Milky Teething Sticks and Cranberry Butter Cookies

 2 cookies done!

 

 milky teething sticks

 

 cranberry butter cookies

 



Sorry for the low quality pictures again. Since this is for CNY, so I better post it quickly. :)
Phin Zhe will have these two cookies for CNY. Emm...I figure out I won't have time to make more. :D
I used very minimum sugar for these recipes, so there is no need to reduce further.

Milky Teething Sticks
Ingredients:
40g melted unsalted butter
25g castor sugar(I used ground brown sugar)
1 medium egg
175g unbleached flour(sifted)
2 tbsp milk powder

Method:
1.  Mix flour and milk powder together. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with a manual whisk until sugar dissolved.
3. Add in egg and beat until mix well.
4. Fold in flour mixture to the egg mixture. Mix well.
5. Place on a pastry mat, knead for a while.
6. Put into a pastry bag, roll into a flat piece.
7. Place in fridge for 30 minutes.
8. Cut into sticks and place on baking tray with parchment paper.
9. I brushed the sticks with some egg yolk for nicer color, but that is not a must.
10. Bake in preheated oven at 160'c for 10 to 15 minutes.

Notes: If you want it to be more milky, you can add 1-2 tbsp condensed milk. I omitted that because I want to keep as simple as possible for my boy. And if you are feeding a smaller babies, please reduce the baking temperature(eg 140'c). In that case, you get a soft texture, not crunchy type.

Cranberry Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
75g unsalted butter
35g castor sugar(I used ground brown sugar)
150g unbleached low protein flour(sifted)
22g corn starch/potato starch
30g dried cranberry
40g egg
1/4tsp baking powder(optional)

1. Mix flour, starch and baking powder together. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add in egg and beat until creamy.
4. Fold in flour mixture.
5. Mix in cranberry.
6. Form the dough into a rectangular cuboid shape.
7. Keep in fridge for more than 4 hours.
8. Cut into 5cm thickness and place on baking tray with parchment paper.
9. Bake in preheated oven at 175'c for 15 to 20 minutes.

German cookies

A very famous chinese new year cookies among Malaysia and Singapore bloggers since year 2011. It took me 4 years to try out the recipe. lol.

Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter
40g powdered brown sugar(I reduced to 30g)
80g unbleached flour(sifted)
125g potato starch

Method:
1. Beat butter and brown sugar until creamy and pale in color.
2. Add in flour and potato starch. Mix well.
3. Lay parchement paper on baking tray.
4. Form small balls(about 6g each) and place on parchment paper.
5. Use the back of a fork to press on each of the balls.
Tips: After each press, dip the fork in water. This will avoid the dough to stick on the fork.
6. Bake at preheated oven at 170'c for 15 minutes.

Even though I have reduced the sugar, but I still feel that the butter content and sugar is a bit on the high side for toddlers. Luckily my son prefer the flaxseed crackers. He said it is pancake. :p

Flaxseed crackers

I will try to adapt any recipes with the healthy ingredients on my kitchen shelf. This recipe is quite similar to the almond cracker recipe. For this recipe, you can substitute the flaxseed with sesame seeds. And if you have a digital scale that can be reset to zero, then you can prepare this with a single bowl and a spoon, which means less cleaning to be done later. ;) I use a salad bowl.

Ingredients(This recipe yields 2 tray):
20g melted unsalted butter
2 medium eggs(~100g)
30g powdered brown sugar
60g sifted low protein flour
100g flaxseeds

Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar with a spoon until sugar melted.
2. Add in eggs and mix well.
3. Fold in flour and flaxseeds.
4. Lay parchment paper on baking tray.
5. Scoop a spoon of batter on the parchement paper, use the back of the spoon to spread out to average and thin layer.
6. Bake at preheated 170'c for 10 to 15 minutes until slightly golden.

