coconut icebox cookies

I am not particularly fond of coconut, nor do I distain the taste of it. Considering that coconut is such a common ingredient in our diet here (think curry, nasi lemak, laksa, kueh...), I am surprised that it never crossed my mind to bake something with it.

It all started one fine day last month, when I was sitting in the bus on my way to work. For some unknown reasons, I started imagining the taste of coconut tarts from a neighbourhood bakery in my childhood home back in Georgetown, Penang (which is also a UNESCO heritage site by the way). It started mild, then grew stronger and stronger with each day passing. The buttery, rich, sweet + savoury taste together with semi crunchy texture of the coconut tarts invaded my mind in such an explosive manner that I had to do something about it - I baked something with coconut to eat!

Well, you would naturally think that I will make some coconut tarts... No, no, if I do that, I knew I would definitely be disappointed... It would be a futile effort to rival childhood memory. So I took an easier path, I made coconut cookies.

Coconut Icebox Cookies

1/2 c butter (I used 1/4 c butter and 1/4 c oil since I ran out of butter)
1 cup white sugar (I cut to 3/4 c)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coconut extract (I didn't use since I do not have it at home)
1 3/4 c sifted flour (I used cake flour but think all purpose may be better)
3/4 tsp salt (I actually used slightly more)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 c shredded coconut (I toasted it slightly to bring out the fragrance)

1. Cream the butter until smooth; add sugar and continue creaming until light and fluffy. Stir in egg, vanilla and coconut flavouring.
2. Mixed the sifted flour, baking soda and salt. Alternately add the flour mixture and the shredded coconut into the creamed mixture.
3. Form the dough into logs about 2 inches in diameter. Tightly wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight (I did overnight)
4. Preheat oven at 190 degree C. Remove dough from the fridge and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Bake on ungreased sheet until edges are golden, about 10 mins. Cool on wire rack.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.

The cookies are delicious and crispy, they actually taste like 'aerated' butter cookies with coconut goodness. Every mouthful is so additive that I kept reaching for more. I really think the salt is important, or rather important to me bcoz I really like the sweet savoury taste of the coconut cookies. Maybe it is my childhood memory again, or maybe it's a Chinese thing? We seem to have more sweet savoury traditional cookies.

While the whole process took longer than the usual cookies, it works for me. I started doing the dough at night after putting baby to sleep and the next day, after I put him to nap in the late morning, I took out the dough to bake.

Oh, it is crucial that you do not take out both dough logs at one go. If you take both out, by the time you finished slicing the first log, the second dough would be too soft and sticky to work. So, take one out, finished slicing and arranging on the sheet before repeating for the second.

Having done this, I am contemplating to try more recipes with coconut in future.... :)... so let's see if I do.

semolina chocolate cookies

I like the texture and the slightly nutty taste of semolina flour. I have tried baking cakes with it, and posted 2 of them before: citrusy yogurt semolina cake and orange semolina cupcake. This is another attempt at using this flour, thought in a less common way, by using it in cookie recipe.

Semolina flour is not a common baking ingredient in this part of the world. Other than sugee cake, I have yet to know of any other common type of bake goods here that is made of it. So, when I presented the cookies to my family, they showed me the  'question mark' face :p. But, after tasting, they gave thumbs up.

Semolina Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup butter or oil (I used butter)
1/2 sugar (I used slightly less)
1 cup semolina flour
1 cup flour (I used cake flour)
1 cup chocolate chips (I used big round chips)
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 18- degree C
2. Cream butter/oil and sugar until the mixture turned pale and sugar has dissolved
3. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly
4. Add sifted flour, semolina and baking powder and mix well
5. Fold in the chocolate chips
6. Place small discs on baking sheet
7. Bake until cookies are golden brown, about 12-15 mins.

Recipe adapted from easily good eats. From the blog, one can tell this recipe is relatively flexible, if you are not a fan of chocolate chips (well, I really don't know that many people who doesn't like chocolate chips cookies), you can always replace the chips with dry fruits.

