Low-Sugar Black Sesame Cookies

 I was experimenting with creating cookies that have as little sugar as possible without resorting to sugar replacements and without compromising texture and taste. After some less than satisfactory attempts, I have finally come up with something that I am pleased with!

Having fun with cat shaped cookie cutters!

The reference point for the recipe development is from the standard shortbread recipe which has a 1:2:3 ratio of sugar:butter:flour by weight. The dry ingredients is in the ratio of 1:2 for butter:dry ingredients. I tried to keep this ratio to maintain structural integrity while reducing the sugar proportion to the minimum. 

This low-sugar cookie recipe is simple & can be adapted for other seeds, nuts or plain vanilla. Although it contains less than 5% sugar without any sugar replacements added, it's still bold in flavour with a tender, crumbly melt-in-your-mouth texture but firm enough to hold cutout shapes.

Ingredients:
(makes about 24 cat cookies in my case)
45g plain flour
5g rice flour*
5g full cream milk powder*
5g icing sugar
1/16 tsp salt
10g black sesame powder*
35g unsalted butter

See the reel for the process of making the cookies:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcPbRvkyOqW/?igsi=MXFsOXVnZ2Fnb3YyYQ==

Steps:
1. Sift together all dry ingredients

2. Using only fingertips, rub butter into 1. Squish the crumbs together to form a ball of dough

3. Divide dough into 2 so at any time, there is always dough that is chilled firm & ready for cutting out shapes

 
4. Roll dough to 4-5mm thickness between acetate or OPP sheets. Freeze until firm. Rolling the cookie dough between two acetate or OPP (oriented polypropylene) sheets is an easy way to roll out dough without creasing it or sticking to any surfaces. This makes the task a lot easier and less messy! I used OPP sheets which I have on hand to make my piping cones. They are actually cookie bags for gifting usually sold in bulk at baking supplies stores so they are food-safe. Using guides for rolling out the dough helps you to keep the dough thickness consistent.

5. Cutout shapes as desired & place on tray lined with parchment paper. Freeze cutouts while preheating oven to 150C fan/170C

6. Transfer frozen cutouts onto tray lined with perforated mat if you have as it helps with shape retention during baking. You may stick with parchment paper/Teflon sheets/silicone mats too if you wish

7. Bake for 10-13 min or until lightly browned at the base & edges. Rotate the tray halfway through if your oven heat isn't even. Do not overbake as cookies can become dry in the absence of more sugar, but still aim for some browning for flavour. Adjust baking temperature & time according to what works for your oven as each oven is different. Cool completely before storing in airtight container. Best consumed a day later when flavours have become more balanced.

*NOTES ON INGREDIENTS:

- Rice flour: Helps to reduce overall gluten content for a tender cookie, increase crispiness. Adding too much will make the cookie drier & more crumbly. May replace with plain flour if you prefer a sturdier cookie

- Full cream milk powder: The secret ingredient that imparts flavour without adding sugar. Helps to prevent cookies from becoming too dry

- Black sesame powder: This is actually ground black sesame so you may replace 1:1 for any ground seed or nuts of your choice such as white sesame, pumpkin seed, almond, hazelnut, pistachio etc. You may also replace with plain flour & milk powder as plain flour alone would be too dry without the oils that seeds & nuts have. Feel free to add a little vanilla extract for substitutions that are mildly flavoured

with love,
Phay Shing

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No-Sugar-Added Mango Pandan Coconut Pudding

 This is so refreshing, delicious and simple I felt it had to be a blog post on its own instead of being part of my upcoming mango sponge and pudding cake!

Father's Day is just around the corner and I thought this is perfect for dads who like a sweet (but not too sweet) refreshing treat that isn't harmful for health. Of course sugar can be added for dads who love it really sweet. But my family finds it unnecessary to add sugar when you choose really sweet and ripe mangoes.

This recipe is an adaptation of the pudding layer in pandan kaya cakes so the texture is like a soft steamed kueh which is different from the usual gelatin-based mango puddings. This recipe is suitable for vegans too as it doesn't contain gelatin or eggs. 

Feel free to scale the recipe up or down according to the portion size you want.