Molasses Oatmeal Cookies

The idea of this recipe comes from Barbara's Smackimals cookies. I bought one pack and found that it is too sweet so I decided to make my own. I like this recipe because oats and molasses are good. All my cookies recipes use minimum sugar, so if you find that store bought cookies are too sweet to your liking, you should try making your own cookies. Making cookies is fast and easy!

Ingredients:
120g oats(I used rolled oats, instant oats is fine too)
120g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
70g molasses sugar
1 cup/220g oil(I used grapeseed oil)

Method:
1. Put all ingredients in food processor and pulse until well mix. If you do not have a food processor, then just knead with hands.
2. Take out the mixture, knead into a dough. If too dry add a bit of oil, if too sticky add a bit of flour.
3. Keep in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
4. Roll out and shape with cookies cutters.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 150'c for about 10minutes.

Christmas cookies

christmas cookies 

project 1: christmas tree felt activity 

It is really different with a toddler around. If you enjoy learning together with them, everything in life can be interesting and fun. :-) So this Christmas, I decided to have 3 projects at home. Since I made the first felt activity for Phin Zhe, I just loved it and bought more felt with different colors. It is so convinient because felt can stick to another piece of felt easily. The first project has to be a felt activity. I sticked an empty Christmas tree and passed Phin Zhe other shapes. "Can you hang the Christmas decoration on the branches?" He did it happily. And now everytime when I need a 10 minutes break, I will remove all the decorations and ask him to do it again.

project 2: real Christmas decoration

We have been talking about getting a Christmas tree since we moved in 5 years ago. Now we have a better reason to get it.

project 3: Christmas cookies 

Phin Zhe has involved in every steps of making the cookies. It took longer time compare to if I were to make it alone and it was a little bit messy. But I felt so happy when I saw Phin Zhe smiled to the gingerbread men cookies and shouted,"I made gingerbread men cookies!"

I only managed to make 10 packs because the rest was not nicely moulded. But nevermind, Phin Zhe will finish them.


Ingredients:
125g melted butter
60g brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp ginger juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
300g unbleached flour

Method:
1. Mix flour, cinnamon and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Add in egg yolk and beat until creamy.
4. Stir in flour mixture and ginger juice. Mix well.
5. Put the dough on pastry mat or flat surface and knead until smooth.
6. Place in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
7. Roll out and cut with cookies cutters.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 140'c for 10 minutes.
Do note that different cookies thickness will need different timing.

Carrot Muffins

the one without pecan on top is for Phin Zhe

My mum used to make tasty and healthy carrot cake for me and now it is my turn to make for my son. :) I would not want to bake a whole cake on a working day morning, so I tweaked the recipe and changed it to muffin recipe.

I measured everything the night before(step 1 done and sugar in a separated bowl) and kept the grated carrot in fridge. This morning I just need to mix and bake. What a lovely morning with carrot cake fresh from the oven and a glass of homemade black soy milk.

I passed one to Phin Zhe's teacher. She has a cupcake project for the kids and they will bring the end products to old folks home. Before I could reach office, I received her watapps message saying that it is very delicious and feel like getting an oven to pick up baking. Please try the recipe and tell me that she is not trying to be polite. ;)

This recipe makes 8 muffins.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups(150g) all-purpose flour(sifted twice)
1/2 cup(50g) chopped almonds/walnuts/pecans(I used walnuts)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups(195g) grated carrots
2/3 cup(68g) vegetable oil(I used grape seed oil)
1 cup(145g) brown sugar
(I used 75g only)
3 eggs
** I might further reduce the sugar to 70g because now Phin Zhe can finish one muffin on his own. I do not want him to develop a sweet tooth.**

Method
1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon together. Set aside.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar until mix well and sugar are almost melted.
3. Add in carrots, vegetable oil to the egg mixture and mix well.
4. Stir in flour mixture and mix well . Don’t over mix.
5. Scoop into cupcake liners and bake in preheated oven at 160’c for 15 to 20 minutes or until tester/toothpick comes out clean.

