Flaked Almond Biscuits

What to do with leftover whites from pineapple tart baking?

It is a common question for all that does pineapple tart for Lunar New Year. Would like to share one of my favorites. A great way to use the whites and add on another snacks to share with families and friends.

Flaked Almond Biscuits
(adapted from Anncoo Journal)

90g plain flour
100g caster sugar
60g melted butter
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp almond essence
flaked almonds

Method
1. Sift flour into mixing bowl
2. Add sugar
3. Make a well in the centre and add melted butter, egg whites and almond essence to bowl.
4. Using a wooden spoon, stir until well combined.
5. Cover mixture with cling wrap, rest for an hour.
6. Pre-heat 170 degree c.
7. Drop about 2 tsp mixture  and spread thin. Sprinkle with flaked almonds.
8. Bake 7 mins or till lightly golden brown.
9. Remove, cool, and store.

Notes
– I used 125g (half of salted butter) for 2 servings
– I used homemade vanilla essence instead of almond essence
– I used about 100g of flaked almonds for 2 servings
– I used 1/2 tsp of mixture for each biscuits
– 7 mins is too short for me, each tray differs slightly, it’s about 12 to 15 mins per tray

I really have no idea how she can get it so rounded. None of mine looks similar in shape. My mixture came out slightly thicken too.

Maybe it’s just me, I got to watch the oven after the 7 mins mark so they don’t get too brownish. So that kinda add on to the difficulty and tediousness.  And ‘drawing’ each piece out.

But all the hard work is worth it. Because even I find this irresistible. Hard to stop at one piece.

Salted Egg Yolk Cookies 咸蛋黄酥饼

Earlier this year, the hype about salted egg started. When everyone was into everything-salted-egg-yolk during the Chinese New Year, I was wondering what is this craze about.

It was a recent trip to Taiwan that I bought a salted egg yolk snack and I fell in love. Not deep enough to love everything that is coated with salted egg yolk, but enough to attempt in baking one for Chinese New Year.

Salted Egg Yolk Cookies (makes ~75 with flower cookie cutter)
Adapted from Baking Tai Tai

100g salted butter (softened to room temperature)
50g caster sugar
4 cooked salted egg yolks (steamed for 10mins and mashed)
200g cake flour

1 egg yolk for egg wash
Black/ white sesame seeds

Method
1. Cream butter
2. Add sugar and beat till small peak formed
3. Add in mashed salted egg yolk and mix well
4. Fold in cake flour with a spatula in two additions till dough formed
5a. Divide into balls of 10g each OR
5b. Chill for 30 mins, roll to 5mm thick and cut with cookie cutter
6. Egg wash and sprinkler with sesame seeds (slightly press down)

Bake 160degree c, 15 – 20 mins (till golden brown)

Notes
– can x1.5 or double the portion of salted egg yolk if you prefer something distinct
– i used top and bottom heating
– i used 1 egg yolk to egg wash 2.5 portions of cookies

Love the texture. Love the sweet + savoury. Love the easiness of the recipe.

Nishiyama Norean Noodle Soup

Sharing my current favorite instant meal from MEIDI-YA – Nishiyama Norean Noodle Soup. They come in four favours – Shoyu, Miso, Shio and Tonkatsu.

Tonkatsu has the shortest shelf life, so normally I will go with the other three. Just in case it expires before I can enjoy it.

Each small packet contains concentrated goodness of the soup base. Just bring to boil with 300ml of water and add in your choosen carbo like noodles or bee hoon, and any other ingredients to make it a instant complete meal.

If you wish to impress someone with a bowl of homecooked ramen, MEDI-YA carries imported ramen too. But I like to go with bee hoon because it’s cheaper and always available in my kitchen.

Meal for one made simple with these soup packs.

Stamped Shortbread

Christmas has never been my thing. Lunar New Year is the only festive season in my parents’ home and I had never been a party-girl. It was my current workplace that brought some meaning to it. We even have not one but TWO huge pine trees in the office!

To join in the festive season this year + buying the stamping tool, we did a little DIY gift for the guardian angels around us.

Stamped Shortbread
(Adapted from Dailydelicious)

100g unsalted butter (cold and cut into small pieces)
1/8 tsp salt (can omit if using salted butter)
40g icing sugar
120g cake flour
45g rice flour

Method
1. Put butter into a bowl
2. Sift cake flour, rice flour, icing sugar and salt over butter
3. Mix butter into flour with fingers till dough
4. Warp in cling wrap/ baking paper and chill for an hour
5. Preheat oven to 160 degree c
6. Roll dough, est 5mm thick
7. Cut into desired shape and stamp cookies (if using)
8. Bake 15 – 20min

Notes
– make ~30 pieces
– Mixing in point 3 took me around 5mins
– Chilling in the fridge for more than an hour will be too hard to work with the dough immediately
– After stamping with wordings, i chill them for an additional 10mins before baking. this helps the wordings to keep its shape
– i use fan mode + top heat and rotate tray at 15min mark and bake for additional 3 to 4min
– personally prefer using all cake flour instead of cake flour + rice flour

And, I just learnt that packing is way more body aching than baking the shortbread/ cookie itself!

Nothing big, nothing much.
Just a little handmade token.

Blanched Greens with Oyster Sauce 耗油菜心苗

When the laziness kicked in and yet wanting a well-balanced home cooked meal with greens, this is the dish to go to.

Any fresh greens you like will do, be it xiao bai cai, cai xin, sheng cai, etc etc. Normally i will just grab the nicest looking greens available and it happens to be baby cai xin (耗油菜心苗).

Blanched Greens with Oyster Sauce 耗油菜心苗
(adapted from NoobCook)

1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp sugar

Method
1. Blanched greens for a couple of minutes. With or without oil/ sugar/ salt.
2. Plate greens and drizzle with oyster sauce mixture.
3. Serve hot.

Personally I’m not a greens-person, so I will double the sauce mixture for a regular packet of greens (~300g). No fix rules in the kitchen, adjust to your taste.

p.s. i omitted the garlic oil because when laziness takes over, minimum washing is the key. the fried shallots were by my parents’ helper.

Enjoy!