One of the things I look forward to having coffee at Dome Cafe is not its coffee but the biscotti that is served together with it. This little treat compliments the coffee so well! I always wanted to grab hold of a packet to bring home. But, after seeing the price, I decided to give this homemade version a go. That’s when I realized how cheap, healthier and tastier they could be!! Moving forward, I can happily say bye-bye to all the tasteless and expensive biscotti sold at the stores.

Biscotti originates from Italy. It is baked twice; first in log shape and then as individual slices. This method will yield a dry and hard, yet crisp texture for the biscuit which allows them to be kept longer at room temperature.

Some biscotti contain oil, some not. This biscotti recipe I am sharing now is oil and butter free and uses egg as a binding agent. It’s definitely a healthier option compared to the other oil or butter rich baked goods. When mixing the ingredients, don’t be fret if you get a sticky dough. Rest assured that nothing goes wrong. Just dust your hands and the work top with more flours will make the dough more manageable.

Biscotti is as easy-to-make as other cookies. However, it may need slightly more time and extra steps to produce its unique  hard, dry and crisp texture. At the first baking, the biscotti log is baked using longer baking time to ensure it is well risen and firm but not hard. Then it is left to cool down so that it can be easily cut into thin and neat slices with the use of a serrated knife. The purpose of the second baking is to dry up the biscotti until it becomes crunchy but not overly browned. Both baking sessions are done under low baking temperature.

The biscotti is so full of flavour. Cranberry lends some natural sweetness and moisture to it. I love the combination of cranberry and pistachio as the pairing of red and green creates a cheerful and festive look for the biscotti. I think it makes a perfect gift for all occasions especially this coming Father’s Day.

Earlier on, I had tried an all-nuts combination with pistachios, almonds and hazelnuts, but i still prefer a mix of nuts and dried fruits. The latter is more moist and tastier. However, feel free to use any combination of your choice. If your child is not ready for nuts or is allergic to them, then you can opt for 100% dried fruits for this recipe. Whether dunking into hot beverage or eating it alone, this biscotti is definitely going to be my family’s favourite year round snack.

For a note, this biscotti may not be suitable for young toddlers. For older toddlers, dunk it into their milk or hot drink to soften it.

>> Get the recipe and step by step photo for Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti at PAGE 2 BELOW.

In the past, every Lunar New Year, my mother would surely bake some festive cookies for the family. Being her key assistant cum tester, I had the least interest in making peanut cookies. To-date, I still find them neither tasty nor appealing in looks. Hence, they never make it to my “to-bake” list for Lunar New Year. As they say, never say never. I had a change of heart recently and decided to bake these “dreadful” peanut cookies. Oh!!! Woman, woman, you are a complete mystery in the universe. Professor Stephen Hawking is so right. lol!

But, in fact, I was inspired by my reader, Sandy Goh. Two weeks ago, she shared with me a precious peanut cookie recipe that she had learned from her “master sifu”. What fascinated me is that only four basic ingredients (eg peanuts, flour, sugar and oil) are used, and they are mixed according to a fixed ratio. This ratio works well whether you measure the ingredients in cups or grams. To that, I tweaked the recipe a bit by adding salt and butter. I also used more peanuts and lesser flour. So, what’s the verdict? I am pleased to say that the peanut cookies turned out to be crunchy at the first bite, and then softly crumbled with a melt-in-the mouth texture as soon as they hit your tongue. These cookies were fully packed with the fragrance of both finely grounded and tiny bits of roasted peanuts. The sweetness is just right and well balanced by a hint of salty flavour. Not only my family and friends gave it a thumb up, I also couldn’t resist the temptation to pop these little golden morsels into my mouth, one after another, and another, and……

Although this recipe is very simple and straightforward, there are a few things you need to watch out. First, as peanut is the key ingredient in the recipe, I would strongly recommend you to buy good quality peanuts and roast them yourself. This is to ensure that you get to taste more aroma of peanuts. Second, you may grind the peanuts to be superfine and smooth, but I prefer mine to be a bit coarse so that the cookies would give me something to munch on. Last but not least, remember to weigh each cookie dough to the same grammage so that they can be cooked evenly. Don’t skip this step!

