Thai Tea series - Part I Thai Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

For part II of my Thai Tea series, I decided to do a simple Thai Tea Cookies because I was craving for some munchies :p

Instead of exploring new recipes, I just use my Teddy Bear Cookies recipe and add ground tea leaves instead.

Thai Tea Cookies
(makes 20-25 cookies)

Ingredients

• 100g cake flour
• 25g icing sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp Thai tea leaves
• 1 tbsp egg
• 1 tsp Thai milk tea

Steps

1. Sieve cake flour and icing sugar together. Set aside.
2. Pound/grind the tea leaves into fine powder.
3. Melt butter in a small pot and add tea powder. Let the tea infuse in the butter while the butter cools down for about 10-15 mins. Chill the infused butter in the fridge till it solidifies.
4. Remove the infused butter from the fridge and scrap the butter into the flour mixture.
5. Use the finger tips to rub the butter with the flour mixture till it resembles coarse crumbs.
6. Add egg and milk tea, bring the dough together using spatula till dough forms.
7. Place the dough in between 2 clear plastic sheets. Roll and flatten to about 4mm thickness. Chill the dough sheet in fridge for at least 30 mins.
8. Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius fan mode.
9. Remove dough sheet from fridge, cut to desired shapes and repeat till all dough use up.
10. Bake at 170 degree celsius fan mode for about 13-15 mins.
11. Let the cookies cool completely before storing in airtight container.

Besides the conventional round shape, I cut some dough into teabag shapes and after baking, tie the cookies with a string attached to mini labels. I thought they looked adorable this way :)

The cookies have a lovely thai tea aroma but taste-wise just a whiff of it. Probably I could add more tea leaves (for the butter infusion) or more Thai Milk Tea to the dough. Alternatively, dip the cookies with some thai milk tea sauce. But meanwhile, I'm happy to enjoy them with some Thai Milk Tea :)

Valentine's Day is just one week away! And today I'm in the mood for some love in the form of these adorable Teddy Bear Cookies \(*o*)/

I hardly ever bake cutesy character cookies because I don't eat much cookies in the first place. But I thought the kiddo might appreciate it :)


Baked just a small quantity of twelve pieces in four flavours, original, chocolate, matcha and yam. I thought stamping a heart in the teddy and filling it with some candy makes the teddy look so sweet :)


Wanna join them in a garden tea party?

The trio spreading their love :)

Just one sweet teddy bear is enough for me :)

The cookie is actually easy to make, just a bit tedious as I wanted to have four flavours/colours. If making just one or two flavours, should be quite straightforward.

After combining and sifting cake flour, icing sugar and salt, I divided the mixture into four portions, and added the different flavours accordingly. I bought the matcha and yam powder from a Japanese food fair at Isetan sometime ago; the cocoa powder is Valrhona, my favourite brand of baking/cooking chocolate.

Next add cold unsalted butter to each portion, and rub the butter into the mixture till crumbly. Add egg and bring the mixture together with a spatula till it forms a dough. Do not knead or overwork the dough.

Place the each ball of dough in between 2 layers of plastic sheet, roll into 4-5mm thickness and place in fridge to chill for at least 30 mins.

Using a cookie cutter, stamp the cookie dough and place the dough onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment or mat.

For leftover dough, gather (do not knead), roll into 4-5mm thickness again and place back to the fridge to chill until firm (about 15-30 mins). Stamp using cookie cutter again. For remaining scraps, stamp into tiny hearts and stars till all dough used up.

Notice the crescent-looking bits of dough? Initially I wanted to stick them at the back of the teddy bear so that they can hang on the edge of a mug. I ran out of time to make the holder firm enough so scrapped the idea.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degree celsius (fan mode) for 10 mins. Remove the tray and add crushed hard candy into the stamped heart, then continue baking for another 5-6 mins.

Let the cookies cool down completely.

Decorate the cookies using deco pen or melted chocolate. Store in airtight container.

