~ Frosted Cranberry Orange Cut-out Cookies

Modified from:
Allrecipes

Ingredients:
225 g butter, softened
125 g icing sugar
310 g cake flour 
3 tbsp milk
0.5 tsp vanilla essence
0.5 tsp orange essence
2 tbsp chopped dried cranberries
1.5 tbsp orange rind

125 g icing sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
0.5 tsp vanilla essence
0.25 tsp orange essence

Steps:
1) Cream butter with sugar.
2) Mix in milk, essences, cranberries and orange rind.
3) Fold in the flour, 1/3 at a time. Add till a pliable dough is formed.
4) Roll into desired thickness and bake at 170 deg C to brown, approximately 10 min for 1.5"x1.5"x0.25" cookies. 
5) Combine icing sugar, orange juice and essences to form a smooth liquid and frost cooled cookies.

Remarks:
I couldn't form the dough after dumping in all the flour, so I added more till I could get a pliable dough. Think it took like another 150-200 g of cake flour to get it right! Probably some people might want to freeze the dough instead of adding more flour, but since I'm lazy, I'll just add more flour to save the hassle of freezing my dough. This step somehow didn't thwart the cookies which turned out crispy on the outside and slightly cake-like on the inside. Here's a tip: To prevent the cookies from spreading, I put my cut-outs in the fridge before baking and used cool baking trays.

The cookies themselves aren't really sweet, since icing sugar is used. With the frosting, things just got sweeter and livelier (that's what I think). And one can't really go wrong with the combination of cranberries and orange isn't it? They complement each other on their appearance and taste, yummy! 

The adorable shape makes each cookie more appealing doesn't it? I got the Doraemon cookie cutter (review) on Ebay at USD $2.65, or alternatively, you can get one here at $7.50.

~ Japanese Sweet Potato Shortbread Cookies

Taken from:
Cakepia

Description:
Shortbread cookies with a sweetness of Japanese potatoes~

Ingredients:

250 g Japanese sweet potato
30 g butter
20 g sugar

1/2 (20 g) egg, whisked
50 g flour, sifted

Directions

1) Wrap a wet kitchen towel over the sweet potato, and followed by a plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 7 min till the sweet potato is soft. While warm, press the sweet potato through a sieve and retrieve 100 g of sieved sweet potato.
2) Cream butter and sugar.
3) Stir in sweet potato and egg till well-blended.
4) Incorporate flour till there is no white specks left, and wrap the dough in a plastic wrap to be refrigerated for at least 1 hour.
5) Slice or cut into desired shape. Brush shaped cookie dough with egg. Bake in preheated over at 180 deg for 15 - 20 min till golden brown. Cool before storing.

Remarks:
Leftover ingredients in the kitchen pose a great temptation to me, for I'll definitely think of ways to use them up! Take for instance in this case, Mum left 2 purple sweet potatoes hanging around in the kitchen and not long after, they appeared somewhat different:

As I didn't know the recipe was for shortbread cookies at first, I baked the nuggets till brown and baked them further till they were no longer soft in the middle. It is only when I was blogging then I realised my folly ops.

Anyway, I was quite surprised that the cookies came out with a nice brown sheen over them (it's not oil). And during baking, the whole kitchen smelt like condensed milk, which was pretty odd since there wasn't even milk added into the dough. I guess it's probably due to the caramelization of the natural sugars in sweet potato and reaction with the butter.

Each cookie is one tough cookie! It was hard to bite through, and once you do, a milky flavour fills the entire mouth. Seriously, where did that milk come from?

~ Almond Biscuit Thins

Taken from:
Ellie's Kitchen Wench

Description:
Thin crispy cookies with almonds~

Ingredients:

100 g caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
150 g flour
75 g whole almonds

Directions

1) Beat sugar and egg till thick, creamy and pale. Stir in vanilla extract.
2) Add the flour and almonds and mix till well combined to get a dough.
3) Divide and shape dough into 2 logs. Place on a well-greased baking tin.
4) Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg for 20 - 25 min or till lightly coloured, firm to the touch and cooked through. Remove from the oven and completely cool down.
5) Using a serrated knife, slice the logs diagonally into 3mm thick slices. Place the slices in a single layer on a baking tray and bake for 15 - 20 mins at 140 deg, or till they are golden and crisp. Cool before storage.

