Almond Cookies - 杏仁饼

Because of my colleague Rebecca who loves to eat "Almond Cookies", she asked me to help her google some reliable recipes that will produce those melt-in mouth type of texture which she is looking for. But when she tried the recipes that I gave her, the result was not what she expected. And since I also can't find the recipe that I used for making the Almond Cookies for her two years ago. I decided to pick one from the web (which I google for so long, seems harder to find almond cookies compare to the rest) which I think might work well from the ingredients and photo shown.

Most of the Almond Cookie recipes call for either melted butter/oil or both. Some use a little as 1 Tablespoon of Ground Almond whereas this recipe that I try from Malaysia Best website, she actually use equal amount of ground almond to flour. But instead of following her using Caster Sugar, I thought maybe I can swap it with Icing Sugar which is similar recipe to the Peanut Cookies that I did earlier. I also replace the freshly roasted and grind almond with those pre-packed ground almond meal for this trail bake.

Ingredients: (24 Cookies)
100g Ground Almond
100g Top Flour/Wheat Flour
50g Icing Sugar
30g Butter, cut into small cubes
70g Peanut/Corn Oil

Egg Wash:
1 Egg Yolk + 1 Teaspoon Egg White, beat well

Method:
1. Mix flour and sugar in a mixing bow and rub in butter till resemble bread crumbs.
2. Stir in the ground almond and mix well.
3. Next slowly pour in the oil and knead till it form a dough.
4. Set a set to rest for 20 minutes then roll into marble sizes.
5. Brush it with egg wash and bake in pre-heated 175 degree oven for 15 - 20 minutes.
6. Leave it on cooling rack to cool completely before storing in air tight container.


I don't know how come my Almond Cookies seems kind of flatten like those Westen type of "Almond Cookies".... Em... I think aparts from the swappig of items from the original recipe, I did add in like 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder to the flour mixture... Wondering will this affect the outlook of the cookies? But despite on the different of the outlook from the usual almond cookies that is sold for Chinese New Year. The one that I made here, look kind of like those "Traditional Flat Almond Biscuit" sold in those old bakery shop. Em... I shall let R tried a few of this when I get to see her at work next week......But for me and my family, we find this cookie is rather towards the crispy type compare to those those melt-in mouth texture.

Peanut Cookies - 花生酥

After resting for a week or so, I have some discussion going on with my colleague R regarding on what to bake for Chinese New Year. She was telling me that she had a few packets of chopped peanut being left over from the instant "Tangyuan - 汤圆" that she bought during December 2009 "Dong Zhi - 冬至".

Since I have not make any "Peanut Cookies -花生酥" before, I decided to do a google search for some suitable recipes, but some of it don't really look appetising from the photos. So after some mix and match on the recipes that I settle on one that I feel is easier to prepared and will yield good results based on the comments given.

From some of the recipes that I google it didn't really mention which type of peanut to be used for the recipe. So in order to save time for the trial baking, I bought the pre-packed ground peanut powder which most people used it for dessert purpose. The peanuts are finely grind into powder like texture and mixture of caster sugar based on the packet ingredients stated. So in this case, I have to cut down the amount of sugar used so that it is not too sweet due to the extra sugar in the ground peanut mixture.

Ingredients: (makes 36 marble sizes)
100g Ground Peanut Powder
100g Top Flour/Plain Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
50g Icing Sugar
60g Roasted Salted Peanut, finely chopped
70ml Peanut Oil/Corn Oil

Egg Wash:
1 Egg Yolk + 1 Teaspoon White, beat well

Method:
1. Mix flour, baking powder, ground peanut and icing sugar(sieved) together in a mixing bowl.
2. Next toss in the chopped peanuts and mix well.
3. Slowly add in peanut oil (you might required slightly 10 - 15ml more) to mix the flour mixture into a dough. (after stir in the oil with the spoon, use hand to knead and mix the dough will be much easier)
4. When the dough bind together, shape the dough accordingly to your preference size and shapes, brush with egg wash.
5. Bake in preheat 170 degree oven for about 15 - 20 minutes(depend on the sizes) till golden brown.
6. Set it aside on cooling rack to cool completely before storing it in air-tight container.


This is one of the most easier to prepare Chinese New Year cookies based on the short-cut that I have taken for the ingredients use :p But if you have the time for doing the preparation, I encourage that you might want to spend some time to roast the peanut till fragrant then grind it so that it will produce a even more fragrant and melt-in-mouth effect.

