Nestum Cereal Cookies (麦片饼干)

INTRODUCTION

Nestum is a baby cereal and has its unique aromatic fragrance..Since young, I love Nestum. Even until today, Nestum is still my choice of breakfast cereals..

Using baby cereal to make into cookies will definitely yield an aromatic cookie… I have added milk powder to enhance the flavour and I am sure readers will concur with me that milk powder blends well with this baby cereal.

When the cookies were just out of the oven, I was rather shocked that the cookies’ exterior seem to be very hard. I am worry that something went wrong. When it cooled down completely and when i take a first bite, I found it is an enjoyment after breaking the crust and proceed to bite the interior .. It is addictive and asking my kids to try and both concurred that it is a nice cookie.. At least they like it.

Round shaped cookies are more difficult to bake but if you prepare the cookies in a disc or saucer shape, it will be easier to become crispy and shorten the baking time considerably. As such, this cookie need some close monitoring as the baking time depends very much on your shape and oven temperature.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe inspired from : Cornflakes Cookies / Cereal Cookies – Look See Eat

Servings: about 40-50 cookies depends on size of cookies

• 100 grams of butter – at room temperature
• 135 grams of fine sugar or icing sugar
• 100 grams of plain flour or all purpose flour
• 50 grams of potatoes starch or corn starch (not in picture)
• 50 grams of milk powder
• 1 egg
• 80 grams of Nestum baby cereal
• Some mini paper cups

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 170 degree Celsius.

• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs gradually and beat until well combined. Add in the sifted milk powder, plain flour, potatoes starch and if you prefer, a tablespoon of Nestum baby cereals. Use the machine’s lowest speed to stir for a minute or two until well mix and form a pliable dough. Scoop a teaspoon of the dough, roughly shape round, put in a bowl of Nestum baby cereals. Roll sparingly. Transfer the dough to the paper cups and bake in the pre-heated oven of 170 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until it become golden brown.

Note:

• Temperature control is important and timing will very much depend on the shape of the cookies. Disc or sauce shape cookies are crispier than round cookies and timing will be shorten considerably (about 10-15 minutes) .

• Instead of baby cereal, breakfast cereals such as corn flakes can be used. However, the corn flakes will need to be pound until fine they resembling the size of Nestum baby cereals.

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CONCLUSION

It is a crispy cookie which is different from the other Chinese New Year cookies that melts in the mouth. The first bite felt some hard crust as you continue to bite, you will feel the softer inner part full of cereal fragrance and the second cookie should be in your hand by then.. Haha … For those who like baby cereal like me, you may want to give it a try.

For more Chinese New Year related cookies, snack and steamed cake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy Chinese New Year Recipes – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD3.50. The recipes covered various recipes from auspicious radish cake to nian gao to traditional kuih bangkit to trendy London almond cookies. Of course not forgetting both type of pineapple tarts. You can purchase by clicking the link above. You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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I’m submitting this post to Best Recipes for Everyone Jan & Feb 2015 Event Theme: My Homemade Cookies organized by Fion of XuanHom’s Mom and co-hosted by Victoria Bakes

 

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

 

Crispy Crabstick Snack (酥脆蟹肉小吃）

INTRODUCTION

My family members except me loves this crab sticks commonly sold in Singapore and Malaysia supermarket. It was usually sold in the frozen department and they were used to cook with vegetable dish or noodle dish…

My East Malaysian relatives visited me last week and gave me a plastic bottles of these crispy crab meat that she bought from her Malay colleagues.. It was RM 3 per bottle, kids loved them and can’t have enough of them… They are fighting for the very last piece they have.. I gave it a try and promised them that I will replicate this for them..

I knew that their version is the deep fried version, in fact slightly more fragrant that what I have prepared. However, I have chose to use oven baked in view of the current trend of healthier life style… I presumed air fryer will work extremely well for this snack too…

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• One packet of crabsticks
• 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder (optional)
• Few curry leaves (fresh or dried) (optional)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 100 degree Celsius

• Cut the crab sticks into about 2 cm length..Roll it out and use a knife to slice it as thinly and as EVENLY as you can. (Uneven crabstick will make some of the crabstick become crispy but some are chewy). Put it in a plastic box, add the curry powder and add in chopped curry leaves. Close the lid of the plastic box and shake until the chopped crabstick are evenly coated with curry powder. Transfer to the baking tray as evenly as possible. Bake in the pre-heat oven of 100 degree Celsius until your desired crispiness. Occasionally, give it a stir to ensure even baking. Baking time will depend on the size of the chopped crabstick. For this illustration, it took about 30 minutes.  Store in an air tight container when cooled completely.

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CONCLUSION

This is a nice snack and I will endorse an occasional indulgence. It is especially good to serve to house guest during Chinese New Year or other major festivals. Remember that you can always do it using air fryer but I can assure all that deep frying using low to medium heat is the fastest and the most aromatic.. It is up to readers to decide base on your health objectives.

This recipe was included in Page 45 and Page 46 of the following E-book. 

For more Chinese New Year related cookies, snack and steamed cake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy Chinese New Year Recipes – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD3.50. The recipes covered various recipes from auspicious radish cake to nian gao to traditional kuih bangkit to trendy London almond cookies. Of course not forgetting both type of pineapple tarts. You can purchase by clicking the link above. You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 15 October 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

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Lots Of Chinese New Year Goodies At Home And Don’t Know What To Do With It?–Cookies and Cakes Puddings

Reproduced from my post dated 30-4-2013

For Malaysian and Singapore Chinese, it is a tradition that during Chinese New Year, cookies and other delicacies were being prepared for purposes of entertaining visitors. Families either bought ready made cookies, or as gifts from friends and relatives or prepare themselves. Usually, after the festival, lots of cookies were left untouched. For most family, it is practically impossible to finish all these cookies within a reasonable period of time and before the qualities were compromised. Most families resort to throwing away the cookies.

Looking at the cookies that are sitting in my shelves and realizing it wouldn’t take long before it turns bad, I have decided to try baking the cookie pudding based on the principles of preparing the bread pudding.

I started by layering my cookies (actually, everything that I found from marshmallow to titbits of my kids). I then prepare a liquid mixture of sugar, eggs, butter, and fresh milk . Pouring the liquid mixture over the biscuits or cookies layer by layer. I let it soaked for a while and used forks to press the mixtures until I am convinced that all the cookies were fully soaked. It should then be moist and soft. I then steamed baked the mixtures until set which took approximately 1 hour (Note: for this illustration, I did not use steam bake). Finally, I have my cookie puddings that resemble the bread puddings.

