Walnut Chocolate Chips Cookies

I didn’t manage to bake a lot due to my hectic work life prior to Chinese New Year. Mum baked most the cookies at home and I’m still in the midst of perfecting my baking skills.
Here’s one of my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe and I must insist that you use good quality chocolate brand like Hershey or Van Houten. There’s no compromise to make the best chocolate chip cookies by substituting with low grade chocolate. You will know it once you have tasted it.

INGREDIENTS
125g butter, melted at room temperature
100g brown sugar
175g biscuit flour or medium protein flour
½ tsp baking soda
130 g crushed walnut, toasted
80g semi-sweet chocolate chip
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence

METHOD
1. Mix the flour and baking soda evenly in a medium bowl. You may sift the flour if you want a finer texture biscuits.
2. Beat the butter and sugar using a hand electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
3. Add in the vanilla essence and break the egg into the batter. Mix with low speed until combined.
4. Fold in flour slowly until it becomes soft look-alike dough.
5. Mix the walnuts and chocolate chips into the dough evenly.
6. Spoon the dough one inch apart onto baking tray lined with parchment or baking paper.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 190 Celcius for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Snow White Almond Cookies

I love cookies but baking them are not as easy as I think, especially cut-out cookies. Measuring and mixing is fine with me but the challenging part is cutting out and removing each and every one single cookie from the rolled-out dough. That's why home-made cookies can be so expensive and we often lament that it's just and easy task. Not so until you have actually experienced it yourself. The recipe of this cookie is simple but as I mentioned, it's the rolling and cutting that will make you sweat if you bake in bulks. Whatca waiting for, let's get busy baking now.

INGREDIENTS
130g shortening
70g icing sugar
120g plain flour
80g corn flour
100g almond nibs (toasted)

METHOD
1. Using a electric hand-mixer, beat the shortening and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy.
2. Add in plain flour and corn flour and mix well using a spatula or your hands.
3. Finally add in the toasted almond nibs and combine until integrated.
4. Cut out cookies into desired shapes.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 Celsius for 20 minutes.Please be careful as the cookies can be very hot once it's out from the oven.
6. Cool the cookies and store well.

Tips: You may substitute almond nibs with almond flakes or chop your own almonds into bits and pieces.
Shortening can be really oily and messy, so wear disposable thin plastic gloves to avoid heavy washing later.

Almond Goldflakes

Wow, its really been a quite a while putting my baking adventure aside due to my busy work lately. Been feeling guilty since I didn't bake anything for Christmas. Nonetheless, in preparation for the coming Chinese New Year (CNY) festive seasons, I need to start baking my very own cookies. Mum and myself decided not to buy any cookies and bake our very own. Here's my first bake CNY cookies and its a really simple recipe. Hope you like the colors and crunchiness.

INGREDIENTS

250g corn flakes

50g rice bubbles

100g almond silvers (toasted)

125g butter

3 tsp maple syrup / honey 

50g granulated sugar 

METHOD

1. Mix all the dry ingredients (corn flakes, rice bubbles and almond silvers) in a big mixing bowl.

2. Melt the butter and sugar over low heat. Do not stir the mixture but move the pot slowly because stirring the sugar will clog the mixture and bubbles will form.
3. Once the sugar is melted, turn off heat and mix in the maple syrup. 
4. Pour butter mixture over the dry ingredients mixture and mix well.

5. Use a spoon to tug in the cornflakes into mini cups.
6. Bake at 160 Celsius for 10mins (watch closely to avoid burning).

7. Store in air-tight container and keep for maximum 3 weeks.

Thorny Dual Chip Cookies - It Hurts !

Its gonna hurt your waistline without you feeling any pain haha. This type of cookies are the dough type which are slightly thicker as compared to those thin and crispy type. The cookies still yield darker color than I expected, must be due to the cheaper cocoa powder brand that I bought. One key ingredient that can really affect the smell and taste is really the type of cocoa powder being used  (If can, try to use Van Houten or Hershey). And you need to bite to see the hidden treasures inside. 

INGREDIENTS

110g butter

200g granulated sugar

150g cake flour

30g cocoa powder

100g coffee chips

50g grated Cadbury milk chocolate

100g white chocolate chips

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

Almond nibs for coating

METHOD

1. Using a whisk, mix the cake flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.

2. In a big mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a hand electric mixer.

3. Add in the vanilla essence and eggs. Mix them until combined.

4. Now, add in the flour mixture and mix again. The result is a sticky dough-like texture.

5. Stir in the coffee and white chocolate chips and grated chocolate.

6. Roll the dough into small balls and coat them in almond nibs before arranging the cookies in a lined baking pan. Make sure the almond nibs are slightly pressed into the dough, else they will drop off later.

7. Bake in a preheated 180 Celcius oven for 10 minutes.

8. Cool the cookies before storing.

Just nice with golden brown toasted almond

Wow, look at those chips!