Remarks:
It's my habit to just jot down the gist of each recipe, omitting loads of steps and using illegible shorthand language, and this holds true for this recipe too. After mixing in the flour and almonds, I was literally in a state of wonderment, thinking how the recipe owner managed to handle such a wet and sticky dough without oil or more flour. So without further-ado, I reached out for the vegetable oil to oil my hands, and shaped my wet dough into two amorphic logs.

As I sit back after placing the logs in the oven and review the site where the recipe originated from, I found the reason for my blunder experienced previously: "3) Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead till smooth." Oh dear, I had unknowingly filtered this important information out! 

Heart-racing, I went to take a look at the two petite (still amorphic though) logs basking in the moderately-heated oven, looking ever so innocent and chaste as any dough should be. *sigh* These biscuits would probably deal a great blow to my ego (battered and hurt by unkind remarks over and over again) again.

Fortunately, the cookies weren't that bad. Crunchy, sweet with a slight touch of almonds. The only qualms I have with them was that they tasted just like sugar cookies and couldn't be sliced to my desired thinness. It was quite tough to slice the logs diagonally since the crust of each log became too crusty to be sliced through easily, so I had opted the easier way out by slicing them vertically and thickly. Not so wafer-thin now! Those thicker ones were tough as rocks, but the thin ones were fantastic! I shall make a mental note to not over-bake the logs till golden-brown.

These biscotti-like biscuits make a great of accompaniment to hi-tea. Fill up a jar of them..

.. and soon, you'll be left with none:

Dad came home with a enchanting pack of artisan chocolates from Jewels. I really love their presentation:

And innovation in coming up with Chinese New Year-related versions of sweets (wintermelon seed rocher and orangette): 

I haven't really tried them since I was too saturated with my biscuits. I'm not sure if we share the same sentiments, but they sure seemed enticing to me.

~ (Failed) Fortune Cookies

Taken from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Seek fortune within a cookie~

Ingredients:
1 egg white 
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1/4 C flour
1/4 C icing sugar
1/2 tsp oil
1 tsp milk 

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 200 deg. Grease a cookie sheet. Write fortunes on strips of paper about 4" long and 1/2" wide.
2) Mix the egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white mixture. Add in milk and oil.
3) Place tsps of the batter at least 4" apart on one of the prepared cookie sheets. Tilt the sheet to move the batter into round shapes about 3" in diameter. Be careful to make batter as round and even as possible. Do not make too many, because the cookie have to be really hot to form them and once they cool it is too late.
4) Bake for 5 min or until cookie has turned a golden color 1/2" wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. While one sheet is baking, prepare the other.
5) Remove from oven and quickly move cookie with a wide spatula and place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton to hold their shape until firm.


Remarks:
As stated, it's a failed attempt! There was no successful attempt after 3 tries, how disheartening. All my fortune strips have gone down the drain. Seems like lady luck isn't smiling on me today. Any fortune cookie with good advice for me?

To save myself from further disappointment, I mixed in the egg yolk, added enough flour to make a stiff dough and made drop-cookies which turned out to look like potatoes..

... with hollow bottoms:

~ Kueh Bahulu (Malay Sponge Cookies)

Adapted from:
Lily Wai Sek Hong

Description:
Crispy Malay sponge cookies~

Ingredients (makes 12):

1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/6 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tbsp corn starch
1/16 tsp baking powder
Oil for greasing the moulds

Directions:

1) Place moulds in the oven while pre-heating for at least 10 min.
2) Whisk egg and sugar over warm water till the ribbon-stage. Stir in vanilla powder
3) Sift flour, corn starch and baking powder together.
4) Fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
5) Grease the heated moulds and put 1/2 tbsp of the batter into each mould. Bake for 6 - 8 min till golden brown.
6) Cool for 5 min before removing from the mould, and store the cookies in an airtight container.

Remarks:
The batter smelt terrific, as well as the fragrance that emanated from the oven as the kuihs were baking.. However, the end-result was disappointing, and wasn't an outcome which I was looking forward to. The cake was dense on the inside and the exterior was browning way too fast before the stipulated baking time. Furthermore, it wasn't sweet enough. I must try to fold in the flour carefully, and measure my ingredients meticulously. The fact that I'd cut down the batter to a portion that's so hard to measure accurately, made the inherent error large too.