Ingredients:

A) 
80g coconut milk
180g mango puree (blended without sieving)
50g pandan water*
2g agar powder (about 3/4 tsp)
A pinch of salt (optional)

B)
18g corn starch
100g pandan water*

* Put 3 pandan leaves cut into shorter strips in about 500g water. Bring to a boil & simmer for 10 min. Discard the leaves. Cool to room temperature before using

Method:
1. Bloom agar in water in A) for 5 min in a saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients in A) into saucepan

2. Mix ingredients in B) in a jug. Set aside 

3. Bring 1. to boil, whisking constantly

4. Stir 2. until cornstarch is suspended again. Slowly pour in a thin stream into 3 while whisking constantly 

5. Keep cooking & whisking until pudding starts to boil again. Continue whisking & cooking for another minute before removing from heat. 

6. Sieve through a fine sieve before layering with sponge or pouring into molds. This is optional if you don't want the pudding to cool & set too quickly while you work. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before unmolding or serving

Go and look for some really ripe mangoes and whip up this treat for your dad!

Here's the video of the process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZvyDIWSpVv/?igsh=MTd0eTR4OXZzOTRpYw==

Pardon the lack of photos because the video and photo of the pudding was taken in a hurry as I worked concurrently on the main bake/ videos for the main bake.

With love,

Phay Shing

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3-Ingredient Biscoff Edible Cookie Dough Dinosaurs

 In collaboration with a community reading club for young kids hosted by our church in partnership with the national library, I came up with the fun, tactile and edible activity --- making Biscoff edible cookie dough dinosaurs!

The story they are reading this week is about dinosaurs so this activity is really apt! 

I prepared boxes of the kit to make things easier for the volunteer teachers and the kids. The kit includes the pre-weighed dough, straw. toothpicks, mini chocolate chips and cupcake cases.

You only need smooth Biscoff spread, cake flour and an invert sugar like light corn syrup, honey or glucose syrup. Colouring can be in the form of gel colouring or flavoured pastes like pandan and strawberry that I used for the green and red dough respectively.

Please see the reel for the full recipe and process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY3Iizty-m7/?igsh=MWF3dTExMGFyMmw0cg==

For your convenience, I shall include the ingredient list for a small portion here.

Plain dough:

30g smooth Biscoff spread
30g light corn syrup or honey
40g heat treated cake flour*, sifted 

*Heat treated cake flour:

1. Spread cake flour in a thin layer (less than 2cm thick) on a large baking tray. 

2. Bake at 180C for 5 min, pausing to stir after 2.5min. Check that the temperature is at least 71C throughout. Cool completely before using. You may store it in airtight condition until you need it.

Coloured dough:

- If using flavoured pastes or emulsions, replace 2g of light corn syrup with 2g (1/4 tsp) of the paste

- As the uncoloured dough is brown, you may wish to add a little white colouring to counter the brown base if you wish. It's optional

- If using gel food coloring, you don't have to replace the syrup with an equivalent amount of gel colouring 

- I would recommend sticking with warm colours like red, orange, yellow, green & brown instead of cool colours like purple or blue as you don't have to add as much food colouring 

with love,

Phay Shing

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Pompompurin Lemon Bars

 This impromptu bake happened because I had extra egg yolks and lemons lying around!

I had exactly 4 extra yolks and 4 lemons to use up so it's about half the reference recipe I used from Serious Eats.

The only thing was I didn't want to end up having half an egg leftover from a bake that is trying to use up leftovers so I tweaked the ratios slightly to fit a pan size that happens to be slightly bigger than half the pan size in the reference recipe. So everything worked out well!

Although I made lemon bars before in the past over here for a sugar-free version, I prefer this recipe for two reasons. 1. The cookie crust remains crispy even after a few days due to icing sugar used instead of castor sugar. 2. There's no flour in the lemon layer so it's more like lemon custard.

Lemon Bars

Makes about 8 squares in 4x9" tray

Cookie base:

70g plain flour 

35g icing sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 lemon zest

65g cold butter

🔸Blitz everything in blender until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

🔸Press into loaf pan lined with parchment paper overhanging off the edges for ease of lifting off the pan

🔸Bake at 180C for 22-25 min or until lightly browned

Lemon filling:

190g sugar

2 eggs

4 egg yolks

3 lemon zest

Pinch of salt

160g lemon juice (about 3.5-4 lemons)

🔸Whisk everything except lemon juice in a saucepan. Add lemon juice & whisk

🔸Whisk on low heat for 3 min till warm. Increase to med-low heat. Whisk until 77C & thickened

🔸Pour through a sieve onto baked cookie base

🔸Bake at 180C with foil covering tray. I used top heat only for 20min or until firm to avoid burning the cookie base

🔸Cool uncovered. Refrigerate covered for at least 1-2 hours before cutting into squares.

