Thai Tea series - Part II Thai Tea Cookies

Thai Tea series - Part I Thai Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

For part II of my Thai Tea series, I decided to do a simple Thai Tea Cookies because I was craving for some munchies :p

Instead of exploring new recipes, I just use my Teddy Bear Cookies recipe and add ground tea leaves instead.

Thai Tea Cookies
(makes 20-25 cookies)

Ingredients

• 100g cake flour
• 25g icing sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp Thai tea leaves
• 1 tbsp egg
• 1 tsp Thai milk tea

Steps

1. Sieve cake flour and icing sugar together. Set aside.
2. Pound/grind the tea leaves into fine powder.
3. Melt butter in a small pot and add tea powder. Let the tea infuse in the butter while the butter cools down for about 10-15 mins. Chill the infused butter in the fridge till it solidifies.
4. Remove the infused butter from the fridge and scrap the butter into the flour mixture.
5. Use the finger tips to rub the butter with the flour mixture till it resembles coarse crumbs.
6. Add egg and milk tea, bring the dough together using spatula till dough forms.
7. Place the dough in between 2 clear plastic sheets. Roll and flatten to about 4mm thickness. Chill the dough sheet in fridge for at least 30 mins.
8. Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius fan mode.
9. Remove dough sheet from fridge, cut to desired shapes and repeat till all dough use up.
10. Bake at 170 degree celsius fan mode for about 13-15 mins.
11. Let the cookies cool completely before storing in airtight container.

Besides the conventional round shape, I cut some dough into teabag shapes and after baking, tie the cookies with a string attached to mini labels. I thought they looked adorable this way :)

The cookies have a lovely thai tea aroma but taste-wise just a whiff of it. Probably I could add more tea leaves (for the butter infusion) or more Thai Milk Tea to the dough. Alternatively, dip the cookies with some thai milk tea sauce. But meanwhile, I'm happy to enjoy them with some Thai Milk Tea :)

Teddy Bear Cookies

Valentine's Day is just one week away! And today I'm in the mood for some love in the form of these adorable Teddy Bear Cookies \(*o*)/

I hardly ever bake cutesy character cookies because I don't eat much cookies in the first place. But I thought the kiddo might appreciate it :)

Baked just a small quantity of twelve pieces in four flavours, original, chocolate, matcha and yam. I thought stamping a heart in the teddy and filling it with some candy makes the teddy look so sweet :)

Wanna join them in a garden tea party?

The trio spreading their love :)

Just one sweet teddy bear is enough for me :)

The cookie is actually easy to make, just a bit tedious as I wanted to have four flavours/colours. If making just one or two flavours, should be quite straightforward.

After combining and sifting cake flour, icing sugar and salt, I divided the mixture into four portions, and added the different flavours accordingly. I bought the matcha and yam powder from a Japanese food fair at Isetan sometime ago; the cocoa powder is Valrhona, my favourite brand of baking/cooking chocolate.

Next add cold unsalted butter to each portion, and rub the butter into the mixture till crumbly. Add egg and bring the mixture together with a spatula till it forms a dough. Do not knead or overwork the dough.

Place the each ball of dough in between 2 layers of plastic sheet, roll into 4-5mm thickness and place in fridge to chill for at least 30 mins.

Using a cookie cutter, stamp the cookie dough and place the dough onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment or mat.

For leftover dough, gather (do not knead), roll into 4-5mm thickness again and place back to the fridge to chill until firm (about 15-30 mins). Stamp using cookie cutter again. For remaining scraps, stamp into tiny hearts and stars till all dough used up.

Notice the crescent-looking bits of dough? Initially I wanted to stick them at the back of the teddy bear so that they can hang on the edge of a mug. I ran out of time to make the holder firm enough so scrapped the idea.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degree celsius (fan mode) for 10 mins. Remove the tray and add crushed hard candy into the stamped heart, then continue baking for another 5-6 mins.

Let the cookies cool down completely.

Decorate the cookies using deco pen or melted chocolate. Store in airtight container.

