WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE CRUNCHY CHOC CHIP COOKIES

There's nothing like crunchy choc chip cookies to chase away the blues. But it's just so hard to find a recipe that makes that. And I don't mean the thin crisp ones. Surfed the net and found this recipe.

I halved the recipe as 80 cookies seemed too much for my family of 3. I didn't have light brown sugar so I just used all castor sugar. Baked them for 12 minutes but think I should have baked them a bit longer as I made bigger cookies. I only ended up with 23 pieces. Upon cooling, they were crisp on the edges but soft in the middle. I kept them in an airtight container but they were all soft by the night. =( They still tasted good though, just that they were now soft cookies instead. I'd say they tasted better than the cookies from Subway as those are just too sweet! note to self: I need to add choc chips as per recipe and maybe even a little more, plus some nuts. Will try my luck again next time.

GETTING INTO THE CNY MOOD - PINEAPPLE TARTS!

Happy with how my Oreo cupcakes turned out last week and was motivated to continue baking. Was initially keen on continuing with another cupcake "project" but was at Phoon Huat and saw the ready-made pineapple paste filling. First thought - pineapple tarts should be rather easy to make, since the tough part of making pineapple tarts is the pineapple filling. After all, you'd mostly feel like eating and making pineapple tarts during CNY only. So one pack premium pineapple paste filling went into the shopping basket. That, together with the cutting mould. Excited...

So came Saturday,after a nice dim sum lunch, we went grocery shopping at Giant and got all other necessary ingredients before heading home. Decided on this recipe by fatboo for the crust. I hadn't done the rubbing-in method since home economics in secondary school. That's.......a long time ago. Anyhow, my dough turned out a little more damp than it should have been, I guess. Had difficulty trying to getting the dough off the cutter and bits of the patterned area would get stuck on the mould. My memory of cutting this while helping my aunt as a kid was that the dough came off easy.

So while it looks pretty nice below, it really took me a look time to cut. Note the different designs - floral pattern, plain and the heart. The plain was easy though it really doesn't look anywhere as nice as the floral patterned ones. The heart shaped ones were a hell lot easier to cut but you can't put much pineapple filling. The round ones were not on the initial menu. Since we figured rolling them into tiny balls took significantly lesser time than using the mould, plus mummy could help with the rolling as well, a batch or 2 were made.

I must say they turned out looking pretty good. Felt quite pro. They tasted great as well! The premium pineapple paste I bought even had the pineapple fibre in it. Since I have plenty of pineapple paste filling leftover, it looks like there'll be another pineapple tart baking session again before CNY. HUAT AH!!!!

HELLO OVEN, HELLO MIXER, HELLO OREO CUPCAKES

Finally used the oven and mixer which I bought late last year! The Cornell CCO-22GY and Philips HR1565 worked perfectly. So happy! =) such cheap, good buys. $66 for the oven n $59.90 for the mixer. Only thing is, I dun think a regular 12-muffin tray can fit inside. Oh well.

Anyway, on to my first bake in say, 14 years? Impromptu decision to bake and I chose Oreo cupcakes. I tweaked the vanilla cupcake recipe from Noobcook and added crushed Oreo cookies and some water to the dilute the batter. The icing I got from a BigOven recipe posted by Kimography.

CUPCAKES
INGREDIENTS (makes 12 mid-sized cupcakes, I did 2 batches of this)
110 grams unsalted butter cut to small cubes and melted at room temperature
110 grams caster or super fine sugar sifted
110 grams self-raising flour sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder sifted
crushed Oreo cookies (estimated amount)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth, about 2-3 minutes on medium speed.

Place baking cases in muffin tins. Spoon the mixture into the cases (about half filled).

Bake in preheated oven of 175°C (350°F) for about 20 minutes, until the top just turn golden brown.

Remove the tins from oven and cool for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes and cool on a wire rack.

FROSTING
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
crushed Oreos

INSTRUCTIONS
Mix together butter, confectioners sugar, and a pinch of salt until it's creamy.
Increase your mixer speed to high and beat until its light and fluffy.
Add whipping cream and vanilla. Beat until it's smooth.