I went into a cookie-baking for the last two weeks...the cookie baking bug only went away yesterday...after I made the last batch just before getting ready for the Chinese New Year reunion dinner ;)
The very first on the list are these delicious peanut cookies. These must be the easiest cookies to make, there is no creaming or whisking...and I don't even use any tool, I simply combine the ingredients together to form a dough. I like the crisp exterior, and yet, once you bite into it, the crumbs will start to fall apart in your mouth, leaving you a mouthful of peanut fragrance.
I have to confess...I have absolutely fallen in love with baking these pineapple tarts. This is the 3rd batch I have done...and I am really getting better at it. I have even managed to cut down the time spent making them by 50%...from 3hrs down to 1.5hrs. (btw, I have to give credit to my elder son who wrote the word "chun" which I've conveniently used as background for my bakes.)
I have also learned the right way of wrapping the close-up type of tarts, ie turning the dough as you wrap with your fingers. The first time I made them, I had a hard time trying to cover up the jam with the dough. For the latest batch, I manage to reduce the dough amount from 10ml to 7.5ml.
I have already included these cute little horlicks doggies biscuits in my regular to do list. I have a weak spot for all things that look cute...so I thoroughly enjoy the entire process of making them.
It helps that I come from a big family, I am able to give away all my cookies...I am sure many of you are like me...preferring to bake than to eat.Besides the pineapple tarts, I have also tried making Kueh Bangkit using our old recipes. Sad to say, I didn't get the measurement right...they were hard as stones! My sister commented that they reminded her of those baby teething biscuits, lolz! I hope to give it a try again soon.
These were the latest cookies I made. I use the same recipe for making the Pooh cut-out cookies. I melted some white milk chocolates and added some red food colouring to pipe the lettering. It was not easy as the mixture was quite stiff.
In the end, I used nutella spread...I know they don't look pretty, but I enjoyed 'writing' the Chinese characters...I felt I was writing a calligraphy piece...especially with the soft nutella spread, I could even apply the basic strokes which is "起笔" and "收笔" which I have learned from my kids ;)
Here's wishing all my Chinese readers a Happy Lunar New Year!!!
50 comments:
Those cookies look lovely and they must be very delicious !
Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous Lunar New Year !
happy new year, hhb! May the new year bring you good health, lots of laughter and prosperity! Love the cookie cut outs with words!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Such cute biscuits! And I love the calligraphy your son wrote.
xox Sarah
Wow you are really talented and good at wat you do! your cookies look so lovely.. dont have to buy from outside anymore :)
But i realised the word Fu is short of one stroke on the left
Hi
Happy New Year!
I guess I visited your website a bit too late. Your goodies were great looking!! Perhaps I'll "copy" some ideas for next year.
Queen Butter
OMG!!! They look absolutely delicious! Love your work!!
LOVE your pretty and cute cookies!
Hey, your sons' calligraphy is getting better every year. You are a lucky mum!
Gong Xi Fa Cai, HHB!
Hi, HHB!
Wow! You baked 5 different types of cookies for CNY! Amazing! Your doggie cookies are very lovely. Hope one of these day can try my hand on it. Am sure my kids will LOVE it! :D
Wishing you a Happy & Prosperous Lunar New Year! :)
Hi Missy, thanks for pointing it out! This is so embarrising! I didn't notice it while I was writing :') I have already 'added' the stroke in ;)
That cookies are amazing!
Oh!
l love them.all they looks so prety and delicious..
the cookies you baked are all so lovely! hopfully next year i can explore into other types of CNY cookies. by then, i hope i can get your guidance!
happy new year to u and your family!
Aww those are all so cute. I especially love those doggie onces! Happy New Years :D
Hi HHB,
Very beautiful bakes! Yummy!
向你拜个满满牛年
祝你平安满满。祝你事业满满。
祝你健康满满。祝你和气满满。
祝你智慧满满。祝你喜乐满满。
祝你辛福满满。祝福你满满满.
HHB: Gong hei fatt choy!! Thks for the generous tips n recipes you been sharing and yes..I'm lookng frw to more to come this year ;p ;p ;p
Hi would you mind sharing the recipe for peanut cookies? thanks! :)
Hey I'm here to ask you something. I'm just a small boy who likes baking without a mixer and a weigher thingy. So everytime i make cookies, should the dough be wet and moist all dry that you can make it shapes?
