rise and shine all you gold-digging mothers

It's been more than a year since our last update. Things picked up for lovanilla and her delicious goodness of Bite.Me and the rest of us consigned to drooling on our laptops looking at photos of those delectable desserts.

Anyway, purpose of this blog's resurrection (ha!) is to document our kuih raya adventures for this year. Will also try to share some recipes and should we attempt to do them, we'll let you know how it pans out.

My first challenge this weekend would be making Afghans (not the dog, the country or the rug) cookie. Recipe is as follows:

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Total cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes: 25

150g unsalted butter, softened
60g lightly acked soft brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
125g plain flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
30g desiccated coconut
45g cornflakes, lightly crushed
90g dark chocolate chips


1. Preheat ovem to 180* C, line two baking trays with baking paper (or use silicone mat for you lucky brownies)
2. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well
3. Add sifted flour and cocoa powder to bowl with the coconut and cornflakes. Stir with a metal spoon until the ingredients are combined. Put level tablespoons of mixture on the prepared trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 20 mins, or until lightly browned, then leave on the tray to cool completely.
4. Place chocolate chips in a small heatproof bowl, bring a saucepan of water to boil, then remove pan from heat. Sit the bowl over the pan, making sure the base of the bowl does not sit in the water. Stir until the chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Spread the top of each biscuit thickly with the melted chocolate and allow to set.


Google afghan cookie for an idea of how it looks like. I'll try to post a photo once I attempted them. You don't have to wait for me to try it, you know :)

Sawadeekaa...

*mula-mula tu terkejut biler bukak blogger tengok semua dalam thai.mampos mcm mane nak baca ni...hahaha

Sawadeeka, sa bai di mai ka to everyone. Greetings from Bangkok. It's been 2 weeks now and i'm adjusting well. Missing nasi lemak already!!! I don't know how i'm going to survive without it. On the other hand everything else is great here.

My latest updates on food or should i say DESSERTS!!! sorry nothing Thai inspired today but i promise in my future posts.

First up, i came acroos this ice cream parlour called Cream & Fudge and fell in love with it. I'll have to add it to my lists of Haagen Daz & Swensens. It literally took me about 15 minutes standing there deciding on which flavour and concoction i wanted. I fianlly settles on this...feast your eyeballs...


oooohhh aaahhhhhh i want more!!!

Here, the rival for Dunkin Donuts is Mister Donut...ahahha (kelakar tak kay?) anyways i had already took out my camera to snap away but they wouldn't let me. Boo :( I can't say they taste better but their products sure do look interesting and mostly cute. They have mini donut lollipops, bunny shaped, donuts on sticks and more.


Sorry as i only have a photo of the packaging. Was awwed with the smiley face i totally forgot about the actual donut. Hahahaha.


Mini donuts i bought at the market...not bad and inexpensive as well.


Random fact...i love the coconut ice blended here....very refreshing.

One of the specialties here are these...


It's balls of deep fried rice noodles with a meat filling. Could be chicken but most of the time it would be pork and this particular one happens to be the latter. So boo hoo to me...it looks yummy ha? I forgot what's it called...(thinks for 10 minutes) damnit still can't remember...

Finally we go to school...will show you a few of what i've made since i arrived.


Shortbread cookies... very rich and nice (mcm butter cookies yg dlm tin biru tu)


Fruit Cake


Almond sponge cake with almond fondant flower and leaf


Tarte aux Pomme....apple tart..my favourite....pomme tart :)


Mini Fruit Tarts...these are like to die for...i just love em. Filled with pastry cream and topped with any fruits to your liking....*drools*


Same fruit tart but bigger version with more mixed fruits...i still have half of it in my fridge. Mmmm *winks* (kay, ummi, nanie...want some?)


Lunettes...a softer version of the shortbread cookies with strawberry filling.

That's all for now...will go jalan-jalan around Bangkok and hope to write a more thai inspired post. :)

Raya Cookies + Kueh

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my 3 blog sharing darlings Kay, Ummi + Nanie Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir Batin. Hope all is forgiven... and my wish goes out to all muslims out there as well. :D

During the fasting month i had made and sold a fair amount of cookies to relatives and friends. Initially i intended to make 7 different types of cookies which are:

• Butter Cornflakes Cookies
• Chocolate Crunchies
• Almond Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Orange Sable Cookies
• Lemon Melting Moments
• Orange Chocolate Cookies
  

But i ended up with 6 because the last one didn't turn out the way it was suppose to and i didn't have time to rectify it cause i needed to meet the dateline of all the orders and also the fact that i was doing it on my own. I need a helper next year! :P
But alhamdullilah all the cookie orders were delivered in time.

Other than cookies, i helped my mum with a few variety of local nyonya kuihs and agar-agar. She loves making these local delicacies unlike me...hehe suke western je...


1. Butter Cornflake Cookies (baking away)


2. Chocolate Crunchies (ready for delivery)


3. Almond Cookies (fresh out of oven)


4. Chocolate Chip Cookies (my favourite)


5. Orange Sable Cookies (Z's favourite)

I just realised i don't even have a single photo of my lemon melting moment cookies. How sad! because it's one of the prettiest cookie out of all because it uses a piping bag and star nozzle to make a swirly shaped cookie....and taste good too....booooo now i feel down out of the sudden.

Sigh anyway...

here comes my mum's section :)


1. Currypuffs before going into the fryer


2. Onde-onde or some might call them buah melaka


3. Kuih Seri Muka (bottom:pulut, top:pandan flavour creamy custard)


4. Cekodok (banana fritters)


5. Biji Selasih 2 layer jelly


6. Mango flavoured jelly with cubes of brown sugar jelly inside

Ice-Cream Cookies???

Made these at random just because they looked so pretty!!!

I was just surfing the net when i came across these cookies at williams sonoma website. First thing it reminded me of was ice-cream and then candy and then just all things wonderful, sweet and nice. :)
The soft colours and the thought of cookies just brings you into a comfort zone...aaahhhhhh.
SO I HAD TO MAKE IT!!! :P

Neapolitan Cookies



16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room
temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped, melted
and slightly cooled
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1 or 2 drops red food coloring
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg



In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on high speed until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is no longer gritty when rubbed between your finger and thumb. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the egg, vanilla and salt until well blended.

Over a sheet of waxed paper, sift together the flour and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until blended.

Divide the dough evenly among 3 bowls. Stir and knead the chocolate and pecans into the first bowl, the food coloring into the second bowl and the nutmeg into the third bowl.



Line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with a sheet of waxed paper, overlapping the long sides by about 3 inches. Scrape the nutmeg dough into the pan and, with a small offset spatula, press to the edges in an even layer. Smooth out the dough with your fingertips. Drop the pink-tinted dough by teaspoons onto the nutmeg layer and press into an even layer. Smooth with your fingertips. Repeat with the chocolate dough. Fold the waxed paper over the top and press to smooth and compress the layers. Refrigerate until firm, at least 24 hours or up to 2 days.

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 baking sheets or line with parchment paper.

Use the paper to lift the dough out of the pan. Invert onto a wooden board and remove the paper. Using a long, thin knife, cut it in half lengthwise. Cut crosswise into slices 1⁄4 inch thick to make striped cookies.

Place the slices at least 1 1⁄2 inches apart on the prepared pans. Bake the cookies until set and pale gold on the bottom, about 15 minutes. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let cool for a few minutes, then transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely. Makes about 72 cookies.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Collection Series,Cookies,by Marie Simmons (Simon & Schuster, 2002 ).

Crunchy, aromatic, light and basically just very very yummy!!! :D