Given that peanut is one of the most common food allergies, this recipe is not recommended for kids below 3 years old (age as recommended by American Academy of Pediatrics), kid who has a family history of allergies or kid who has had a food allergy in the past. If this is the first time you introduce peanuts to your child, please consult your pediatrician for further advice.

We will soon be heading back to my hubby’s hometown to celebrate the Lunar New Year. So, before I end this post, let’s me wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous Lunar New Year!!

在新的一年，祝大家龙年大吉，龙气冲天，财源滚滚，发得像飞龙，身体壮得像斗龙，龙年快乐！

-> Get the recipe and step by step tutorial at PAGE 2 BELOW.

Other festive cookies that you may bake for the Lunar New Year:

Most kids love cookies – my son included. But, he often gets a nose bleed if he eats them too often. For this reason, I seldom offer him cookies. Lately, a recipe with flower shaped cookies in a cookbook caught his attention. He was so amazed with its appealing appearance that he kept pestering me to bake some for him. Of course, I was quite reluctant initially but finally relented as the recipe sounded simple yet wholesome to me.

Although the recipe uses wholemeal flour, the cookies turns out surprisingly crisps and delicious!!! Every bite has a wonderful nutty and buttery taste! My son loved it so much that he kept coming back for more even before the cookies were completed cool down. Not only my son, both my husband and I also enjoyed them every much. I baked another batch and shared some with my son’s classmate as her birthday treat. Later, I was told by her mother that it was a hit among her two elder daughters. Both finished the entire batch without leaving any to share with her youngest daughter (who is the birthday girl). Although I felt sorry for the little girl, I was heartened by this resounding response.

This kid-friendly recipe is very easy to make and doesn’t require much effort at all. You can even ask your kids to join the fun of making them. If you choose to halve the amount of the recipe, you can use a hand whisk to beat the batter. But I won’t advise you to do so as the amount of cookies will definitely not be enough. You will end up craving for more, I assured you. Make plenty as your entire family, not just the tots, will fancy them too. If you do not have the flower cookie cutter, feel free to use any type of cookies cutters to cut out shapes.

These cookies are ideal as snack, and suitable for picnic and party too. They also make great gift for your friends and relatives during special occasions. Why not give your loved ones a surprise with these edible flowers?

=> Get the recipe and step-by-step tutorial with photos at PAGE 2 BELOW.

Hi everyone, we are nearing the June school holidays! So, what have you planned for your children for this month-long holidays? For me, I intend to engage my son with more cooking/ baking activities. My son loves playing the role of “master chef” and is always finding ways to make my kitchen his playground. During our past culinary adventures, we had so much fun and happy moments.

Cooking/ baking with your children is not limited to bonding but it is something that you can help to make the most out of this fun activity. It gives you a good opportunity to teach them a valuable lifetime skill. At the same time, it also helps to impart healthy eating habits, stimulate your children’s creativity and introduce mathematics and science in a practical sense. After all, cooking/ baking is every bits about counting, chemistry, art and taste. It is also a great time to instill on them the virtue of patience, responsibility, ownership and confidence. At the end of the cooking/baking process, the entire family will be rewarded with the labour of love.

However, remember to do proper planning beforehand and assign the appropriate tasks to your child according to his/ her age and ability. Otherwise, you may end up with a messy kitchen!

This almond crisps recipe is very suitable to be used as a parent and child baking project at home. The steps are simple and easy-to-follow. If you read through the recipe, you will find many similarities with the sesame crisp recipe I featured earlier. Mix your ingredients with hand whisk and spatula (yes, no electrical mixer is required!), spread the batter on the baking tray (in any shapes you like) and then put the tray straight into the oven. Sounds easy peasy, right? While waiting for the end product, you and your child can do washing and cleaning up together.

