Snickerdoodles

I have never heard of snickerdoodles until recently. After all, they do not look like Snickers, neither do they look like any form of doodle.

Looking at the recipe, the steps are simple and I'm sure like everyone else, the ingredients are readily available in your pantry.

Recipe adapted from The Big Book of Baking.

Ingredients: (Makes 10)

• 55g butter, softened
• 35g sugar
• 1 small egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
  

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C and line a baking tray with paper and chill it in the fridge.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the mixture.
   
3. Slowly beat in the egg and add in the vanilla until just combined.
4. Wrap the dough in a clingwrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more.
5. In the meantime, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
6. When the dough is ready, divide the dough into 10 and roll them into balls.
7. Roll each ball in the cinnamon mixture to coat and place on prepared baking trays, spaced well apart.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until it is slightly firm to the touch. Do not overbake.
9. Leave to cool on baking tray for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Be sure to check the oven often as snickerdoodles are meant to be chewy, not hard which can result from overbaking.

This recipe should result in a crisp, firm edge with a soft, light filling in the centre. For me it felt like I was munching on a cookie on the outside and eating soft cinnamon doughnut on the inside.

Best of both worlds! :D

Shortbread

I'm sure many of you grew up munching on these delicious butter cookies that we all know as 'butter cookies in the blue tin' simply because Kjeldsens Danish butter cookies sounds too complicated.

Now you can make your very own butter cookies or shortbread right at home.

Recipe adapted from Super Food Ideas.

Ingredients: (Makes 8 slices)

• 125g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup pure icing sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/8 cups plain flour
• 1/8 cup cornflour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy.
2. Sift flour and cornflour over butter mixture. Stir until a soft dough forms. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough until smooth. Do not overwork your dough as it will result it a tough instead of crumbly texture.
3. Wrap dough in a cling wrap and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Remove dough from fridge and press onto a 9" fluted tart pan. Use the a flat surface of a glass to press and flatten the dough evenly.
5. Score 8 triangles in each shortbread round (do not cut through dough).
6. Alternatively, brush the shortbread with eggwhite and sprinkle with sugar.
   
7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until shortbread is light golden and firm to the touch.
   
8. Use a sharp knife to cut through markings and allow to cool down.

Best enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate or coffee. ;)

ABC soup

A healthy, nutritious soup that brings back so much fond memories of childhood. I'm not sure about you but I have this warm fuzzy feeling that reminds me so much of home whenever I drink this soup.

Ingredients: (Serves 5-6)

500g of bones
3 large potatoes, diced*
1 large onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
2.5 litres of water
Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and put in the bones and allow to boil for 5 minutes.
   
2. Pour away this pot of water and give the bones a quick rinse. This step is to remove any scum and is known as par boiling.
3. Bring the 2.5 litres of water to a boil in a large pot over large fire.
   
4. Once the water is boiling, place all the ingredients into the pot.
5. When the water comes to a boil again, reduce to small fire and let the contents simmer for a few hours.
   

The soup is ready to be served.

*Use waxy potatoes such as red rascal and kipfler potatoes instead of floury potatoes such as sebago (brushed) and golden delight potatoes. Waxy pototes are high in moisture and low in starch. They’re ideal for salads or stews as they hold their shape well when boiled or steamed while floury potatoes break up during cooking.

Kuih Dadar

What better way to use up leftover dessicated coconut than to spoil yourself with luscious pandan pancakes with coconut filling. I have a fetish for pandan and gula melaka.

Recipe adapted from Lily Ng.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

i) Crepe:

1/2 cup of all purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 cup of pandan juice
1 tbsp of melted butter
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt

ii) Filling:

A:
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
140g grated palm sugar (Gula Melaka)
1 1/2 tbsp water

B:
140g dessicated coconut
1/2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water

Method:

i) Filling:

1. Boil A to dissolve sugar. Add coconut, lower heat, stirring till almost dry.
2. Add the cornflour mixture and cook for 5 minutes. Allow to cool.
   

ii) Crepe:

1. Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add eggs, melted butter and the pandan juice to the flour mixture and stir.
   