That aside, I will never recommend the oven I'm using to anyone, for it doesn't heat up evenly as seen from the superheating that always occur at the inner left corner, and gets way too hot for the temperature it was set to. The chances of me changing a new oven without the current one being spoilt is equivalent to the probability of a patient recovering from Alzheimer's disease. So any takers for oven-smashing?

To get the remaining kuih out of the moulds, I literally scrubbed the skin off my fingers! Despite greasing the moulds generously, the kuihs still refused to pop out and I had to pierce them with a toothpick at the edges to release them. Now the role of the optional 1/2 tbsp of oil / melted butter to be added to the batter seems more evident to the untrained eyes of a self-proclaimed chef!

By the way, the kuihs were placed on a purple backdrop while I was taking the photos, and I clearly have no idea why it turned out blue. Of course, the original colour of the kuihs were affected too.. they were supposed to be golden brown! No more purple backdrop from now on!

Anyhow, I would give this kuih a try again someday. Blame it for being so appealing to the masses.

~ Crispy Cinnamon Sugar Biscuits (Eggless)

Adapted from:
Little Corner of Mine

Description:
Crispy sugar biscuits topped with cinnamon sugar~

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C icing sugar
1/2 C or 115 g of butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp milk

1 tbsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp caster sugar

Directions:

1) Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and icing sugar together.
2) Cream butter, vanilla and milk. Stir in flour mixture to get a pliable dough.
3) Divide dough evenly and put to rest in the fridge for 1/2 hour. Combine cinnamon and sugar.
4) Roll the first dough and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. Coat top layer generously with cinnamon sugar mixture.
5) Bake in preheated oven at 175 deg for 8 to 10 min, or till edges are slightly browned. Cool on a rack before storing in an airtight container.

Remarks:

These are really crispy biscuits! However, I find them bland without the cinnamon sugar topping. I didn't know at first so I wasn't generous enough with the cinnamon sugar topping, so my first batch was really just some salty biscuit. The saltiness was no doubt due to my poor substitution of flour and leavening agents for the self-rising flour. Cut down on the baking powder please!

It's very unfortunate my second batch of biscuits were burnt as I went to change my bedsheets during the baking time. The original recipe says to bake for 15 to 17 min, but mine started browning at 8 min or so, so do adjust your baking time and keep an eye on these little gems.

I couldn't stop myself from consuming these yummies! Before I knew it, I only had 7 or 8 biscuits left. How am I going to distribute those for my friends the next day? =x I should have just packed all the biscuits into separate bags immediately after cooling like what I always do, instead of putting them into a container and grazing on them till only a few measly ones are left.

Pardon me for the awful pictures which do not do justice to the amazing recipe, for I wasn't in the mood to take aesthetic pictures with a splitting headache, tortured ear drums and an exhausted mind.

~ Eggless Melting Moments

Taken from:
Sunshinerecipes.com

Description:
Buttery melt-in-your-mouth cookies with chocolate filling~ 

Ingredients:

125g butter

2 tbsp icing sugar 

1/2 C (75 g) cornflour

1/2 C (70 g) plain flour

1/4 C chocolate chips

1 tsp butter

Directions:

1) Cream butter and sugar till fluffy.
2) Sift cornflour and plain flour together, and stir into (1)
3) Place the batter into a piping bag and pipe small 2 cm florets onto a lightly-greased baking tin.
4) Bake at preheated oven at 180 deg for 7 min, or till the corners of the cookies start to brown. Cool cookies on wire rack.
5) Melt chocolate and butter together, and pipe a pea-sized amount onto one cookie. Sandwich with another cookie.  Store cookies in airtight container, for up to 4 days.

Remarks:

The cookies were very fragile, but still able to hold their shape. However, I do not think that they are suited for travelling. Mum commented that they were too sweet and dry (and unsuitable for eating) after almost crushing one while picking it up, while I found them a tad too oily (spot the oil spots!) and crumbly (many suffered from clumsy fingers).

The piping process was quite fun, and I'm so proud of myself for creating decent-looking florets most of the time. =p

The original recipe uses an orange cream filling but I was too lazy so used a chocolate filling instead. Shall attempt another recipe if time permits. Edible Garden seems promising.

