Cream Cheese Pineapple Tarts For Chinese New Year

Is it coincidence or what?  When my daughter, Sharon asked me to have a look at the pineapple tarts she just made, i could not believe my eyes, the both of us used the same pineapple tart mold!!!!  We had a good laugh. 

When i was asked what i am grateful for, i will not hesitate and mentioned that the internet is what i am most grateful for............


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Shitake Dongpo With Mui Choy

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner is the most luxurious meal of the entire year and is about Family and good wishes for the coming year.  The new year spirit is of renewal, new beginnings and is a rich fabric of symbols weaved into the Chinese New Year traditions. The traditions are a mix of belief, folklore and custom with the intention to influence the future, encouraging happiness and wealth into their lives.........

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Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

It has been a busy summer for me so far, a wedding and several birthdays after, baking cakes after cakes, i am all caked out, i had to make something different when Renee, a Girl Scout had a potluck.  So my daughter suggested that i baked a giant chocolate cookie, which was an excellent idea. The cookie was such a great hit with the girls and Renee said that she did not have a chance to taste it, not a crumb left on the cake carrier, they licked the platter clean.  If the cake carrier was silver, i could use it as a mirror.

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Seaweed Crispies

GONG XI FA CAI

This is a spin-off from Nori Crisps. These seaweed /nori crispies are so addictive and flavorful that they have to be fried and served for The Chinese New Year. They are so easy, just 3 ingredients and oil for deep frying. This year, instead of rolling them up or plain flat, i have twisted them into ribbons following Sesame Ribbon Crisp but do not double up the prepared pastry. For this recipe i have tweaked and used egg whites instead of the whole egg and found that the crispies remained crispier.

HERE is the recipe for Seaweed Crispies Read More......

Kuih Bangkit Gula Melaka Flavored

Gula melaka a.k.a. Palm Sugar or 'Malacca Sugar'. Why Melaka/Malacca,? I have no idea and hope that you readers can enlighten me. Gula melaka is made by first extracting the sap from the flower bud of a coconut tree. Several slits are cut into the bud and a pot is tied underneath the bud to collect the sap. Then, the sap is boiled until it thickens after which, in the traditional way, it is poured into bamboo tubes between 3-5 inches in length, and left to solidify to form cylindrical cake blocks.....


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Sesame Ribbon Crisp

When i was making the Crispy Crackers for Yee Sang, i decided to make this Sesame Ribbon Crisp as it is the same recipe only it is formed into ribbons. These ribbons do not need any introduction, one bit into one and before you can chew on it, your hand will be reaching out for another. That's how good they are.

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Pineapple Tart Filling

Ever since i owned a microwave oven in 1986, i have been using it alot to aid my cooking and it is the most used appliance in my kitchen. I would not have made or cooked so often if i have to slave on a stovetop for hours on end. The microwave has allowed me to cook faster without having to attend to the cooking and allowing me time to fulfil other tasks and the best part is that i do not have extra pots and pans for cleaning. This time of the year is always busy, busy, especially when the Chinese New Year is just 2 weeks away and it means that it is time to bake Pineapple Tarts which is a must for this celebration.........

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Financier

Financiers, a small French cake, are as rich as the bankers they were named for. The financier is a light, moist teacake, sweet, tender and beautiful in their simplicity...........

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Ladyfingers

According to Wikipedia, Ladyfingers, are light and sweet sponge cakes roughly shaped like a large finger. They are called savoiardi in Italian (meaning "from Savoy"), or in French biscuits à la cuillère or boudoirs. In the UK they may be called sponge-fingers, trifle sponges or boudoir biscuits. In Dutch, they are called lange vingers, literally translating to "long fingers". In Germany they are called Löffelbiskuit, which translates to "spoon biscuit".





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Madeleines - Chef Daniel Boulud

This has been my 6th times that i have been on this page. Have been trying to post this but has always been interrupted by calls or whatever?? I hope i made it this time in posting this recipe. This following recipe was originally published in the cookbook “Chef Daniel Boulud – Cooking in New York City.” I knew this recipe would produce good Madeleines, as i have good faith in Chef Daniel Boulud to publish a reliable recipe. He did and this recipe is easy and a keeper. I have changed the method and instead of dusting with confectioner's sugar as suggested, i hae coated one end with melted chocolate to enhance the appearance as well as improving the flavor.