If there is one thing I would like to change about the recipe, it is maybe to add a pinch of salt to it, I think it will help to bring out the taste of the chocolate. But all in all, I am pretty happy with the result: crispy, buttery, nutty, chocolatey, tasty.

My mum brought some down for neighbour's kids, they kept asking for more. Though I know most kids couldn't stop at 1 chocolate cookie anyway, I still feel proud of the cookies.

low fat double chocolate cookies

As part of my continual search for healthier bakes, I made some low fat double chocolate cookies with olive oil a few weeks ago. Only now that I found some time to load them up.

These cookies are soft, almost cake-like, with a very slight crunch on the edges. They may not be your cup of tea if you prefer chewy or hard cookies. But I find them quite pleasing to my palate, though I kinda expected them to be harder. They are definitely tasty.. and a great choice to satisfy the my choco craving without feeling too guilty... *grin*...

Low Fat Double Chocolate Cookies

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, beat olive oil and sugar until well done. Add egg and vanilla and mix until well blended.

2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

3. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop cookie dough by spoon onto baking tray lined with parchment paper, spacing them with enough distance for spreading.

5. Bake in preheated oven at 190 degree C for 8-10 mins. Let cool on the sheet for 1 min, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe is adapted from lowfatcooking.about.com.

cranberry cookies

Baking is definitely not on my 'must do' list recently, and I would think it will continue to be so for at least another few more months, in the best case scenario... but at the back of my mind, I am always craving for some homemade muffins or cookies or cakes.

Taking care of a new baby on one's own does not allow much time for personal craving, does it? So when my mum came down from Penang to help out for a week or so after the confinement nanny left, I finally have the opportunity to tend to the craving, and even that, I have to make do with whatever ingredients I have at home. Gratefully, I have enough to make a full batch of cranberry cookies.

Cranberry Cookies

80g Butter (room temperature)

60g sugar

1 egg (approx 50g, slightly beaten)

150g plain flour

50g wholemeal flour

20g milk

1 cup of cranberries

1. Whisk sugar and butter evenly, add in the egg in 3 small portions, mixing evenly each time before adding the next.

2. Add in the dry ingredients, milk and cranberries. Mix evenly before each addition.

3. Preheat oven at 180 degree C.

4. Grease baking tray, scoop the cookie dough using spoon and arrange evenly on tray, flattening each one with the back of the spoon.

5. Bake for approx 20 mins or until the surface turned golden.

The recipe was adapted from 文怡－从零开始学烘培. The original recipe calls for full wholemeal flour as well as additional oatmeal, and slightly more sugar (80g) but less cranberries. From experience, I knew that the wholemeal flour I bought is different and will not turn out well if used in full quantity, hence I opted to use 3 quarter plain flour and 1 quarter wholemeal flour. I actually intended to add in the oatmeal but after mixing in the flour, I thought the dough was just about the right dryness, so I pulled out the oatmeal at the very last minute.

The cookies turned out well even with my changes. The texture was crunchy and has a nice nutty flavour due to wholemeal flour I used. The sweetness was just right for my taste, with some of it being compensated by the additional cranberries added.

Since when eating homemade cookies became a luxury? I felt so blissful biting into them, while having a nice cup of coffee.. it was done while the baby was sleeping, of course. And how can I forget my mum, who came to responding to my SOS call. Thanks mum :)

baby shower cookies

Last Saturday, we celebrated our little bundle of joy's full month celebration.

Yes, I have delivered since the last post and since finishing the labour inducing 'ginger cookie' :).

No, I have not found the time to bake since then and my life, or rather our life (hubby and I), had been turned upside down.

For the full month, other than the traditional red eggs & Ang Ku Kueh, I decided to go against the tide (or my company's norm of giving Bengawan Solos's cake card), and to search online for something more unique as baby shower gift.

I found quite a few cute ideas, eg. really beautifully decorated cupcakes, chocolates etc. Finally, I decided upon Baked With Love cookies. Main reasons being that they look really adorable and cookies are much easily to transport compared to other choices. My original intention was to get their baby shower cookies but they were out of stock and BWL suggested for me to go with multi-coloured lollipops instead, which I agreed.

