In Vietnam, we don’t have fennel but we have dill – a very similar tree with rather identical leaves as fennel except for the bulb. Dill is used very popularly in Vietnamese cooking. But fennel is still quite new. I have never tasted the fennel, so I really don’t know whether it tastes like the dill or not. 

That why I was amazed to know that fennel seeds could be used in cooking and baking as well. This was my first experience with fennel seeds and my second trial with my cookie press. The cookies were perfect to our liking. They contained the chocolate taste and fragrance. Especially the fennel seeds created a very typical fragrance, but you can only feel that when chewing the cookie in your mouth. Very interesting with these cookies. 

Read the rest of this post >>

I bought a cookie press not long ago and this was my first time to practise making cookies with it. It was a very interesting experience. Making the press-typed cookies with this tool was quite fast and clean as well. Just need to wash a few things after placing the cookies in the oven, and when you finish, the cookies may be ready. 

Once again, I had to say "wow" with these cookies for their softness and crispiness. There was a funny cracking sound when I bit a cookie between my teeth. Yeah, of course with a small cookie like this one I could throw the whole thing into my mouth, yet I wanted to see the texture of it. The smell and taste of almonds were very strong and special. However, they were so fragile that needed to be handled with care, or they would be easily broken into pieces. 

After keeping them in the air-tight container for a few days, they were still crunchy and soft. A good treat to our frequent visitors !

Read the rest of this post >>

I didn’t expect I would like to eat these cookies so much. When I was browsing my book of cookie recipes and stopped at this recipe, I just thought that I still had a bottle of molasses left in my pantry. So I decided to try this new cookie. 

Since I used dark molasses, the dark color of the cookies reminded me of the gingerbread men cookies i made last year during for Christmas. That time I baked quite a lot of cookies for Christmas and I shared them with my friends as Christmas gifts, so it was unbelievable that I ate only one gingerbread cookie after they were taken out of the oven and I tried one to see whether the taste was good or not. 

This time making these cookies, I can eat more of these very crispy cookies. The taste and flavor of molasses are the strongest of all. If you like molasses, I bet you will love these cookies too. After storing the cookies for several days, they were still very crispy and still tasted freshly. I am totally satisfied with this recipe. It was even better that I could share some of these wonderful treats with our frequent visitors  

I made these cookies with heart shape and round shapes. You can choose whatever shape you want. And you can use light molasses instead of dark molasses. 

Read the rest of this post >>

This is a kind of rolled and cut out cookies. I only can make cookies of this kind on cool days after heavy rains and the temperature drops. Otherwise, I will encounter a lot of difficulties rolling and cutting out the cookies in this hot weather.

It is quite simple to make these cookies. I like it since the cookies themselves are not too sweet and they are crispy. Moreover, the less sweet taste of the cookies is compensated by the glaze. However, to reduce the sweetness even more, I used only two-third of the sugar required and I made the glaze thinner. The cookies like this would taste better for my family.

However, most of these cookies were shared by my friends, who came over my home for a weekend lunch. I was glad to see they welcome my cookies and fill them in plastic bags to take home for office’s tea time in the following week. I like baking, but I always need friends to help me clear out my baking stuffs while they are still good and that I can try other new recipes more often. This is always a little happiness of mine.

Read the rest of this post >>

When I was small, raisin was one of the imported food I got to know first and foremost. I remembered that only during our Lunar New Year, raisin would be served to the guests when they visited our home, or when we visited our friends and neighbors’ houses. So in my memory, only when the new year came then raisins also came to our home.

And since imported raisins were not so cheap for an ordinary working family, so to me, it was like a "luxury" good. I also realized that there were different grades of quality, the most delicious and most expensive ones were the "big" raisins with beautiful light golden color. Still, raisins were not something people, especially children, could have during year round.

So I loved raisins since then due to the special taste and the fact that I could eat them on only one occasion of the year. This fact is, of course, wrong now. Yet I still love raisins and everything with raisins. Cookies with raisins always got my attention and inspiration to try making.