🔸Decorate with melted chocolate. I used my Pompompurin macaron template so I didn't have to pipe by freehand 🤭

Piping chocolate

I set the piped chocolate in the freezer for a few minutes before carefully using tweezers to place them on the bars.

The bars can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Tie-dye Langue De Chat

 I have shared heart shaped Langue de Chat sandwich cookies over here and here earlier this year. Here's another fancy but simple way of making these crisp buttery cookies --- tie-dye!

This is my contribution to this year's Culinary Arts Ministry event at Adam Road Presbyterian Church in April. 

I make use of matcha powder and cocoa powder to colour and flavour the cookies naturally. Feel free to use other colouring/flavours if you wish!

Ingredients (makes about 22-24 cookies):
50g unsalted butter, slightly softened
Pinch of salt
45g sifted icing sugar
25g egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp soy lecithin (optional)
*Plain: 17g cake flour 
*Matcha: 16g cake flour + 3/8 tsp matcha powder
*Cocoa: 15g cake flour + ¾ tsp cocoa powder 

* Replace with 50g cake flour if you are just making a single colour of batter instead of 3.

Here is the video tutorial of the process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5R0VO1SaWP/?igsh=Y2t2MXRtMW96eG9o

Steps:

1. Line baking tray with template and parchment paper. 

Resize this template to fit A4 paper.

If you have Teflon sheet or silicone mat, use it as the spreading of the batter will be more even than parchment paper. Preheat oven to 150-160C.

2. Beat softened butter briefly with electric mixer/ hand whisk/ spatula.

3. Add sugar and salt. Beat until well combined.

4. Add egg whites in 2-3 additions. Beat until smooth. Add soy lecithin if you wish to help with emulsification.

5. Add vanilla and mix until well combined.

6. Divide into 3 equal portions, about 40g each.

7. Add sifted cake flour + flavouring to respective portions. Fold with spatula until combined.

8. Transfer into piping bag with #7 or #8 tip.

9. Position piping tip over middle of the circle, about 4-5mm away from surface of baking tray. Pipe until the batter reaches the circumference of the innermost circle. 

10. Switch to another colour of batter and place piping tip over middle of piped batter. Pipe until the first batter reaches circumference of middle circle.

11. Switch to final colour of batter and place piping tip over middle of piped batter. Pipe until the first batter reaches circumference of outermost circle or as large as you like. Repeat for all circles, switching the order of the colours as you wish. Try to stack the circles right in the middle for a neater floral/tie-dye pattern.

12. Use a skewer to pull the batter from the center of the circle to the circumference as shown in the middle cookie, fourth row from the top. Clean the skewer after each stroke.

13. Repeat step 12 but in the diagonal positions (forming an “x” instead of “+”)

14. Use skewer to pull the batter from the circumference to the center of the circle between the points in step 12 and 13 to form the flower pattern. Repeat for all piped batter.

15. Carefully remove the template. Bake for 10-11 min or until edges are browned. Reduce temperature to 110C and bake for another 5-6 min to thoroughly dry it out to be crispy.

Cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Feel free to bake the cookies again at 150C for a few minutes to re-crisp it if it has softened after storage.

Enjoy!

with love,

Phay Shing

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4-Ingredient Gluten-Free Coffee Cashew Butter Bear Cookies

 These gluten-free and dairy-free bear cookies are soft, chewy, fragrant and tasty, BUT insanely easy to make! 

This is so easy even young kids can help to make the dough! If you don't bother with the bear design, it is also very quick to make these cookies. You only need a mixing bowl, hand whisk and spatula to make the cookie dough. The recipe can be applied to any nut butter. I used the coffee cashew butter from Redman but you may omit the coffee bit and just use any nut butter of choice. The coffee in the nut butter I used isn't too strong and I feel helps to round out the flavour. My kids love it!

Cookie dough

(makes about 22 rounds or 19 bears)

250g (1cup) coffee cashew nut butter

140g brown sugar 

1 egg (60-65g with shell on)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt (optional)

1/8 tsp caramel essence (optional)

Decoration

White chocolate chips

Mini dark or milk chocolate chips

Black cocoa powder (optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with baking paper/mat.