The cookies came individually packed, with free personalised tag (since I ordered more than 100), and I was quite happy with the hassle-free email ordering system. I think the blue and red ones are the most charming while the yellow one looks quite pale in reality.

As much as I like the look and the packaging of these cookies, I must say that there is room for much improvement in the 'taste department'. Well, nothing beats home made cookies anyway, right?

ginger cookies

I started to get anxious closer and closer to my due date.... the date came and gone and I was still having my little one inside. Well, in fact, I AM still having him inside me today...

So, I did a bit of searching online and came across a few recommendation on natural ways to induce labour. Some of them are really 'out' for me e.g. drinking castor oil. But one of them that seems promising is this recipe - Jump Start Your Labor Cookies. If it doesn't work, at least I still get something nice to eat. So here goes:

Labour Inducing Ginger Cookies

2 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves (I omitted)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cayenne pepper (I replaced with red paprika)

8 tbsp butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar (I cut down to half)

1/3 cup molases (I used black molases)

1/4 cup egg whites (equal to 2 egg whites)

1. Preheat oven at 165 degree C

2. Combine flour, soda, spices and set aside.

3. Cream butter & sugar. Add molasses, then egg whites to creamed butter, mix until combined.

4. Add dry ingredients slowly.

5. Once incorporated, roll dough into 1 inch ball and place onto baking tray.

5. Bake for 8-10 mins.

I also grated a small amount of fresh ginger (about 2 tsp) and added that with its juices (another 2 tsp) into the recipe. Maybe because of the juices, the dough was a bit runny, so I used a spoon to scoop the dough onto the tray instead. I also baked the cookies slightly longer than stated, approx 15 mins.

The cookies were delicious, though slightly on the sweet side even though I already halved the brown sugar. They were crunchy on the edges but slightly on the chewy side in the middle. They turned slightly soft the next day but a toast in the toaster is all it takes to 'perk' the edges back to crunchy state.

I finished the last 3 cookies from the batch this morning and... surprise, surprise... I did start to experience some mild lower abdominal tightening since afternoon, but they are not of very regular intervals and being my 1st pregnancy, I am really not so sure whether it is early labour contraction that I am experiencing or otherwise. I am keeping my fingers crossed...

cranberry butter cookies

Butter cookie has always been one of my personal favourite since childhood. The fragrant, the melt-in-your-mouth texture, the rich taste of butter... all of that coupled by the fact that butter cookie was hard to come by during those days, made butter cookie one of the highlight of festive seasons like CNY or occasions for celebration like birthdays.

Nowadays, with cookies getting more sophisticated with new tastes and concepts, the good old simple butter cookie still has a special place on my cookie list. Though now, I am much more conscious of its butter and sugar content.

Maybe because of the high expectation I have for butter cookie or the fear of disappointment, I had never tried making butter cookie at home. When I came across this cranberry butter cookie recipe that doesn't look too difficult to make, I decided that I should have a go at it.

Cranberry Butter Cookie

115g cake flour

1 tbsp egg (beaten)

75g butter

60g sugar (I cut down to 50g)

35g cranberry

1. Mix sugar with melted butter until combine. No need to beat.

2. Add in the beaten egg. Mix until combine.

3. Fold in the cranberry. Mix until combine.

4. Fold in the flour and mix until combine. Use hand to mold the batter into the shape of a rectangular block (approx 4 cm x 6 cm). Cover with parchment paper and refrigerate in the fridge for at least an hour for batter to harden (remember, not the freezer).

5. When the batter block has hardened, cut the block into pieces of approx 0.7 cm thick.

6. Bake in oven preheated at 180 degree C for approx. 20 mins.

The cookies turned out absolutely as tasty as any butter cookies should be, with cranberries adding some chewy texture. Phew.. at least I can say I did not do any injustice to my old time favourite.

Recipe adapted from 君之's blog.