These crisps are incredibly addictive and highly rated by those who had tried them out. This included my mother-in-law who doesn’t have a sweet tooth. I have reduced the original amount of sugar by 30g so the sweetness is just right for our taste buds. If your child is not ready or allergic to nuts, feel free to substitute almonds with pumpkin seeds. It tastes good as well.

The key to get a crispy crisp is to spread the batter as thin as possible and make sure there is no overlapping of seeds. It’s also crucial to keep an eye on these crisps towards the last five minutes of baking so as to avoid any incidence of over-burning. I also strongly recommend the use of quality baking paper such as GLAD BAKE for this recipe for easy removal of these crisps from the paper after baking.

To all my readers, I will be away for a short 10-day break starting this Friday. Do bear with my slow response to your comments or queries as I will have limited access to the internet during this period. I know some of you may be wondering how I can go off a week before the start of the school holidays. Well, as my son is still in preschool and there will not be many lessons left during the last week of this school term, I managed to get an “informal” approval from the class teacher to “play truant”. Hehehe! So, till then, Happy Baking and Bonding!

Some simple recipes that you can use for parent and child baking projects are:
- Sesame crisps
- Banana muffins
- Oatmeal banana raisin muffins
- Cheesy cookies
- Cornflake cookies
- Coconut butter cookies
- Power-packed oat bars
- Homemade snack bars (no baking required)
- Japanese egg salad sandwiches (no baking required)

=> Get the recipe and step by step photos for ALMOND CRISPS at PAGE 2 BELOW

I must confess that I got hooked on baking cookies recently. After making sesame crisps and cornflake cookies , I can’t stop thinking of what to bake next. On the other hand, time is running short as we will be heading back to our hometown early to celebrate this coming Lunar New Year festival.

Luckily, when I was browsing through my favourite “100 homemade cookies”cookbook (孟老師的100道手工餅干), I came across this almond butter cookies recipe which looked promising and could be done without much hassle. It is different than the “authentic” Chinese almond cookies as it uses neither almond extract, almond flour, nor chopped almonds. To be more precise, it is just another version of butter cookies with nuts.

If you have tried my coconut butter cookies recipe and loved it, then it is very likely that it will suit your palate too. This recipe shares many similarities with coconut butter cookies in respect of the steps used. It can be regarded as a quick, easy and tasty cookie recipe to make for this Chinese New Year (CNY). With very little efforts, your kids will get to enjoy your own homemade cookies. It can even save you from burning a hole in your pocket if you were to buy from off the shelf. I just came to realise that the ready-made festive treats in Singapore are very expensive. One small tin with 50 premium cookies can cost you up to S$20-24 (approx. USD15-18)!!

These cookies are full of buttery smell and flavourful taste of crunchy almonds. I had baked them twice. But one problem I faced with the past two attempts was that I had difficulty to strike the perfect balance of having a melt-in-the mouth texture and  crunchy almonds. The cookies turned out to be a bit dry if the almonds were crunchy. On the other hand, when the cookies turned out to be melt-in-the-mouth (that is I under-baked them slightly), the almonds weren’t crunchy. My guess is that the almonds I used may be too big relative to the size of the cookies. Maybe in my next attempt I will try to get smaller almonds or roast the almonds in advance. What do you think? Well, despite this problem, my family still adores these cookies very much. At the time of typing this post, more than 90% of my 2nd batch cookies have already disappeared. Hahaha!

My kitchen will be temporary “closed” from the time being. Before I begin my holiday break, let me wish all my readers A JOYFUL, HEALTHY and PROSPEROUS Year Of The Rabbit!

祝大家兔年身体健康，兔飞猛进！

I’m submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011) hosted by Jess of j3sskitch3n.

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for Almond Butter Cookies Recipe………………….

