Kaya Butter Cookies

 

I baked a small portion of butter cookies without cracking an egg. With the addition of kaya, a coconut and egg jam, I skipped the egg and coconut ingredients, yet still can taste a hint of these two ingredients. Yes, a short cut I would consider 😉

The cookie has a light and melt-in-your mouth texture, and not-too-sweet in taste 😋

Being my first try of piped cookies, you can see irregularities and inconsistency among all the cookies. Hope I can do better next round 😀

Update: 23 February 2021

I used Wilton nozzle 1F to bake another batch of kaya cookies with a floral design 🌸😍

Yield: about 25 to 30 cookies

Dough weight: 173g

Ingredients

50g unsalted butter, softened

20g icing sugar

1g low-sodium salt/salt

25g less-sugar kaya

65g top flour/cake flour

15g potato starch

Directions

1. Mix top flour and potato starch in a small mixing bowl.

Stir the flours with a whisk to loosen them. Set aside.

2. Cream softened butter with icing sugar and salt till light and fluffy.

3. Blend in the kaya to the batter.

4. Mix in the loosened flour mixture from Step 1.

Use a silicone spatula to gather the dough into a ball.

5. Transfer the cookie dough to a piping bag (600ml size) fitted with a Wilton 1E nozzle, or any preferred cookie nozzle.

You can also freeze the cookie dough and cut it into slices. Details at the end of this recipe😊

Pipe the cookie dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Allow good spacing between the cookie dough.

Video of my unprofessional piping 😉

6. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven at 180℃ for about 10 to 12 minutes, or till the cookie base and edge became golden. Turn off the oven, and let the cookies stay in the oven for about 2 to 3 minutes to dry up the cookies.

7. Let the cookies cool down before enjoying 😋

Keep the unconsumed cookies in an air-tight container lined with a piece of paper kitchen towel or tissue paper 🍪

Cut cookies

You may also wrap the cookie dough in cling wrap and shape into a block. Freeze the cookie dough for about 1hour or till hardened. Cut the cookie dough into thin slices and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 180℃ for 10 to 12 minutes, or till golden. Let the cookie rest in the warm oven for about 3 minutes. Cool to enjoy 😋

Moo Moo German Butter Cookie

 

It's quite a common practice for home-bakers to bake cow or bull design butter cookies to usher the Lunar Year of Ox (2021). I joined the fun after seeing so many cute and wonderful cow or bull design butter cookies shared by my FB and IG friends. However, this is the most time consuming design I have done to date - just 17 cookies took me more than two hours to handle. Owing to my inconsistency, all the cookies have different expressions 😉

Yield: 17 x 3⌀cm cookies

Ingredients

50g unsalted butter, softened

20g icing sugar

a little salt

48g Plain flour plus/plain flour

38g potato starch

4g milk powder

some bamboo charcoal powder

some cocoa powder

red food dye

some black sesame seeds as eyes

Directions

1. Mix plain flour plus, potato starch, milk powder in a small bowl. Sieve before use.

2. Cream softened butter, icing sugar and salt in a mixing bowl till light and fluffy. Fold in the sieved flour mixture from Step 1. Combine till the mixture becomes a smooth dough.

3. You'll get about 159g of original dough.

Take about 29g of the original dough to mix with a little bamboo charcoal powder to become the black dough.

Take about 10g of original dough to mix with a little red food dye to become the pink dough.

Take about 3g of original dough to mix with a little cocoa powder to become the brown dough.

Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes before shaping.

4. Transfer the remaining original dough to a small sandwich bag. Roll into a flat dough.

Break the black dough in a small bowl into small crumbs using a fork.

Cut the plastic bag to expose the original dough. Spread about 80% of the black dough crumb over the top of the original dough.  Keep the remaining 20% black dough for shaping the ears later.

Cover the dough with the plastic sheet, and roll flat the black dough crumb to form patched pattern over the original dough.

 

Without removing the plastic sheet, use the back of a knife to divide the flat dough into 18 portions.

Each portion will have about 10 to 11g in weight. Use the 18th dough to make up for any "under-weight" dough portions. Roll the pattern dough into balls.

5. Divide the pink dough into 17 portions. Shape into oval shape and paste to the pattern dough ball. Poke two holes to resemble the nostrils.

6. Stick two black sesame seeds above the pink dough to become the eyes. 

7. Divide the brown dough into 17 portions. Shape into a pair of horns and add to the top of the shaped dough ball.

8. Use the remaining black dough to shape and add a pair of ears to the shaped dough. 

9. Arrange the shaped dough over a non-stick baking sheet or parchment paper.

Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven at 150℃ for about 18 to 20 minutes. Let the cookies stay in the oven for another 5 minutes to dry them up.

10.Let the cookies cool down over a wire rack. Enjoy these melt-in-your-mouth cookies slowly as they are painstakingly made 😍😜

If there are still leftover cookies, keep them in an air-tight container 🎁

Cucumber & Tomato Water Pickle

 

A light pickle which I like to prepare before heading out to buy our Hainanese Chicken Rice meal. It has milder flavour in terms of saltiness, sweetness and sourness as compare to the pickle done without added water. The sesame oil, garlic and coriander leaves lent a great flavour to the entire bottle of cucumber and tomatoes pickle. The ice cubes also helped to give the vegetables a crunchy texture. Aren't you attracted to the wonderful colours of this jar of pickle? 😍

Servings: 3 to 4 persons 

Ingredients

140g Japanese cucumber

80g cherry tomatoes

3g coriander leaves, cut into short lengths

Marinade

Quantities can be adjusted according to your preference

40g raw sugar

3g low-sodium salt

50g warm water

5g vinegar

20g green lime juice

some MSG, optional

4g garlic, crushed, remove skin and cut into big pieces

30g ice cubes, enough to submerge the ingredients

1/4 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Wash cucumber, tomato and green limes using Fruit & Vegetable Wash. As the green lime will be added to the pickle later, so it's best to clean the skin, too.

2. Slice the Japanese cucumber into thin slices using a peeler. You can cut the cucumber slices into shorter length for easy serving.

3. Cut away the core of the cherry tomato, and use a fork to poke a series of holes to the skin.

4. Dissolve raw sugar and salt in warm water.

Add some ice cubes to lower the temperature of the syrup in Step 4 before adding vinegar, lime juice,  lime, MSG and crushed garlic. For the green lime, after extracted the juice, leave the fruits in the marinade for added aroma.

5. Rinse a mason jar with hot water, and let it cool down before use. Add all the prepared ingredients and marinade into the mason jar. Top up with ice cubes to submerge all the ingredients. Finally, pour sesame oil in. 

Cover the jar opening with a sheet of food wrap, and seal with a lid. Swirl the mason jar in a few intervals to allow the marinade and the ingredients to mix well. Store the water pickle in the fridge before serving 😋