There is no exact recipe, it is of full flexibility. Due to the high fats and high sugars content of the cookies and cakes being served, generally, I did not add additional sugar and only a small quantity of melted butter (about 50 grams but it is optional) for smoothening the puddings. The taste will very much depends on the cake and cookies that you used. Cookies and cakes may be staled but not turning bad yet. They may not be crispy anymore. Chinese New Year seasons is over and your family is tired of having the same cookies for the past few weeks… Either you throw away and you put a small investment and turned it into another bake.

The small investment is some eggs. Even that, you can use some unused egg whites from making certain cakes before Chinese New Year and don’t know what to do with it… As long as there are eggs and milk (substitutable with plain water) and you can prepare this pudding. Eggs are necessary to make it a pudding like structure and act as a binding agent among the various materials. This is nothing new, it is just a simple concept applied to bread puddings. It is simpler than bread puddings as stale bread is tasteless but the cookies and cakes are already well flavoured. Remember, rubbish in rubbish out, quality  staled cakes and cookies used (which I am sure most of your cookies and cakes at home are still edible), a quality cookies pudding will be produced..

This is what I did for 2014 Chinese new year cookies and cakes to make the puddings.

I have lots of cookies and cakes left.. including some that were not included here such as my Steamed sponge cake and strawberry egg white cake.

I started greasing the tin and layer the pudding. Usually the first layer is cakes or bread for shaping purposes.

More variety of cakes and cookies were being added and filled the tin until full. (advisable to fill 90% full and I am too greedy in this illustration. It will expand when bake and shrink down after the eggs are set).

I used some egg whites from the making of Kek Lapis before Chinese new year, another 2 additional eggs and add in a bit (about 50 grams) of melted butter and some milks.. I poured on to the cakes and let it fill the entire tin. You need to wait for a while for the cakes and cookies to absorb the milk. Please refer to this post for detail instructions of filling. Who Said Bread Puddings Must Be Prepared As Such…..Bread Puddings “Reinvented”

I topped with additional red velvet cookies crumbles  and some yellow colour ghee cookies (kueh momo) crumble. I  then baked in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for about 30 minutes or until the puddings become set. Set means the egg mixture starts to solidify and no wavy pattern in the mixture when you pushed the tin.

I served with some  fresh strawberry and strawberry sauce and I prefer to serve it cold. At times I served with milk or even ice creams.

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CONCLUSION

I can tell you very frankly, I dare and I love to eat this cookies and cakes puddings. However, whether or not readers feel comfortable to eat such type of food combinations is up to individual. ….I do this with bread, cookies and cakes and it is a good way of get rid of these stale items at home. This is a simple post, but I would advise you to read this bread puddings for the concept and detail methods of making a bread pudding. Who Said Bread Puddings Must Be Prepared As Such…..Bread Puddings “Reinvented” . You can also read what I did to my 2003 Chinese New Year cookies. In fact, it was the first post of this blog posted on 30th April, 2013. –  Creative Food Series – Cookie Puddings 1  and Cookie Puddings – 2

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .  

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 1000 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD. You can also join the Food Bloggers and Foodies United Group Facebook Group to see more recipes.

I Have No Patience And I Prepared My Instant Bak Kwa–Instant Chinese Pork Jerky

INTRODUCTION

I am busy baking my cookies and in between my oven slots, I have prepared some Chinese pork jerky or “Bak Kwa”. As long as I can remember, we always have Bak Kwa during Chinese New Year. When I was a kid, it is once in a year delicacy served during Chinese New Year. Then, most Bak Kwa were imported from China and were mostly air dried. It is hard, chewy and difficult to bite. As years went by, there are more and more varieties and what is the most common type of Bak Kwa nowadays is the sweetened and soft type of Bak Kwa mostly made from minced pork. 

I loved Bak Kwa for its sweet and soft texture. It is essentially barbecue sliced or minced pork. In Singapore, one kilogram of Bak Kwa during Chinese New Year can fetch as high as SGD40-50. It is quite costly but presentable gift to relatives and friends.

Since I am lazy and I knew Wikipedia will have a detailed write up on Bak Kwa, therefore, for the sake of my international readers, I have reproduced it here for information.

“Bak kwa is the Hokkien translation for Rou gan (肉干). It is a Chinese salty-sweet dried meat product similar to jerky. It originated from the Fujian province in China where it is considered a Hokkien delicacy. Bak kwa is made with a meat preservation and preparation technique originating from ancient China. The general method for production have remained virtually unchanged throughout the centuries, but the techniques have been gradually improved. It is often made with beef, pork, or mutton, which are prepared with spices, sugar, salt, and soy sauce, while dried on racks at around 50 °C to 60 °C 

Bak kwa is immensely popular in Singapore and Malaysia where it is usually eaten during Chinese New Year. When Chinese immigrants brought this delicacy over to Singapore and Malaysia, it began to take on local characteristics. A notable example lies in the preparation of Bak kwa, where the meat once still being air-dried is instead grilled over charcoal.^[1] This imparts a more smokier flavour to the meat. The Singapore and Malaysia versions of Bak kwa are also sweeter than its mainland China counterpart with many different variations adapted to suit the local palette such as chilli bak kwa.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakkwa)

Preparing Bak Kwa has been in my to do list for quite a while. It came across my mind after I issued my Chinese Barbecue Pork in October 2013. I did not take a step to prepare it as most recipe will call for long hours (or at least overnight) of marinating, some even called for air drying or sun drying before the grilling. I knew I did not have the patience and with an oven slot available 2 days ago, I have experimented to see if there is an easy way to prepare this delicious pork jerky.

Frankly, I did not follow any recipe. I browsed through a few recipes in Mandarin and looking at the marinating agent. Apparently, each recipe have its own marinating agent and therefore I have decided to use my Chinese barbecue pork marinating agent plus a new ingredient (maltose) to prepare the pork jerky. Since this is an experiment (that turns out to be very satisfactory), I just add the marinating agents to my minced meat, use a food processor to mince it again, and test grilled a small portion of the minced pork in the toaster oven (mini oven). I found that the result were satisfactory and I continue to grill all the minced meat in my oven. I started the preparation at 5:00 pm and I have my Bak Kwa ready at 7:00 pm.