Purple Sweet Potatoes Buns

I have a bun recipe that I keep repeating almost every Sunday. The recipe makes 12 buns and I will normally make 6 with fillings or toppings, and make 6 plain to keep for Monday. Today I just want to finish up the left over purple sweet potatoes from yesterday mantou. I added 2 tsp brown sugar to the hot mashed sweet potatoes. Once cool down, they are ready to be used. I just love the way they are, organic and real. I can put as much fillings as I want, and they are not very sweet so I won't feel guilty eating them. :)

orange sponge cake with greek yogurt frosting

One week before his birthday.
"Mami, I want to CELEBRATE my birthday in school."
I was stunned.
Actually last year when Phin Zhe was still in the infant care group, the nanny hinted me that I can celebrate his birthday in school with the youngest playgroup(He was the only baby back then). But I chose not to. I do not want him to feel left out, but at the same time I do not want him to feel too special. Being parents are not easy, huh? Now that he has been in playgroup for ½ a year and attended a few birthday celebrations, I am sure that is where the request came from. **sweat**

Ok, story finished. Since the kids are at the age of 2-3 years old, I opted to make cupcakes for them, less messy. I have few organic oranges from Australia, so it has to be orange sponge cupcakes(香橙海棉小蛋糕). It was a popular recipe among cooking bloggers for quite a while. You just have to google “orange sponge cupcakes” or “香橙海棉小蛋糕” and you will find many posts on it.

I doubled the recipe below and managed to make 20 cupcakes. The usual cupcake liners has coating that might leak into the cake. I made tulip liners with parchment paper, placed in cupcake tray, baked and transferred them into the beautiful cupcake liners. It was time consuming to make the tulip liners, but I did not want to feed the kids with toxic.

The next day when I was in the daycare, I used a spoon and placed a dollop of frosting on each cupcake and decorated with DIY cupcake toppers. Actually I could have put the frosting at home, but I am worried that it will get spoilt during the journey. As for the cupcake toppers, they are very easy to make and you could have your own customized and themed toppers. My son loves the big red dog, Clifford. So I printed out Clifford, Cleo, T-Bone, Mac and Emily Elizabeth pictures, cut into round shape and stick it on a bigger and harder round card. I used coffee straw to hold it on the cupcakes. Last step was just to place the cupcakes on the 3 layer tiers. Needless to say, the kids are fascinated with the cupcakes.

So, what is for 3 years old? We shall see. :)

Orange Sponge Cupcakes Recipe(Makes 10-12 cupcakes)
Ingredients: 
25g grape seed oil
35g freshly squeezed organic orange juice
3 organic eggs
55g organic brown sugar (The original recipe calls for 100g sugar. I have tried 70g and it was too sweet to my liking. Now I always use 55g sugar. Do not try to reduce further, else the cake texture will be dry.)
100g organic cake/low protein flour(sifted twice)
¼ sea salt
1 organic orange rind

Method:
1. Mix grape seed oil and orange juice together. Set aside.
2. Mix the cake flour with sea salt. Set aside.
3. Beat the egg(cold from fridge) and sugar until pale and thicken.
Tips1: I prefer to put the brown sugar at the center of the mixing bowl, then only add the egg, so the sugar won’t stick to the side.
Tip2: I beat with hand mixer at highest speed(speed 5) for 4 minutes, then medium speed(speed 3) for 2 minutes.
Tip3: If you use a better stand mixer, you will get better result. But I am satisfied with it for now.
Tip4: You need to beat until when you try to write a “8” with the batter, the “8” won’t disappear immediately. The picture below was not well taken but at least it shows the concept. :)
4. Add in the orange rind and 1/3 flour and mix well. Continue until all the flour has been added.
5. Add in orange juice mixture and mix well.
Tip5: Fold gently. Do not overmix.
6. Scoop into cupcake liners and bake at 160’c for 25 minutes.
Tip6: Every oven works different. You might want to adjust the temperature a bit.

