I was able to get my soft, chewy and slightly brownie-like texture this time round. My previous attempt with the same cookie batter yielded a more crispy batch of cookies. This time round, I moulded a thicker cookie dough onto the baking sheet for every individual cookie. Baking time remains approximately the same, about 12-13 mins at 160 degrees celsius. I took out my remaining ball of cookie dough from the freezer and sit at the room temperature for about 1-2 hours or until the dough has fully thawed and suitable to mould. I moulded each cookie individually instead of rolling and slicing from a long cylinder of dough. They are similar to subway's double chocolate cookie! Just play around with the thickness of your cookie dough and the baking duration to get your desired cookie texture. This cookie recipe is fantistically awesome!

Talking about cookies, the first thing that came to my mind is none other than subway! I am a huge fan of subway cookies. If not for the sinful calories, I will have them everyday! I love how soft and chewy their cookies are! My favourites are chocolate chip and white chip cookies! Their double chocolate chip cookie is probably one of my last few options. Ironically, I fell in love with the world peace cookies that my friend baked for us during one of our meetings. They were really really yummy and i couldn't stop snacking on them throughout the meeting. Although i am a great fan of cookies, i hardly bake them because I don't seem to connect well with cookies. They are delicious but i just cant seem to bake 'nice-looking' cookies. Whenever i bake cookies, they always turn out to be very crispy.  This recipe should yield a soft, chewy and slightly brownie-like cookie but they were still on the crispy side when i bake them. The next time I'll probably bake slightly bigger and thicker cookies so they would be softer and chewy. This recipe is a must keep and i'll definitely bake them again! I've reduced the sugar level from the original recipe so that it complements the sweetness from the chocolate chips.

These are my Scottish Almond Shortbread. (Apart from the calories,) Shortbread is definitely one of my favourite snack. I love the buttery and a slight pinch of milky taste of this almond shortbread. Next time, I'll up the almond so it'll be more crunchy! If you prefer a strong almond flavour,you may want to add more ground almond. I was so excited to see my Almond Scottish Shortbread that I did not refrigerate the dough until firm before sending them into the oven. Refrigerating the dough until firm enables you to cut them into interesting shapes with a cookie cutter. I merely baked them in an 8inch square tin and cut them into little cubes for easy distribution and to fit my containers!!



Ingredients:

A:
125g butter
125g butter cup canola gold butter
85g icing sugar

B:
190g plain flour
75g corn flour
60g ground almond
1/2 tbsp milk powder

C:
Chopped Toasted whole almond. ( I used sliced almond)

Steps:
- Preheat oven to 170 degree C
- Mix A until well blended
- Add in B until well blended
- Toss in C until well incorporated.
- Line yr 8 inch square tin w parchment paper and lightly grease it.
- Pour yr batter into the tin and use a knife to slice the batter into yr desired shapes that you intend to divide later. - Pop them into the preheated oven and bake them for 25-30 mins/ until slightly golden brown.
- Run your knife along the lines you have sliced previously.
- Leave it to cool for about 15-30 mins before removing them from the tin. (if not, they will fall apart! )

Alternatively, click here for my plain traditional shortbread recipe!

I've been wanting to make jam drops. They look so pretty. Well, i intended to make these as christmas food gifts for my potluck last Christmas. But i realise such cookies easily become v soft ( lou feng) when they are exposed to open air for a long time. They are best kept in a tupperware as soon as they are almost cooled after taking them out from the hot oven. Nevertheless, they still taste fabulous! Give this a try!



Ingredients:
125g butter (room temperature)
100g caster sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 egg
190g self raising flour
Jam
Confectionary / powdered sugar ( topping)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar until smooth.
2. Add Vanilla essence and egg. Continue to beat until smooth.
3. sieve the flour over butter mixture until uniform consistency.
4. Roll teaspoon full of mixture into balls
5. Place on the prepared tray. gently press the centre of each ball with your fingers/ the back of a spoon to form a hole.
6. Fill these holes with Jam and pop them into the oven. They are ready when they are lighly browned.
7. sprinkle some powdered sugar on the top of the cookies.

Tip: Do not fill the Jam to the brim of the hole as it may overflow during baking. Avoid adding the watery portion of the jam onto the cookie as it may cause the cookie to turn soggy at the centre. Add the custard like portion of the jam.

Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert that consists of three basic ingredients. Really easy to bake. A desert for any occasion. Be it Christmas or any ordinary day. Perfect for a snack in the late afternoon, accompanied by a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Of course, you could also bake them in squares or any other shapes you want. I drizzled some melted chocolate onto my shortbread and it's delicious. Alternatively, they are ideal for Apple Crumble's crust too!




Ingredients:
3/4 cup of unsalted butter.
1 ¾ cup of All Purpose Flour
¾ cup of Confectioner Sugar
½ tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

1)Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; line an baking tin with parchment paper coming up the sides of the pan, spray with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
2)Using an electric mixer, mix together the confectionary sugar and butter until very creamy.
3) Add the flour and salt and mix for 1 minute.
4) Press the dough into the parchment paper lined pan and press it all to make sure it’s even. Using a butter knife or a bench knife, cut the dough.
5) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly golden. As soon as you take them out of the oven, run your knife through all the cuts and let them cool completely.

*Remove from the pan and dip them in melted chocolate if you chose or sprinkle some granulated sugar while it is still hot.

I've been baking bread these days.
#Reason 1: less sinful than other deserts.
#Reason2 : my electric handmixer just Died after I tried to mix my dough using the freaking small dough hooks.
#Reason 3: I love bread.
After several attempts, I realise that baking a good bread really isn't easy. Unlike cakes n cookies, bread is more tacky to deal with. The time taken is alot longer. You need time to knead , ferment and proof. I usually take half a day to bake my bread. Prolly is because I m Pretty new to this. I hand knead my dough every occasion and it is rly tiring. Each time taking about an hour. By the end, I'll be sweating like a mad horse. Definitely a good workout. After these attempts, I feel that we've been taking bread for granted. I mean bread is easily available cheaply from bakeries everywhere. Similar to rice, it frequently appears in our diet and it's a necessity. Despite the more tedious process, bread is not as appreciated as muffins, cakes etc... Right now, I m more appreciative of bread. Behind the pretty looking buns siting comfortably in the bakeries, are actually slogging their lungs out kneading the dough. Okay, that's quite exaggerating. I know tech is advance and there's bread machines now. -__-" But hey, in the past, they dont right!! I rly salute those bakers who hand kneaded their brea in the bakeries. You have my respect man. Okay back to now, I am still far far from average. But I'll keep doing it!
My very first attempt baking bread was sweet bread dough, taken from "magic bread" by Alex Goh. It is a wonderful recipe but I ruined it. I did not knead my dough enough. It was elastic but it failed the window pane test. But I was so excited that I went ahead with the next step. Wrong move. Next, my first proofing was nicely done. But my second proofing was horrible. I just shaped the dough and left them on a plate for abt 30 mins. In fact, second proofing, also known as the final rise is v crucial to give you a light and fluffy bread. Unfortunately, I ruined it.
I tried making some Kaya buns with my grandma's homemade kaya. I didn't know
how to wrap the kaya properly and it oozed out of the buns even before sending them into the oven. The other bread was almond raisins rolls. I sliced them too thinly and the fillings were overflowing. In all, I made a mess. The buns were too compact. Best eaten when it's hot because there were like rocks when they had cooled. Nevertheless, I had a great time!! It's a good start of my bread baking journey.