2. Dump everything for the dough into mixing bowl. Lightly beat the egg with a whisk. 

3. Mix everything with whisk & switch to spatula when it gets too thick to whisk. Sugar doesn't need to be dissolved but dough should look homogeneous.

4. Set aside for 10min to firm up. 

5. Shape into balls of about 20g each. Place on baking tray at least 5cm apart. Flatten the balls of dough. Add ears of about 1g each if desired.

6. Bake for 8-12 min or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on tray. 

7. Decorate bear face if desired, with chocolate chips & melted chocolate.

Tips & Notes:

- I used Central Sugars Refinery's "Better Brown low GI sugar" that tastes great but only has a glycemic index of 55 (that's way less than plain flour!)

- Salt & caramel essence are optional but they serve to improve the flavour

- I reshaped the bear heads to be slightly oval but that's optional

- Use a fine zester to smoothen the edges of baked cookies if you wish

- Make sure excess black cocoa powder is dusted off thoroughly or you may stain the cookie if you accidentally drop it on the bear.

You may refer to my Instagram reel for the tutorial of shaping and decorating the bear face. You may choose to decorate it any way you want or leave it undecorated too!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cvdzdc-gHkM/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Here's a peek at the insides!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Easy Custard Pudding (Father's Day Special)

Wondering what easy and delicious treat to make for Father's Day that can be adapted for a variety of preferences? This easy pudding can take on many flavour variations and you can set it in tart shells to make them into tarts! Scale portion according to your needs.

I shared the custard pudding earlier in 2020 (see this post) but made slight modifications to it in this updated post.

Custard pudding

Ingredients:
6g gelatin, bloomed in 30g ice water
2 egg yolks
40g sugar*
Pinch of salt
100g + 160g milk**, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp caramel flavouring (optional)

Steps:

1. In saucepan, heat 100g milk until hot but not boiling

2. Whisk yolks, salt & sugar in heavy jug/bowl

3. Pour hot milk in thin stream into egg mix while whisking continuously

4. Pour back into saucepan & cook over medium-low heat, whisking continuously

5. Once custard starts to thicken or reach 71C, remove from heat.

6. Wait for 1 min or until custard is 60C. Add gelatin & whisk until melted

7. Sieve mixture through fine sieve. Add vanilla & 160g milk. Whisk until smooth. Spoon into jars/tart shells to avoid bubbles. Pop bubbles with skewer if need be

8. Refrigerate for at least 2h or overnight. Consume within 3 days. Highly recommend to serve with maple syrup if you are keeping it plain.

* Adjust amount according to taste. Replace/mix with brown sugar for a caramel note.

**🥛Richer: Replace part or all with cream

🥥Non-dairy: Replace with other types of plant milk

🍵Infusion: Heat milk with herbs, tea leaves/flowers

☕ Coffee: Replace part with coffee

🍫Chocolate: Add finely chopped dark chocolate to hot custard, reduce amount of gelatin

🥞Caramel: Sub a small portion with maple syrup & reduce sugar. Use brown sugar

🍓Fruity: Replace half with reduced fruit puree. Reducing over low heat destroys gelatin-destroying enzymes & intensifies fruit flavours.

This is a great way to use up excess yolks too!

Catch a glimpse of the texture and how jiggly it is in my Instagram reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CteLk-kAwPu/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

In case you are wondering what the black decorative parts are made of, it is marzipan naturally coloured and flavoured with black cocoa powder. I didn't wait for it to dry at all before placing on the pudding, thinking that it is just for photography so I was going to take photos/videos shortly after decorating. It turned wet so quickly😆. Feel free to use chocolate for the decoration instead. Marzipan works too but make sure you dry it thoroughly and only place it on shortly before consuming. Homemade marzipan, uses only a few ingredients, tastes great and it is easier to work with than chocolate, especially in hot and humid kitchens in Singapore. It works like fondant but tastes much better.

Black cocoa marzipan 

Ingredients:
24g superfine almond flour
18g icing sugar + extra as necessary*
4g black cocoa powder
1/2 tsp water
1 tsp honey (about 4-5g)

* I use icing sugar with cornstarch already added. 

Steps:

1. Sift together almond, icing sugar and cocoa powder. 

2. Add honey and water and mix until a ball of dough forms. 

3. Roll out between parchment paper to 2-3mm. Cut to desired shapes. Dust very lightly with icing sugar if it gets too sticky.

