CNY Bakes 2015 三羊开泰新年年饼

Happy Chinese New Year! Oh my goodness, tomorrow is already the last day (15th day) of the Lunar New Year celebrations! The past 2 weeks have really gone by in a flash, and I have been so busy with visiting, cooking and hosting. Should be written this post long ago but seriously no energy :p

This year, I was rather ambitious in my bakes and decided to come up with three flavours in line with the CNY theme. Besides baking for my own consumption, I invited some close friends to place orders if they were interested.

My CNY Bakes 2015 三羊开泰新年年饼

• Salted egg yolk cookie "金"玉满堂
• Hae bee hiam cookie 喜"虾"(哈)大笑
• Salty chewy chocolate chip cookie "朱"光宝气

What is the similarity between these 3 cookies? They are all savoury cookies! Haha. Somehow I prefer savoury cookies with a tinge of saltiness, as I tend to get sick of sugary sweet cookies very quickly.

One of my favourite cookie recipe, the Salted Egg Yolk Cookie. Baked this cookie last year and received very good feedback so decided to include it in the baking list this year. The salted egg yolk was procured from Hong Kong; got a few packs when I visit Hong Kong last December. In Hong Kong salted egg yolk is sold on its own (without the egg white) in vacuum packs.

Love this melt-in-the-mouth cookie which is very slightly sweet with a tinge of saltiness and with an added fragrance from the salted egg yolk.

The hae bee hiam cookie is something new. I love the mini hae bee hiam rolls so making it into a cookie is something different. A little sweet, a little salty, a little spicy and very fragrant. But somehow I got mixed reviews about it, some people liked it while some don't. Hmmm, maybe I still need to refine the recipe further.

Another of my favourite cookie recipe, the Salty Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie. Made with Valrhona Chocolate Perles and topped with Maldon Sea Salt, the exterior is crispy while interior is chewy. I love how the sea salt breaks the monotonous sweetness of the chocolate and the different texture of the cookie. Simply addictive!

Besides packing the cookies in tubs, I also offered them in sampler boxes.

I must say that baking cookies is more tiring than baking cakes, because it's tedious to produce hundreds of cookies ensuring they are of the same quality, size and shape. Really need to think twice whether or not to take orders for next CNY! Well, I have a year to ponder, till then :p