Powder 250g $5.75

Fairprice
Anchor unsalted butter $3.70, promo $3.20
Buttercup butter spread $2
Naturel Reduce Fat Margarine 500g $4.20, promo $3.85

Provision shop near Esther's house
Baking tray $6.90
Stainless bowl $4

Tutti Fruity

2nd time baked vanilla puffs, this time using another recipe for the filling, smoother and taste is ok. Try to create swan (only made 1), but you notice its body was too small compare to its long neck haha, should be more proportional next time.

My youngest son saw the pic of tutti fruity from the book Yuyun gave me from Jakarta. And since the recipe need 600ml egg white, i immediately agreed to make it. Still have around 400ml egg white in the fridge! So i cut down the ingredients based on my available egg white. And this is the result:

Yum Yum Flapper

This one is created by my little chef, Leo!
The story begin when my chef's little brother, Sony listen to the Charlie and Lola story from the computer. There is a scene when Lola said "I don't like fish fingers!" then Charlie said "These are not fish fingers, these are oranges or yum yum flapper." Then Sony pick up the name yum yum flapper. And this is how the name of this bread created by chef Leo.

Chocolate Cake with Egg White

After baking spiku, I end up with 30 egg whites! Googled the recipes using egg whites, born this chocolate cake! Taste great! and 'kenyal' = rubbery cake! This cake need 10 white eggs.

Spiku aka kue lapis Surabaya

I always like to buy spiku from 'Kedai Kue-kue' at Bugis Junction. Price $8.50 half size. Until one day Cynthia told me that she could remember the recipe for this spiku and her family love them, so she gave me this recipe over the phone. She told me, two of her friends have ever tried this recipe but the cake couldnt rise/expand well ('bantet'), hmmm... it made me a bit worry of my result. I quickly searched for spiku recipe over internet, compare with Cynthia's and manage to get some tips on baking this cake.

Using normal flour, no baking powder, I had discouraged at the beginning. But finally I made quick decision to try it! This recipe using 30 egg yolks, if failed, wow! Bought the 30 eggs from Phoon Huat (made me shocked, when realised the price is $7 for 30 eggs while in Fairprice actually I could get them just $4.80 for 30 eggs), but later on I realised the difference lays at the egg yolks which truly very red, great for baking cake like this spiku.

I need to bake three times for three layers, as I only have 1 pc of 'baking tin square pan'. Luckily all three layers baked perfectly, very yummy! We love the taste, thanks to Cynthia for sharing this great recipe!

Ingredient for yellow layer:
10 egg yolks
100 g fine sugar
5o g flour
100 g butter (combination is better, means 50g unsalted butter + 50g margarine)
1/4 tsp vanilli powder

Ingredient for chocolate layer:
10 egg yolks
30 g flour
20 g chocolate powder
100 g butter (combination is better, means 50g unsalted butter + 50g margarine)

For next bake:
I need to learn how to make the top layer after each baking, will be smooth. (as you noticed from the pic, the top layer not smooth enough)

Vanilla Puffs aka Kue Sus

My sons love to eat Beard Papa vanilla puffs. Every time I have class at Coleman, I always buy a box of beard papa at Bugis Junction, on my way home. But hubby complained their puffs are very expensive. He prefer if I buy from Polar which is cheaper, but I find their taste 'so so' only.

Since this puff is one of my favorites when I was small, I must learn how to bake them and try to get the taste as close as beard papa's. After hunting from the net (for the fillling = vla napoleon, reading book "Aneka Sus, by Tina Ramli", and get Yani's recipe (my friend from Surabaya), the result was truly very yummy! We love it, taste great! My youngest son ate a lot!

Next bake:
I need to learn how to create the shell in prettier shapes, perhaps like shell type. So I bought the shell nozzle, keep it for next attempt. Will also try to create 'Swan' shaped.

Vanilla Cupcakes

First time baking, I was learning how to bake a butter cake, in the form of cupcakes.

How many times I have baked these cupcakes:
1. At Liana's house, together with Lily, with our kids, during our gathering on Friday, 5 Dec 2008 (first time!) Here comes our cupcakes:


2. At Rusi's house on Saturday, 6 Dec 2008 (my first workshop - alone). I brought back all the cupcakes (given 3 pcs to Tian Hong, 3 pcs to mei mei neighbour, 4 pcs for Agnes, 3 pcs for Aunt neighhbour)
Here are the pictures:
Special made for ZH and MF, my beloved sons.

3. First try by myself on Friday, 10 Dec 2008. Don't have fresh milk at home, so I used Han's Grow Vanilla milk, with combination of 150ml milk and 150gr fine sugar. Sweetness was perfect.

4. Want to give to Chien Me, baked in early morning on Sat, 11 Dec 2008 (during our badminton play). Also using Grow milk, very fine texture.

5. During Xmas party at our house on Friday, 19th Dec 2008. Beside vanilla, I also made brownies cupcakes.

From 3rd to 5th time baking at my house, I have suspected my oven temperature was not correct. That's why I bought oven thermometer $10 from Phoon Huat, since then the baking time become much easier and faster. Next baking, the correct temperature has been reached.

6. Give to Aunt neighbour to make xmas celebration at her house became merrier on Thursday, 25th Dec 2008, (see the pics below), this is my 6th time baked. I made fresh butter cream to create the snow (use fork to make the snow look much nicer) and the snowmen made of fondant, lastly adding colourful sprinkles. All snowmen beautifully crafted by me, also made Dale from fondant coz my sons love this character so much! (Dale is a Disney character from Chip n Dale the chipmunks). Ds said it look so cute! ^_~

Beside these cupcakes, I also made chocolate brownies, decorated with fresh butter cream and cheddar cheese (but forgot to take picture). All tasted great!

7. To make sure, that I have already mastered the butter cake recipes and baking technique to bake a nice fine texture cupcakes, I made another try. Yes, again, successful. This time was using fresh milk, taste great. I have big interest in decorating cupcakes. I read lots of books, include how to create cute fondant characters, as well as watching videos from many websites. Will upload more designs for the next baking cupcakes!

Thank you for visiting my site!