Teddy Bear Cookies
(makes 12 pieces)

Ingredients

• 210g cake flour
• 45g icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1.5 tsp matcha powder
• 1 tsp yam powder
• 100g cold unsalted butter, divided into 4 portions of 25g each
• 1 large egg, about 56g, divided into 4 portions of 12-13g each

Steps

1. Sift cake flour, icing sugar and salt into a bowl. Divide the mixture (about 256g total) into 4 portions of 63-64g each.
2. Add the cocoa, matcha and yam powders into 3 of the portions respectively (1 portion is original flavour). Mix until well-combined.
3. Add cold butter into the 4 flavour portions respectively. Rub the butter into the mixture till it is crumbly. 
4. Add egg into the 4 flavour portions respectively. Use a spatula to bring the mixture together until it forms a dough. Do not knead or overwork the dough.
5. Place each ball of dough in between 2 layers of plastic sheets. Roll the dough into 4-5mm thickness. Chill the 4-flavour/sheets of dough in fridge for at least 30 mins.
6. Preheat oven (fan mode) at 170 degree celsius.
7. Take out the sheets of dough, use a teddy bear cutter to stamp the dough (2 teddy bears per dough). For remaining dough, gather (do not knead), roll and stamp 1 more teddy bear.
8. Use a mini size heart-shape cutter to stamp the middle of 5 teddy bears. Place the cut-out hearts onto the other 5 teddy bears. For scraps, stamp into mini hearts and stars until all dough used up.
9. Place the teddy bears, hearts and stars onto a baking tray lined with parchment or mat. 
10. Bake at 170 degree celsius (fan mode) for 10 mins. Remove tray and add some crushed hard candy into the stamped heart of the teddy bears.
11. Return tray to oven and bake for another 5-6 mins.
12. Let the cookies cool completely.
13. Decorate the cookies with melted chocolate or deco pen.

So sweet that I can't bear to eat the bear. *pun intended.

But the kiddo just munched and chomped the cookies like nothing. And he already requested to bring four pieces to school for his snack.


Meanwhile, let me indulge in some food porn.

Cuteness overload yet?

I didn't bake any CNY goodies last year as our whole family "escaped" for a holiday (??) :p

This year I was contemplating not to bake again, since we are unlikely to have visitors and being lazy and all, but I kept seeing home bakers sharing their baked goodies in FB groups, Instagram etc, and it's so infectious my hands became itchy!

Decided to challenge pineapple tarts again since the hb likes it. In the past years that I baked pineapple tarts, I always made the closed type and this time when I checked with the hb what style he likes, he told me open faced type?! Wow, after knowing him for almost 20 years, now then I know huh!

Ok, open faced pineapple tarts it shall be.


Since it's my first time making open faced pineapple tarts, once again, lots of reading and research to find a recipe that suits me. As usual I refer to my fellow trusty blogger friends like Annielicious Food, Table For 2 or more, TravellingFoodies and a few other popular bloggers like Anncoo Journal, Bake for Happy Kids.


In the end, I referred to TravellingFoodie's recipes for both pineapple jam and Kueh Tair.

First thing first, the pineapple jam. I never buy pineapple jam because I'm not sure if I like the taste (whether too sweet) and texture. I know it's hard work cooking the jam but I just want every component homemade if I could do it.

In the past, I usually blend the pineapple flesh and the jam turned out to be fine and smooth texture. The picky hb said he prefers jam with more bite and texture, which essentially means more work for me lah, coz I have to chopped/hand-grate the pineapple flash.


I intended to make a very small quantity for home consumption, so bought only 2 pineapples, 1 normal and 1 thai honey. Yes, they were already skinned with "eye" removed. Well, slightly more expensive but I was already going to chop and hand grate the pineapples, didn't want to stress myself up more over a few cents.

In the end, I got only 338g of pineapple jam, after 15 mins of chopping and grating and 1 hr of cooking. I guess because of the small quantity, cooking took much shorter time *phew*. Cooked the jam on Saturday and chill it in the fridge.