Teddy Bear Cookies
(makes 12 pieces)

Ingredients

• 210g cake flour
• 45g icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1.5 tsp matcha powder
• 1 tsp yam powder
• 100g cold unsalted butter, divided into 4 portions of 25g each
• 1 large egg, about 56g, divided into 4 portions of 12-13g each

Steps

1. Sift cake flour, icing sugar and salt into a bowl. Divide the mixture (about 256g total) into 4 portions of 63-64g each.
2. Add the cocoa, matcha and yam powders into 3 of the portions respectively (1 portion is original flavour). Mix until well-combined.
3. Add cold butter into the 4 flavour portions respectively. Rub the butter into the mixture till it is crumbly. 
4. Add egg into the 4 flavour portions respectively. Use a spatula to bring the mixture together until it forms a dough. Do not knead or overwork the dough.
5. Place each ball of dough in between 2 layers of plastic sheets. Roll the dough into 4-5mm thickness. Chill the 4-flavour/sheets of dough in fridge for at least 30 mins.
6. Preheat oven (fan mode) at 170 degree celsius.
7. Take out the sheets of dough, use a teddy bear cutter to stamp the dough (2 teddy bears per dough). For remaining dough, gather (do not knead), roll and stamp 1 more teddy bear.
8. Use a mini size heart-shape cutter to stamp the middle of 5 teddy bears. Place the cut-out hearts onto the other 5 teddy bears. For scraps, stamp into mini hearts and stars until all dough used up.
9. Place the teddy bears, hearts and stars onto a baking tray lined with parchment or mat. 
10. Bake at 170 degree celsius (fan mode) for 10 mins. Remove tray and add some crushed hard candy into the stamped heart of the teddy bears.
11. Return tray to oven and bake for another 5-6 mins.
12. Let the cookies cool completely.
13. Decorate the cookies with melted chocolate or deco pen.

So sweet that I can't bear to eat the bear. *pun intended.

But the kiddo just munched and chomped the cookies like nothing. And he already requested to bring four pieces to school for his snack.

Meanwhile, let me indulge in some food porn.

Cuteness overload yet?

Open Faced Pineapple Tarts 黄梨挞

I didn't bake any CNY goodies last year as our whole family "escaped" for a holiday (避年) :p

This year I was contemplating not to bake again, since we are unlikely to have visitors and being lazy and all, but I kept seeing home bakers sharing their baked goodies in FB groups, Instagram etc, and it's so infectious my hands became itchy!

Decided to challenge pineapple tarts again since the hb likes it. In the past years that I baked pineapple tarts, I always made the closed type and this time when I checked with the hb what style he likes, he told me open faced type?! Wow, after knowing him for almost 20 years, now then I know huh!

Ok, open faced pineapple tarts it shall be.

Since it's my first time making open faced pineapple tarts, once again, lots of reading and research to find a recipe that suits me. As usual I refer to my fellow trusty blogger friends like Annielicious Food, Table For 2 or more, TravellingFoodies and a few other popular bloggers like Anncoo Journal, Bake for Happy Kids.


In the end, I referred to TravellingFoodie's recipes for both pineapple jam and Kueh Tair.

First thing first, the pineapple jam. I never buy pineapple jam because I'm not sure if I like the taste (whether too sweet) and texture. I know it's hard work cooking the jam but I just want every component homemade if I could do it.

In the past, I usually blend the pineapple flesh and the jam turned out to be fine and smooth texture. The picky hb said he prefers jam with more bite and texture, which essentially means more work for me lah, coz I have to chopped/hand-grate the pineapple flash.

I intended to make a very small quantity for home consumption, so bought only 2 pineapples, 1 normal and 1 thai honey. Yes, they were already skinned with "eye" removed. Well, slightly more expensive but I was already going to chop and hand grate the pineapples, didn't want to stress myself up more over a few cents.

In the end, I got only 338g of pineapple jam, after 15 mins of chopping and grating and 1 hr of cooking. I guess because of the small quantity, cooking took much shorter time *phew*. Cooked the jam on Saturday and chill it in the fridge.

As advised by Alan (TravellingFoodies) the jam looked a little wet here, so I cooked it for 5-8 mins more before shaping the pastry.

For the pastry, initially I tested a small portion of ingredients using another recipe where the proportion of butter is 80% to flour. Nearly wanna cry when trying to stamp and shape the tart dough because it was too buttery and soft to handle! Alan's recipe used about 60% (some other recipes used 50% or 70%) so it was much more manageable. Managed to prepare the dough on Sunday night and decided to chill it in fridge to make on Monday instead as I was too tired.