Greek Yogurt Frosting Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 tube of greek yogurt(strained for 6-12 hours to remove excess liquid)
30g unsalted butter
4-5tsp organic brown sugar

Method:
1. Melt butter and brown sugar in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Side aside and let it cool down a bit.
2. Stir in greek yogurt.
Tips6: Do not add the whole tube in. You might not need the whole tube, add until the consistency you like.
3. Put in refrigerator for overnight.

2 year old birthday cake(Cheddar Cheese Cake)

Time flies. Yesterday was Phin Zhe's two years old birthday. This year I decided to bake him a real cake. Last year I did a trick by just assembling a fruit cake(post here).

Since he is only two years old, I want the cake to be as healthy as possible. The cake can not use any unhealthy ingredients, so fondant or icing cake with artificial coloring or essense is definitely a big NO. I haven't introduced him chocolate yet, so I have to stay away from many tempting chocolate cake recipes for now. With so many restrictions, I started to google. Then one day I decided that I should bake him something with cheese since he loves cheese so much. But I don't want to use cream cheese. So, I continue to google...until I came upon Cheddar Cheese Cake recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover.

Last Saturday night after dinner, I started to make the cake. Knowing that the cake will take an hour to bake, so I wanted to speed things up. While I go ahead to beat the egg white, I assigned the egg yolks mixture job to Phin Zhe and his daddy. Phin Zhe was so excited and he did pretty well in combining the ingredients. Then I brought over the egg white mixture, folded in, mix well, pour into the baking pan and it is ready to be baked. I was so happy, partly because I got everything done in such a short time, but mainly it was because Phin Zhe has involved in the cake baking. He helped in his own birthday cake. Wasn’t it something cool and special? ;)

Ok, now on the cake texture and taste. We sang birthday song to Phin Zhe the next morning before we left for Bukit Merah’s Eco Park.  You could see that we did decorate the cake  a bit by placing a puppet on a bed of nuts and seeds, and we managed to surprise Phin Zhe. Well, it might be still too plain for a birthday cake. But it was definitely delectable, with a soft and moist texture.

I followed the recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover, with some minor tweaks to the ingredients. The biggest adjustment I have made was to reduce the sugar to half. The rest was just to make use of whatever is available in my kitchen.

Ingredients: (make 8x8 square pan)
120g Lye Cross Farm Organic Cheddar
100g Pure Harvest organic oat milk
100g Organic Times unsalted butter
7 organic egg yolks(cold from fridge)
7 organic egg whites(cold from fridge)
50g organic brown sugar
100g organic unbleached cake/low protein flour(sifted twice)

Method
1. Melt butter and cheddar cheese in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir occasionally with a spatula.

2. Add in milk, and stir until mix well. Set aside and let it cool down a bit.

3. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with a manual whisk.  Add one spoon of the cheese mixture into the egg yolks and mix well. Continue until all the cheese mixture has been added.

4. Add 1/3 of the cake flour into the egg yolk mixture and mix well. Continue until all the cake flour has been added .

5. Preheat the oven to 150C with a water bath. I placed one tray of water at the lowest rack.

6. Grease and line the baking pan with unbleached parchment paper.

7. In another bowl, beat egg white till foamy. Gradually add in sugar and beat till stiff peaks. When it is done, the mixture won't fall even you turn the bowl upside down.

8. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the cheese mixture and mix well with a spatula. Continue until all egg white mixture has been added.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the surface.

10. Bake the cake in the oven for 60 minutes at second rack. The cake is done if a cake tester come out clean.

11. Let cake sit inside the oven for 5mins with oven door ajar.

12. Remove cake from cake pan and let it cool on wire rack.

Italian Cookies

savoury cookies with tomato and mixed herbs

I bought one pack of organic tomato powder. It can be used in the recipes that require very rich tomato flavour but do not allow too much liquid. I created my own version of tomato cookies. While baking the first tray, I was thinking of discarding the second tray if the taste is horrible. Luckily it turned out nice. So I moved on to bake the second tray.