And please give tips of baking too! :D
I like the gingerbread man cookies. Simply creative! Thanks for sharing :D
Wow... what a great spread!!! Every each of the cookie is so cute!!! I love the doggies de.... Can't bear to eat!!!! :)
Hi Ann, you can get the recipe for the peanut cookies from here: (http://www.wlteef.blogspot.com/2007/01/chinese-peanut-cookies.html)
Hi Dion, as different cookies have got different texture, the cookie dough can be wet/sticky; or soft enough to form a dough, and some will be firm enough to be roll out. You can make a batch of cookies without using a mixer (sometimes I will use a manual whisk or a wooden spoon to cream the butter) but you will certainly need something to measure out the amount of ingredients to use...be it a measuring scale or a measuring cup. Hope this helps :)
Hi HHB
Wishing you & your family a Happy & Prosperous Niu (Ox) Year!
rgds
that IS cookies galore! and happy chinese new year to you!
HHB
Happy New Year!
Your cookies look so pretty!
Wow, you sure have been busy! I love the little cut out cookies with the Mandarin characters- they're super cute. Happy lunar new year to you and your family, HHB!
Happy New Year to you. Love all your bakes.
Hopefully one of these days, we can have a chance to bake together.
may i know... if the wordings will get mess up if u stack the cookies together or they had harden already?
Just bak from msia. Happy New Year.
Wow, what a spread. I thot of trying out the peanut cookies too but mil just told me that we are not suppose to make any festive cookies for festive yet (dh's grandpa pass away 2 yrs ago) so .. after CNY perhaps.
Super calligraphy from your son, and yours are not bad too. Wanna ask you how u pipe the little words? Is there a small piping bag ? I ever play with the thought of using the syringe for piping.
Wow! That is an amazing assortment of goodies you made. I'm sure whoever got to eat them was super excited!
Hi Vera Lim, those piped with nutella will get smudged as it won't harden, whereas those piped with melted chocolate were ok. So, I stack them at the bottom and place a layer of parchment paper in between.
Hi Sherlyn, Happy New Year! I didn't use a piping bag, I cut a small piece of parchment paper into a triangle, fold it into a small cone and fill it with a small amount of nutella and just pipe it. It's very simple and no washing up after you are done.
What an incredible display - I am available for adoption if you looking for another child!
Your talent is amazing - what a gift to have and to share the way you do!
Helllo HappyHomeBaker :DDD Happy new year :DDDD Its always nice to see lovely cookies pastries on your blog. I hope this year ll be a SWEET and WONDERFUL one :DDD Thankss a lot :D Btw You are the only person from Singapour I know and so I was wondering if you could translate me something o.o I am not sure if you can understand it though o.o because I think you are Chinese from Singapour. I play a band at school . There s a music score called 'Postcard from Singapore Suite of Singaporean Folk Songs' There are 3 parts in the score. Every of them has a title. #1:Gelang Sipuka Gelang. #2:Di-Tanjung Katong. 3#Lenggang Kangkung & Munnaeru Vaalibaa. If you can translate them for me It ll help me a lot :DDD Thanks very much. If you cant its okay :D Good luck on your pastries
Hi Anonymous, thanks for your lovely comments. I am so sorry I am not able to translate those folk songs for you. I can only sing the songs in their original language. The first two titles are Malay songs while the third one is in Tamil. I checked my kids music books, (we learn all these folk songs in Primary school) there are no translated versions, all are in their original language.
Hi HHB,
As usual, love all the bakes you always have and looking forward to seeing more wonderful stuffs from you this coming year! =)
Hope to see more yummy bakes and recipes! you're really patient and i really pei fu how you manage to come up with so many yummy food in the midst of everything else you have to do! continue to jia you this year! =D
lastly, thanks for ALL the assistance and advices and help you gave me last year regarding all sorts of questions i had!
regards,
youfei
Hi HHB
First of all, Happy Ren Ri! Today is DA NIAN CHU QI! Hehe...