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Ong Lai Rabbit/Rabbit Pineapple Tarts

Would like to share some of my Pineapple Tarts which i made this year.  Since this is the year of the Rabbit, i tried making some in the shape of the Rabbit and it was quite fun to make especially i had Renee helping me.  She was a great help and i should say, we were a great team.  When i had the Rabbit's body ready, which was a round piece of dough wrapped with pineapple jam, she had the Rabbit's tail, ears and nose ready for me.  Alexander, helped too, he did the egg white wash so that i could adhere the tail, ears and nose.  The Rabbits looked great and cute, before they were baked but when they came out of the oven, they had attitute.  Some lost their tails and noses and Renee blamed Alexander for doing a shoddy job in glazing.  Well, these tarts are handmade and can we expect factory-machine made tarts?


I tried making some other shapes like gold ingots, which i gave up after making a few, cos it took up too much time and it was laborious.  Besides it did not turn out so pretty.  The pineapple shape was good, easy and fast.  The next time around i would use more dough rather than more jam, then they would be better looking.


GONG XI FA CAI

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Green Pea Jade Cookies

When your mom told you to eat your peas, she knew what she was talking about. With green peas, it's true that good things come in a small package and the good things are that they are  packed with fantastic health benefits. High in protein, but low in calories, green peas keep your energy levels up, immune system strong and heart healthy. Overall, green peas are an economical, easy, healthy vegetable to add to almost any meal and an excellent vegetable to eat on a regular basis.

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Fragrant Hup Toh SouI/Walnut Cookie

I have made Hup Tou Sou several times and i hope you all are not fed-up of seeing another walnut cookie. Luckily nuts are beneficial to our health as i am going nut looking at nuts everyday.  The first recipe i made last year was of a crunchy texture and these Walnut Cookies were delicious but they were flat.  Then  this recipe had the crunch and melted in the mouth but lack the nuttiness.


So, the fourth recipe came into being and it is HERE Read More......

Almond Tuiles

It was the year 2000 that i was in Paris and it was there and then that i was introduced to authentic french cuisine. Thien, our dear family friend was home in Paris and we decided to join him. His Papa and Maman graciously took us in and not only did we get boarded, we had most of our meals catered for by Papa and Maman.

Papa would get up early every morning and go to the best bakery to get the freshest baguette available. Manan would get up earlier and she would start baking. We did not need an alarm clock to wake up in the morning.  Her bakings smelled so good and the fragrance of her baking was our morning call. I had wanted so much to learn baking from her but unfortunately she could not wait for me to wake up and every morning, perfect pastries were laid out all ready for breakfast.



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Almond London Cookies

What's behind that name of this cookie? For the Almond, it is self explanatory but London????? Could this be a signature dessert for the Londoners? Whatever, these cookies are very popular in Malaysia, more so for the Hari Raya Celebration than the Chinese New Year.


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Hup Toh Sou II/Chinese Walnut Cookie

I am always concern about nutrition and want to find easy ways to be healthier, one of the best things you could do is eat nuts because they're loaded with vitamins and minerals. Nuts are super healthy! My favorite of all the nuts is walnuts and not only do they taste great, they are a rich source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and an excellent source of those hard to find omega-3 fatty acids. Like most nuts, you can snack or add to your favorite salad, vegetable dish, fruit, dessert or bakings. You can never go wrong when you pair Walnuts with your baking and Walnut cookies is one of them.



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Walnut Cookies

When a friend wrote on my wall on Facebook and asked if i have Hup Toh Sou, this reminded me that this Hup Tou Sou recipe is very crunchy and crispy. I like it to be more "SOU". "SOU" in chinese means and if i am not wrong, a kind of cookie which has a bite and yet melts in the mouth. So, i went looking for new recipes and in my search among my cookbooks, i found this by Martin Yan.


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Palmiers Again And Again

The name Palmier means “palm leaves” in French. These cookies are also known as “Elephant Ear.” In Germany they’re called “Schweineohren”.


