Cheddar Petals

I took cheddar to the next level. I was just using it on pizzas, pastas and quiches. I wanted cheddar cheese as a cookie.

I was doing my cheddar research when I found this recipe which is healthy and especially good for kids snacks as it contains a lot of calcium.

Baby Hadya is going to snack on these in the future. :)

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I like this recipe because it doesn't contain any salt - the grated cheddar cheese is already salty in itself, and the baked cheese flakes gives the biscuits a nice crunch. I chose my lovely petal molds.

Ingredients
200 gm butter
1 egg
325 gm of flour (sifted)
40 gm of corn flour (sifted)
150 gm of grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1. Beat butter and egg in a mixer till creamy, then add in the vanilla essence, the flour and the cornflour. Mix well.

2. Add in the grated cheese and continue mixing till all are evenly mixed.

3. Roll out the dough and press petal molds and place it onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

4. Prepare an egg wash of 1 egg+1/4 tsp yellow colouring. Coat all the strips with the egg wash. (You can omit the yellow colouring, but the petals will look a little pale.)

5. Grate more cheddar cheese and sprinkle over the strips.

6. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 deg Celsius for 18-20 minutes.


The cheese biscuit dough can actually be made into any shapes according to the fancy of the baker. It is recommended using a cookie cutter to shape it. I suppose this is one recipe that can be versatile for many occasions, and is certainly a very kid-friendly project to do. The dough is malleable enough for smaller hands to get involved without creating too much of a mess. And the result is a biscuit packed with calci-yum for those growing bones.

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Italian Cheese Cookies

I love butter. I just prefer using lots of butter on special occasions or on any occasion!

The second ingredient would be cheese and when I started searching for something cheesy, I found this great recipe at Kayotic that could cure my buttery, savoury palette.

Something new right?

Tasty, savory biscuits with lots of cheese, rosemary and sun-dried tomatoes on which I omitted out the sun dried tomatoes as the ones we have here is Singapore lacks freshness. I bought it once at Phoon huat at it was squashed and smelly!

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I always try to keep the ingredients I use simple – things most people have stored in their kitchen cabinets or can easily buy at our local supermarket. I personally prefer using fresh herbs, but this also works very well with dried rosemary! You can choose between grating your own Parmesan or using pre-grated. I always go for the easy way out as time is of an essence. I do what is the most practical for me,

Italian Cheese Cookies
by Kayotic

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup Parmesan, grated (100 gr)
120 grams unsalted, cold butter, diced
Fresh Rosemary, minced or dried
Dash cayenne
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

This all there is to it.

Using a hand mixer or your hands, as well. Combine flour, cheese, butter, rosemary (I roughly used 1 sprig) cayenne and salt.

Mix until the dough forms a ball, take it out of the food processor and place it on your kitchen counter or cutting board.

Add the minced sun-dried tomatoes or in my case, no need and knead until it’s a supple dough. Sprinkle sugar if you like where in this case I wanted the sides with a little sweet crunch. Shape the dough into a log and place it on top of a piece of foil or wax paper. Wrap tightly.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Preheat your oven to 400F (200c). Use a really sharp knife and slice the dough in fairly thin slices. Don’t be fussy about it -they’re home made cookies and there’s simply no need for them to be absolutely, perfectly round! Part of their charm is the imperfection and the huge amounts of love you put into making them!

Bake the cookies for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Let them cool on the rack



And enjoy your not normal tea time with these savouries.

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Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Baby Hadya's shower is this weekend together with hubby's 30th birthday. We have invited about 100 people to celebrate this event. This time I've decided to make our own party favor and what could be more delicious that a home made cupcake.

In order to manage my time and coordinate the cupcake making, I decided to make the buttercream first today.

I've used this buttercream so many times that it get better always. I can say that this is quite a fool-proof recipe!

Here is the picture of the last cupcake I made quite sometime ago.

The Swiss Meringue Buttercream is smooth, silky and not overly sweet. It pairs beautifully with the dark chocolate. The best part of this particular buttercream is that it isn’t grainy, pipes beautifully, and holds up well even in warm weather.

SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM
(from Martha Stewart’s, makes about 5 cups or about 20 - 40 cupcakes depending on your size and design)

5 large egg whites

1 cup plus 2 Tblsp sugar

pinch of salt

1 pound ( 4 sticks = to 453.6grams) unsalted butter, cut squares, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ( since pure vanilla extract has 35% alcohol, I switch this to 1 vanilla bean )

Egg whites seperated. I usually keep the yolks in the refrigerator and make pastry cream later.

the best exact 2 sticks of butter brands is SCS or Anchor brand.

Slightly costly but i just love to see the texture of it.

*You could probably get away with only 3 sticks of butter if you wanted to.  The finished product is very* buttery, so I’ve been meaning to give it a shot with a little less butter and see if it turns out okay.

This recipe makes a large batch and It could easily be halved.

