Beignet (French Donut)

We had some really good Beignet (French Donut) and coffee in New Orleans many years ago..Yesterday, while strolling down the grocery aisle, I found this premade beignet mix. Although it's a premix, I will still need to knead, roll and deep fry it (not to mention the cleaning part :P) Well, it's worth the work..it tasted very much like the chinese crullers but the sweetened version. Had it with a cup of Cafe du Monde's cafe au lait to complete the crave. Yumm...

Chinese New Year Cookies

Chinese New Year is coming up in about a couple of weeks (maybe 3). Because we are so far away from home and when the Malaysian food urge hits, I had no choice but to make my own... CNY cookies, i.e. pineapple tarts & peanut cookies. I have been making them every year, religiously for 4 years now. I made them in bigger batches and gave them to close friends and families here. Originally, I got the recipes from my mom and after checking out other recipes online, I tweak it up a little and came up with what I called-- my own. Have fun making them!

Pineapple Tarts

Ingredients:

Pineapple Jam:

2 Large Pineapples (as ripe as possible)
2 Cinnamon sticks
2 whole star anise

2-3 dried cloves
1 cup brown sugar
up to 1/4 cup granulate sugar (as needed, taste the jam after you mixed in the brown sugar, some pinapples are sweeter than the others)

Option 1 Crust:

500g All Purpose Flour
100g Milk Powder
50g Castor Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg yolk + 1 egg white (room temperature)
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water (egg wash)
400g unsalted sweet cream Butter (room temperature)

Option 2 Crust:

300 g unsalted sweet cream Butter (room temperature)
130 g Margerine
100 g Icing Sugar
80 g Milk Powder
1 egg
600 g cake Flour/Superfine flour ***
30g Custard Powder

***if you do not have cake flour at home, substitute can be made with sifted bleached all purpose flour and cornstarch. For every ¾ cup sifted bleached all purpose flour, add two tablespoons of cornstarch to it***

Method:

Making the Jam:

Remove the skin and all the "eyes".

Grate the whole pineapple. (I find it easier to grate the whole vs. cutting it up..plus the texture is more consistent this way). Then, strain the juice.

Add in cinnamon sticks, star anise and brown sugar to grated pineapple into nonstick skillet and cook over medium heat for 45 mins to 1 hr, stirring continuously until mixture is dry and turned golden brown.

Remove from skillet, let it cool down, then store in air tight container in refrigerator for 24 hr.

Crust/ Pastry:

Sift together all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, castor sugar).

Double sift for smoother pastry.Rub in room temperature butter into the dry mixture.

When butter is completely rubbed in, the mixture should feel sandy.

Add in slightly beated eggs into the sandy flour mixture and until it forms into a dough.

Then chill the dough in refrigerator for an hour.

Pic 1: Pineapple Tart Mould, Flower shaped Cookie Cutter and Cookie Dough Pipe

Pic 2: Pineapple Tarts using Crust 2 recipe.

Assembly:

Remove chilled jam from refrigerator, roll them up into 1/4 inch size balls.

If using Crust 1 recipe,

Remove chilled dough from the refrigerator.

Dust some flour on clean surface, roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick.

Press with cookie cutter, add a small ball of jam in the middle, slightly press it down a little and brush it with eggwash then bake.

If using crust 2 recipe,

You will need a piping cookie dough maker because the dough is softer in this recipe. If you don't have one at home, you may also just roll out the dough on floured surface and cut it to 1 inch width and 2 1/2 inch length strips and roll up the jam in it. Just becareful handling the dough, as it's very soft and easy to break. Brush it with egg wash.

Then bake at 360°F for 18-20 mins

Peanut Cookies

by Amy Beh-Kuali.com

Ingredients

225g groundnuts (peanuts, with or without skin)
180ml groundnut oil
1 egg, beaten slightly

Sift together:
325g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
3/4 tsp salt
150g castor sugar

Method

Grease baking tray and preheat oven to 180ºC (360º F).

Fry or toast groundnuts till golden brown, then remove the skin. (or get the ones with no skin) Blend until fine and set aside.

Combine groundnuts and the sifted dry ingredients together.

Slowly add in groundnut oil and mix into a fine dough.

Take a small piece and roll into the size of a small lime.

Place the pieces of dough on the greased tray.

Brush with beaten egg and bake at 180ºC (360ºf) for 15-18 minutes or until golden.

**make an indentation in the middle of the dough with a straw before baking to give it the store bought look :)**

My First Blog ever...

This is my first blog ever, not sure where I should begin. Oh well..I'm just a ordinary mom who had quit her job to stay at home full time (at least for now). I have a beautiful baby girl who's turning 5 yrs old in about a month. My little princess is such a girly girl and she inspired me to start this blog. I love cooking, baking, scrapbooking, crafts, yoga and pretty much all other girly stuff..I will be blogging about my girl,recipes, pictures and my work here. Can't wait to start!