Pandan Sesame Pizzelle Cookies

This is a new Chinese New Year cookie recipe I invented for 2010. I didn't know how to name it so I just name it as it because this cookie is baked in a pizzelle maker. It stays crispy after it's cold and it stays that way which I like because I didn't want to bake or toast it again. This was a recipe I accidentally created last year but it was a plain version. For this year, I added pandan paste and additional white sesame seeds. Since the majority of the flour used was rice flour, to me it tasted like rice cookie with the fragrant of coconut milk, sesame seeds and Screwpine leaf (pandan). Edda loved this and has been asking for it everyday.

Whole Wheat Oats Cranberries Cookies

I loved cookies! A cookies lover since young and coming from Asia, we were used to the hard and crunchy cookies. I only got introduced to soft or soft and chewy cookies when I came to America. It got some getting used to but frankly I am still not use to the soft cookies. My hubby brought back some cookies from his office and it was so soft that it disintegrated into pieces, not only that it was very sweet too. It was nothing like eating cookies at all, more like eating soft dough. Needless to say, I am still not a fan of soft cookies but I like the chewy and soft cookies (yet not too soft) like the one I made here.

I am also for healthier cookies so I experimented with whole wheat flour, rolled oats and dried cranberries for this cookies. I made this cookies before using all-purpose flour and the texture was different, with AP flour the cookies spread out and chewier. With whole wheat flour, it didn't spread out as much during baking. Regardless, it is still a tasty cookies to us. You can change the dried fruit to what you have a home. A healthier cookies to make to give to your friends during this Holidays season eh?

Granola Cookies

With the start of a new school year I have to prepare healthy snack for Evy to bring to school. Luckily her kindergarten is only half day so I only have to worry about her snack for now. Her school stresses on healthy snack and no soda for kids which I like. I made this cookies for her to bring to school. It has honey, raisin, dried cranberries, walnuts and oats (like ingredients for Granola) and I mixed it all and made it into cookies. My kids seem to enjoy cookies more instead of granola alone. So, this is a great choice for them.

Kai Chai Beng (Chicken Biscuits)

I love Kai Chai Beng or chicken biscuits, not sure why it is called that because no chicken is used in the recipe, but this cookie is crunchy and fulled of flavor. In Malaysia, we have two types of chicken biscuit, the fat variety (softer in texture) and the thin variety. Even though I like it but I never thought of making it myself because I don't buy Nam Yee. Then, on this recent trip to the Asian store, I spotted Nam Yee was on sales and it was placed in the front, so I just grabbed one, like it was calling me to pick it up. By the way, this chicken biscuit is different from the Western chicken biscuits that we see in the supermarkets.



Today, I am making the thin variety as I like it crunchy. I got the recipe from Lily's and I modified slightly to use what I have in the house. I cut down on the salt and added more dark soy sauce to compensate the honey that I substituted. The chicken biscuits turned out so crunchy and delicious, even my hubby could not stop snacking on it. Now I really have no reason to buy anymore since the homemade one is so good.

Roasted Edamame Cookies

This is the cookie I invented while making my green pea cookies. While making that cookies, I remembered I still have half a bottle of dry roasted Edamane in my pantry. This is definitely a great way to finish my roasted Edamane as this cookie is delicious, way better than munching the roasted Edamane alone. This is an Asian Chinese style cookie. The cookie is very delicate and when you bite into it, it is crunchy with bits of Edamane and yet it has the melt-in-the-mouth feel. Sooooo good! Now, I am going to use my unfinished roasted Edamane to make this delicious cookies, it will make such a great gift for my healthy friend too. If you love dry roasted Edamane, you will love this cookie, go ahead give it a try! :) My girls and I totally loved this cookies.

Green Peas Cookies

This was one of those unplanned baking day. I was snacking the green peas with Edda which we bought two weeks ago and then "ding dong". Finished one packet of this green peas had been slow and I really wanted to get rid of it fast instead of seeing it in front of my computer all the times. And then while snacking some today, the idea of making it into cookies came into mind. I always loved green peas cookies and I know it will get eaten faster than just the green peas alone. I only left with 1 cup of green peas and thus my experiment began and luckily the cookies turned out well. While making this cookie, another idea came to mind, you will have to stay tune to see what new cookies I will invent in the future. ;)

This green peas cookie is melt-in-the-mouth soft but with the crunchy bites from the crushed green peas. This recipe yields 49 cookies for me. It is a sweet cookie, you can slightly cut down on the icing sugar if you prefer it less sweet.