These French Palmiers are fantastic, traditionally, the recipe is time consuming and labor intensive, but it can be so easy-to-make, especially if you follow Quickest Puff Pastry Nick Malgieri

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Gong Xi Fa Cai Cookie

The Chinese New Year 2011, The year of the Rabbit, is not far away, only 27 days more to 3rd February, 2011.  Join me in The Cooking and Baking Bandwagon to bake cookies/biscuits and cook auspicious dishes to usher in the New Year.  The first to jump into the Bandwagon is this Gong Xi Fa Cai Cookie which is actually Linzer Cookie.  I found a rabbit design among my grandchildren's play dough set and i used it to cut the design for the top cookie.

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Biscotti

This recipe is from Jacques Torres's book - Dessert Circus.  According to Jacques Torres, biscotti is traditionally an italian cookie which is baked two times to produce a hard cookie that they like to dip in sweet wine.  He has adapted the recipe so these cookies are not quite so hard and also cut the baking time in half.  He used cold butter so he can roll and bake them right away.  These fragrant, flavorful cookes are great by themselves or dunked in coffee and since Jacques Torres is from Provence, he prefers to dip his in 'pastis'.  Me, having lived in Malaysia,  will have mine with 'Kopi-O'.



Ingredients:

3/4 cup/4 ozs/100 gm whole unblanched almonds
1/3 cup/1.6 ozs/50 gm whole pistachios
7 tbsp/3.5 ozs/100 gm Cold unsalted butter, cubed
3/4 cup/5.25 ozs/150 gm granulated sugar
2 cups/8.8 ozs/250 gm all purpose flour
1 tbsp/0.3 oz/8 gm Anise seeds
1 tsp/0.2 oz/6 gm baking powder
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs

For the egg wash

1 large egg white, beaten

Method:

Preheat the oven to 300 f(150 c). 

Spread the almonds and postachios evenly on a bking sheet and place in the oven,

Toast for about 30 minutes, until they are golden brown.

You will be able to smell the n uts when they are ready.

A good test is to break a nut in half and check to see if it is light brown on the inside.

Toasting the nuts brings out their natural flavor.

Remove them from the oven and allow to cool completely on the baking sheet on wire rack.
Place the remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixere on medium speed until well combined, abvout 5 minutes, the mixture will hold together in a soft dough.

Add the colled toasted nuts and mix until they are evenly incorporated, about 1 minute.  If you are using hand-held mixer, you may want to knead in the nuts by hand to avoid buring out the motor of the mixeer.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place on a very lightly floured work surface.  If the dough is stickly and hard to work with, it is too soft.  To fix this. flatten it into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for  a minumum of 1 hour.(When the butter in the dough gets cold, the dough will stiffin).  Remove from the regrigerator and proceed.

Preheat the oven to 350 f(175c).

Divide the dough into three equal pieces.  Use the palms of your hands to roll each piece on the lightly floured work surface into a rope 1 - 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Each rope should be even and fit on your bking sheet lengthwise.  If the dough sticks to your hands or to the work surface as you are rolling it, dust it lightly with flour.

Roll firmly to remove any trapped air bubbles (At this stage, you can wrap the dough well in plastic wrap and freeze for up to two weeks.  Bring it back to room temperature before baking.)

Place two of the piscotti ropes on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet.  You will only have room for two because they spread as they bake.  With a pastry brush, lightly brush each rope with the egg white; this will add shine to the4 baked biscotti.

Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the baking sheet.

Use a serrated knife to slice the biscotti on a diagonal into 1/2 inch thick cookies.  If you do this while the biscotti are still warm, they not crumble.  The biscotti will harden as they cool.  If they are still soft when you slice them, place the slices on a bking sheet and bake at 300f(150c) for another 10 - 15 minutes.  Repeat the baking and cooling procedure with the remaining biscotti rope.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for two or three weeks.

Variation: 

Dip the biscotti halfway on a diagonal into tempered bittersweet chocolate.  Wipe the excess chocolate from the tip and place the bniscotti on a sheet or parchment paper to allow the chocolate to set.

Serves
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