Ingredients:
70g low protein flour
60g rice flour
30g potato starch
1/2tsp baking powder
2 tbsp lemon juice
1tbsp tomato powder
1/4tsp sea salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
italian mixed herbs
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Steps:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients.
2. Add in lemon juice.
3. Add in some olive oil and knead into dough. Just add olive oil until it can bearly stick together to form a dough.
4. Roll out into thin layer of about 0.5cm thickness.
5. Cut into desire shape with cookies cutter.
6. Bake 10-15 minutes in preheated oven at 180c.

Hot Cross Bun(Healthy version)

Hot cross bun, hot cross bun. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross bun.

This is one of Phin Zhe's favourite nursery rhyme. When I made him the dinner rolls, he told me,"not hot cross bun." Then he requested me to make hot cross bun. I modified the original recipe so that it is more simple and healthy. My recipe does not use the normal custard batter for cross decoration.

Ingredients:
280g flour
2.5tbsp sugar
0.5tsp salt
0.5tsp yeast
130ml water
1 medium egg
30g unsalted butter
0.5tsp cinnamon powder
raisins

Steps:
1. Knead all ingredients except cinnamon and raisins into dough.
2. Add in cinnamon powder and raisins.
3. Let the dough sit for 20minutes.(I used bread maker for above steps, bread dough mode).
4. Divide the dough into 9 equal portions, roll into ball shapes and place on parcement paper, slightly apart from each others.
5. Let the balls sit for 10minutes.
6. Brush a layer of egg(not in ingredient listed above) on top.
7. Mix some flour with water until thick batter is formed. Use this batter to draw the cross.(You can use a piping bag, but I just used a chopstick).
8. Bake 15minutes in preheated oven at 180c to 200c.

Rosemary Focaccia

After Phin Zhe had the first bite, he pointed at the focaccia and commented,"This bread is nice!" :D

When I baked, the whole house was filled with olive oil and rosemary smells, it made me felt like I was in a bakery. :)

Ingredients:
280g high protein flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
150ml water
0.5tsp active dried yeast

Steps:
1. Knead all the ingredients into dough.(I used bread maker, pizza mode).
2. Let the dough sit and rest for 20 minutes.
3. Divide into 3 equal portions and sit for 10 minutes.
4. Place the dough on parchment paper and roll out to 7 inches diameter flat dough.
5. Let it sit and rest for 40 minutes.
6. Use finger to poke on the dough to create wells.
7. Brush a layer of olive oil on the surface.
8. Sprinkle generous amount of chopped fresh rosemary, sea salt(I skipped) and cheese(I skipped) on top of the dough
9. Bake 15 minutes in preheated oven at 180c to 200c.

Best serve with a cup of espresso or cappucino. Of course my boy had it without coffee. :-)

Dinner Rolls

There is a lot of recipes that I have bookmarked and wanted to try. But I am still waiting, waiting for Phin Zhe to grow bigger. So at 22mo, I finally tried making bun with the help of bread maker. Main reason is I am lazy. Second reason is it uses slightly more butter and sugar as compare to loaf. Well, it is still relatively low compare to store bought bun. And since Phin Zhe likes it, maybe I can make it more often. But I still can not decide if I should make new buns or make this dinner rolls again this weekend. ;)

Ingredients:
1. 280g high protein flour
2. 1/2tsp active dried yeast
3. 50g unsalted butter
4. 150ml water
5. 3tbsp sugar(of course I didn't put 3, I put 2.5tbsp)
6. 1tsp salt

Steps:
1. Knead to unsticky dough, cover and let it sit for 30 to 40mins.(i used bread maker to do the job).
2. Divide equally to 12 portion, roll to ball shapes, cover and sit for 10mins.
3. Shape to oval shapes, cover and sit for another 10mins.
4. Use a roller to form a thin and long sheet. Roll the dough sheet from one end to another.
5. Place on parchment paper, sit for an hour and bake in preheated 170c oven for 15 to 20 mins

The bread texture is very fluffy. I think it is due to the second, third and fourth rising time given to the bun. My son loves it very much. He had one bun fresh from the oven right after his dinner. When the father wanted to take a bite, he pushed his father's hand and turned his head away. The next day, he ate one for breakfast. Then brought two to school, finished one during morning break and finished another during tea break. So he had 3 buns in a day! I am a happy mama. But the next day I told nanny to give him more fruits during tea break. Haha.

