Spring into Lavender Shortbread

Today is the first day of Spring down under. I knew that spring was coming because I could her the "tweet! tweet! tweet!" from the baby and mommy birds at dawn....and when my lavender bush started to flower for the first time a few weeks ago. Quikong planted this lavender bush many months ago as a surprise because he knew that lavender is my favourite essential oil. I love rolling the fresh flowers between my palms and breathing in its soothing aroma. Even the leaves and stems of the lavender has a fragrance.

After an exhausting but rewarding pre-spring cleaning weekend, I thought that these Lavender Shortbreads were the perfect way to welcome spring. Although Quikong was initially apprehensive about consuming lavender, even he was surprised how delicious these were.

I used this Lavender Shortbread recipe from Jen of Milk & Cookies (thanks, Jen!!) who adapted it from this award winning matcha (green tea) shortbread recipe. The result was as Jen promised - "blissful buttery texture that melts in your mouth....aromatic sweetness". It also keeps its shape perfectly (great for more elaborate shapes if you wish) and is simple to make.

Kitchen Notes:
- I didn't coat the cookies in granulated sugar before baking.
- Make sure that you use lavender specifically for baking. The ones for potpourri usually has chemicals added into them.
- Vary the strength of the lavender aroma:
(a) Stronger: For a stronger lavender flavour without adding more dried lavender - crush the lavender in a mortar and pestle and let the aroma infuse over night by mixing the crushed flower into the sugar.
(b) More subtle: Omit the dried lavender. Instead, roll a few whole fresh lavender stems between your palms and place it in the sugar overnight. Remove the lavender before using the sugar in the recipe.

I think these shortbreads are rather elegant and make great gifts. Since the recipe uses dried lavender, you do not have to wait for spring to make these shortbread.

To our Muslim readers: Wishing you all a blessed month of Ramadan. These shortbreads and a cup of tea could be a sweet way to break a day of fasting. :-)

Enjoy!

World's Smallest Pineapple Tart

<Kuih Tart - Pineapple Tart

Without fail, whenever I return to Sinagpore, there will be a jar of freshly baked kuih tart, or miniature pineapple tarts, waiting for me. I've eaten these since I was a child. I'm not even sure of the history of this little tart. The word "kuih" usually refers to dessert. I just realised while writing this post that the name "kuih tart" does not make sense because we eat these tarts not for dessert but more as a snack or afternoon tea, and the name also makes no reference to pineapple. But everyone in Singapore and Malaysia knows that kuih tart always refers to these miniature pineapple tarts. In Singapore, they are commonly baked for festive occasions such as Eid, Chinese New Year and even Christmas. The pineapple jam filling is spiced with clove and cinnamon so it smells heavenly when Mom is simmering the jam on the stove.

As I have a busy day ahead of being pampered by my sis (lucky me to have a big sis!), I won't have time to translate Mom's recipe for these melt-in-your-mouth-can't-stop-at-one kuih tart today. But I will do so hopefully before I leave Singapore.

Mom also made these crispy and buttery almond cookies. I'll have to bug Mom for that recipe too because they are addictive. If only Mom wroted down all her recipes, catalogued them and also translated them to English. Maybe that will have to be my next project after I finish my thesis...

Have a great day everyone!!! :-)

Child-Approved Choc Chip Cookies

Since lemon cheesecakes are not always "child friendly", I wanted to bake something else for Quikong's 3 ½ year old niece, J, who was going to be at the birthday party last Saturday night. I decided to make the classic choc chip cookies.

I'm pleased to reported that these cookies got J's approval. It also got two thumbs up from Quikong, who said that "these are seriously good". This is a big deal because he can be quite a harsh critic of my baking and cooking. I thought the cookies were a little sweet for me. It's probably because I prefer to use dark choc in my cookies and I used milk choc for these ones since kids tend to prefer plain/milk choc bits. The texture is perfect though - crispy on the outside but slightly chewy towards the middle.

I placed the cookies in this pretty plastic Chinese take-away box (4 for $2) and it was cute to see J carrying the box around. I bought the little blue dinosaur for J's adorable little 2 months old brother, W.

"Child-Approved" Choc Chip Cookies
from Bill Granger's Sydney Food

125g unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups brown sugar, tightly packed
1 tspn vanilla essence
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups plain flour
a pinch of salt
1 ½ cups chocolate bits/chips

1
Preheat oven to 180°C. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and creamy. Add vanilla and egg and stir to combine. Stir in the sifted flour, baking powder and salt till just combined. Fold through chocolate chips.

2
Place spoonfuls of cookie mixture on a greased and lined baking tray, allowing room for spreading. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until they turn pale gold (tip: DO NOT bake longer than that, unless you want very crispy cookies).

3
Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring cookies on a wire rack to cool further.

Makes about 24 cookies

TIP: I froze half of the cookie dough for another time. Roll the dough into a log and keep in a plastic wrap and foil in the freezer. To bake, thaw slightly and slice into 1 cm think before baking.

A short history lesson told by a biscuit

Today is Anzac Day, a very special day for both Australia and New Zealand. It is the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. Since I couldn't wake up in time for the dawn service, I thought that I would pay my respects in the way I know best...yes, it is yet another good excuse to bake. Bake biscuits to be precise. Not just any biscuit...of course it had to be Anzac biscuits.

There are a few versions concerning the origins of the Anzac biscuit. My favourite version is the one that describes the thoughtfulness and resourcesfulness of wives and mothers who wanted to send treats to their loved ones who were fighting in the trenches during World War I. All these women could use were rationed supplies that they had available. They also had to make sure that these biscuits could survive the long journey by sea-mail to the war front. And that was how the Anzac biscuit was created. So much history in a little bicky!

I think that this is the easiest biscuit recipe that I've ever come across and the biscuits keep well in an airtight container. There are several variations of this recipe and this is the one that I used (my notes in italics). Since we didn't have golden syrup in our pantry, I used maple syrup instead. Maybe it was not such a good move (see taster comments below).

Anzac Biscuits

(makes 8 giant or 24 regular biscuits)

1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 ¼ cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
125g butter, chopped
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (slightly heaped)
2 tablespoons of hot water

(1) Pre-heat oven at 160 C (fan-forced). Line baking tray with non-stick baking paper (I used a non-stick baking tray).

(2) Combine flour, oats, coconut and sugar in a bowl.

(3) Place butter and golden syrup in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted (I used the microwave). Remove from heat. Combine bicarbonate of soda and hot water (it will froth up) in a small bowl and stir into golden syrup mixture. Add immediately to flour mixture and stir until well combined.

(4) Roll mixture into balls (what size depends on your preference, you can make 8 "giant" cookies" or 24 regular sized ones). Place onto baking trays & flatten it, allowing a bit of room for spreading. (important: Since the biscuit dough doesn't spread much during baking, I had to flatten the balls quite a bit)

(5) Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden. Vary the baking times depending on whether or not you want your cookies crunchy or chewy and how large your biscuits are.

(6) Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and allow biscuits to cool completely. Keeps well in an airtight container.

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Taster Notes by Quikong:

The biscuits are nice tasting, have the correct aesthetics, but if we're to strive for prefection I can think of a couple of suggestions. Firstly, don't use maple syrup, not only is it no longer an anzac bicky in name, it tastes weird to any australian used to eating the genuine article. Secondly, I think they need more oats, the biscuits were very grainy and not chunky ( the way my mum makes them).

6.5 spoons out of 10.