Chocolate Brownie Cookie

The baking spirit is now on!
Our another very ugly but yummy creation :D

 

Ingredients for Chocolate Brownie Cookies

• 1 cup (180g) dark chocolate chips
• 5 tablespoons (75g) butter, softened
• 1 2/3 cups (200g) plain all purpose (plain) flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)
• 1/2 cup (75g) confectioners' (icing) sugar

Method for Chocolate Brownie Cookies

1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler over barely simmering water or in a microwave until smooth. Let cool a little.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until pale and thick, 3-4minutes.
4. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the chocolate mixture and vanilla, followed by the flour mixture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Butter a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
6. Put the confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Shape the dough into 20cents balls and roll in the confectioners' sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets and press down lightly with your hand to flatten (we did not press them lightly as we do not like the outcome of it, so we left them on the sheets in the form of a ball).
7. Bake for 9minutes, until just set around the edges. Rotate the sheets halfway through for even baking.
8. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets until they harden a little, 2-3minutes. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.

Recipe adapted from book: Carla Barbi - Cookies Bars & Brownies

Total time spent preparing + baking + cleaning up: 3 hours
(the 1hour in the middle while waiting for the dough to set in refrigerator,  we baked banana muffins)

Made 1 large container of cookies :)

Mini Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffin

It's been almost a year since we last update! *guilty face*
Yes yes, we're still baking from time to time, just not as frequent and adventurous like how we used to be. We're still learning and level up-ing bit by bit~

Introducing our first time doughnut making, they really look so cute!
Was very amazed with our impromptu-ness nowadays for baking, the making do with whatever we have is really nice! For this recipe we had a step by step photo blog to follow and we really appreciated the effort of the owner for shooting such beautiful and clear photos for us to reference.

This is the first time we finally get to a "white", light and fluffy butter + sugar mix. Now we know we always under beat our butter + sugar, thought it's cause angmoh got whiter butter or what, thats why theirs always look so white. hahahaha. So another lesson learnt yea.
It was truly a success, the muffin turns out round and smooth which we didnt expect it to be :)
Good job sisters! Let's continue with our baking journey for the rest of this year and the many more years to come k!

Ingredients for Doughnut Muffin

• 12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups (13.5 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk

Ingredients for Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Crust

• 12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Method for Doughnut Muffin

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. 
2. Beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until soft, fluffy and lighter in color. 
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just mixed in. 
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
5. Beat a fourth of the dry ingredients into the batter. 
6. Then beat in a third of the milk mixture. 
7. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and batter is smooth, but be careful not to overmix. 
8. Fill muffin tins with 1.5 tablespoons of batter (about 3/4ths full). 
9. Bake at 175C for 10-12 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Method for Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Crust

1. Melt the butter until it starts to bubble and then foam. 
2. When it starts to foam, whisk constantly for 1-2 minutes until it turns brown and you see brown flecks at the bottom of the pan. 
3. Immediately remove from heat and pour into a bowl for dipping. 
4. Combine the sugar and cinnamon. 
5. When the muffins are just cool enough to handle, remove and dip them on all sides into the melted butter then roll in the cinnamon sugar.
   
   Recipe adapted from: Kevin & Amanda's Recipes

Total time spent preparing + baking + cleaning up: 4 hours

Made 12 mini doughnut muffins by using only half amount of the recipe.

Cranberry Bliss Cookies

Hohoho! Merry Christmas to all! Christmas is here and we definitely did not forget to do our Christmas baking! We specially chose a recipe for this festive season and this was what we picked!

Ingredients for Cookies

• 3 cups flour (375g)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar (250g)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (200g)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup white chocolate chips (175g)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (125g)

Ingredients for Frosting

• 1 (8 oz.) bar cream cheese, room temperature (225g) 
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted in the microwave or double-boiler (87.5g)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar (250g)

Ingredients for Topping

• 1 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped (125g)
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips, melted in the microwave or double-boiler
  (we used much more than that cause Big Sis was really generous with her chocolate topping :P)

Method for Cookies

1. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt until well-blended. Set aside.
2. Using an an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Add in vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
4. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating in between to incorporate.
5. Reduce speed to low and slowly add in dry ingredients.
6. Increase the speed to medium, and continue beating until well-combined.
7. Fold in the white chocolate chips and cranberries, and mix until just-combined. (Do not overmix.)
8. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. 
9. Place dough by rounded tablespoon-fulls onto a baking sheet that has been prepared with parchment paper, at least 2.5-inches apart.
10. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges.
11. Remove pan, and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack until cool.
12. Repeat with remaining dough until all cookies are baked.

Method for Frosting

*Wait until cookies reach room temperature before adding frosting and toppings.

1. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the cream cheese and melted white chocolate until combined. (**Be sure that your cream cheese REALLY is at room temperature before adding the white chocolate. Otherwise the chocolate could seize up.) 
2. Add in the vanilla and mix until combined. 
3. Reduce speed to low and add the powdered sugar. Mix until incorporated. 
4. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat once more for 1 minute on medium speed until the frosting is smooth. (You can add more powdered sugar for a thicker frosting.)
5. Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies. Then immediately sprinkle the frosted cookies with the chopped dried cranberries. 
6. Use a fork to drizzle on the frosting, swishing it back and forth over the cookies.
   
   Recipe adapted from: gimme some oven

The cookies are a success! Our cookies were not really the same as the pictures from the adapted recipe though, most probably cause of the brown sugar. Despite that, the cookies are really tasty! The recipe actually makes a lot of cookies and it took us hours to finish the whole baking process cause we could only bake three at a time (the cookies can really expand!), but we are very happy with them! (:

Mint Chocolate Cookies

It's been a loooooooooong time since the last time this place is being updated. Sorry for neglecting here ): The past few baking sessions had all been on mooncakes, mooncakes, mooncakes, and still, mooncakes. But! The last weekend, we tried something new! Oink had been asking for the recipe of the mint cookies that girl guides sell, and so lil' sis started looking for the recipes and we've decided to try this!

Ingredients for the cookies

• 8 ounces butter (~227g)
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (~118g)
• 1 cup powdered sugar (~125g)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour(~187.5g)

Ingredients for peppermint chocolate coating

•  10 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate (~283g)
•  1 ½ teaspoon peppermint extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (~175°C)
2. Cream butter until light and fluffy, then add the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Stir in the salt, vanilla and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter resembles a thick frosting. Add the flour and mix just until the flour is combined, making sure to not over mix.
3. Form dough into a ball. Knead a few times to bring together, then flatten into a disk between half an inch and one inch thick, cover in plastic wrap then place in freezer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove dough from the freezer and roll it out really thin on a floured surface, about 1/8-inch. Cut cookies using 1 1/2-inch cutter.
5. *Place cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. While the cookies bake, make the peppermint coating. Chop the baking chocolate into very small, thin pieces. Place in a glass measuring cup or similar container and microwave in short 15-20 second bursts. Stir in the peppermint extract.
6. **Gently drop the cookies, one at a time, into the coating. Turn to coat entirely, then lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan until the extra coating drips off. Place on a parchment or plastic wrap-lined baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set.
   
   *We used a double boiler to melt the chocolate instead of microwaving it.
   **The chocolate that we used for the coating isn't able to melt to a state such that it will drip. Hence, instead of dropping the cookies into the chocolate to coat it completely, we spread the chocolate on top of the cookies.
   
   Recipe adapted from: The view from Great Island

The cookies were a huge success!  We used lesser chocolate for the coating when we first baked it (cause lil' sis took the wrong measurement), and the taste (as well as smell) of the peppermint was overpowering. The next day, we coated another layer of chocolate (without the peppermint essence) and the taste was perfect. This is definitely going to be something that we will always want to make (like the banana muffins haha!)!

Traditional Mooncake

<Photos will be uploaded soon>


Traditional Mooncakes are harder to make not as simple as snowskin. There are more procedures to follow. Baking time in oven is very important.

Traditional Mooncake 

Ingredients for Skin

Sift together into a big mixing bowl:-

• 300g Bun Flour or Hong Kong Flour
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp Salt

Mix together and combine well:- 

• 210g Mooncake Sugar Syrup
• 60g Oil
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 1 tsp Alkali Water

1. Sieve the flour in a mixing bowl
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture
3. Pour in sugar syrup mixture and mix well till it forms a dough using a spatula
4. Cover the mixing bowl with a wet towel and rest the dough for 30 to 45 minutes

Ingredients for Eggwash

• 1 Egg Yolk
• 5g Mooncake sugar syrup
• 1tsp Hotwater 

Mix together without beatin and sieve it to get a smooth glaze

Method

1. Knead the rested skin dough till it firms up
2. Flatten skin dough on palm of your han
3. Put the ball of paste onto the flattened dough and enclose paste by gently pressing edges until is sealed
4. Dust the filled dough with flour, put into lightly floured mooncake mold and press in gently
5. Knock or piston out the molded mooncake depending on the mould used
6. Place on baking tray lined with baking paper
7. Bake in pre-heated oven at 175°C to 180°C for 10 mins till light brown
8. While baking, prepare the eggwash
9. Remove from the oven, rest for 10mins and brush the top with eggwash
10. Return to bake at 175°C to 180°C for 10 mins till golden brown
11. Leave mooncake to cool completely and store in air tight containers. 
12. Wait for 1 ~ 3 days for the mooncakes to 回油 (for the skin to soften) before serving.

Oven Temperature: 175°C to 180°C
Time to Bake: bake 10mins till light brown, rest 10mins then apply egg wash, then bake 10mins till golden brown

Recipe adapted from: Fatboo