Healthy Whole Wheat and Oats Cookies

The recipe I promised. Sharing with you my healthy whole wheat and oats cookies made using canola oil. No fragrant of butter but each bite leaving you feeling less guilty. Canola oil has lower saturated fat, zero trans fat, higher monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat which are better for your heart. Whole wheat and oats are also recommended heart healthy diet so this cookie is sure a healthy cookie to me. Still no over indulgence, limit to 2-3 cookies per day. Any over snacking will result in gaining weight as you know. But of course it is better to snack on some thing healthy for you instead of bad for you. This is a crispy cookie and sort of addictive (well to me).

Crunchy Chocolate Mint Cookie with Candy Cane

As I prefer crispy and crunchy cookies, I played around with the recipe again. This time I added the crushed candy cane into the cookie dough and baked it together. I liked this version better, it's hard and crunchy with the burst of mint each time you bite into it. Me and my girls loved it. Of course if you don't have any candy cane on hand, you can omit it. It is optional since pure peppermint extract is added. If you are brave enough to try this, feedback to me ya. :-)

Soft Chocolate Mint Cookies with Candy Cane

I have some leftover candy canes that I bought from after-Christmas sales. And then a friend of mine told me that she baked some candy cane cookies during Christmas to give to her friends and it was delicious. So, "Ding Dong", that's it, I can make some cookies with the candy canes that I have. I know chocolate and mint pair well together and I wanted to incorporate the candy cane with the cookies so my experiment began. As you can see, the candy cane melted while baking in the oven, nevertheless it still created a beautiful effect on the cookies.

This recipe produced soft cookies. Since a dark cocoa powder was used, it's slightly bitter with the fragrant of mint, quite refreshing actually. And the melted crushed candy canes gave a little crunch to the soft cookies. This recipe yield about 33 cookies for me. Please stay tuned for my other variation of this cookie, the hard and crunchy type, which I called my dark beauty!

Crispy Pizzelle

I developed this crispy pizzelle by accident. I wanted to make kuih rose but the new batter that I tried didn't work for me. So, I had to improvise and use my pizzelle press in an attempt to save the batter. Hey, it works! It turned out very crispy, way better than the kuih kapit recipe I tried earlier. The kuih kapit recipe I tried earlier turned soft and I had to bake it in the oven again to make it crisp. But this batter is a keeper for me, it's crispy and stay that way. So, this is not the original pizzelle recipe (different flavor too), but a recipe I discovered by accident. A new recipe to try for people who own a pizzelle maker! Feedback would be appreciated. :-)

 

Tropical Biscotti

My final cookie baked for this year. Next year I will be starting on Chinese New Year cookies, hard to believe it is just a month away. Hereby wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to those who don't celebrate it. Oh, in case you are wondering, I cut my biscotti in half for easy storage.

I also had a minor accident two days ago. Believe it or not, I accidentally cut my left index finger (cut into half of my nail) and my left thumb while chopping a cooked chicken into smaller pieces. That was pretty scary especially I used my biggest and sharpest cleaver at home. Of course some screaming and blooding scenes followed and then rushed to an urgent care facility to see if any stitches needed. Luckily no stitches required because they could not possibly stitch through my nail, just some sterilized strips and bandages for now. But half of my nail will probably fall off in due time (that was too scary and painful to imagine and I am too afraid to take off my bandage!). Needless to say, with my left index finger and thumb bandage, working in the kitchen has been slow and quite inconvenient. I made those biscotti prior to the accident that morning.

Cream Cheese Thumb Print Cookies

Guess what? I decided to play with my cookie dough recipe again. I substituted some butter with cream cheese and came out with this. The dough came out to be a little hard to manage, I couldn't roll it out without breaking the dough. So, it was very hard to cut it with a cookie cutter, so I had to change my method. Hence, I rolled it into a ball and press a thumb print in the middle (follow the thumb print cookie method), even that the dough was very difficult to handle. Look at the above picture you would know, the dough cracks like that even before baking. I used raspberry preserve for my cookie. Surprisingly it came out pretty good because it was all in our tummies already. I won't be sharing the recipe though because I am not sure about this recipe.

Christmas Cookies

Decided to make some Christmas cookies with my kids. Evy would be the little helper while Edda would be the on looker. Whenever I told them mommy is going to make a cake or some cookies, they would be really thrilled and ran over to my kitchen countertop. Evy would say can I help to do this or that. Edda would be happy just sitting on the kitchen island stool starring at us working. I did not try any new recipe but picked my simple crisp lemon cookies recipe. What to do, I prefer easy recipe and my kids loved lemon cookies.



Edda is starting to pick up more words. She is also trying to express herself more with words instead of action. That was good as compared with her sister, she was considered slow in speech development. Evy now is really talkative and she has so many questions, can be quite annoying. So, when the mommies said once your kid started talking, they won't stop is so true, so should appreciate the time when they still couldn't talk much. Hahaha...