Cheddar cheese cookies

Since 19mo, I have started to serve home made cookies to my boy. Every two weeks, I will make a new batch. Then I will put them in two tupperware one touch airtight containers, one to place at nanny's place and one to keep at home. My boy loves this little treat. All the cookies that I made are of low sodium and low sugar, so I feel no guilty giving him few pieces at tea break or any other time when he asked for it.

 Ingredients:
 120g organic unbleached flour
 100g low sodium organic cheddar cheese(cut into small cubes, about 1inch3)
 50g organic unsalted butter(cut into small cubes, about 1inch3)
 2 to 3tbsp cold water

Method:
 1. Pulse all ingredients except cold water in food processor until they are mixed well.
 2. Add 1 tbsp cold water at a time, pulse until a slightly sticky dough is form.
 3. Keep in airtight container in fridge for about 15mins.
 4. Roll out to the thickness that you desire. Bear in mind that after bake it will increase 50% in thickness.
 5. Cut to desire shape with cookies cutter.

6. Bake in preheat oven, 160c for about 15 to 20 minutes.

If you don't have a food processor, you can mix them with hands. But you might need slightly more cold water. My first batch was done with hands, they turned out as tasty.

Recipe fills two 500ml container. My boy loves it so much that sometimes I have to hide the container. ^_^

Carrot Walnut Cake Recipe

Please do not ask why I did not update this blog for so long, ok? Lazy to explain how busy I am again. ;)

Here is the long due recipe requested by one of my reader. My family came to penang and we celebrated Christmas together. So, I took the opportunity to learn this carrot walnut cake from my mum.

Flour Mixture:
2 cups self raising flour
1tsp soda bicarbonate
pinch of salt
1tsp cinnamon powder

Other ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup oil
3 eggs
2 cups grated carrot
3/4 cup toasted and chopped walnut

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree c.
2. Beat sugar and oil till dissolve.
3. Add in egg one at a time and continue beating.
4. Add in flour mixture and mix well.
5. Add in grated carrot and walnut.
6. Grease the cake tray and pour the mixture into the tray.
7. Bake at 180 degree c for 35-45 minutes.

Note that you do not need a mixer for this recipe.

Mum's Carrot Cake

I can still remember that my mum likes to make this carrot cake for me to bring back to KL years ago. And now that I am in Penang, my mum still like to have me bringing back her home made carrot cake.

The carrot cake, with lots of peeled carot and chopped walnut does not taste as sweet as other cakes. My mum also stress that this recipe uses only 3 eggs, which mean less cholesterol. But don't think that it is healthy then it does not taste good. I love it! It is very moist and flavorful.

Thank you, Mum!

Longan Walnut Muffin

Last Jusco Day, I finally bought a new Kenwood Oven MO690 for myself. Since then, i always get concerns from colleagues and friends on what I am going to make with the oven.

After 20 days of brainstorming, I decided to start my first experiment with muffin. I like muffin, or to be more precise muffin size. The size of a muffin is just nice for one person's breakfast or tea break. But the real reason is muffin can be easily made in 3 simple steps, mix, pour and bake. Just that simple!

So, this morning I was having something different for breakfast, a freshly baked Longan Walnut Muffin. I had passed to a few colleagues thus will leave for them to comment if they want to.

I am so sorry if you read this and you didn't get it from me. I only managed to make one tray before I came to work. Please leave me a comment and I shall put you in my next list.