Directions:

Whisk sugar and egg whites together in a double boiler until the temperature reaches 160 degrees F and sugar is dissolved.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, whip until mixture is cooled and soft, glossy peaks form, about 10 minutes. 

 Add butter a few pieces at a time until incorporated.   Don’t panic if mixture appears curdled.  Continue beating until butter is incorporated and frosting is fluffy and smooth.  It can take 8-12 minutes.  Add vanilla and beat until incorporated.

To limit air bubbles, switch to paddle attachment and beat at the very lowest speed for 5 minutes.

(optional) To tint buttercream, reserve some for toning down the color, if necessary. Add gel-paste food color, a drop at a time (or use the toothpick or skewer to add food color a dab at a time) to the remaining buttercream. You can use a single shade of food color or experiment by mixing two or more. Blend after each addition with the mixer (use the paddle attachment) or a flexible spatula, until desired shade is achieved. Avoid adding too much food color too son, as the hue with intensify with continued stirring; if necessary, you can tone down the shade by mixing in some reserved untinted buttercream.

These are ready for storage.

Storage: After decorating with frosting store cake/cupcakes at room temperature.  To store for future use, place in an airtight container and store in the fridge.  When ready to use, bring to room temperature and beat until light and fluffy.

This will be used on Saturday.

I will be back soon with the cupcakes recipe.

Till Saturday then..

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Basic Cookie Recipe - Rachel Allen

Any home maker would know how to bake a cookie if it was easy. And i found a way that is simple and it works all the time. You can even mix and match your varieties of taste. These can be ready in 1 hr.

I have made so many types of cookies just by using 1 recipe alone. Here it is

Basic Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

225 grams ( 8 oz ) - Unsalted butter - softened

(remember that the better the butter, the tastier the cookie)

100 grams ( 4oz ) - Caster Sugar

275 grams ( 10 oz ) - Plain flour

pinch of ground spices / 1 tsp of grated lemon zest ( preferred )

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 170 degress before you start.

Cream butter in a large bowl till soft or till pale yellow.

Add sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Sift in the flour, add lemon zest and bring the mixture together to form a dough.

Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut size balls and place them slightly apart in a baking tray.

Flatten them slightly with the back of a damp fork ( this is totally optional - you can create the cookie in any shape you want but if you want to use a cookie cutter, refrigerate the dough for 15 mins first ) 

Bake for 13 - 15 mins.

Variations:

Double Chocolate Chip

Use 250 grams plain flour and add 50 grams sifter cocoa powder to the flour. Bring the dough together and mix in 125 grams of dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips.

White Chocolate and Dried cranberry Cookie

Add 50 grams of chopped cranberries to the flour. When the ccokies are baked and cooled, dip or drizzle the tops with 50 grams of melted white chocolate and allow it to set.

Cornflake Crunch

Add 50 grams of crushed cornflakes to the flour and 50 grams of chocolate chip pressed on top of the cookie dough.

I call these the Coin Chip cookies. These have mini chocolate chips inside. I made it in rounds and flattened it.

I love cornflake and with this ingredient inside, it gives the cookie and additional crunch which I love!

Cranberry Cookies. I added dried cranberry and omit white chocloate. This is my favourite!

This one had crushed cornflakes in it and I dip the cookie with chocolate rice before i bake.

This one has cornflakes and chocolate chip in it too but I shape it differently.

The variations can be endless of you just use your creativity. This is a recipe I will use all the time. And now that I share it, I hope you all like it as much as I do.

P.S: Good butter makes delicious cookies!

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Hazelnut Balls

I have been super backdated. I just didnt realize that time had flew so fast. I had so many unwritten post ever since I got pregnant. And well , I gave birth to the most cutest girl I could have imagine (at least for me!)

All the missed unwritten posts were worth it!

That's her! Hadya is her name.

Ok back to the post, I'm going to give the easiest recipe for this Hazelnut Ball. The cheaper version of this recipe is Almond London on which I prefer hazelnut to almond as it taste so much better. 

Hazelnut Balls

( Hazelnut covered with cookie dough and covered with chocolate coverture )

Ingredients:

250 grams - Salted butter ( softened )

100 grams - ground hazelnut

250 grams - Hong Kong flour

70 grams - icing sugar

50 grams - Rice flour

1 teaspoon - Vanilla essence

Roasted hazelnuts for the fillings.

Tulip brand bar of chocolate ( to be double boil )

Chocolate rice or colourful sprinkles of your choice for decoration

Directions:

Beat butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence and grounded hazelnut evenly till creamy.

Fold in the Hong Kong flour and rice flour till well mix.

Roll dough in balls & stuffed in the roasted hazelnut in each ball.

Bake in mediun heat ( about 150 degrees ) for 20 minutes or till slight brown.

Place all cookies aside and cool.

Later, dip in these cookies on at a time in the melted chocolate and place them in the mini paper cups.

Sprinkle chocolate rice and let the cookies set for about 15 mins.

Store these cookies in airtight container and you can keep these for up to 2 weeks!

Kids love these!!

Enjoy..

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