As advised by Alan (TravellingFoodies) the jam looked a little wet here, so I cooked it for 5-8 mins more before shaping the pastry.


For the pastry, initially I tested a small portion of ingredients using another recipe where the proportion of butter is 80% to flour. Nearly wanna cry when trying to stamp and shape the tart dough because it was too buttery and soft to handle! Alan's recipe used about 60% (some other recipes used 50% or 70%) so it was much more manageable. Managed to prepare the dough on Sunday night and decided to chill it in fridge to make on Monday instead as I was too tired.


At first, I didn't get the workflow properly, and everything was a mess! Luckily managed to make it work in the end. Even though the dough was more manageable, it still turned soft quite quickly. So my personal take is (1) let the dough thaw about 6-8 mins from the fridge, it's easiest to stamp and unmould when still cold and firm (2) dust the moulds with corn starch so that it's easier to unmould the dough. (I have a cake tester on hand to pick out bits of dough that got stuck in the ridges when I didn't dust the moulds thoroughly enough.)

Based on advice from Alan, the dough scraps should only be gathered (don't knead) and re-use once. If keep on re-using the scraps, the tarts will turn out too hard. Yes, there's a lot of wastage involved. I haven't throw the scraps yet, they are still taking up space in my fridge as I felt it's a pity to throw them away. I think I may use them for egg tarts or cheese tarts or something.

This time, I used the full quantity from his recipe even though I know my jam was not enough. So I only re-used (once) about half the dough. Next time I make, I would probably adjust the pastry recipe to about 60-70% or increase the amount of jam.


Left - glazed and before baking. Right - baked.
And so this was my one and only tray of pineapple tarts, 28 small and 25 petite. Yes, all that work for just one tray?!

I think I have slightly over-baked the tarts, by probably 2-3 mins. Don't ask. But still looked ok right?


So is all the work worth it? Yes, I would say, it's rewarding and satisfying to see the labour of love came to fruition =D

Open Faced Pineapple Tarts
(makes 28 small-size tarts 3.5cm mould, 25 petite-size tarts 2.5cm mould)
(reference from TravellingFoodies)

Ingredients
Pineapple Jam (yields 338g)

• 900g pineapple flesh (1 normal 1 thai honey, nett weight after removing skin, eye, core)
• 100g sugar
• 2 small cinnamon sticks

Pastry (more than enough dough, recipe to be adjusted for this amount of jam)

• 320g plain flour
• 30g icing sugar
• 200g salted butter
• 2 egg yolks
• Corn starch, for dusting
• 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp water, for glazing

Steps
Pineapple Jam

1. Finely chopped or hand grate the pineapple flesh. 
2. Add the chopped pineapple flesh (with its juices), cinnamon and 2 tbsp of sugar into a large frying pan with big surface area.
3. Bring the ingredients to a boil, then lower flame to medium. Stir the pineapple occasionally to cook evenly.
4. When the pineapple liquids have been reduced considerably (it takes about 30 mins for this quantity of pineapple), add the remaining sugar. Continue stirring the pineapple till it dries up (it takes another 30 mins to reach this stage). 
5. Let the cooked pineapple jam cool down completely before storing in an airtight container until ready to use (chill in fridge if not using the same day).
6. The final pineapple jam should feel moist and sticky and not wet. If jam is too wet, cook it for a few mins before making the tarts.
7. When ready to use, roll the jam into small balls of desired size. I use 3-4g balls for the petite tarts and 6-7g for the small tarts.