Chinese New Year is approaching and it’s time to bake some festive cookies to share with your loved ones. Last year, I made my favourite pineapple rolls which may be considered tedious and time consuming by some. So, for a change, this year I picked a super-easy, kids-friendly cornflake cookies recipe for sharing. These cookies are not only popular among Chinese during Chinese New Year but also among Malays during Hari Raya celebration. Kids who love cornflakes will definitely fall for these tiny treats.

I adapted the recipe from Baking Made Easy by Agnes Chang (蓝赛珍，轻轻松松学烘焙) but modified slightly the methods used based on the techniques I learnt when making coconut butter cookies. As long as you do not overwork the cookie dough or over-bake it, this recipe produces buttery cookies that are crunchy outside but soft inside. The hidden raisins add a pleasant surprise to the cookies. You can substitute raisins with dried cranberries or dried blueberries for a variation. The mini paper cups make these cookies look prettier and not messy to handle. However, you can still bake them without these paper cups. They will turn out good as well.

These cookies are delightful snacks for your little ones, and also perfect as Chinese New Year cookies. It’s another great recipe that you and your kids can bake together. Let them have fun and share the spirit of this festive celebration!

I’m submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011).

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for Cornflake Cookies Recipe………………….

Sesame seeds are not only rich in magnesium and copper but also a good source of calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc and dietary fiber. Besides that, they also contain lignans, including unique content of sesamin, which are phytoestrogens with antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Among edible oils from the six types of plants (sesame, groundnut, cottonseed, sunflower, corn and olive), sesame oil has the highest antioxidant content. The nutrients of sesame seeds are better absorbed if they are ground or pulverized before consumption. While sesame seeds have many health benefits, they can cause allergic reaction to some individuals. So, parents and caretakers should be mindful of this when introducing sesame seeds into a child’s diet.

My family loves sesame seeds for its aromatic flavour. As my son is not allergic to these seeds, I use sesame seeds extensively in my cooking and baking. Speaking of baking, these baked sesame crisps are a great way to introduce sesame seeds to your child’s diet.

These crisps are incredibly simple and easy-to-make, best for those who have a sudden urge to bake something quick. (Don’t be surprised, I belong to this group too!). The method is very straight forward. Egg white is used to bind the toasted sesame seeds. By combining with sugar, flour and butter, a mixture is formed. When the mixture is spread out into a thin layer and baked, it is “transformed” into a crunchy crisp. The tricky part is to make sure each layer is spread thinly and evenly, which means no overlapping of sesame seeds. A fork and a little patience are all you need to achieve that.

For taste wise, these crisps are not sweet at all but filled with nutty and fragrant sesame flavour. They are extremely addictive too!! I’m sure kids will love to munch on these crunchy yet nutritious crisps as snack. Perhaps you can make them as festive cookies for the coming Chinese Lunar New Year.

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for Sesame Crisps Recipe…………….

“All I want for Christmas is my gingerbread man cookies!!” That’s my son’s wish for each Christmas. In the past, I would buy it from the bakery shop to save the hassle. But this year, I decided to make them by myself as I find it easy to do. Most importantly, mother and son had a whole load of fun making them together!!

Originally I planned to make gingerbread much earlier. Unfortunately, both my son and I were hit by the sick bugs at the beginning of the month. Thankfully we were only down for a week. Once we had fully recovered, we quickly kicked start our special “project” to be in time for Christmas. But, it was not a smooth start. When we headed to the baking supply shop to buy our ingredients, some of the items were out-of-stock due to high seasonal demand. Nevertheless, we still managed to complete our shopping list by visiting other stores.

During the process of making these cookies, I encountered some difficulties in cutting out the dough. The dough turned soft easily and I had to put it back to the fridge to harden it for several times. I think it may be due to hot temperature in my kitchen. Well, it’s just my guess. If you have better ways of dealing with this problem of mine, I love to hear from you.

“Don’t run, gingerbread men! I want to eat you for my tea!”