I am pleased with the results. My trial was based on my beliefs that since it is “double minced pork”, all the spices and marinating agents can penetrate the pork very easily. Instant grilling will definitely take longer timing since it is wetter. As long as we can force the water out of the meat – it will become a piece of meat with spices and seasonings that we like. Therefore, the temperature and timing of grilling will be rather different. Since I can prepare Bak Kwa within 2 hours, it means that I can have Bak Kwa as one of the household dishes to go with rice or porridges at any time I want.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• 1 kg of minced pork belly （五花肉碎）
• 1/2 cup of sugar （白糖）
• 3 tablespoons of dark soya sauce （黑酱油）
• 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce （耗油）
• 1 teaspoon of five spice powder （五香粉）
• 3 tablespoons of maltose  or honey (麦芽糖或蜜糖）
• 5 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wines (烹饪白或红糟酒）
• 2 tablespoons of red fermented bean curd (红腐乳) juice (not in picture) please refer Chinese Barbecue Pork for pictures.
• 2 tablespoons of maltose (during day of roasting) – Plus 2 tablespoon of water

Note that this recipe is very flexible. It is advisable to test grill or test pan fried a small portion of the minced meat before you start grilling the whole batch. Feel free to adjust the quantities and suggested ingredients to suit your taste buds.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper

• Put the minced meat and all the ingredients into the food processor. Minced until fine. As I like my Bak Kwa to be a bit chewy, therefore, I did not minced until very fine. Ensure that all the seasonings are well combined.

• Remember to test bake a small portion before you follow the following steps. Add additional seasonings if preferred.

• Divide the minced meat into 2 portions for the 2 baking trays. Put a piece of clingy wrap and use a rolling pin to spread as evenly as possible and the thickness should be about 0.5 cm. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. During this process, you will start to witness the minced meats start to shrink and water starts to secret out. As long as the meat transform into a big piece of meat without breaking, proceed to the next step.

• Take out the baking tray out and throw away the baking paper. Transfer the semi grilled pork out and put it in plate. Meanwhile, put a cooling rack in the baking tray. Put the meat on the cooling rack (with baking tray). Brush the meat with the additional maltose (2 tablespoons of maltose or honey with 2 tablespoons of water. If too sticky, add another tablespoon of water. ) evenly. Send back to the oven. Turn on the top grilled heat at 180 degree Celsius. Grilled for about 5 minutes or until it reach the desired colour tone and dries up. Take out the baking tray, turn the Bak Kwa, brush and baked again for another 5 minutes or until it reach the desired colour tone and dries up.

• Immediate after you take out from the oven, it will be rather dry and slightly crispy because of the maltose effect, if you rest it for second day in the room temperature, it will be softer.

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CONCLUSION

A simple fast (almost instant) recipe of Bak Kwa for you try out. It is full of flexibilities. Let me know if this is what you like. Remember to test grill a small piece prior to grilling the entire kilogram of minced meats.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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This recipe was included in Page 54 and Page 55 of the following E-book. 

For more Chinese New Year related cookies, snack and steamed cake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy Chinese New Year Recipes – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD3.50. The recipes covered various recipes from auspicious radish cake to nian gao to traditional kuih bangkit to trendy London almond cookies. Of course not forgetting both type of pineapple tarts. You can purchase by clicking the link above. You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog. 
• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

 

 

Special Round Up of Cookies And Cakes Suitable For Chinese New Year 2014

INTRODUCTION

During Chinese New Year, most Chinese families will have visiting guests whereby cookies and cakes are served. In addition, as this is the major festival, there are praying ceremony that requires some traditional steamed cakes. This post is a special Chinese New Year post compiling all the cookies, cakes and snacks relevant to the festival.

PLEASE CLICK THE PICTURES OR THE BLUE COLOUR LINK TO GO TO INDIVIDUAL POSTS.

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COOKIES

Plum Blossom Cookies – A cream cheese cookies with strawberry jam (featured by Asian Food Channel)

Pineapple Tarts – A type of short crust pastry enclosed tarts with pineapple jam

Kueh Bankgit – A coconut flavoured light starch cookies

Macadamia Russian Tea Cakes – A buttery cookies that are with mouthful of macadamia nuts

Spicy Shrimp Floss Cookies – A savoury cookie that is spicy and full of dried shrimp floss.

Kaasstengels – A savoury cheesy cookie made of Edam Cheese and Cheddar cheese

Kueh Momo – A melt in the mouth buttery cookie made with only ghee and flour dusted with sugar powder

Traditional short bread biscuits – A buttery biscuit dusted with rose petals making it stands out in a tray of cookies

Almond sugee cookies – Made from ghee/butter together with semolina flour. Another melt in the mouth cookie.

Melting moments – It is like Danish butter cookies made from butter and sugar.

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CAKES AND SNACKS

Walnut Butter Cake – A fragrant and moist cake full of walnut aroma. (Featured by Asian Food Channel)

Cream Cheese Chocolate Layer Cake – A healthier version of layered cake commonly served during Chinese New Year (Featured by Asian Food Channel)

Bee Hive Cake or Malaysia Honey Comb Cake – A soft texture cake made using simple ingredients. Challenge is to ensure the cake have a nice pattern of airy holes.

Butter Pound Cake – A simple modified version of traditional pound cake that make it moist and aromatic.

Horlicks Layered Cake – Another type of layered cake that is rich, moist and dense

Kek Serikaya Sarawak – A very rich and dense steamed cake made using mostly breakfast beverages and spreads like Horlicks, milo, condensed milk, kaya. Also called Sarawak midnight cake or Kek Belachan Sarawak. Commonly served during major festivals such as Chinese New Year.

Seaweed Fish Fillets Snacks – A combo of fish fillet snacks and Nori Seaweeds. It is an addictive crispy snack.

Money Bag Curry Puffs – The traditional curry puffs or epok epok in the shape of money bags specially prepared for Chinese New Year.

Coconut Delights – A three ingredients simple snacks good for small gatherings during Chinese New Year.

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ASIAN CAKES FOR CHINESE NEW YEARS

Steamed Nian Gao – A glutinous rice flour steamed cake. A must for most Chinese families during Chinese New Year.

Baked Nian Gao – An alternative to steamed Nian Gao

Steamed Rice Flour Cake – Commonly used for religious prayers and signifies prosperity.