Your cookies look really nice and can be sold outside, unlike mine which I always think lack the asthetic part, cos I d\think I don't have enough patience to handle all my bakes nicely. :)
Wouldlike to ask how did you wrap the pineapple tarts (closed version) so nicely? My colleague told me before when she wrapped mooncakes, like what you said, she just need to turn the dough. For me, I always flatten it ad wrap it. But result wasn't that good.
What you mean by turning the dough??
Hi,
Love the assorted cookies that you have made for the cny....rally lot of effort put in it.....labour of love...kekeke
Btw, how did you menage to get such a nice shape for the peanut cookies...i did try using the coke bot cap but dont turn out that pretty as yours..do you mind to tell me how did you do it?
Regards
Irene
Hi YouFei, thanks for all your encouraging words :) Nah, I have not given you any assistance of any sort, I am just too glad to have someone like you to share the same hobby ;D
Hi Aimei, yes, you will need to have a little bit of patience to make sure the cookies are all about the same size, so that they will bake evenly. Whenever I am making my bakes, I will think of the person(s) who will be enjoying my bakes, this will force me to put in that extra effort to make sure they look appealing and appetising so that my kids will want to eat my bakes ;)
Yes it is just like wrapping the fillings for mooncake. You need to turn the cookie dough between your fingers as you wrap, and somehow, the dough will be able to wrap around the filling nicely. You can take a look at this video here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eklVKLwTB5U&feature=related)
Hi Irene, I used my measuring spoon, which works just like the coke bottle cap. The only difference I see is that my measuring spoon doesn't have any 'groves' at the side, but I am not sure whether this is the cause of the problem you had. The other thing is, do pack in the dough tightly, press it down hard to fill up the cap before removing it. Hope this helps :)
yummy bakes ,tnank you iwill try it tomorrw
Hi, happened upon your blog, and thrilled with your CNY cookies. I wonder if you will share a Kueh Lapis recipe?
I've tried with the following results
1) not very cooked and oily
2) very very dry although I used Golden Churn butter, which I informed is the "creamiest"
I notice that the batter was very thick and didn't spread well, how do I make this more liquidy?
Thanks
All of the biscuits look amazing! You have done a stellar job!
Hi Not very good baker, I am sorry I'm of no help here as I have not tried baking Kueh Lapis.
Hi HHB!
you're too modest! =p but yep! i'm really glad i found someone who shares the same passion =D and of course, your generosity in sharing your recipes. =))
btw, don't mind if i evasdrop on a conversation here.
to Not very good baker:
I have tried out kueh lapis and with really good results. not as oily as outside but definitely taste like kueh lapis
I actually preheat the tin for the first layer to make the batter "less thick". For subsequent layers, the heat from the previous layers should be hot enough to "melt" the batter a little.
hope it helps! Btw, I posted the recipe i used for my kueh lapis on my blog.
mine uses MANY egg yolks. ive seen many others with lesser egg yolks but havent tried them, so cant comment which is better. hope that helps!
i'm sorry HHB to "chap" in the conversation. hope you don't mind! =X
regards,
youfei
woah! i am overseas for cny and really glad to see the usual cny bakes :D GOOD JOB! i should try the peanut cookies when im back home with my oven!
thanks for the post! :D
Ive never seen a chinese gingerbread man :)
Very nice blog u have put up!
This cookies are so great!! Oh, my! The puppy looks so cute!! Your blog is awesome! I linked it at my blog! I hope you don't mind.
By the way, I tried to learn chinese! I think this is a great language! I didn't learn a lot, but some 漢字 Ｉunderstand.
新年快樂！！
I love your cookies!!!
I am also crazy over cute things.
Mu hubby is complaining over my collection of cookie cutters and cake moulds.
Hope to find more ideas so that me & my kids have more baking projects to do. :)
Hi HHB
Do you happen to have the kueh Bangkit recipe readily?
Hi agapejen, I am afraid I won't be able to share my recipe as I have yet to get it right! You can try out recipes posted by other bloggers.
Very good hand writing on the cookies! And yes I agree on the like to bake more than eat:)
May I know which category should I look at to see your list of chiffon?
Hi Mae Cheah, I have listed them under the Cake category.
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