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Friday, September 24, 2010

A Perfect Blend

In my previous post I mentioned about making few batches of Snow Almond cookies. Only today I got the chance to coat the cookies with melted chocolate and then roll them into a mix of almond nips and bread crumbs. My husband and I plan to have an Aidil Fitri open house this Saturday. Most of the cookies I made during Ramadhan are gone. (We have a huge crowd coming to celebrate Eid on the first of Syawal). Thing is I always always always have problem with chocolate melting task. I don't know why but I think me and  chocolate melting task just aren't meant to be together.

 Cookies coated with an ASDA brand baking milk chocolate.

I used an ASDA brand chocolate milk bar before but I don't really like its color. Its not shiny enough and when I add a wee bit of butter while I was melting it, it turns into this ugly lump. Arrrghhhh... It tastes good though.

 ASDA milk choc for home baking alongside GREEN'S BLACK dark chocolate.

I braved myself today to melt another bar of chocolate of a different brand. I started with half bar. While waiting for the chocolate to melt, I washed some dishes. Then I heard a loud pop from the stove. For all I know, the glass bowl which I used as a double boiler cracked into few pieces. One of those pieces decided to take a diving lesson and dived onto the kitchen floor. I have to throw everything into the waste bin (except for the pot which I used to boil water). Just so you know, that bar of chocolate is quite expensive compared to the ASDA brand. It is a dark chocolate and it shines beautifully when melted. Tastes wise, hemmm... not so good compared to the ASDA brand milk chocolate. 

 Cookies coated with GREEN'S BLACK baking milk chocolate.

 Anyway, after quite a number of experiments with the melted chocolate, I finally found a perfect blend for me. Well, I admit it is not so perfect, but it's acceptable. To have the perfect blend, I need to melt the expensive dark chocolate bar with the ASDA brand milk chocolate bar together. The result, a shiny melted chocolate with a yummy taste :)  So here it is, my Snow Almond cookies.

 
 H-A-P-P-Y!!! My Snow Almond Cookies.

On another note, I bought a couple of white chocolate milk bars to make a white chocolate cake for my husband. To my surprise, on their box, there's a line stating "FROM MALAYSIA COCOA BEANS2. Oh! I'm soooo proud because here and there in the UK I have seen so many products from other Asian's countries. For example, CHAOKOH coconut milk from Thailand, AMOY oyster sauce from HONG KONG, and of course hundreds of brands from India and Pakistan like PATAKS' tikka masala and beriyani pastes. It may mean nothing to some people but this is among the things that make me think, Malaysia has a lot of excellent products from its agriculture sector but fail to compete with its next door neighbor. Why it is not happening? Hemmm...

Look closely and you'll be able to see the line I'm raving about :)

p/s: I'll share the recipe when I'm done with some editing. :)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Biskut raya lagi dan lagi

Nota kepala:
Resepi ada di bawah.

Apsal ntah tahun ni rajin betul buat biskut raya. Sampai 5 jenis. Zaman sekolah menengah dulu je kerajinan terlampau ni. Bila saya dah mula bekerja dan duduk di rumah bujang, balik raya pun lagi 3-4 hari nak raya, memang tak sempat dah nak  buat kuih raya. Nak kemas rumah lagi, nak prepare untuk masak juadah berat untuk pagi hari raya lagi. So, masa dah kerja tu, memang saya order je biskut-biskut raya ni. Tapi saya tak pernah beli yang jual kat kedai atau supermarket tu.
 Red Pearl

Bila dah kahwin, sekali tu ada ke suami saya ajak beli biskut raya kat Jalan TAR. Katanya murah kat situ, 3 bekas boleh dapat RM10.00. Aduhaiii Abang, kalau murah macam tu sekali, mestilah rasanya 'murah' jugak. Puaslah isteri ni menerangkan padanya, bahawa isterinya takkan beli biskut-biskut raya yang tak diketahui rasanya. Yelahkan, kalau yang kita order-order tu, kita boleh dapat sample. Walaupun bulan puasa, balik berbuka boleh rasa.

Lidah Buaya aka Kuih Tiram


Tahun ni, selain dari Mocha Java Hazelnut Cookies & Bebola Nestum, saya buat juga Lidah Buaya aka Kuih Tiram, Red Pearl dan Snow Almond. Semua ni 1st time buat tapi Lidah Buaya tu pernah la sekali masa sekolah rendah ikut mak saudara saya buat bersama jiran. Tapi masa tu umur baru 7 tahun kot, manalah reti nak salin-salin resepi.

p/s: snow belum turun, jadi tak ada gambar utk snow almond. haha...

RESEPI:

Red Pearl
150 gm butter
150 gm tpg gandum
75gm gula kastor
60gm cornflakes
50gm coklat chip
25 gm badam nips
1 sd teh esen vanilla

Cara2.
1. pukul butter dan gula hingga sebati (jgn kembang)
2. campurkan semua bahan kering. Kacau sebati menggunakan sudip kayu.
3. menggunakan garfu, jemputkan adunan ke atas dulang pembakar.
4. sapukan kuning telur dan hias dgn ceri merah.
bakar 175'C, 20-25 minit.

*-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*-

 Kuih Tiram/ Lidah Buaya
sumber: http://hanamemories.blogspot.com/2009/05/kuih-tiram.html

Bahan-bahan
500gm tepung
1 biji telur
2 sudu margerin
sedikit garam
160ml air
**6 sudu tepung jagung**
**6 sudu minyak**

Cara-cara
1. Satukan bahan bertanda ** sehingga menjadi smooth paste, ketepikan sementara.
2. Satukan semua bahan lain, sehingga menjadi doh yang licin dan senang diuli. (kalau lembik tambah tepung sikit..& kalau keras, tambah air)
3. Uli doh supaya jadi nipis. Off coz akan dapat size yang lebar. Kalau nak senang, bahagikan doh kepada beberapa 4 bulatan kecil baru dicanai. **note: kalau buat canai besar, kita akan dapat kuih yang besar & cepat habis kerja :D
4. Sapukan doh yang dah dicanai tadi dengan paste tepung jagung..sapu rata.
5. Gulung kemas, kemudian potong kecil lebih kurang sebesar ibu jari. Amik ketul kecil tadi & canai leper.
6. Goreng hingga kekuningan & sira dengan gula halus. Simpan dalam bekas kedap udara.

p/s: actually, adunan untuk 'paste' tu akan berlebihan berbanding dgn adunan tepung, telur, marjerin etc tu. Jadi saya tambah lagi separuh dari adunan. Maksudnya, untuk tepung, telur & marjerin tu kena jadikan 1.5 adunan baru boleh habiskan adunan untuk 'paste'.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Projek Biskut Raya I


Minggu lepas, ada cuti 3 hari bermula dari Sabtu sampai Isnin. Isnin tu cuti Bank Holiday, cuti yang menandakan end of summer. Saya amik kesempatan untuk buat kuih raya. Dapatlah buat 2 jenis biskut raya hari Sabtu. Hari Ahad, sehari suntuk menjahit. 2 jenis biskut ni namanya Mocha Java Hazelnut Cookies, resepi saya ambil dari Lunacafe; dan satu lagi biskut bebola nestum. Resepi ni ada merata-rata dalam internet. Kalau ikutkan resepi asal, kena canai doh & terap ikut acuan. Memandangkan saya 'terlebih rajin' untuk menggentel, saya buat bentuk bebola. Pucatlah warna bebola nestum tu. Masa mengadun tu, tak terfikir nak tambah warna hijau, merah atau kuning. Dah siap bakar barulah nampak tak berseri. Itu yang saya memandai pergi tabur gula icing. 
Sedang beratur nak masuk dalam oven

 Baru keluar dari oven

Perlu simpan dalam bekas kedap udara!


Tabur gula icing supaya lebih comel

OK, sedia untuk dimakan