These cookies are not very soft but also not very hard. They are not crunchy but also not chewy. They are neither moist nor dry. They are just in the middle of every sense and feeling.

Read the rest of this post >>

I chose this recipe to make in the end of my weekend for some reasons. Firstly, the weather in Singapore these days has been so awful, it has been so hot and oppressive. I just wish to have a heavy rain so that the air is "calmed" down. Sometimes the sun was blindingly dazzling in the sky, heating the air cruelly. Sometimes there was no sun shine at all, the sky was so leaden, seemingly that it wanted to rain but it couldn’t. So I was in no mood in cooking or baking, since I didn’t feel like eating at all. Anyway, I didn’t want to skip any meal, so I tried to make something.

Secondly, I’ve run out of cookie, so I needed to make some for next week. Weekend is when I prepare some kinds of cookies to preserve for my tea time during the day for the following week. So, pulling me out of the dizziness, I made this cookies dusted with icing sugar and cocoa powder. This recipe is very simple in ingredients and baking method. So it is safe for I didn’t want to have any trouble with baking in this uncomfortable atmosphere.

The cookies are firm due to high proportion of flour. The dough itself is not so sweet, which is then compensated by the dusted icing sugar. When eating, the sugar and cocoa will blend with the cookie, so the sweetness is well-balanced.

Read the rest of this post >>

This  thin and fragile looking wafers are crispy and fragrant with both sesame and orange flavor. It takes quite some time to finish all the batter with this recipe. Baking time was short, however, I needed to take care of several task at a time. While a batch of the cookies were being baked in the oven, I had to prepare another batch. I do not make thin cookies so often, thus I was slow at making them equally round and thin. If the cookie batter is not thinly spread onto the baking sheet, some parts would burn more than the others, and the cookies would not have the uniform golden color.

Just after I finished the next batch of cookie batter, the previous batch had been done and I had to quickly remove them from baking sheet and shaped them into slightly curved wafers. Then put the next baking tray into the oven, and came back to transfer the done wafers to the wire rack.

I could not have managed all these stuffs without my fiance’s help. He was quick at transferring the hot cookies to the glass cups to bend the cookies into curved shape. Thus I only had to concentrate on preparing the next batch before the ones in the oven got burned. And so, I got these beautiful golden orange wafers.

Read the rest of this post >>

This cookie is my favorite. It has the chocolate flavor and the hazelnut after being baked released a wonderful aroma. Newly brought out from the oven, they are a bit soft, but then they cool down very fast on the rack. After they become completely cool, the cookies are so crispy.

In addition, the rolled oats add more texture to the cookies. I love having these for my tea break with a cup of black tea. These cookies can also last for long in air-tight containers, which are my best friends and they help keeping my baked products for long time. When making pastry products, I often have to scale down the recipes, but still I cannot reduce a lot. We two people cannot finish so fast, so we always share what we made with our flat-mates and preserve the left. It is so good when we have sudden friends visiting our home. These things will attract them to visit our home more often, to help us finish all these yummy treats.

Ingredients:

- 125g (1/2 cup) butter, softened

- 100g (1/3 cup)  firmly packed dark brown sugar

- 1 large egg, lightly beaten

- 100g (2/3 cup) plain flour

- 50g (1/3 cup) rolled oats

- 1¹/₂ tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

- ¹/₂ tsp baking powder

- ¹/₈ tsp salt

- 90g white chocolate, coarsely chopped

- 90g milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

- 100g coarsely chopped hazelnuts

Cooking:

- Preheat the oven to 180^oC (350^oF).

- Butter a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

- Beat the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until creamy.

- Add the egg, beating until just blended.

- Mix in the flour, oats, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

- Stir in the white and milk chocolates and hazelnuts.

- Drop tsp of the mixture 1cm apart on the prepared baking sheet.

- Bake until risen and craggy, 10-15 minutes.

- Cool on the sheet until the cookies firm slightly. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.