4. Leave marzipan cutouts to dry in the open or loosely covered box at least overnight before using it to decorate. Store any unused marzipan cling wrapped in airtight condition for up to 6 weeks at cool room temperature.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Sugar-Free Lemon Bars with Baby Yoda Grapes

Hubby was craving for something lemony so I made sugar-free lemon bars for a simple birthday bake for him! A super early birthday bake because year-end schedule looks set to be really busy!

He's a Star Wars fan so I took the chance to decorate the plain bars with a healthier but cute topper, baby Yoda grapes!

Aren't they cute?

Many thanks to Melly for sharing her tutorial on how to assemble these. Do check out her Instagram account @mellyeatsworld to see her amazing work!

I adapted the lemon bar recipe from Sally's blog post over here.

I made a few changes to the recipe:

1. Used erythritol instead of white sugar for a sugar-free bake. Note that erythritol tends to leave an "icy" mouth feel so feel free to use other types of sugar if you wish.

2. Added lemon zest in the shortbread and lemon custard.

3. Reduced amount of sugar

4. Replaced plain flour with cake flour for a more tender bite.

I also used half recipe as my glass tray was 10x7".

Sugar-free lemon bars

Ingredients (makes one 10x7"tray):

Shortbread

115g unsalted butter

45g erythritol (or replace with regular castor sugar)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

132g cake flour (or plain flour)

1/2 lemon zest

Lemon filling

180g erythritol (or castor sugar)

3 large eggs (65g or more with shell on)

120g lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)

1.5 lemon zest

23g cake flour

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Line bottom and sides of glass tray with parchment paper large enough to leave an overhang over the edges.

2. Make shortbread crust. Mix melted butter, sugar, vanilla, salt and zest in a bowl. Add flour and stir to combine. Press into pan. Bake 20 min or until edges lightly browned. Poke shallow holes over top of warm crust using fork.

3. Make lemon filling. Sift together zest, sugar and flour. Whisk in warm eggs (around 40C, helps to dissolve sugar), then lemon juice until combined.

4. Pour filling over warm crust. Bake for 18-22min or until center no longer jiggles. Cool completely before refrigerating for 2 hours or overnight. 

5. Once cooled, lift parchment off pan using overhang on the sides. Cut off the uneven edges. Dust with powdered sugar (I used a sugar-free option) and cut into squares before serving.

Hubby couldn't stop snacking on the cut off pieces as I was still working 😆.

If you are a fan of lemon, do give this simple bake a try !

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Pandan and Strawberry Christmas Butter Cookies

Our church is doing a Christmas bake giveaway and it is our joy to share the love of Jesus with others! As it is a collective effort amongst the members of Culinary Arts Ministry, I have decided to share a cookie bake that is Christmasy yet simple and suitable for us busy people who are preparing the cookies. Presenting my swirly pandan and strawberry butter cookies! 

I was really impressed with Phoon Huat's super biscuit premix when I tried it out. See this blog post for my review on their National Day cookie kit. I am usually skeptical of any premix but this is an exception. All you need is butter:biscuit premix in the ratio of 1:2 to make cookies that taste pretty close to Kjeldsens butter cookies! 

The recipe I am sharing is for 1 batch of cookies. Each packet of 500g biscuit premix can make about 2 batches. Sorry about that little bit of leftover premix... I prefer working with whole numbers😂. 

If you are unable to get a hold of the premix, you may use my shortbread cookie recipe to make swirl cookies too using the same method. Just prepare the same weight of dough and follow the assembly instructions. 

Pandan and strawberry swirl butter cookies

Ingredients (Makes about 15-18 red and 15-18 green swirl cookies) :

Plain dough 

120g super biscuit premix

60g unsalted butter (use a good brand!) 

Red strawberry dough

60g super biscuit premix

30g unsalted butter 

1/4-1/2 tsp strawberry emulco (I used 1/3 tsp) 

Green pandan dough

60g super biscuit premix

30g unsalted butter

1/2 tsp pandan paste

Steps:

1. Weigh out cold butter into mixing bowls for respective colours of dough and let it sit for about 10 minutes at room temperature (about 27-30C in Singapore's home kitchen ). Add strawberry and pandan flavouring to respective bowls. 

2. Mix the flavouring into butter and beat it briefly with spatula. Beat the plain butter briefly as well to loosen it up. 

3. Add premix into respective bowls. You don't have to sift it. 

4. Mix the flour premix and butter until a ball of dough forms. Do not overwork the dough. Once it comes together, you can stop. Divide the plain dough into 90g each. 