I've baked some drop chocolate chips cookies (thin and crispy type) before but I've yet to start blogging at that point of time. Nonetheless, I will definitely baking them again for sharing.

Sugar Butter Cookies

Butter! Its either you love it or hate it for some reasons. The great things about this butter cookie recipe are easy to made and the cookies taste sweet, buttery, extremely crumbly, light and airy. A good choice for gifts or snacks during TV.

INGREDIENTS

400g cake flour

200g salted butter at room temperature

150g brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg white, mix with 2 tsp water

1/4 tsp baking powder

Some castor sugar for sprinkling

METHOD

1. Sift the cake flour and baking powder into a bowl, mix well and set aside.

2. In a big mixing bowl, mix the butter and sugar until well combined. You can either use a electric hand mixer or a whisk to do this. If you are using whisk, just make sure that the butter is melted and soft completely. I use whisk to avoid messy cleaning later.

3. In a small bowl, crack the egg and add in the vanilla essence. Stir well and pour into the butter-sugar mixture earlier.

4. Add the flour half at a time into the liquid mixture and mix lightly until it forms a mass. Using your hands, knead the dough until it become smooth.

5. Divide the dough into 4 portions and chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes for easier cutting.

6. While waiting for the dough, lay two pans with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180 Celcius.

7. Now, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 5mm thickness. Using your desired cookie cutter, cut out the cookie and place it onto the lined baking pan earlier. Repeat with the rest of the dough until you have all the cookies cut out.  I made about 120 cookies using my teddy bear shape cookie cutter ;-)

8. Brush the top of the cookies with the egg white and sprinkle with some sugar.

9. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

10. Cool the cookies on a wire rack and store in an air-tight container.

Bite-Size Oaty Scones

This is really a simple and fuss free recipe with minimum ingredients required. I bake this with mum over the weekend with less than an hour as time is running late for me to rush back to KL. These bite-size scones are so convenient and I can take a quick bite while on my way to work.

INGREDIENTS

180g self raising flour

50g oats

50g butter, diced

50g granulated sugar

50ml whipping cream or milk

50g dried cranberries

1 egg, lightly beaten

(The proportions are so easy to remember, right!)

METHOD

1. Combine oats, sugar and flour in a mixing bowl. 

2. In a separate small bowl, combine egg and whipping cream. Now its time for action.

3. Rub the diced butter into the dry ingredients and mix with your hands until well combined. Then add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and add the cranberries.  

4. Work quickly to form a soft dough and do not overmix. If the dough is too sticky, you can add in a little more flour.

5. Using your fingers, shape the dough into bite-size scones on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Serve and enjoy while its warm. If you can't finish them, store it in a air-tight containers for up to a week but I bet it's gone within days ;-)

Oops before I forget, this recipe is adapted from Amy Beh's recipe.

Almost-Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Famous Amos cookies has been a favourite among cookie lovers, who doesn't? But the price to pay for it can be steep, especially if you have a big appetite for cookies. That's why, you will only get free smells from Famous Amos outlets and no free samples. I've been trying to get their recipe from the net, if there's any leak but the closest one that I can get is from another blogger,  Ampin, without mentioning which cookie type it is in the recipe. Nonetheless, I guess it's the taste that matters the most. I bumped into another one self-proclaimed recipe  from Fad Mom, an easier version and here's the recipe. I shall reserved Ampin recipe for now.

INGREDIENTS
Part A

150gm unsalted butter
100gm granulated sugar
50gm brown sugar

1 medium egg - an extra yolk makes it richer

1 tsp vanilla essence 

Part B

250gm plain flour

20gm corn flour

1 tsp baking soda

30 gm cocoa powder

Part C

100gm toasted walnuts (coarsely chopped)
80gm chocolate chips

METHOD

1. Sift part B ingredients in a bowl, mix well and keep aside.
2. Cream butter with both sugar until light and fluffy. You will get a pale brownish color due to the brown sugar. If you're using a hand-mixer like I do, try to use a big bowl.

 3. Add egg and vanilla essence. Beat on medium speed until well mixed.
4. Using the lowest speed of the mixer, mix in the flour mixture until fully incorporate. I find my hands are better than the mixer for this step though.
5. Finally, add in the chopped nuts and chocolate chips. You may replace walnuts with any other type of nuts of your preference (pecans, macadamias, almond, cashew, etc). Combine well and you will get a dough structure.

6. Scoop the dough using a spoon or fingers and shape them into bite-size onto your baking pan, that has been lined with baking paper.
7. Bake the cookies in a pre-heated oven at 180 Celcius for about 20mins. You may notice some cracks on the cookies, which is perfectly normal.

8. Cool cookies on wire rack and enjoy!
 

TIPS

Besides good chocolate chips, try to use quality cocoa powder as the results may varies. My cookies are a bit dark as compared to Fad Mum. Probably, I should have use dutch-processed cocoa powder instead.