At first, I didn't get the workflow properly, and everything was a mess! Luckily managed to make it work in the end. Even though the dough was more manageable, it still turned soft quite quickly. So my personal take is (1) let the dough thaw about 6-8 mins from the fridge, it's easiest to stamp and unmould when still cold and firm (2) dust the moulds with corn starch so that it's easier to unmould the dough. (I have a cake tester on hand to pick out bits of dough that got stuck in the ridges when I didn't dust the moulds thoroughly enough.)

Based on advice from Alan, the dough scraps should only be gathered (don't knead) and re-use once. If keep on re-using the scraps, the tarts will turn out too hard. Yes, there's a lot of wastage involved. I haven't throw the scraps yet, they are still taking up space in my fridge as I felt it's a pity to throw them away. I think I may use them for egg tarts or cheese tarts or something.

This time, I used the full quantity from his recipe even though I know my jam was not enough. So I only re-used (once) about half the dough. Next time I make, I would probably adjust the pastry recipe to about 60-70% or increase the amount of jam.

Left - glazed and before baking. Right - baked.
And so this was my one and only tray of pineapple tarts, 28 small and 25 petite. Yes, all that work for just one tray?!

I think I have slightly over-baked the tarts, by probably 2-3 mins. Don't ask. But still looked ok right?

So is all the work worth it? Yes, I would say, it's rewarding and satisfying to see the labour of love came to fruition =D

Open Faced Pineapple Tarts
(makes 28 small-size tarts 3.5cm mould, 25 petite-size tarts 2.5cm mould)
(reference from TravellingFoodies)

Ingredients
Pineapple Jam (yields 338g)

• 900g pineapple flesh (1 normal 1 thai honey, nett weight after removing skin, eye, core)
• 100g sugar
• 2 small cinnamon sticks

Pastry (more than enough dough, recipe to be adjusted for this amount of jam)

• 320g plain flour
• 30g icing sugar
• 200g salted butter
• 2 egg yolks
• Corn starch, for dusting
• 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp water, for glazing

Steps
Pineapple Jam

1. Finely chopped or hand grate the pineapple flesh. 
2. Add the chopped pineapple flesh (with its juices), cinnamon and 2 tbsp of sugar into a large frying pan with big surface area.
3. Bring the ingredients to a boil, then lower flame to medium. Stir the pineapple occasionally to cook evenly.
4. When the pineapple liquids have been reduced considerably (it takes about 30 mins for this quantity of pineapple), add the remaining sugar. Continue stirring the pineapple till it dries up (it takes another 30 mins to reach this stage). 
5. Let the cooked pineapple jam cool down completely before storing in an airtight container until ready to use (chill in fridge if not using the same day).
6. The final pineapple jam should feel moist and sticky and not wet. If jam is too wet, cook it for a few mins before making the tarts.
7. When ready to use, roll the jam into small balls of desired size. I use 3-4g balls for the petite tarts and 6-7g for the small tarts.

Tart pastry

1.  Sift flour and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and mix well.
2. Add cold butter cubes and rub the butter into the mixture with pastry butter until it resembles coarse cookie crumb.
3. Add the egg yolks and use a spatula to fold through the mixture and bring the dough together. Do not overwork the dough.
4. Divide the dough into three or four portions. Place each portion in between 2 plastic sheets and roll the dough into a 5mm layer. Repeat for all the portions.
5. Chill the dough layers for 1hr or overnight.
6. When ready to use, work on 1 dough layer each time. If using overnight dough, let it thaw for 6-8 mins before using.
7. Dust the pineapple tart mould with corn starch, stamp the dough, carefully remove the tart dough and place it on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Repeat till quantity is sufficient for the pineapple jam.
8. Brush each tart dough with egg yolk glaze, then place a ball of pineapple jam onto the tart dough, pressing down gently.
9. Bake the tarts in preheated oven (top and bottom heat) at 170 degree celsius for 10 mins, rotate baking tray, and bake for another 10 mins. *if the colour of the tart is too pale, turn to fan mode and bake for another 2-3 mins (watch closely).
10. Let the pineapple tarts cool down completely before storing into air-tight containers.

I love how they turned out. The tart pastry is crumbly and buttery and not too hard nor soft. The pineapple jam was not too sweet and the tartness just right for my tastebud, best of all there's still some fibrous bits.