5. Cut out 4 sheets of parchment paper, about A4 size each. Fold into half with the shorter edges aligned with each other. Fold the left and right sides in as shown below, with 15cm in length between the left and right flaps. 

6. Place a ball of dough inside the pocket you just folded out of parchment. Roll it to 4mm thickness. It helps to have rolling pin with guides like mine when you need to roll the dough to specific thickness. 

Let me open out the pocket to show you what the rolled dough looks like... 

If you don't have 4mm guides on your rolling pin, fold the A4 parchment paper into a rectangle with a pocket/cavity measuring 12x15cm. Roll the dough to fill up the rectangular cavity and you should get a rectangular sheet of dough with thickness about 4mm.

Remember to place the folded flaps facing down so that you can easily roll the dough to fill up all the corners of the rectangle. 

Opening up the 12x15cm pocket to show the rolled dough. 

7. Refrigerate all 4 sheets of rolled dough for about 10-15min or until firm enough for you to handle with your hands without it being too soft, but not so hard that it is completely not pliable. 

8. Take a sheet of coloured dough and lightly brush the top surface with a little water. Take a sheet of plain dough and carefully stack it on top of the coloured dough. The water is to help the different colours stick together better. 

9. Brush a little water on top of the plain dough. Carefully roll the dough from the straight edge that is measured 15cm long. 

Don't worry if the dough starts breaking as you roll. Simply pinch the cracks close with damp fingers and continue rolling. Try to shape the log such that it remains 15cm long and the diameter is more or less even along the length. 

10. Roll the parchment paper around the log. This next part is optional but helps to retain a little curvature as you chill the whole log of dough. Cut the center of paper towel core lengthwise into half. Place a log of dough in the cradle of the paper towel core as shown below. You may want to shape the paper towel core a little so it hugs the dough snugly. Alternatively, you can rest the rolled dough in a tray of uncooked rice with a little trough made for the log to sit in. Freeze the log for 1-1.5h or refrigerate overnight. 

This log of dough can be made in advance and stored in freezer for a month. If you are doing so, clingwrap the log of dough before freezing and defrost overnight in fridge. Frozen rock hard logs are brittle and shatter easily when you try to cut. 

11. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 160C fan forced (170C top and bottom heat only) and set oven rack to middle position. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or in my case, I used a perforated mat. 

12. Mark out 8-10mm lines on your log to mark out positions for where you are going to cut out the cookies. 

I used a letter "I" cookie cutter to mark this out really quickly. Alternatively, you may cut a 8-10mm strip of plastic or parchment paper to mark out the intervals to make the markings. 

13. Use a knife to cut the log as marked by the position markers and lay the cutouts on the baking tray at least 2cm apart. The cookies don't expand sideways by too much. 

A few notes on this cutting step. Make sure your knife blade is pointing vertical downwards when you make the cut. Don't worry if the cutout is no longer circular after cutting. You may reshape it to be more circular after it has softened a little on the baking tray.

14. Bake for 15-17 min or until the base of the cookie is slightly browned as shown below. 

It is actually a little more browned than this but I can't quite capture it on my phone camera. Left piece shows the underside of a baked cookie and right piece shows the top side of a baked cookie. 

Do note that each oven is different so adjust baking temperature and time accordingly. You do want some slight browning especially at the base, to get that browned butter aroma. 

15. Cool completely on cooking rack before storing in airtight container. 

Some of you may want to try other swirl flavours so I have prepared a chocolate version as well. 

Brown chocolate dough

60g minus 1.5 tsp super biscuit premix

1.5 tsp cocoa powder 

30g unsalted butter

Steps:

Same as above but sift the premix and cocoa powder together before adding to the butter. 

Chocolate swirl! My elder kid went straight for these so I didn't have many to take photos with😂.  I made these earlier by rolling each sheet of dough to 6mm thickness so the swirls are slightly less compact. 

Happy baking! 

With lots of love, 

Phay Shing 

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Two-Ingredient Edible Rocks

Not all "bakes" with a wow factor are difficult, expensive and/or time consuming to make. Here is one quick and simple creation that only needs 2 ingredients and can be made in a matter of a few minutes! These realistic looking but edible rocks are presented by the hosts of my Youtube channel. 

My kids said the rocks look so much like the ones they pick up on our reservoir walks 😂. 