But no matter which type of methods/recipes your prefer, below are some interesting links that you might want to read about on their recipes/tips on making peanut cookies which I personally think is very useful:-

1. Malaysian Best - Peanut Cookies
2. Happy Home Baking - Cookie Galore
3. Do What I like - Chinese Peanut Cookies

Pork Rib Soup - 得运肉骨茶

Trying out this Pork Rib Soup - 肉骨茶 stall that is located at Block 417 of Jin San Leng Coffee Shop at Yishun Ave 11 was never list even though we used to patronise that coffee shop after our usual Sunday church service. But after watching one of the episode from "New City Beat - 城人新杂志" whereby they feature all the yummy food that is available at this stall, we decided to join the crowd for a try.

We reach the coffee shop around 5.45pm but there was already a large crowds of customers waiting for their food to be served. So while ordering, the person who takes the ordered alert me that we might have to wait for around 20 - 30 minutes for the food to be ready.

We ordered their famous Prime Rib(排骨) Soup whereby the the meat will be soft and of good quality. The taste of the soup is great which is not heavy infused by the spices or herbs, but I think it can be better if it is slight less salty. (you can also ask for re-filled of the soup if you wish to have a 2nd helping)

Braised Pork Trotter is always one of my favourite childhood food which my dad always cooked it for us at least once a month. Honestly, I think a bowl of good and flavour braised pork trotter lies on the spices and the texture of the trotter. And the braised trotter at this stall is just nice, the layer of "fat" is so soft and yummy when you put into your mouth and the meat itself is also tender to bite.

Other than pork ribs soup and braised trotter, this stall also have other signature dishes like pork liver or kidney soup, steam fish, fishcake and etc. So if you happen to drop by Yishun area, perhaps you might want to give this stall a try.

White Bee Hoon @ You Huak Restaurant

Wondering whether you still remember a few week ago, I have shared with you some tasty BBQ Chicken Wing from a coffee shop stall opposite Sembawang Shopping Centre? Today, we will be exploring another coffee shop around the same area which is called "White Bee Hoon - 白米粉".

You Huak Restaurant is located at a corner of the road junction with 3 huge yellow square signboard written with the word "白米粉" which you can see it from far away. In this coffee shop there is only one "Zhi Cha stall - 煮炒摊" that is always packed with waiting customers who comes to patronise their signature dish which is the "Teochew Style White Bee Boon".

For today's dinner, we ordered 3 side dishes plus their signature "White Bee Hoon". Since it is around dinner time, the area is packed with a lot of waiting customers and we waited for about 20 minutes or more before the dishes arrived. First to be served is our favourite "Sweet & Sour Pork - 咕嚕肉" dish which cooked with a mixture of pineapple, assorted bell pepper and etc. Although the appearance of the dish look great and the sauce is appetising, but we find that the pork is rather a bit too tough. Maybe it had being over deep-fried or the type of meat use is rather not suitable. So in this case, we only rate it as 5.5/10.

Next to be on the table is their "Teochew Seafood White Bee Hoon", although this might look rather plain or simple but the taste is indeed good. From a glance around the coffee shop, you can see almost each and every table has a plate of this White Bee Hoon with different ingredient such as seafood, fish, or normal.

This seems to be a cross between zhi cha Fried Bee Hoon and "Hokkien Fried Prawn Noodle - 福建面". Both are fried with prawn or other ingredients then braised with some gravy and egg sauce then served with small lime for that extra fragrant. This dish also come with their special homemade belacan chilli which makes the bee hoon even more tastier.

We also ordered our all-time favourite which is this "Xia Zao - 虾枣". There are a few version of this tradition dish, some of it consists of ingredients such as "prawn, yam cubes, five spice powder and etc". The one that we had from this stall look great on the serving prawn, but the inner filling is too dry and it also taste salty compare to some of the best one that we have tried before. So this is not a recommending dish unless you prefer this kind of texture/taste.

We love this... I think this taste even better than the "Xia Zao". The bitter gourd is cut into slices (which in this case, they cut it slightly thicker than the usual one that we cooked at home). The egg and the bitter gourd is nicely fried and the aroma is so fragrant that you will want to keep on eating it. According to the waitress, they have two different version of fried bitter gourd egg, one is dry which is the one you saw on the above photo while the other is the wet version which consists of gravy and egg sauce.

Other than these 4 simple dishes, they also have a lot of signature dishes that you might be interested to explore with. I saw people having crabs, flower clams(la-la), crayfish and etc... all are worth trying.....