Vanilla Flower Cookies

~ Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 9:21 AM ~

I have not been posting about my baking adventure for sometime, so few days back, I attempted this recipe which was adapted from a cookbook I bought from Borders. Although the title said Vanilla Flowers, mine doesn't turn out flowery looking as I don't have the piping tools to squeeze the batter out into flower looking shaped cookies. Anyway, without further ado, here goes:

VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 10 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* 15 minutes for baking process 

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 150 g all-purpose flour sifted (I used wheat flour)
* 50 g cornflour
(sifted)
* Few drops of vanilla essence

* 200 g butter (I used salted butter instead)
* 50 g icing sugar
(sifted)
* Semisweet chocolate chips
* A bowl to mix ingredients in
* Kitchen scale
* Spatula, piping tool (I used a plastic bag with one end snipped  a bit)
* Baking sheet & paper

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 180℃.
*
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter & icing sugar together. Pour a few drops of vanilla essence as well.
* Sift together bit by bit the cornflour and wheat flour into the mixing bowl.
* Put the batter into the piping tool and squeeze out the flowery shaped dough on the baking sheets/tray, spaced slightly apart.
* Decorate with icing flowers (I used chocolate chips instead). See picture below...

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown.
*
Remove from sheets to cool on racks.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME
"Yummy! But super crumbly!"
BEN

"Want! Bikut (aka biscuit)! Cookie! More, more! Ahhh, ahhhhh! Give, Give!!"

(I had to feed him after he accidentally squashed the cookies when he grasp it... ooppss)

HUBBY
"Hmm.. nice!" 
NIECE
"Delish!!~ XD"
COUSIN
"Delicious, with more practise your cookies can beat those butter cookies outside!"

So there you go.... my VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt! I leave you with some cute snapshots of my cheeky little man trying to get hold of the cookies...

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info! Brought to you by:  Mama Baker wannabe aka

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

~ Posted on Friday, January 7, 2011 at 9:28 AM ~

It's been a while since I last did any baking, in fact, my oven acted up a bit when I was doing this. Anyway, this is my 1st attempt of making: BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES.

I baked this on 6th Jan. I used a small amount of sweet potato (oh well, it's my first attempt, thought better not risk wasting too much if it goes wrong!) and baked it for Ben's afternoon snacks.

PREPARATION TIME: ABOUT HALF AN HOUR

* Less than 5 minutes to peel and cut sweet potato into thin slices
* 5 minutes to pre-heat the oven
* 15 minutes for baking process

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* Sweet potato (amount/quantity up to you)
* Peeler, knife and chopping board
* A baking pan to hold the sweet potato (I used my 8 inch square pan)
* A teaspoon of olive oil

What to Do?

* Wash the sweet potato, peel and slice them into thin wedges.
* Place the sweet potato wedges into the baking pan.
* Toss with a teaspoon of olive oil.

BAKING PROCESS

* Pre-heat oven at 200℃ (about 5 minutes)
* Place wire rack tray into oven.
* Set oven to 200℃ and bake for 15 minutes
* Baked until brown and crisp

THE RESULTS

Ben chomping off one of the wedges...

So there you go.... my 1st BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES attempt! Overall, I'm happy with this attempt - I'm happy to see Ben keep coming back for more (he actually said 'more! more!') To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

~ Posted on Thursday, December 23, 2010 at 8:40 AM ~

When my mum was still alive, she used to make this occassionally as one of the dishes for dinner. I used to love eating this as it contains 2 of my favorite food: fish and egg. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to get the recipe from her. And it was just a couple of days ago that I remembered this dish... oh, how I long to be able to taste my mum's cooking and the regret of not learning to cook all the yummy dishes from her when she was alive...

I remembered how my mum made the fish paste. She would go to the wet market in the morning, buy a certain type of fish (can't recall what name) and back home, will start scrapping out the fish meat and smash them in the mortar using the pestle until the fish paste mix nicely and sticky enough.

Anyway, I did some research around the Net and more or less got the idea of how to make this dish again. I don't have the luxury of time and energy in smashing fish meat in mortar and pestle, so I took a shortcut and bought the ready-made fish paste from the morning wet market.

There are other versions of this dish if you Googled it around, such as other ingredients which you can add in, like carrots slice, chilli, scallions, or even a seaweed sheet on top of the omelet. But this dish that my mum made is very simple and easy. Just fish paste and egg. So I'm sticking to that. And hence, this is my 1st attempt of making:

STEAMED FISH PASTE EGG ROLL.

PREPARATION TIME: ABOUT HALF AN HOUR

* Less than 5 minutes to pan fry the eggs
* Less than 5 minutes to prepare the fish paste egg roll
* 10-12 minutes for steaming process

Ingredients / Tool Required:

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

* Fish paste (quantity up to you!)
* 2 eggs (at room temperature)
* Few drops of cooking oil
* A pinch of salt (optional)
* Optional: Vegetables of your choice-broccoli, carrots, cauliflower etc!

Tools:
Non stick pan, plate, knife, steamer

What to Do?

* Beat the eggs and add in a pinch of salt (optional).
* Heat up a non-stick pan and pan fry the eggs into thin omelet.
* You can add in your vegetables on the add at this point of after the eggs cooled down.
* Transfer the omelet to a clean chopping board (I used a plate) and let it cool down.
* Spread a layer of fish paste on top of the omelet. (If your layer is thick, then fish paste portion is more)

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

* Slowly roll up the omelet, make sure it's firmly rolled.
* Carefully transfer the fish roll to a steamer.

UPDATES ON 8th Feb 2014: * If you don't have a steamer, you can also steam this in your rice pot. I tried this method recently where after the rice was cooked in the rice pot and it was in 'Keep Warm' mode, I just put the plate with the rolled egg into the rice pot and leave it to steam by itself.

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

* Steam for about 10-12 minutes or until fish paste turns opaque.

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

* Cut the fish roll into slices (thickness up to you)
* You can serve with your choice of dipping sauce or eat it as it is.

THE RESULTS

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

CLOSE UP SHOT

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll

UPDATES ON 8th Feb 2014: Added carrots onto the egg

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME
"Yum-yums!!! Almost as close as to mum's cooking! Ahhhh... such nice memories and so good to be able to replicate this dish again!"
BEN

Steamed Fish Paste Egg Roll "Mmmm! Mmmm!" (I had to immediately cut a slice and let him try as he kept bugging me when he saw the fish paste egg roll! And Ben had about 4-5 slices of this for his dinner! Way to go Ben!)

HUBBY
"Delicious! Thank you for the wonderful fish paste dish!" (this is a very good compliment as my hubby is not the type who likes to eat fish balls, paste and stuff like this...)
MIL
"Hou sik ar!! (which means Delicious in Cantonese)"

So there you go.... my 1st STEAMED FISH PASTE EGG ROLL attempt!

Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt though I can only take credit for the egg roll and on the preparation/presentation side . After all, the fish paste was bought elsewhere and all I did was just slap on some onto the egg sheet and roll away! Though I'm happy to inform the dish is all eaten up with compliments on how delicious it is. What a good way to boost up my cooking morale! And I'm really happy cos it brings back memories I have when my mum made this dish.

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info! Brought to you by: