Japanese cookies - coconut cookies and green tea cookies

Finally, after a cup of coffee and two cups of green tea in an
hour, that I manage to stay up to write this post.

Borrowed a cookbook on japanese cookies and the steps to
make them are not difficult so went ahead to try 2 kinds last
friday.

Here's the coconut cookie, followed by green tea cookie.

 

 
Both types are very crispy and taste just right, not too sweet
or not too bland.

Here are what I want to note.

Coconut cookies :
The pictures shown in the recipe book didn't look so sticky 
after mixing in the flour. But funny thing is, it doesnt stick to 
my hand when i mould it to balls.

Green tea cookies :
Suppose to fridge and use cookie cutter, but as it is near dinner
time, I do not hv time to press so just mould them, flatten
them and bake without even putting the dough back to frigde.
Furthermore, I hv to agak the cooking time.
The first batch of green tea cookies almost turn brown. The
second batch is quite alright. This dough is not as sticky as the
 coconut cookies too.

Here are the recipes from the book Japanese Cookies :-

Coconut cookies

Ingredients

110g butter
90g sugar
1/2 egg
20g shredded coconut
125g soft flour
a little of salt
10g shredded coconut (for topping)

Method

1. Soften butter under room temperature and whisk with
sugar until fluffy and creamy, add beaten egg in and mix well.

2. Sift soft flour and salt together and fold into (1). Then add
shredded coconut and knead into dough.

3. Divide the dough into smaller portions, each weighing 20g.
Knead the dough into a round shape, then dip shredded coconut
on and place them on a baking tray that line with a baking paper.

4. Put the baking tray in an oven and bake at 170dC for 15-20
minutes.

Green Tea Cookies

Ingredients

100g butter
55g caster sugar
1/2 egg
70g soft flour
80g bread flour
1/8g baking powder (not sure if there is a mistake here, i use
1/8 tsp instead)
1/8g baking soda (used 1/8 tsp too)
2 tbsp powdered milk
8g green tea powder

Method

1. Soften butter under room temperature and whisk with
caster sugar until fluffy and creamy, add beaten egg in and mix
well.

2. Sift soft flour, bread flour, baking powder, baking soda,
powdered milk and green tea powder together, fold into (1)
and knead into dough.

3. Place the dough on a baking paper and roll it to 0.5cm thick
with a rolling pin. Chill it for 30 minutes until firm.

4. Take out the chilled pastry and cut into the favourite shape.
Place the pastry on a baking tray that line with a baking paper
and bake at 170dC for 15-20 minutes.


借了一本日式曲奇的食谱。里头的食谱步骤不难所以就一次过
做了两种。这两种饼甜度刚好也很脆。我喜欢。

Delicious mango cake

I have emailed the owner for her/his permission to put a link
in my blog but has gotten no reply yet. I guess it should be
alright since it can be googled anyway.

Why make this mango cake. Its sunday and I need to find
something to do with the kids to pass time. No biscuits because
I don't want to clean up the mess, so i search for simple recipes.

I have to decide between banana and mango (my good friend
gave me 3 big sweet juicy ones). After some googling, I came
out with 2, but did not have the complete ingredients for
banana cake so I did the mango cake.

Its low fat and has easy steps.

Its a little too sweet for my liking, and I did not even fill up
the 3/4 cup of sugar. But guess what, the cake is all gone by
monday. I bring two pieces for my friends to try when I meet
them that afternoon. One of them like it very much and asked
me for the recipe. Funny thing is, I cant detect any mango
frangrant smell. Did I dice the mango too small? Must I use an
unripe mango?

Here's the cake.

找了两个很容易做的蛋糕食谱， 打算和两个孩子消磨星期日
的早上。因其中一个的材料不齐全， 所以就只能做芒果蛋糕。
它虽然没有芒果的香味，但蛋糕在星期一就被吃光了。我还在
想为什么会没有香味。

A birthday cake for my boy

Got a good excuse to bake a cake, for my boy turning 5.


He did the deco himself cos I cannot manage to have it done
up before he is back from school.

Initially I thought the cake I have in mind is a non bake
chocolate mousse (ya wanted to bake this cake in mind for
some time liao) but after looking at the recipe, realise it isn't
 and was having difficulty finding one last night, so stick with
this recipe.

The recipe looks simple enough, melt ingredients, mix dry into
wet, no need mixer, I am happy. However, it took me the
whole afternoon from 1 plus to 6 to have it completed.
I can only say it might be faster if I have a bigger oven to
bake the two layers together and probably have more mixing
bowls so that I do not need to do wash up in the middle of the 
session.

Every step smooth going, no hiccups till the melting of white
chocolate (first time using) and blending it into the melted
butter for the white layer. Took quite sometime for the white
chocolate to be dissolved (ya the chocolate harden) into the
butter mixture.

The cake batter is not watery. I baked it one layer at a
time instead of 1 and 1/4 hour for two layers together as
stated in recipe, so I am lost at how long should my cake be
baked. Anyway the skewer came out clean after ard 35
minutes for both the layers.

This recipe (see below) uses little self raising flour and 1 egg
(per layer) so the cake did not rise too much, and maybe I
bake a little too long? cos the chocolate cake cracked. It even
break into several pieces when i transfer the layer to another 
base. Anyway I piece the pieces back like jigsaw puzzle and
luckily there is a frosting to be done so all can be covered up.

The most tricky part is the frosting. I whipped up the cream
to stiff stage then blend in the melted white chocolate. The
frosting changed into watery state, so I had a hard time
"applying" the frosting. The frosting did not harden even
after 2 hours in fridge. What has gone wrong? How should I do
this part? Maybe I should add the melted chocolate into the
cream then whipped it up? Any advices?

Anyway, the frosting should also apply in between layers but
I am worried that it is not enough to cover the whole cake
(must hide flaws mah) so you can only notice the little white
trickles of cream down the chocolate layer.


This cake is too sweet to my liking, and I did not even measure
my cup of sugar to the brim! Maybe it is also "sweeten" by the
frosting. My dh says the frosting taste like condensed milk. I 
suppose you can call this a very rich cake cos chocolates are
used in the layers.

有了个很好的理由让我尝试新食谱。今天做了个生日蛋糕给
儿子。食谱看似不难，但我还是第一次用白巧克力，所以还是
花了我大半天。这蛋糕有点太甜了，而且两层都有用巧克力，
所以不能多吃，会腻。我看，还是物以稀为贵。

Celebration Cake
Preparation time : 45 minutes
Cooking time : 1 1/4 hours
Makes one double 20cm round cake

Dark layer
3/4 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons self raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
125g butter, cubed
125g dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup hot water
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder (I forgot abt this)
2 tablespoons brandy (I omited this)
1 egg, lightly beaten

White layer
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour
125g butter, cubed
125g white chocolate, chopped
3/4  cup caster sugar
1/2 cup hot water
2 tablespoons brandy (I omited this)
1 egg, lightly beaten

White chocolate cream
125g white chocolate, chopped
1 cup cream (I used 200 ml pack for convenience)
chocolate curls, for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 160Dc. Brush two deep 20 cm round cake
tins with melted butter or oil, line base and sides with paper;
grease paper.

2. To make dark layer :
Sift flours and cocoa into large mixing bowl. Make a well in the
centre. Place butter, chocolate, sugar, hot water and coffee in
basin or top of double saucepan. Stir over barely smmering
water until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth; remove
from heat. Cool and stir in brandy.

3. Add chocolate mixture and egg to dry ingerdients. Stir wth
a wooden spoon until just combined; do not overbeat. Pour
the mixture into one of the prepared tins.

4. To make white layer : Sift flours into large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the centre. Place chocolate in basin or top of
double saucepan. Stir over barely simmering water until
melted; remove from heat. Combine butter, sugar and water
in a small pan. Stir over a low heat until butter has melted
and sugar dissolved. Gradually blend into chocolate. Cool.
Stir in brandy. Continue as for step 3.

5. Bake both cakes for 1 1/4 hour or until skewer comes out
clean when inserted in centre of cakes. Stand cakes in tins 10
minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.

6. To make white chocolate cream : Melt chocolate as for step
4. Cool. Add cream, beating constantly with an electric mixer.

7. Sandwich cakes together with half of the white chocolate
cream. Cover top of cake with remainder; decorate with
chocolate curls.

Pearl sandwiches

How did it looked on me? ;-)

Has been looking for these pearl beads for a long time and
chanced upon them on the last trip to chinatown.

This design is also not my idea, but a design i seen on a huge
advertisement in a shopping centre. However, it is
definitely not the same material used, maybe not even same
on how it is made.

Here's another look.


找了好久终于让我碰上这些半椭圆形的珠。这个设计来自一个
商场的大型广告， 但材料和做法肯定不一样。还可以吧？

biscuits

After the mickey biscuit failure .. I tried again. This time with
cutters from Daiso. I use the recipe from Happy Homebaking .
(thanks HHB, what would I do without you.)

I had no time to finish the dough, so i did it in two batches (not
sure if the dough can keep or not, but I don't smell anything
funny today).

Now I got these.

Todays attempt

Yesterday's 

Cookies not cut cleanly. Cookies not evenly coloured ( I shall
blame the oven). Not perfect, but better then the previous
attempt. At least I do not see sugar crystal. Luckily I heed the 
advice from HHB of rolling them out on baking paper
( however I did not sandwiched the dough).
Yup, the dough did not stick to baking paper.

One sad thing though, the cookies are not going out fast like
HHB's (infact they are only eaten by me so far!).
My kids still prefer oreo cookies! But my boy said
he'll bring some as snacks to school tomorrow and will not
share with his classmates. hehehe.

Anyway, baking is my hobby so I shall not complain. Its fun
making these biscuits. Anybody out there want to have a bite?

我又尝试做饼了。不简单但好玩。用了两个下午，就得了以上
结果 （见图）. 不完美，颜色不一， 但至少不象上次那样看到糖粒。
听取了HHB 的建议，饼团才没粘桌，盖模后又易拿出来。这
里要谢谢她与我分享食谱。