I did a video tutorial to show you how this is done! But for easy reference, let me type it out here as well. 

Ingredients :

30g compound white chocolate chips 
6g Oreo cookie crumbs (without cream) 

Steps:

1. Place chocolate chips on a sheet of cling film. Knead it using the film and your hands. The heat and pressure from your hands will melt the chips into one lump. 

2. Scatter some Oreo crumbs in a few additions, kneading until well combined with each addition. Don't worry about making it homogeneous as it looks more natural that way. 

3. Divide the lump of Oreo white chocolate into rocks of various sizes. Use a fresh cling film, gloved fingers or the back of a metal teaspoon to shape the rocks and smooth out the surfaces. 

4. Leave in a cool place to set. 

Youtube video tutorial can be found here. Feel free to scale the recipe up or down. Just keep in mind to use the same ratio of Oreo crumbs : white chocolate = 1:5.

Have fun! 

With love,

Phay Shing

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No-Churn Salted Caramel Biscoff Ice-cream

I seem to have many macaron classes these days so I am generating too many egg yolks, more than I can comfortably incorporate in cooking for the family. So I decided to make some ice-cream 😊. Salted caramel biscoff flavoured! 

My younger kid's favourite flavour! 

I found out by accident some time back that the frozen diplomat cream I make for choux pastry fillings make excellent ice-creams when frozen. I did some research recently and found that one of the versions of no-churn old fashioned ice-cream is precisely frozen diplomat cream! 

Why use egg yolks in ice-cream making? Because egg yolks are natural emulsifiers! Many cheap commercial ice-creams sold in tubs contain artificial emulsifiers to keep the ice-cream creamy and scoopable. Many no-churn ice-cream recipes are condensed milk based. While the condensed milk version is simple as it contains few ingredients, you can't control the amount of sugar in your ice-cream and it does tend to be rather sweet. You can have total control over how much sugar goes into cooked custard based ice-creams, like this one that I am sharing. 

I make my own salted caramel and usually keep some in the freezer, so making this ice-cream wasn't too troublesome. If you don't have salted caramel on hand, you may refer to this recipe to make some before you make the ice-cream. I make and store my salted caramel in quite a firm state. For incorporating it into ice-cream, you have to thin it a little with milk or the salted caramel bits will be really hard when frozen. Prepare some salted caramel with consistency thin enough to flow off a spoon easily. You may choose to fold the caramel into the ice-cream or drizzle over each scoop. The great thing about homemade ice-cream is there's so many things you can adjust according to taste 😊 so feel free to adjust the ingredient quantity based on your preference. 

Salted caramel that is thinned with milk and some biscoff biscuits in the process of being crushed. I do the old fashioned way of using a pestle to grind the biscuits. 

Ingredients :

4 or 5 egg yolks
20g cornflour 
50g brown sugar (use white sugar for other flavours that don't go well with brown sugar. This level of sugar is already quite low but you may increase or reduce according to taste. ) 
2 tsp vanilla extract /beanpaste
1/8 tsp salt
240g fresh milk
240g heavy cream
2 gelatin sheets, bloomed in ice water
1/4 cup homemade salted caramel, thinned with milk
100g biscoff biscuits, coarsely crushed

Steps:

1. Heat heavy cream in saucepan until steaming (not boiling or bubbling), about 70°C. Remove from heat. Combine bloomed gelatin sheets (squeeze out excess water) and hot cream in a bowl. Whisk until gelatin is melted. Press a cling wrap on the surface and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. 

2. Heat milk and vanilla in saucepan until steaming (not boiling). In the meantime, whisk egg yolks, brown sugar, cornflour and salt together in a glass measuring jug or heavy mixing bowl. 

3. When milk is hot enough, remove from heat and pour in a thin stream into the egg yolk mixture, whisking the egg yolk mixture continuously. Pour everything back into saucepan. 

4. Cook the custard over medium low heat while whisking continuously. Once the mixture starts to thicken, remove from heat and continue to whisk until mixture is smooth again. Return the saucepan back to heat and keep whisking and cooking until thickened, about 2 minutes more. Be careful not to use too high heat or you get scrambled eggs. 

5. Sieve custard into a bowl and press cling wrap on the surface. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1h or overnight. 

6. Take out set heavy cream from fridge. Consistency is like panna cotta. 

Use an electric mixer to beat until stiff peaks. 