3. Strain mixture into a jug to remove any lumps.
   
4. On low heat, pour mixture into a non-stick pan and swirl the batter around until a thin layer of pancake is obtained.
   
5. Flip the pancake when it is cooked. Do not overcook it as you do not want the pancake to be browned.
   
6. Put 2 tbsp of coconut filling and roll like you would the spring roll.

Pardon the horrible wrapping skills as I am still trying to master it. The recipe should provide extra filling but my housemates and I had no problems devouring it. ;)

Onde-onde

This is an event submission for the Merdeka Open House 2009 held by Babe in the City -KL. The theme for this year is 'My Sweet Malaysia' and selecting a dish to make was particularly difficult as there were so many things I wanted to try out.

I eventually settled with making the good ol' onde-onde that could almost never go wrong. The first time I made onde-onde I was racing against time and resulted in sloppy onde-onde with leaked out palm syrup. Argh!

This time was made with ample amount of time and they turned out perfect.

Looked less green because pandan juice was used instead of pandan paste.

The anticipation.



Palm syrup goodness!

I had a good time licking off palm syrup off the plate. Yum!

Ingredients: (Makes 8)

80g Glutinous Rice Flour
15g Tapioca Flour
Pinch of salt
60ml Pandan Juice
1 tsp Oil
35g Gula Melaka
Dessicated coconut, to coat

Method:

1. Mix together glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour and pandan juice until combined.
2. Pinch out a ping pong sized dough, flatten it and place it in boiling water.
3. When it floats, scoop it out and combine with the rest of the dough.*
4. Knead the dough until everything is incorporated and a smooth dough is formed. If dough is too dry, add in more juice and if dough is too sticky, add in more glutinous rice flour.
5. Divide the dough into 8 ping pong sized balls. Flatten each ball and put a teaspoon of gula melaka into the centre.
6. Enclose the filling and roll it up to form the onde-onde balls.
7. Drop the onde-onde balls into boiling water. The onde-onde balls floating is an indication that it is cooked. Cook for a further 2 minutes to ensure that the sugar is all dissolved and syrupy.
8. Remove the ready onde-onde balls and drop them into a bowl of cold water.*
9. Scoop up the onde-onde balls with a perforated ladle and toss in dessicated coconut to serve.

*This mixture of cooked and raw dough is meant to stabilize the dough. This additional processes will also helps the glutinous rice ball to be more chewier.

We did this twice. Once substituting tapioca flour for corn flour. The one with corn flour resulted in a harder texture while the one with tapioca flour produced a softer, fluffier feel. Now we know, no substitution. ;)

Despite everything that's happening in Malaysia, it will always be the place I call home. Happy 52th, Malaysia!

Ratatouille

Bonjour! Ahhh, inspired by the famous Disney Pixar animation.

How true is that fact that 'Anyone can cook'. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I didn't try my hands out at cooking when I went overseas.

This is an excellent and simple recipe for all vegetable lovers and the health freaks conscious.

Recipe adapted from Delicious.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 3 tomatoes
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 1 yellow capsicum, diced
• 1 eggplant, diced
• 500g tomato puree
  
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tbs torn fresh basil leaves
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat and add the onion.
2. Cook for 2-3 minutes then add the capsicum and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Transfer the onion and capsicum to a plate and set aside.
4. Add the eggplant to the pan and cook over medium heat for 5-6 minutes.
5. Return the onion and capsicum to the pan and stir in tomato puree.
6. Add thyme and tomatoes. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Stir in the basil, thyme and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve warm either on its own or with roast meat or fish.

Carrot cake

What do you do when you bought a kilo of carrots for $0.50 from chinatown? Why, you bake of course!

I remember I said that I will never use the same recipe for carrot cake again as my previous attempt resulted in a dense, heavy, un-carrot-y cake. However, all the reviews received for this cake were positive so I took the chance and made it again.

It turned out well! It was VERY moist (a little too moist perhaps) and smelled very fragrant. Maybe I should cut down the oil next time to reduce moisture. You could see generous amounts of carrots as well. :D

Give it a try and give yourself a Bugs Bunny treat!

Recipe adapted from Fresh Living

Ingredients:

6 small to medium sized carrots, coarsely grated
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
   
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate soda, baking powder and ground cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Mix the brown sugar, oil, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla in another bowl until combined.
4. Add the oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. Fold in the grated carrots.
6. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 1 hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
7. Set aside for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
   

You can opt to top it off with cream cheese frosting but the cake alone was good enough for me.