The kiddo gave it 5/5! The hb whom I made the tarts for has yet to try it. He said it looks good. Hopefully it will pass his taste test!

I'm certainly keeping this recipe and likely to be adjusting the proportions for both jam and pastry accordingly. Till then!

Waffle Cookies

I've just came back from a one-week holiday in Hong Kong and the post-trip depression is setting in. Doesn't help that the weather is super hot and humid, as compared to the cool 15-20C I was enjoying :(

To cheer myself up, I decided to make some saccharine sweet-looking waffle cookies!

Spent quite some time trying to compose the photo because I wasn't in the mood (in fact more time than making these cookies). But in the end, I love how the photos turned out, exactly what I wanted, saccharine sweet!

 Couldn't decide whether I like the top view shot or 30 degree view shot. Maybe both :p

Making these waffle cookies was very quick and easy, didn't even require mixer or oven.

Basically whisk softened unsalted butter together with sugar till well-mixed, add egg and vanilla extract and once again whisked till well-mixed. Next, add sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix till dough forms. Divide into 4 portions, and add flavours of choice. I added cocoa powder, matcha powder, some pink icing and strawberry essence and left one portion as original vanilla flavour.

Roll the flavoured dough into small balls of 10g each.

I got a total of 64 balls. Don't they look like Japanese dango (sweet dumpling) =D

Place the dough of balls onto the waffle maker, close and bake/cook for 2.5 - 3 mins, slightly golden brown. Cool the waffle cookies on a wire-rack and store in air-tight container.

Waffle Cookies
(Makes 64 cookies)

Ingredients

• 300g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 120g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2g matcha powder
• 4 g cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp strawberry essence, tinge of pink icing colour

1. Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl, set aside.
2. Whisk unsalted butter and caster sugar till smooth.
3. Add egg and vanilla extract and whisk till smooth.
4. Add flour mixture and fold till well-mixed.
5. Divide dough into 4 portions (about 158g each portion).
6. Add matcha powder, cocoa powder and strawberry essence/icing colour to 3 of the portions respectively. Mix well.
7. Roll the dough into balls of 10g each.
8. Place the dough balls onto waffle maker.
9. Bake/cook for 2.5 to 3 mins, until slightly browned.
10. Cool on wire rack, then store in airtight container.

The vanilla one tasted like plain waffle, but harder form.
The strawberry one tasted like strawberry milk :p
The matcha and cocoa tastes were quite distinct.

While these cookies looked so lovely and sweet, I didn't quite like the overall taste. I mean, it's not really like cookies, it's crunchy but a bit floury. They were not too sweet, so I guess suitable for young children?

The kiddo tasted it, and also didn't like the texture. Gosh. So this is one of those cookies that look better than they taste. Thinking whether to discard them?

Luckily, some really nice and helpful readers of Singapore Home Cooks FB Group suggested to eat them with ice-cream,  drizzle with chocolate sauce or eat with nutella. Yes, I guess I could try making parfait with them as well.

Probably can try other recipe, like the German cookies that was very popular a while ago? Well, see how my mood goes...

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

Spicy Dried Shrimp Sambal (Hae Bee Hiam) Cookies with homemade hae bee hiam

I first learnt about Hae Bee Hiam cookie from a dear friend WH last CNY; he told me that it's very yummy and addictive. He tried it at this shop called The Cookie Museum. Was quite curious about the taste since I like salty sweet type of cookies and so when I chanced upon The Cookie Museum's stall at Takashimaya basement food hall, I definitely had to try it. The sampling cookie was about 20 cents size stored in little glass jars and I quite liked such pop size cookies. It was crunchy, spicy and salty. Not bad. Initially wanted to buy a jar, but those were for sampling only! The actual size of the cookies for sale is big and comes in a large tin. Nay, not buying because I know I won't be able to finish the whole lot. Probably I could try baking them myself? So I researched the internet for recipes on both hae bee hiam and cookies and bookmarked a few to try.

Then last August, Chef Joycelyn Shu conducted a demo class on Heirloom Snacks at Shermay's Cooking School and one of the recipes featured was Hae Bee Hiam cookies. I jumped at the opportunity to attend the class and learnt many tips from Chef Joycelyn.

The first part to the cookie was cooking the hae bee hiam. Well, I could buy ready-made ones from grocery stores and supermarkets but nothing beats homemade right? I will share more about hae bee hiam below, after the cookie recipe.