Soft & Chewy Oats Raisins Cookies

I always prefer crispy cookies, if you have read my blog or a long time reader, you would know most of my cookies are hard and crispy in nature. However, once in a while I do enjoy some soft and chewy cookies, especially those oatmeal raisin cookies. Since I was in some experimental mood today and have some roll oats and raisins at home, so why not? So, I experimented with this recipe that I figure should work and hope for the best. Well, it turned out great, soft and chewy and even passed my hubby taste test. Now I have another new recipe in file whenever I feel like some soft and chewy cookies. My girls couldn't stop asking for and raving about this cookies too.

Healthy Cookies

Twin towers



A glimpse of the healthy cookies I submitted for the Home Food and Garden magazine March, 2009 contest. I can't publish the recipe now but will share this wonderful cookies recipe with you all next year. One of my best cookie recipes yet, bonus is very healthy and crispy and delicious! Can't wait to share this recipe with my readers.

I will be off this weekend to spend a night at my friend's house. She organized a little get-together "makan" (eating) session with my fellow friends living up north since we haven't met for quite some time. I was thrilled and really looking forward to meet all my friends again. I baked her some of this cookies to show my gratitude, hope she and her husband like it. (^.^)

The recipe of this cookies is posted here!  Enjoy!

Orange Cookies

Actually I wanted to make my favorite Crisp Lemon Cookies but I didn't have enough lemon extract so I changed it to Orange cookies instead. We were given a packet of Lemon cookies by a friend and it was coated with powder sugar and tasted really yummy. Thus, it had given me an idea for my next cookies.



I made this orange cookies using my Crisp Lemon Cookies recipe with one modification. These cookies were really crispy and all of us loved them and it tasted great with the added powder sugar.

Love Letters Using a Pizzelle Press

Love letters or Kuih Kapit, one of my favorite Chinese Lunar New Year snacks. I was using the Cuisinart Pizzelle Press that I just bought and it only made 4" pizzelle. The size was a bit too small to fold it into a triangle or fan shape. If I rolled them into egg roll shape then it would take up a lot of storage space. So, keeping it just the way it is was the way to go for me. As you can see, it was tinted green, that was because I added Pandan extract. I simply love the smell of Pandan (screwpine leaves) so I couldn't help myself from adding some.



Pretty thin right? Of course it was not as thin as the traditionally kuih kapit but this was easier to do. You can get the kuih kapit recipe from Amy Beh (Kuali) if you are interested. I shall try the Pizzelle recipe provided by Cuisinart in my next attempt to see the difference. Oh I learned this tips of using the Pizzelle Press to make Love Letter through J from Singapore. Kuih Kapit is one of my favorite CNY cookies so I was thrilled to learn of this tips. Now owning my own Pizzelle press, I can make this thicker, non-traditional kuih kapit version anytime I feel like eating them. Great! ^.^

Note:  it turned soft after it's cooled down.  I had to toast it in the toaster oven to make it crisp again.

Strawberry Cranberries Cookies

I was invited to participate in this July Key Ingredient's Cooks Kitchen contest and the key ingredient for this month is berry. Since I just bought a packet of dried cranberries, I thought that would be perfect. I wanted to make a cookie recipe and since the key ingredient is berry, I thought a strawberry flavor cookie would be great. So, I came out with this crispy Strawberry Cranberries Cookies. Well, my daughters both loved it and walloped half of the cookies before it even had a chance to cool down. My hubby later finished the rest. I hope you will like it too!

Crisp Lemon Cookies 2

Still not quite satisfied with my last attempt, I played around with the previous recipe and came out with Crisp Lemon Cookies 2. I like this recipe better because this cookies turned out to be real crispy. It would be great with some added lemon zest to kick up the flavor even more. Since the previous cookies I made it really kids friendly (bear shape with color sugar and sprinkles), I decided to try another pattern on this. Great with a cup of coffee!

Crisp Lemon Cookies 1

When we were at our friend's house, her little girl arranged a little tea party for my girls. Oh yeah, a real tea and lemon cookies that she made herself, even served in a real tea set. Luckily my girls didn't knock over the tea or break the tea cup! The most memorable thing about this tea party for Evy was of course the lemon cookies. She couldn't stop telling me how tasty the lemon cookies were. So since she loved it so much, I went online and made her some lemon cookies. I would say the first batch that I tried, I didn't like it because the cookie was soft. I preferred my cookie crispy. Nevertheless, both my girls finished all the lemon cookies in a day. Since I was dissatisfied with the online recipe, I tried to create my own crispy lemon cookies. So, I came out with this recipe that I thought was pretty good. And I hope you will like it too!