I had bookmarked a few recipes for gingerbread cookies, but as a first timer at making these spicy cookies I was quite unsure of which recipe to pick. Each recipe has its own combination of spices. Some use black treacle/molasses while others use honey. After much contemplation, I decided to follow the ginger biscuits recipe from You Can Cook cookbook written by Annabel Karmel. She is my favourite cookbook author for children recipes. I had tried so many of her recipes and so far none had disappointed me. I also incorporated some steps and tips from Martha Stewart, Simply Recipes, Joy of Baking and 孟老師的100道手工餅干 respectively.

As it turns out, the gingerbread cookies taste really delicious!! The sweetness is just right and the spices are not overpowering. They are easy-to-follow and fun-to-make too. You can bake it soft or crispy according to your liking. If you are running out of time, you can make the dough one day ahead, and bake the cookies the next day. My son enjoys cutting and decorating his gingerbread men.

As for the royal icing, I didn’t follow the traditional way which uses egg whites, lemon juice and powdered sugar due to concern for salmonella contamination from raw eggs. As a result, I used meringue powder as substitute for egg white. I also bought one ready-to-use writing icing. Both worked well for me.

There are still 10 more days to go before Christmas. I hope this recipe comes in time for those who want to make some festive goodies for friends and the love ones. This is also a great opportunity for you to cook with your kids.

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 for gingerbread man recipe with step by step photos…………………

>>>> Click on PAGE 3 for how to make royal icing recipe………………………

Have you ever heard or tried Danish butter cookies before? During my childhood days, they are regarded as the most premium cookies (at least to me) as not all households could afford this luxury product. Occasionally, we would receive a tin of assorted Danish butter cookies from visitors as gift. For me, the arrival of this “extra-ordinary” treat brought lots of joys and excitement. Out of politeness, I had to wait for the visitors to leave first before I was allowed to eat them. I didn’t mind that at all. In fact, I looked forward to that precious moment to enjoy these cookies. Among all the varieties, the plain ones were the most sought after in my family. Speaking about it, I hadn’t tasted these cookies for ages!! I really missed this fond memory.

So when I spotted this recipe from *Pei-Lin’s blog, I was extremely thrilled and couldn’t wait to try it out. Yes, it was exactly the Danish butter cookies recipe that I had been searching for all this while. I thought it’s a fail proof recipe as it sounded pretty simple to replicate by any novice in baking. Unfortunately, in my first attempt, my cookies were too brown to be showcased! That’s the consequence of being over-confident! Lesson learnt! Hahaha!

[*Pei-Lin is a young lady whose talent not only in cooking and baking, but also writing. Check out her Dodol & Mochi food blog to find out more!]

Interestingly, I also learnt that the techniques and methods used for making cookies are so different from those used for making cakes and bread in particularly the baking temperature and the process making them. I picked up these tips from 孟老師的100道手工餅干(100 homemade cookies by Zhaoqing Meng), the cookbook that this recipe was adapted from. I will share more with you in my recipe at page 2. This author also published books on bread and cakes. Her recipes are very simple-to-follow with many useful pointers and illustrations. If you are a Chinese reader and interested in baking, her books are great investment! I didn’t regret buying them.

Back to the cookies now, look at how appropriate Pei-Lin described these coconut butter cookies in her post:

“When simplicity exceeds expectation”
“They are truly speak for themselves”

I really love such strong, profound statements and can’t agree more with her. As the old saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. These ordinary looking cookies taste superb with its buttery smells, fragrant coco-nutty flavor and the right sweetness. They are so crunchy and have the melt-in-a-mouth feeling. It definitely resembles the Danish butter cookies that I tasted before. Besides making them for my family, I had also shared them with my relatives and friends. The responses were just over-whelming!! None of them could resist the temptation of having another piece. My friend’s daughter loved them so much till she bugged her mother to make some for her soonest possible. Sorry for creating more headaches to you, my dear friend! Hehehe!

Since these cookies are free of egg, milk, nuts, chocolate, spices, raisins and coffee, they are the perfect treat for kids even the picky eaters. I must say that these cookies are definitely the best gift for all occasions. It is also a not-to-be-missed recipe for Danish butter cookies fans.