Next part is the cookie dough; some recipes on the internet use a straightforward butter cookie method, and as for Chef Joycelyn, hers was more of shortbread texture by adding corn flour and icing sugar. Her cookies were very nice at first bite, but a tad too salty and overwhelming, I found myself eating one piece and couldn't eat anymore. So I adapted the recipe with references from various sources, tested it a few times with taste-tests from some friends as well. For the past versions, friends commented that it was not spicy enough, some said it's interesting and special. Haha. WH tried and he liked it. Yay!

Anyways, the current version is an improved version, both the cookie dough (slightly shortbread texture which I prefer) and hae bee hiam. I quite like it, but I guess will continue to tweak the recipe here and there based on feedback. When I was baking the cookie, the entire house was filled with the combined aroma of hae bee hiam and butter! Intoxicating! And the cookie is addictive, kept popping one after another. They turned soft fairly quickly when I left them on the baking tray for too long, probably due to our humid weather. Got to keep them in airtight container as soon as they are cooled. Probably reduce the corn flour, or use caster sugar instead of icing sugar. Will try for the next batch.

Spicy Dried Shrimp Sambal (Hae Bee Hiam) Cookies
(yields about 138-140 pcs, using 3cm diameter fluted cutter)

Ingredients

• 160g Plain flour
• 50g Corn flour
• 160g Unsalted butter, cubed and slightly softened
• 50g Icing sugar
• 200g Hae Bee Hiam (see recipe below)
• 1 & 1/2 tsp Fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp Chilli flakes/powder or Korean Gochugaru
• 1/2 tsp Fine shrimp sauce
• 1/2 tsp Fine salt
• Zest of 1 thai lime and 2 small lime

Steps

1. Sift plain flour and corn flour together. Set aside.
2. If hae bee hiam is too chunky, take about 3/4 portion and use a food chopper to blend till flossy. 
3. In a mixing bowl, add butter and icing sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy about 3-4 mins, stopping to scrap bowl as necessary.
4. Add hae bee hiam, fish sauce, chilli powder, shrimp sauce, salt and lime zest. Mix until well-combined.
5. Add flour mixture in 2-3 additions, till just combined.
6. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Place each portion between 2 sheets of cut-up clear plastic bags. Use a rolling pin to roll and flatten the dough into 6mm even thickness dough sheet.
7. Place the dough sheets in the fridge to chill for an hour or freezer for 30 mins so that the dough will be firm enough to stamp.
8. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 160 degree celsius on fan mode. Line baking tray with Silpat mat or parchment paper.
9. Work on 1 sheet of dough each time. Open the top plastic sheet, stamp dough using 3cm flutter cookie cutter and place cookie onto the baking tray. For the scraps, gather into dough again and repeat step 6-7. Repeat till all dough used up.
10. Bake the cookies at 160 degree celsius for 12 mins. Once done, let the cookies cool completely and store them in air-tight container, for up to 2 weeks.

Ahhh, Hae Bee Hiam or Spicy Dried Shrimp Sambal. I didn't think much of this condiment which is easily taken for granted because it's so common here in Asian. While store-bought ones are readily available, many households choose to cook their own and each holds their personal concoction passed down from mums to mums. We ate them with steamed rice, nasi lemak, stir fry it with vegetables and during CNY, wrap it in mini spring roll wrappers and deep fry them. I love munching on hae bee hiam rolls!

While searching on the internet for recipes, I saw many that used dried shrimp, dried/fresh chilli, shallots and garlic which is the typical recipe. Then I found some recipes which are nonya style, with the addition of more spices like belachan, lemongrass, candlenut, tumeric, kaffir lime leaves... I love the use of aromatic spices especially lemongrass so decided to use the nonya version. Actually I dislike frying rempah at home, it's a tedious and tiring job! But what to do, I want to try everything from scratch (was so tempted to just buy a bottle from supermarket to make the cookies!).

The ingredients include dried shrimp (partly ground), belachan, gula melaka, lemongrass, garlic, shallots, candlenut, small red chilli, kaffir lime leaves, ground tumeric and tamarind water.