Steamed Sponge Cake – Another common cake for Chinese religious prayers

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For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .  

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 1000 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD. You can also join the Food Bloggers and Foodies United Group Facebook Group to see more recipes.

My Kueh Bangkit Broken Into Pieces When It Dropped On My Floor.. Traditional Kueh Bangkit

 

UPDATED POST ON 1-1-2015

Retesting my recipe using almost 100% sago flour and i am extremely happy with the texture. Very light and fluffy. Have made some minor amendments to the recipes.

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INTRODUCTION

Making Kueh Bangkit, a type of traditional coconut milk flavoured light cookie is never in my list of cookies to be made this year. I knew all this while that this is my mother’s in laws favourite cookie. Since my wife’s sister is visiting us this week, I have decided to prepare this cookie and ask her to bring back for my mother in law.

This is a traditional cookie. Most elders will know and like the cookie. I only prepared once since I started my baking adventures. It was at least 10 years back. I remembered stir frying the flour and the results were not that satisfactory.

While browsing various Facebook food groups’ postings, I noted that one of the challenge of Kueh Bangkit is to make it melt in the mouth.. It is supposing to be a very light cookie and you should be able to ingest it without the use of your teeth.  Based on what I can recall, the Kueh Bangkit that I have eaten when I was a kid were rather “ugly” without beautiful shapes but very easy to eat.. But what is sold over the counters and the images I seen in the internet are overly beautiful, and in my humble opinion, this cookie should be quite hard. I have this firm belief that shape and texture is always a trade off. If you want to have a melt in the mouth texture, it basically also means that your dough must have a lot of air..having a lot of air will means your dough should be light and crumby..therefore the shape should not have fine imprints….

As I can’t locate my old recipe, I started to search for recipes on the net. I usually started with an image search. I looked for pictures of Kueh Bangkit that have a rugged look or possibly with some cracks. I found this recipe: Mom’s Kueh Bangkit from Journal of A Nutritionist Mom. I have confident on her Kueh Bangkit from her picture, a slight crack on the top. I jotted down her ingredients but I have used what I know about baking to make my own version of Kueh Bangkit.

In my humble opinion, making Kueh Bangkit is just like making scones. All handlings have to be light. The reason is simple – to introduce air to the dough. Therefore, a sign of crumbliness in the dough should be acceptable. Unlike scones that uses wheat flour, Kueh Bangkit uses starches – tapioca flour and I have also added sago flour, another starches commonly found in Sarawak. These flours are not good at absorbing water. The dough is likely to be wet at the bottom but dry on top. Water will sip down to the bottom. 

The objective of introducing air to the dough will also means that your flour/starch used have to be light. Traditionally, the flour were being stir fried to achieve this effect. But I have resorted to the use  of oven to bake the flour… That is not what I “invented”, I remembered reading one recipe for Ghee cookies – Kueh Momo that requires baking of flour..One advantage of baking the flour is I need not to stand by the stove, I can let it bake and occasionally stir the flour. Sifting of flour should be “dusty”. If it is not dusty, your flour is not dry enough and feathery light…Liquid should be added bit by bit as and when you do the moulding..

This is my own version of Kueh Bangkit and excuse me for not being humble to say that this is a very successful batch that produced the texture of Kueh Bangkit that I am looking for. When I took my images for this post, one piece dropped and it became like this….

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from : Mom’s Kueh Bangkit from Journal of A Nutritionist Mom.

Servings : 2 baking trays of at least 100 cookies (depending on your mould)

• 400 grams of sago flour
• 400 grams of tapioca flour (substitutable with Sago flour)
• 100 grams of rice flour
• 350 grams of icing sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 packet (about 200 ml ) of coconut milk (not in picture) or fresh coconut milk
• 6 stalks of Pandanus leaves – cleaned, dried and cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup of additional coconut milk/water when moulding the dough

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 150 degree Celsius and have 2 baking trays lined with baking paper.

• Cut the Pandanus leaves into smaller pieces. Place all flours (sago, rice and tapioca flours) in a baking tray and bake in the oven at 150 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Occasionally, stir the flour. You should feel the change in lightness of the flour when you stir the flour along the baking process. As a rough guideline, when the Pandanus leaves dries up, it is considered as done. You can either use top bottom grill mode or fan mode. Fan mode is faster but slightly, slightly dustier. I use fan mode in this illustration.

• In a big container, sift the flour. When you sift the flour, it should be rather “dusty”. If your bowl is very big, you can consider cover half of your bowl with a clingy wrap. The flour should not only sit at the bottom of the container, the side of the container should have some accumulation of flour too. Use a spoon to press the small lumps on the sift and throw away all those that cannot go through the sift. Set aside and let it cool. As I am running out of time, I have prepared this batch of cookies when the flour is still warm. That is also logical as the longer the baked flour is exposed to the air, the more moisture they are likely to absorb back to the flour. Therefore, unlike traditionally beliefs of putting it overnight, I did mine as soon as my liquid ingredients were ready.

• In a big mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and icing sugar until pale. Gradually add in the coconut milk, beat until well combined.

• In the big container with the baked flour, make a well in the centre. Gradually add the egg mixture. Do not add too fast as the liquid will sink to the bottom. Use your hand to lightly knead the dough until it is just combined. Don’t worry if it is not too well mixed as you can add water along the way. It is also common to find that the dough is dry on the top part. As you mould along, it may become crumbly.. That is absolutely normal for starches..

• Take a small portion and roll it into about 3 mm thickness on a surface lightly floured with tapioca/sago/corn/potatoes starch. You can use a rolling pin but do not press overly hard. Mould into your desired shape and put in your baking tray. I strongly advise that you do this small portion by small portion. Take a small portion, roll and mould. Your dough will get crumbly along the way as water vapour is lost and some water has sipped down to the bottom. Add water teaspoon by teaspoon (from the 1/4 cup reserved water) along the way. As long as they combined and can be moulded, that is ok. Add water too fast will force the air out of the dough..

• Egg wash if desired. Egg washing will help to provide a glossier surface on the top part and provide some moisture to the cookies. For egg washing, use 2 egg yolks + 2 tablespoons of water + 2 drops of oil. For darker colour, use 1 tablespoon of water instead. REMEMBER THAT YOUR EGG SOLUTION MUST BE SIFTED BEFORE THE EGG WASHING. Otherwise, you may have some dark patches of egg whites in your cookies.