Tart pastry

1.  Sift flour and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and mix well.
2. Add cold butter cubes and rub the butter into the mixture with pastry butter until it resembles coarse cookie crumb.
3. Add the egg yolks and use a spatula to fold through the mixture and bring the dough together. Do not overwork the dough.
4. Divide the dough into three or four portions. Place each portion in between 2 plastic sheets and roll the dough into a 5mm layer. Repeat for all the portions.
5. Chill the dough layers for 1hr or overnight.
6. When ready to use, work on 1 dough layer each time. If using overnight dough, let it thaw for 6-8 mins before using.
7. Dust the pineapple tart mould with corn starch, stamp the dough, carefully remove the tart dough and place it on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Repeat till quantity is sufficient for the pineapple jam.
8. Brush each tart dough with egg yolk glaze, then place a ball of pineapple jam onto the tart dough, pressing down gently.
9. Bake the tarts in preheated oven (top and bottom heat) at 170 degree celsius for 10 mins, rotate baking tray, and bake for another 10 mins. *if the colour of the tart is too pale, turn to fan mode and bake for another 2-3 mins (watch closely).
10. Let the pineapple tarts cool down completely before storing into air-tight containers.

I love how they turned out. The tart pastry is crumbly and buttery and not too hard nor soft. The pineapple jam was not too sweet and the tartness just right for my tastebud, best of all there's still some fibrous bits.

The kiddo gave it 5/5! The hb whom I made the tarts for has yet to try it. He said it looks good. Hopefully it will pass his taste test!

I'm certainly keeping this recipe and likely to be adjusting the proportions for both jam and pastry accordingly. Till then!

I've just came back from a one-week holiday in Hong Kong and the post-trip depression is setting in. Doesn't help that the weather is super hot and humid, as compared to the cool 15-20C I was enjoying :(

To cheer myself up, I decided to make some saccharine sweet-looking waffle cookies!

Spent quite some time trying to compose the photo because I wasn't in the mood (in fact more time than making these cookies). But in the end, I love how the photos turned out, exactly what I wanted, saccharine sweet!


 Couldn't decide whether I like the top view shot or 30 degree view shot. Maybe both :p


Making these waffle cookies was very quick and easy, didn't even require mixer or oven.

Basically whisk softened unsalted butter together with sugar till well-mixed, add egg and vanilla extract and once again whisked till well-mixed. Next, add sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix till dough forms. Divide into 4 portions, and add flavours of choice. I added cocoa powder, matcha powder, some pink icing and strawberry essence and left one portion as original vanilla flavour.


Roll the flavoured dough into small balls of 10g each.


I got a total of 64 balls. Don't they look like Japanese dango (sweet dumpling) =D


Place the dough of balls onto the waffle maker, close and bake/cook for 2.5 - 3 mins, slightly golden brown. Cool the waffle cookies on a wire-rack and store in air-tight container.

Waffle Cookies
(Makes 64 cookies)

Ingredients

• 300g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 120g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2g matcha powder
• 4 g cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp strawberry essence, tinge of pink icing colour

1. Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl, set aside.
2. Whisk unsalted butter and caster sugar till smooth.
3. Add egg and vanilla extract and whisk till smooth.
4. Add flour mixture and fold till well-mixed.
5. Divide dough into 4 portions (about 158g each portion).
6. Add matcha powder, cocoa powder and strawberry essence/icing colour to 3 of the portions respectively. Mix well.
7. Roll the dough into balls of 10g each.
8. Place the dough balls onto waffle maker.
9. Bake/cook for 2.5 to 3 mins, until slightly browned.
10. Cool on wire rack, then store in airtight container.

The vanilla one tasted like plain waffle, but harder form.
The strawberry one tasted like strawberry milk :p
The matcha and cocoa tastes were quite distinct.

While these cookies looked so lovely and sweet, I didn't quite like the overall taste. I mean, it's not really like cookies, it's crunchy but a bit floury. They were not too sweet, so I guess suitable for young children?

The kiddo tasted it, and also didn't like the texture. Gosh. So this is one of those cookies that look better than they taste. Thinking whether to discard them?

Luckily, some really nice and helpful readers of Singapore Home Cooks FB Group suggested to eat them with ice-cream,  drizzle with chocolate sauce or eat with nutella. Yes, I guess I could try making parfait with them as well.

Probably can try other recipe, like the German cookies that was very popular a while ago? Well, see how my mood goes...