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for Coconut Butter Cookies recipes and step-by-step photos…………….

Come every Lunar New Year, you will find pineapple rolls/tarts being sold like hot cakes here in Singapore and Malaysia. It ranks top in the list of popular baked pastries among Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese celebrating this festive season. While they come in many variations (and ranges in taste, texture, and sweetness), we can simply place them into either the open, closed or rolled types. The rolled type, known as Nastar in Indonesia, is the one I liked best as it has the right combination of texture and taste that suits my taste bud.

I am a picky eater when it comes to eating pineapple rolls or tarts, and I find it hard to find in the market the “perfect” roll/tart that can satisfy my craving. So I decided to make them at home. The last time I tried my hands on making these rolls was a decade ago! It was a fun and enjoyable experience. Being ambitious, I even bought a custom-made  press to squeeze out the pineapple roll pastry but it has laid idle for six good years. (Dear old press, thanks for being so patient and loyal to me.)

Finally, my guilt got the best of me and I decided to use it to make my own pineapple rolls for this coming Lunar New Year. The only problem is ”memory lapse” .  I could not recall my “decade-old” recipe. Not even a single clue! Oh gosh! (Hmm! Time for an overhaul service for my memory? Your highness (that’s right, you my husband), can you kindly approve my leave application for memory recall R&R as soon as possible?  )

Luckily, I managed to compile a handful of pineapple roll recipes from other food bloggers and cookbooks to recall and make comparison. Even though no one particular recipe actually met what I was looking for, there are two great references that I relied a lot when making these pineapple rolls. They are found in  “Baking Made Easy” by Agnes Chang and “At Home with Amy Beh” by Amy Beh respectively.

Not to forget my good blogger friend Selba from Selby’s Food Corner (whose mother is an experienced Nastar baker and has been selling it for more than ten years) who unselfishly gave me very valuable advice and tips. Thanks Selba!!! One very important advice from her is “If you want to have the best pineapple jam, either you grate the pineapples yourself or you buy the jam. Never blend them.” Yes, I totally agreed with her, which I will explain in the following paragraph. Besides grating your pineapples, getting the right type of pineapple grater is also equivalently important if you are looking for the finest fibrous texture.

Never take any short-cut of blending your pineapples. I did that once and was very upset even though my pastry turned out delicious and crumbly. My hubby (who initially didn’t mind with the blending method) also got addicted to the fibrous and chewy jam texture made from grated pineapples. You can definitely tell the difference if you had a chance to taste and compare both versions.

Both the jam and pastry have to be done properly. They must compliment each other. And, having the correct proportion of jam and pastry is of utmost important and the key to success. I weight each jam roll to be exactly 6 gram as I find the final product comes out best when munched in the mouth. Neither too much pastry nor jam. Just the right proportion for maximum enjoyment. Preferably, the overall size of the roll is just big enough for one mouthful to have the melt-in-the-mouth feeling. This is the art of eating. My ultimate goal to have a “perfect” pineapple roll! So my advice is, you will need to adjust the size of the jam you use to match the size of the pastry.

Tum…tum….tummmmm! (drumroll) Let me now present to you my “exclusive” recipe that will churn out the best pineapple rolls in town. (Just joking! ). But if you follow the recipe closely, you will get the melt-in-the mouth pastry combined with fibrous jam texture.

I must however forewarn you. Although this recipe is very simple-to-follow, it’s very time-consuming. You need to have patience. If not, please go to buy the ready-made ones.

If you’re craving for the authentic pineapple rolls like I do, it’s definitely worth spending the time and effort to make these rolls. It’s simply very rewarding. Once you start putting one of these bite-size pineapple rolls into your mouth, you can never stop the temptation of having another, and another, and………

>>>> Click on page 2 to get the recipe, tips and more photos on how to make pineapple jam ……………

>>>> Click on page 3 to get the recipe, tips and more photos on how to make pineapple rolls …………..