• Bake in the preheated oven of 150 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes or the bottom start to turn brownish. The cookies will be slightly soft while hot, when completely cooled on the rack, it should be crispy. As this is a very light cookie, it will become soft in the open air very fast as water vapours start to absorb back. As soon as it is cooled, store in an air tight container. In the event that it become soft even before you put in the container, continue putting into the container, without the lid closed, put it in the refrigerator. The refrigerator will help to draw the moisture out of the cookies and make it crispy again. Serving is best in an air tight container during Chinese New Year.

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CONCLUSION

This is a long winded post and should be one of my very last post on Chinese New Year cookies series.

Again, I am a firm believer of shape versus texture concept.. A rugged, light Kueh Bangkit will give you a melt in the mouth texture. Forgive me again that I have my own definition of melt in the mouth… put in your mouth and bite once and it should just broken into pieces, two bites is not melt in the mouth and using tongue to break your cookies is the ideal…Average weight of my cookie is 6 grams per cookie.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 28 July 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Money Bag For Your New Year–Simple Epok Epok or Curry Puffs

UPDATED POST ON 15-10-2014

I have some leftover curry chicken left, so I decided to use these curry chicken and potatoes to prepare some curry puffs. To transform the curry gravy into the filling, you will need to cut the curried potatoes and meat into small pieces, cook over the stoves and thicken with some plain flour or corn starch. Fried until it dries up. Please scroll down for the proper shaping of the curry puff.

  

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IINTRODUCTION

Epok Epok or potatoes curry puff is one of the very common snacks in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. At times, it was called “karipap”.

My kid is an Epok Epok fanatic. He had reminded me to buy him this for his breakfasts for the last few days. He is just like an old man, grumble and grumble. He will remind me once in the afternoon, once at night, suddenly during shopping, or just before going to bed. I knew he like it, so do my other family members and myself. Since everyone like it, why not I learn how to prepare this myself.

I searched for the recipes on the net and I came across this recipe : Epok Epok kentang potatoes curry puffs. I wanted to prepare in the shape of curry puffs but acknowledging my poor shaping skills, I can’t create a nice shape like what is sold in the hawker stalls. I did not have the special mould for Epok Epok either. I told my wife that we should cover our “weaknesses” and shaped it into a money bag for Chinese New Year.  Ha-ha

Malaysia and Singapore are multi racial countries. As a Malaysian and Singapore Permanent Resident, I am proud of our racial harmony especially when I travelled overseas. We have 3 major festivals each year, Chinese New Year for the Chinese, Hari Raya Aidilfiltri (Eid Mubarak) for the Muslims (predominantly Malays) and Diwali (Deepavali) for Indians. It is definitely not wrong that as a Chinese, we incorporate some Malay cuisines in our Chinese New Year delicacies.

In fact, curry puff is so common and I was shocked that Wikipedia have a write up on this famous pastry that is of Portuguese influence. It is believed that curry puff originated from the Portuguese pastry, Empanadas. Per Wikipedia:

Curry puff (Malay: Karipap, Epok-Epok; Chinese: 咖哩角,咖哩饺; pinyin: gālí jiǎo; Thai: กะหรี่ปั๊บ, RTGS: karipap, IPA: [karìːpáp]) is a Malaysian, Singaporean, and Thai snack. It is a small pie consisting of specialised curry with chicken and potatoes in a deep-fried or baked pastry shell, and it looks like the Portuguese stuffed bread called Empanada. The curry is quite thick to prevent it from oozing out of the snack.A common snack in the region, the curry puff is one of several “puff” type pastries with different fillings, though now it is by far the most common. Other common varieties include sardines and onions or sweet fillings such as yam. Though differing in the type of pastry used, the shape and structure of the curry puff may suggest that it has its origins in the Cornish pasty. Curry Puffs are a very popular snack item in Indian Bakeries. Several variations of it are available based on the content of the puff, like Egg puff, chicken curry puff and paneer puff.Some varieties of the South Asian samosa are very similar to curry puffs.

From the above definition, one would have a free hand to design the fillings you like. If you still want curry puff but afraid it to be spicy, you can use the Japanese curry roux to make it into a Japanese curry puff. You can refer to the post Japanese curry pies, a post that was once featured by Asian Food Channel on how to make turmeric curried potatoes that are not spicy.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: Epok Epok kentang potatoes curry puffs

Servings: Make 20-30 curry puffs depends on size

For pastry:

• 400 grams of self raising flour, sifted
• 175 grams of butter or margarine
• 160 ml of cold water
• Pinches of salt

 

For fillings:

This recipe is the simplest recipe and full of variations and feel free to increase or decrease the quantity stated here.

• 2 onions – diced into small pieces
• 2 potatoes – diced into small pieces
• Some curry leaves (optional)
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder or Garam Masala
• 1 small cane of tuna (not in picture – optional)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (not in picture)
• About 5 cups of cooking oil for deep frying
• 1/2 cup of water (not in picture)
• Seasonings to taste

Optional ingredients – Any spices that are used to cook curry such as chilli powder, cloves, anise, can be added. You can refer to the more authentic original recipes here.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• In a sauce pan under medium heat, put some cooking oil and stir fry the diced onion, curry leaves and curry powder until fragrant and onion are soft. Add in diced potatoes, stir fry until well combined. Add 1/2 cup of water.

• Let it simmer until the potatoes are soft and water dries up , add canned tuna (you can add earlier if you want) and seasonings to taste (e.g sugar, pinches of salt, pepper). Set aside for later use.

• In a mixing ball, beat your butter/margarine until light and pale. Add in sifted flour and cold water. Use the mixer’s slowest speed to stir until combined. Take out and lightly knead until smooth. Note that you can just rub the butter with flour with your hand, gradually add the water and knead until smooth. Stand mixer is optional.

• Roll the dough in a flat surface using a rolling pin. Cut a round shape out ( I used the cover from a Chinese New Year cookies container). Take out and stretch the sides. The sides should be thinner than the middle. Put 1-2 tablespoons of curry puff fillings. Pull the sides up and make it shape like a money bag. Remember to close the dough in the middle. Set aside for later use.