7. Take out set custard/pastry cream from fridge and whip briefly with a spatula to loosen it up 

8. Fold whipped cream into custard in a few additions.

9. Fold in crushed biscoff biscuits. 

10. Fold in salted caramel (optional if you are serving ice-cream with salted caramel drizzled over) . 

11. Spread the mixture in a thin layer in a container or lined baking tray. As thin a layer as possible as it helps the diplomat cream to freeze quickly. Ice-cream that is quickly frozen is easier to scoop too because any ice crystals that form will not have chance to grow too big. Freeze for 1.5-2h for a softer-serve, overnight for a firmer ice-cream. 

You may serve the ice-cream with more crushed biscoff biscuits and/or salted caramel! 

Enjoy! 

With love, 

Phay Shing 

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Lychee Raspberry Rose Snowskin Mooncake

 I didn't plan to make mooncakes this year because I am really swamped by too many things. But a friend had leftover ingredients from making lychee snowskin mooncakes so she passed it to me. The reduced sugar lychee lotus paste, snowskin flour premix and cooked glutinous rice flour (kou fien) are all bought from Redman. She also passed me a set of mooncake moulds and I used it to make these 😊.

Lychee raspberry rose snowskin mooncakes with a little chopped walnuts, almonds, dried cranberries and freeze-dried raspberry powder added to the lychee paste for a little variation in texture and taste. 

I have decided to blog about this so that I have a proper record of this recipe, in case I want to try it again. 

The mooncake mould I used is for approximately 50g dough + filling. I adapted this recipe from my favourite default snowskin recipe that I use when I made snowskin mooncakes to sell because it had the softest texture and able to stay soft and moist the longest. You may read about it in this post. 

Recipe for filling

Ingredients (makes 12 small mooncakes) :

280g lychee reduced sugar lotus paste

1.5 tsp freeze-dried raspberry powder*

1tbs chopped walnuts*

1/2 tbs chopped almonds*

1/2 tbs chopped dried cranberries*

* you may adjust quantity or omit according to taste. 

Steps:

1. Add raspberry powder to paste and knead until evenly distributed. 

2. Knead the chopped ingredients into the lotus paste until evenly distributed. 

3. Divide into 12 balls, about 24g each. You may prepare this a day ahead of time if you are busy. Store in airtight container at room temperature. 

Lychee lotus paste with goodies added in

Recipe for raspberry rose lychee snowskin

Ingredients:

26g kou fien + extra for dusting 

26g icing sugar

104g snowskin premix (replace with 52g icing sugar and 52g kou fien if not available) 

26g vegetable shortening

90g boiled water

10g rose syrup (the type for making bandung) 

35g raspberry puree, strain out the pips

2 drops lychee flavouring (optional) 

Pink, white and purple gel food colouring (optional if you are not making the flower pattern in different colour ) 

Steps:

1. Sift together icing sugar, kou fien and snowskin premix into a mixing bowl. Set aside. 

2. Place vegetable shortening and the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat while stirring until shortening is totally melted. 

3. Pour heated liquid into sifted flour mix and use spatula to mix until a dough forms. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest until cool enough to handle with your hands, about 15 minutes. The dough appears rough at this stage and it is ok. 

4. Portion out a little dough (1-2g) and colour it white for the flower center. Portion out 22-24g dough and colour it dark purple. Keep the coloured dough covered to prevent drying out. 

5. Portion the rest of the dough to 22-23g balls. Keep covered to prevent drying out. 

Assembly

1. Knead the 23g ball of dough until smooth between parchment paper, dusting with kou fien as necessary. Flatten into a circle and wrap a ball of filling with it. You may put this in the mould to press it out if you aren't making the coloured flower pattern. 

2. To make the flower, very lightly dust the insides of the mould with kou fien. Put a little white dough in the center and press it in with a finger wrapped with cling wrap. Cover the petal portions with dark purple dough and press in the same way. 

This is how it should look like. The wrapped filling on the left and the mooncake mould with flower pattern on the right. 

3. Brush the flower pattern with a little water so that the main dough with filling will stick to it. Lightly dust the sides of the wrapped filling and carefully insert into the mould. Press it firmly to make the pattern.

 4. Refrigerate in airtight container for at least a day before consuming. The snowskin texture is mochi-like for the first day or two before settling down to the familiar snowskin texture. 

You can flavour your snowskin mooncakes any way you like and have fun with the wide variety of fillings Redman offers! 

With love,

Phay Shing 

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