~ Scandinavian Almond Bars

Modified from:
Allrecipes

Description:
A cake-like almond cookie bar with a hint of Scandinavian tradition~

Ingredients:
100 g butter
3/4 C 2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 C sliced almonds
2 tbsp milk

Directions:
1) Cream butter and sugar.
2) Slowly whisk in egg and almond extract.
3) Stir in flour and baking powder.
4) Divide dough into 4, and place onto baking tray. Flatten the dough and brush with milk, followed by sprinkling of sliced almonds.
5) Bake at 165 deg for 12 -15 min or until edges are slightly browned.
6) While cookies are still warm, cut them into bars.

Remarks:

Seriously, I had a huge headache deciding which picture to choose as the main picture, since all of them look so good being photographed. So what I did was to give up, and post the remaining below! In no particular order of preference:











On first bite, the bar seemed to be oxidised and absorbed moisture i.e. lacking the crisp nature that one expects upon taking a first look at it. Well it's supposed to be cake-like I guess.. And I should have used roasted almonds, as the almonds didn't brown enough before the cookies were ready.

Taste-wise, I found that the almond taste lacked substance, so perhaps adding ground almonds may do the trick.

The cookie bars were packed into such plastic sachets, sealed with a golden wire, and affixed with a small sticker with my heartfelt wishes to the receiver :)

~ Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Taken from:

Allrecipes

Description:

Chewy peanut butter cookies~

Ingredients:

1 C peanut butter
1 C white sugar
1 egg

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 180 deg.
2) Combine ingredients and drop by tsps onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 min, and cool before storing in a closed container.

Remarks:
For some reason, this recipe didn't turn out right! I'd used natural peanut butter, and the cookies were very greasy and didn't set well. See the shiny sheen on the cookies?

~ Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from:

Cookie Madness

Description:

A crispy cookie affair with chocolate chips~

Ingredients:

100 g butter, softened

180 g granulated sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 egg

140 g flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 C chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Cream butter, sugar and vanilla till fluffy.

2) Beat in egg till well-mixed.

3) Whisk flour and baking soda together in a bowl, and stir into the butter mixture till blended.

4) Add in chocolate chips.

5) Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a lined baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 175 deg for 12 min, or till cookie edges are brown.

6) Let the cookies cool on the rack for 3 min before lifting them off the tray. Cool completely and store in airtight container.

Remarks:

On one hand, I kept advocating on the necessity to eat healthily, and now on the other hand, I baked a batch of 68 sinful cookies that can send a diabetic to a hypergycemic state and a heart-compromised person to the stroke clinic! Such irony in Mankind! *in deep thought*

Anyway, the cookies were really crisp and thin, but not as thin as those wafer-like discs you can see from the original recipe source. This was attributed to the fact that I've added less sugar than what the original recipe called for. I didn't have enough butter on hand and my egg's a teeny winny smaller than a large one. Salt was omitted as salted butter was used, and brown sugar was replaced with granulated sugar instead.

The batter was split into 1/4 and 3/4 parts so that I can do some experimenting with flavours. I've added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the 1/4 batter to produce 12 humongous cinnamon cookies which were crisp on the outside and caramel-like on the inside! The remaining batter had chocolate chips added to them, and they turned out crispy throughout as I had baked them smaller compared to that of the cinnamon ones. Overall, I find that the cookies can make do with more vanilla as they weren't as fragrant as I'd expected them to be and that they are a tad bit greasy, but boy, they are sweet and crispy!

Do make it a point to leave enough space for the cookies to spread; if not, consequence is as follows:

I had fun peering through the oven door to see heaped towers melting down, fanning out into puddles of sugary batter, and eventually hardening into a golden, delicate cookies:

~ Russian Tea Cakes

Adapted from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Teacakes

Ingredients:
1 C butter (227g), softened
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 1/2 tbsp icing sugar
2 C flour
1 1/2 C almonds, diced
Castor sugar

Directions:
1) Cream butter, sugar and extracts till fluffy.
2) Stir in flour and nuts till well-combined.
3) Roll into 1" balls and coat in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4) Bake in preheated oven at 175 deg for 15-20 min.

Remarks:
Not enough sugar resulting in bland taste. Just stick to the original recipe for best results.