• In a sauce pan, have adequate cooking oil. Heat until when a wooden chopstick inserted, bubbles start to emit. To counter ensure the correct oil temperature, cut a small piece of dough and throw in the oil. If it turn brown too fast, the oil is too hot. Lower the heat to medium. Once the oil temperature is ascertained, put in all the money bags and deep fried until golden brown. If you are not speedy enough to handle the frying fitters, use medium heat. But when the colour is slightly golden, increased the heat to high and take out after one minute. This is to prevent the oil from absorbing back to the money bag so that you will have a crispy money bag. Drain and put on a piece of kitchen towel or oil absorbing paper before serving. Best served only when completely cooled but still crispy.

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Common shaping of curry puff

• Divide the dough into equally about 30-40 grams . Shape it into a ball and lightly flatten it. Use a rolling pin to roll it thin and of about 6-8 cm diameter. Place a tablespoon of two of the fillings on the centre of the dough. Fold half and seal the edges. Slightly press the fillings such that it conform to the shape we want. Pinch the edges in a regular pattern until all the edges are pleated.

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CONCLUSION

I honestly believed that this is definitely a good pastry to promote racial harmony. While this may not be able to keep for long, it will be an ideal party snack food for your Chinese New Year gatherings. Well, if you have good shaping skills, you can shape liked the traditional curry puffs as the recipe is essentially the same recipe.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

 

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 8 June 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Another Savoury Cookies For Chinese New Year–Chilli Shrimp Floss Cookie

INTRODUCTION

When I was shopping on Sunday, I saw the supermarket selling the Chilli Shrimp Floss or haebeehiam in Hokkien (a Chinese Dialect). It was rather economical and 180 gram bottle cost only SGD 3.50. When I was young, we used to prepare this our self. It will need a lot of dry shrimps, shrimp paste, lemon grass, shallots, garlics, chilli and etc. It can be rather costly because of the price of dry shrimps. I have not prepared this for a long time. Immediately when I saw this, I told my wife I want to give it a try and bought a bottle. Immediately when I reached home, I opened the bottle and took some to taste. The taste was good, very aromatic and free of any fishy smell.

I got the inspiration to make this cookie from a Facebook Group where some members were posting their laksa cookies, another type of savoury cookies.  I thought I might as well use this to give it a try. I know the taste will definitely blend with the cookie.

I didn’t look for any recipe but modified from my Yin Yang Macadamia Chocolate Biscuits. Since this is my own creation, I will have to modify the recipe and transform it from a sweet cookie to a savoury cookie. I have many ideas but I can’t try it all. Some of my ideas include minced the chilli and include in the batter, add lemon grass to the cookies and etc.. If you are adventurous enough, you should try.

When I posted up this cookie in a Facebook Group, a lot of members like the cookie. That surprised me. I would never expect the response to be good. But I believed it is not my cookie that capture their hearts, it is the haebeehiam that they loved. So, they will try haebeehiam in any form. Well, I believe that this cookie will definitely not disappoint them. It is savoury, crispy and aromatic. It will be another special cookie in the coming Chinese New Year.

But for this cookie, I would like readers to trial and error. What is provided in this recipe is those that suit my taste buds. Prior to shaping, readers should take a bit of raw batter and taste, add additional seasonings if required. This is the way how the elders cooked their meal without recipe. Another way, like me, is not only to taste the batter, I test bake a piece of cookie in my oven toaster and adjust until it suit my taste buds. Readers are advise to do the same. This is a practical advise and it is always my sincere hope that readers will be able to modify the recipes that I issued and come out with one that they like.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About  70 2.5cm x 2.5 cm x 0.5 cm cookies

 

• 250 grams butter (soften at room temperature)
• 2 cups of plain flour
• 0.5 cup of corn starch
• 2 eggs (not in picture)
• 1 cup of chilli shrimp floss
• 1 tablespoon of chicken stock or seafood stock (e.g Knorr or Maggie Seasoning)
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon of light soya sauce (not in picture)

• 1-2 bird eye chilli for decoration (optional)
• 2 egg yolks for egg washing (optional)
• Some clingy wrap

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Line 1-2 baking trays with parchment/baking paper and pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

• Cream the butter until light and pale. Add in one egg at a time, beat until well mixed. Sift in the corn starch, plain flour, white pepper and chicken stock. Use the mixer to mix at slow speed until well combined.

• Add light soya sauce and chilli shrimp floss. Use the mixer to mix again until well combined. Transfer out and divide the dough equally, say 100 gram per dough. Put one portion of the dough on the clingy wrap and roll it into a rectangular shape. Tighten both ends.

• Put the dough in the freezer and let it harden. It will require about 15 minutes. When hardened, use a knife to cut into smaller pieces.

• Cut a the bird eye chilli into small pieces. Press one piece into the cookie (note: you must press it down the cake otherwise the chilli will get burnt). Baked in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes or when it started to turn golden brown. Egg wash the cookie if preferred. For egg washing, crack 2 eggs and mix the egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of milk.

• Please be prepared that some parts of cookies may looked burnt because of the shrimp floss. Any shrimp floss that was exposed will be burnt. So your cookies may have some black dots and that to me, is acceptable.

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CONCLUSION

It is not a difficult cookie to prepare except the shaping. As for the shaping, feel free to design your own shape. You can use cookie cutter, make it into a rectangular shape like the kaasstengels cookies or others.

Remember to either test bake a piece or taste the raw batter before you shape the whole tray. Then, you can add additional seasonings that you like.  You can always just take some batter and bake in the oven toaster. This basic recipe have used less seasonings as it is intentional for readers to adjust to suit their taste buds. If too high  amount of seasonings were recommended, there will be no way for readers to reverse the batter if they are not savoury cookie persons.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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This recipe was included in Page 41 and Page 42 of the following E-book. No changes except no egg washing and shape changes.

For more Chinese New Year related cookies, snack and steamed cake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy Chinese New Year Recipes – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD3.50. The recipes covered various recipes from auspicious radish cake to nian gao to traditional kuih bangkit to trendy London almond cookies. Of course not forgetting both type of pineapple tarts. You can purchase by clicking the link above. You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Baked or Steamed,You Decide Yourself–Glutinous Rice Cake, Nian Gao (年糕）

INTRODUCTION

I have been holding this post for a while because I am waiting for my steamed glutinous rice cake to harden so that I can cut and show readers how to prepare this sticky rice cake. Somehow, this is the fourth day, it is still rather soft, I have decided not to wait any more and share with readers the preparation of the cake itself.

Very frankly, I have a lot to write about this special glutinous rice cake, Nian Gao. A lot of fond memories and a cake that is a must during the Chinese New Year. This is one of the cakes that was offered to ancestors beside the steamed rice flour cake (huat kueh) and steamed sponge cake (kuey neng ko). As this is Chinese New Year season, I am really running out of time and members in the Facebook Group is waiting for the recipes, therefore, I have to share these recipes as soon as possible before the festival is over. I do not intend to write about what I know about Nian Gao, instead, I will refer readers to Wikipedia that have a very good write up about this cake.

“Nian Gao (nin gou in Cantonese), sometimes translated as year cake or Chinese New Year’s cake, is a food prepared from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine. It is available in Asian supermarkets and from health food stores. While it can be eaten all year round, traditionally it is most popular during Chinese New Year. It is considered good luck to eat Nian Gao during this time, because “Nian Gao” is a homonym for “higher year.” The Chinese word 粘 (nián), meaning “sticky”, is identical in sound to 年, meaning “year”, and the word 糕 (gāo), meaning “cake” is identical in sound to 高, meaning “high or tall”. As such, eating Nian Gao has the symbolism of raising oneself taller in each coming year (年年高升 niánnián gāoshēng). Also known as rice cake. This sticky sweet snack was believed to be an offering to the Kitchen God, with the aim that his mouth will be stuck with the sticky cake, so that he can’t badmouth the human family in front of the Jade Emperor. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nian_gao)”

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– BAKED NIAN GAO (烤年糕）-

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Baked Nian Gao is definitely not common among the Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia. What is common is the steamed Nian Gao. However, it had become popular for overseas’ Chinese. Pardon me if I am wrong, in order to meet the taste buds of non-Chinese, butters, eggs and flavouring (such as almond,  coconut etc.) were added and baked in the oven instead of steaming. It is a rather common dessert during Chinese New Year in China Town restaurants.  Last year, I baked one Nian Gao and I loved it very much. This year, I have decided to bake it again and share with readers.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: Baked Nian Gao

• 3 cups of glutinous rice flour
• 1 cup of thick coconut milk (about 1 small packet – 200 ml)
• 2 cups of plain water
• 2 cups of castor sugar
• 100 grams of coconut sugar (gula melaka)
• 100 grams of melted butter (about 1/2 cup)   or 50 grams (see notes below)
• 4 eggs (not in picture)
• pinches of salt

(Amended on 9 January 2013 – Because some of the Singaporean readers are indicating that the recipe is too oily (though it is acceptable to me), in view of the current trends of less fat consumption, you can adjust to using 50 grams of butter instead of 100 grams of butter as indicated in the recipe)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Line a 8” x 8” square tin with parchment paper and pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

• In a sauce pan, heat the gula melaka (coconut sugar), melted butter, coconut milk, salt and water under low to medium heat until all the coconut sugar and sugar have dissolved. (Note: if you are not using coconut sugar, you can just mix all the liquid ingredients without heating the liquid). Let it cool at room temperature. Transfer the liquid to a big mixing bowl. Add the eggs and mix well.

• Add the glutinous rice flour, use an egg whisker or spatula to stir until well combine. Sift the flour mixture into the baking tin.

• Bake in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 30-45 minutes or until the cake is set. Cool completely for at least one hour before transfer out for cutting into desired size.

 

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– STEAMED NIAN GAO (蒸年糕）-

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Steamed Nian Gao is the type of Nian Gao that we prepared for offerings. It is vegetarian and I can’t recall in my whole life, I have any year that I did not have a Nian Gao with me if I am at home. It is supposed to be an auspicious cake and in the olden days, there were many taboos associated with the preparation of Nian Gao. It can be fried with eggs the same way as French toast, re-steamed, or deep fried by sandwiching between sweet potatoes and yams.

I only use about 1 hour to steam this cake though most recipes called for a rather long time from 2-10 hours. I honestly believed that this is due to the bamboo basket that I have used to steam the cake. Bamboo basket has many holes and heat can penetrate and cook the cake more easily. In addition, the brown or black sugar used have the effect of browning the cake. Traditionally, the 10 hours used is waiting for the sugar to caramelize in the steaming process. It is possible if you have the time. I have not tried as I am concerned about my gas bills.. Ha-ha but I have witnessed my auntie who prepared this in a very traditional way using castor sugar and it needs at least 7-8 hours steaming using a very big wok.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• 2 cups of glutinous rice flour (2 杯糯米粉）
• 2 cups of water （2杯水）
• 1.5 cups of castor sugar （1.5 杯白糖）
• 0.5 cups of black or brown sugar （半杯赤或者黑糖）

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STEPS OF PREAPARATION

• Get ready a steamer, put water and bring to boil under high heat.

• Put a cellophane plastic sheet on a 6 inches bamboo basket. You can refer here on how to put the cellophane tape on the bamboo basket. For Singapore readers, both cellophane sheet and bamboo basket can be obtained from Bake King at Haig Road.  If you are interested to learn how to line the basket professionally using banana leaves, you can refer to my Group’s post : https://www.facebook.com/groups/Bloggerfoodies/permalink/763707907051879/ prepared by Ms. Kim Choo Ooi. I have purposely asked her to demonstrate to my members step by step pictures. As this is her property, I can’t posted in my blog.

• Put the white sugar and brown sugar in a sauce pan, heat under medium heat until all the sugar have melted. Add in the water carefully. Be careful as the water can splash out when added to the hot syrup. Let the syrup cool at room temperature. (Note that you can by pass this step and  just mix sugar, water and flour together, see below).

• Put the syrup in a big mixing bowl, add glutinous rice flour, stir until as well combined as possible.

• Sift the flour mixture into the wooden basket. Steam in the steamer for 1-2 hour or when the rice cake is set. Set means when you push the basket, there is no wavy pattern in the flour mixture. Since there is no need to wait for caramelization,  as long as it is set, it is considered as cooked. If you prefer, you can put a red date (jujube) on the centre of the cake. However, I have use the old method of putting  a piece of red paper in the centre. (Note that for praying purposes, every cake must have some tinges of red)

• Remember that the rice cake can be sticky when hot or even at room temperature. It will only harden in the room temperature for as long as in 1 week time. So don’t worry that it is not cooked.  When hardened, cut into small pieces and fried in the same way of French Toast.