For the frying part, oil, tamarind water (tamarind pulp + water), shaved gula melaka and the rempah spice paste (belachan, chilli, garlic, shallot, lemongrass, candlenut, kaffir lime leaves, ground tumeric),

Spicy Dried Shrimp Sambal (Hae Bee Hiam)
(Yields about 615g)

Ingredients

• 300g Dried shrimp, rinsed and drained

Tamarind water

• 50g Tamarind pulp
• 80ml Water

Rempah spice paste

• 3/4 tsp Belachan, slightly toasted
• 30 cloves Garlic
• 15 Shallots
• 15 Small red chilli (discard seeds if prefer less spicy)
• 3 stalks Lemongrass, inner tender sections, last 8cm
• 3 Candlenut
• 3/4 Tbsp Ground tumeric
• 3 Kaffir lime leaves, cut into tiny pieces
• 160ml Cooking oil
• 80 Gula Melaka, shaved

Steps

1. Grind the dried shrimp using a food processor or electric chopper till partly chunky and partly flossy. Then pan-fry (without oil) for a few mins until aromatic. Set aside.
2. Add water to the tamarind pulp, rub the pulp to extract more flavour. Then strain to get tamarind water (squeeze pulp to get as much juice as possible). Set aside.
3. Using food processor or electric chopper, grind the garlic, shallots, chilli, lemongrass, candlenut and belachan until they turn into a paste. Add ground tumeric and kaffir lime leaves, mix till well-blended.
4. Add cooking oil in a large wok over medium low heat. Once oil is heated, add the rempah paste, fry and stir constantly, until rempah changes colour, from orange to reddish and aroma from raw to fragrant.
5. Add the tamarind water, mix well. Then add the dried shrimp and gula melaka. Stir and cook till gula melaka is melted. The hae bee hiam remains quite moist.
6. Cool the hae bee hiam completely before storing in containers, for up to 3 weeks in fridge or up to 2 months in freezer.

I divided the hae bee hiam into three portions, each tub about 200g for the hae bee hiam cookie recipe. This batch was a bit chunky and nice to snack on its own but I had to further grind them for the cookies. Couldn't resist stealing spoonfuls of it :p So addictive! Hubby commented that the tumeric taste was too strong but I thought it was ok, would probably reduce the quantity next batch.

I guess will be making more batches of hae bee hiam and cookies in the upcoming few weeks, will provide updates if any!

Iced Gems II 糖霜饼干 II

Following the success of the Iced Gems that I made last week, I decided to make another batch using a different recipe from Cherry on a Cake. I have some royal icing left anyway, and I had promised my kiddo to let him try on it.

I found this biscuit recipe much easier to handle than the one I used earlier. The dough is pliable but not sticky, making it so much easier to stamp the biscuits and best of all, I didn't even need to chill the dough. However, the biscuit would rise and lose its shape a little during baking because baking powder is used.

This biscuit is more rustic, dry and plain, and pretty tasteless since no sugar is added. So in fact, it matched the sugary icing really well. Now I couldn't decide which recipe I prefer, the other is more buttery and fragrant, whereas this is more rustic. I guess this recipe would be easier for beginners who are keen to make iced gems.

Ingredients used were slightly different. Plain flour, baking powder, salt, butter and milk (previous recipe used plain flour, butter, sugar, egg and golden syrup).

Method is pretty much the same as previous recipe, except that the dough could be used immediately without chilling at all. Stamping the biscuit dough was so much easier and faster. But baking time was slightly longer in order to fully cook the dough.

Iced Gems 糖霜饼干
(yields about 98-100 biscuits, recipe adapted from Cherry on a Cake)

Biscuit recipe

•  115g plain flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 40g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 45g milk (up to 70g if needed)

1. Sift plain flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.
2. Add cold cubed unsalted butter into the flour mixture, use the fingers to press the butter cubes into the flour until it resembles coarse sand.
3. Add milk little by little and mix the dough using spatula till smooth. Add more milk if dough is too dry.
4. Roll the dough into 3mm thickness and stamp the dough into desired shapes.
5. Place the biscuit dough on a baking tray lined with baking paper/silpat mat. Bake at 180 degree celsius (fan mode) for 15 minutes till golden brown. Let the biscuits cool down completely before piping the icing.

*Please refer to my previous post on royal icing recipe.

I let the kiddo try stamping the dough and piping the icing and he had fun especially the icing part. And he couldn't stop licking the icing and munching on the biscuits!