~ Benne Wafers

Modified from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Crispy black sesame wafers from South Carolina~

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C sesame seeds
1/2 C butter, melted
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 190 deg.
2. Place the benne (sesame) seeds on an ungreased baking sheet and toast for 10 to 12 minutes, until light brown. Watch closely to avoid burning.
3. In a large bowl mix the brown sugar, melted butter, egg, vanilla extract, flour, salt, baking powder and toasted sesame seeds together until combined.
4. Drop dough by 1/2 tsp 1 1/2 inches apart onto a lightly greased baking sheet and flatten with a spoon.
5. Bake at 190 deg for 6 minutes, until light brown. Let cookies cool for about 2 minutes before removing from baking sheets to a wire rack to cool completely. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.

Remarks:

These are really crispy, fragrant and addictive after being cooled down. Now I have a sorethroat because of them. I found that the oil and sugar were too much though. Should have tried the benne wafer recipe from Gourmet instead as it seems healthier compared this one. Try not to burn the cookies in the oven as burnt sesame seeds are bitter.

~ Cream Cheese Kolacky

Taken from:

Allrecipes

Description:

Ingredients:
85 g cream cheese, softened
115 g butter, softened
125 g flour
160 g jam
40 g icing sugar

Directions:
1. Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add flour slowly until well blended. Shape into a log and chill overnight or for several hours.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Slice equally from the chilled log and roll each slice into a ball. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Make an indention in the middle with your finger and fill with 1/2 tsp (approx) of jam.
3. Bake for 25 min in the preheated oven, till cookies are slightly browned. Cool. Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired.

Remarks:

I found the pineapple ones similar to my pineapple tarts despite the addition of cream cheese which made the crust savoury; the raspberry ones tasted akin to the I-forgot-the-brand-name raspberry tartlets (by memory, as I haven had the tarts since I was just a kiddo); the marmalade ones made me and my tastebuds feel special.

Not too bad on the whole, but eating them makes me feel guilty. I gotta dig out my reduced-fat recipes!!

~ Almond Cranberry Biscotti

Modified from:

Allrecipes

Description:
Low-fat almond-flavoured biscotti, made savoury with added cranberries and orange zest!

Ingredients:

1 C + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C almonds, chopped
1/2 C cranberries, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp orange zest
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp almond extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 160 deg. Grease and flour a baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, almonds, cranberries and orange zest. Make a well in the center and add the egg, milk, oil, and almond extract. Stir or mix by hand until the mixture forms a ball.
3. Separate dough into 2 pieces and roll each one into a log about 8" long. Place logs on prepared baking sheet and flatten so they are about 3/4" thick. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 min.
4. Cool slightly, and remove from baking sheets. Slice diagonally into 1/2" slices with a serrated knife. Set cookies on side back onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 min for each side. Finished cookies should be hard and crunchy.

Remarks:

The cookies were too hard!! I think I baked them for too long a time! Should have just stucked to the original instructions for the baking times. But I really had to lower the temperature as my cookies were burning before they are dry. I would like to slice them into thinner strips, say 5 cm instead of 1/2" too. Also, the cookie batter was really sticky, so wetting hands is a must when handling the dough. Despite the really hard texture (I do not know if they are supposed to be that hard or not), they were crispy and it was quite a sensory delight for me :)

~ Pineapple Tarts

Modified from:

Mum's

Description:
Fragrant butter cookies loaded with pineapple jam; meant not just for Lunar New Year and also for one's everyday comfort treats!

Ingredients:

500 g flour
10 g creamer
250 g butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
200g pineapple filling

Directions
1. Cut butter into the flour till crumbly.
2. Lightly beat one egg with vanilla essence, and add to the flour with butter. Knead to form a pliable dough.
3. Shape the dough 1" balls, and shape the pineapple filling to 0.5" balls.
4. Flatten dough balls and wrap them around the pineapple balls. Make designs of the cookies based on own preference.
5. Brush with the remaining egg and bake at 180 deg for 10 min. Remove from oven, brush the cookies again with egg and bake till golden brown.

Remarks:

It's really a simple and quick recipe if one were to be able to get hold of instant pineapple filling. The cookies held together well and did not crumble as much as the last time mum made them (eons ago). The egg glaze is definitely a compulsory item, for it imparts a golden sheen to the cookies. Oh, the uniform oval-shaped cookies were made by Mum and the oddly-shaped rounded ones were made by me. Despite committing the mistake of using unsalted butter which kind of decreased the savory aspect of the cookies, I still find these little festive gems a great treat!