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Updated on 14 January 2014

This year I have decided to steam Nian Gao for my neighbour and relatives. There is no changes in the ingredients except that I by pass the caramelization of sugar. I mixed sugar, water and glutinous rice flour together,stirred until well combined, sift and steamed. This will save some time. To further save the timing, I have fully utilized both my bamboo steamer and my aluminium steamer using 3 tiers. As a general rule, the large Nian Gao should be at the deepest layer and the smallest one should be on top as it is easier to cook. For this batch, I used about 1.5 hours from preparation to steam.

As for the taste, it is quite similar but of course not as fragrant as the traditional method of steaming 10 hours to let castor sugar caramelize from white to brown. I can definitely take it as I know exactly what is in my Nian Gao as compared to the counter bought Nian Gao.

Remember, as long as it is not watery, it is considered done. It will take weeks to get it harden. The one without basket is the Nian Gao of my earlier illustration and is just 90% hard after almost 2 weeks. If you are afraid of mould grows on the Nian Gao, once it is slightly harden, lightly greased a layer of cooking oil on top of the Nian Gao.

 

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CONCLUSION

Baked or steamed, you decide. For me, I must have a Nian Gao in my house during Chinese New Year. I usually put it in my dining table until Chinese New Year is over. If you are concerned about the growing of moulds,  just spread a layer of cooking oil on top of the hard surface. Even if the mould have grown without your notice,  you will wash it with clean water, cut off the top surface and continue to cook the cake. Am I gross? Ha-ha. May be, but food is precious in olden days and this cake can only be eaten once a year.

Do try the baked version. You wouldn’t regret it. Neighbour who tasted the baked Nian Gao asked me what “kueh” – or local cake it is. It is full of coconut aroma and I can eat a quite a number of pieces  after I started cutting the cake. Putting the deliciousness of the cake aside, do consume in moderation as glutinous rice is rather unfriendly to the gastro-intestinal system.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

A Childhood Cookie That I Loved… Kueh Momo or Kueh Makmur or Ghee Cookies

INTRODUCTION

This is the third attempt of preparing this cookie since I started blogging last year. I am still reluctant to issue the post because it looked  rather unsightly. I told myself, if I issued this post, it will be one of my ugliest cookies that I have ever prepared. However, I have finally decided to issue this post because it is a very successful cookie, with the texture that I am looking for, really melt in the mouth full of buttery flavour.

In my first attempt of making this childhood cookie, the cookie is almost shapeless possibly due to too much ghee and too little flour were used. When baked, it is not a ball but it flattened and became a biscuit shape.

In my second attempt, I get a very nice shape but the cookies were very hard. That is possibly because of the inclusion of sugar powder in the batter. I shelved the issuance of that adventure until I met my wife’s cousin during the Winter Solstice festival.

My wife’s cousin assured me that the cookies were very easy to prepare and I tend to believe what she said because it is a traditional cookie. All traditional cookies are very easy to prepare due to limitations in ingredients, baking equipment or even measuring equipment.

She told me that it is made using 2 ingredients, ghee and flour, mix and then bake. No sugar shall be added as it will make the cookie hard. Since I am still searching for a recipe for this childhood cookie, I have decided to try her verbal recipe and in fact, I always trusted verbal recipes from the elders.

Yes, what she said is correct, the result is the type of melt in the mouth buttery cookies that I am looking for. Because it melt in the mouth (meaning using your tongue to eat rather than using your teeth), it is very unlikely to have a shape.. This is a true and frank statement that I have always shared with my friends.  I honestly believed that there is always a trade off between shape and texture of cookies. Sorry for being gross of asking to show what it meant by melt in the mouth!! ha-ha

The name of this cookie are many, at home, we called it ghee cookie or kueh momo. But in the internet, there were also called Kueh Arab or Kueh Makmur and if semolina flour were used, it is called sugee cookie. Obviously, this is a Middle Eastern cookie that have passed down to Malaysian Muslims especially in the Eastern States of Malay Peninsular (Terengganu and Kelantan). It was named Kueh Makmur literally translated as prosperous cookies. Wikipedia have a write up on this cookie and you may want to have a look at it. (http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuih_makmur)

There are many recipes in the net, some called for use of egg yolks, some use egg whites, some put sugar in batter, some use semolina flour and some use plain flour.. and this recipe is one of the most basic traditional recipes using only 5 ingredients : ghee, milk powder, plain flour,salt and icing sugar..

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings : Make about 50 cookies of 1.5 cm diameter balls

• 150 grams of ghee
• 200 grams of plain flour
• 150     grams of milk powder
• pinches of salt
• Adequate icing sugar for rolling the balls

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Line a baking tray with parchment paper and pre-heat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.

• Stir fry the flour in a pan for about 5 minutes under medium heat. Cool and set aside. The main purpose of this step is to pre-cook the flour and make the flour lighter. However this step is optional.

• In a mixing bowl with ghee, sift in plain flour, milk powder and salt. Use your hand to lightly knead until the dough is well combined. Let in rest/chill for half an hour before shaping in the refrigerator. If you can handle the soft dough, this step is optional.

• After half an hour, shape the dough into a long cylindrical shape and cut into about 10 gram per dough ball. Shape into a round ball. If it is too soft, chill it again. Place the ball in the baking tray.

• Bake in the preheated oven at 160 degree Celsius for 8-10 minutes. When it is out of the oven, roll the cookie in a bowl of sugar powder. You have to be careful as the balls are very hot and fragile. Transfer the sugar dusted balls to a wire rack for complete cooling. When cooled, transfer to a container. Can keep in an airtight container at room temperature for at least 2-3 weeks.

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CONCLUSION

I am blogging cookies that I have eaten during Chinese New Year when I was young. This is one of them. I like it so much because of its creamy, buttery and milky melt in the mouth texture. If you want a nice shape, you can consider adding 1 teaspoon of egg white to the batter. The cookie will be beautiful but become crispy! If you want to melt in the mouth, follow this traditional recipe and this is definitely a recipe keeper..

I have to thank my wife’s cousin, Ms. Beatrice K. this recipe and some of my friends who have generously shared  with me their recipes including May L, Nor Norzela and Zahrah J.  I didn’t have a chance to try all recipes as yet but I believed it will be as good as this simple recipe.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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Here i am baking Chinese New Year cookies along with Lena, Joyce and zoe, the linky will be opened till Jan27.

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