CHINESE NEW YEARS COOKIES

Yes, Chinese New Year is a festive celebration that everyone (I meant the Chinese) would like to take this opportunity to bake and make some yummy snacks, cookies and traditional good food. As this is the first year that I bake something for Chinese New Year, it looks like I wanted to make almost everything in the cookbook, but too bad, time does not permit. Anyway, I still managed to bake some cookies, fried some snacks and made some cupcakes. These are what I bake for Chinese New Year, hope you like it and I know it's a bit late when this post came up, but well, these cookies are good for any occasion, not necessarily for Chinese New Year. So, as usual..... Happy Cookies baking!

Cookies # 1 - LEMON CHEESY SNOWBALLS
(Recipe adopted from Y3K New Year Cookies Cookbook by Alan Ooi)

Ingredient
(A) 130gm butter ( I used 'Butteroll' instead)
      80gm cream cheese
      50gm icing sugar
      1 Tbsp lemon essence (I used 1 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice)
(B) 150gm Plain Flour (I used Superfine flour)
      30gm potato flour
*Some Icing sugar / Snow powder for dusting

Method
1.  Preheat oven at 120~C to 140~C (every oven has a different heat setting).
2.  Beat ingredients (A) until light and pale form.
3.  Sieve in ingredients (B). Use a rubber spatula to fold lightly (do not knead). Scale at 7gm each portion, shape into rounds very lightly. Arrange on lined baking trays.
4.  Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven, dust the top with icing sugar, cool well and store in airtight containers.

  
Cookies # 2 - PINEAPPLE TARTS 
(Recipe adopted from My Kitchen Snippets blog)

Ingredients
226 gm unsalted butter, room temperature
3 Tbsp castor sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
2-1/2 cups plain flour (I used superfine flour)
2 Tbsp cornflour
2-1/2 Tbsp custard powder
2 Tbsp milk powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1.  Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
2. Add egg yolk and vanilla essence. Beat well.
3.  Sift salt, flour, custard powder, cornflour and milk powder. Mix flour mixture into the butter until it forms a smooth dough.
4.  Remove and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes.
5.  Roll out the dough abut 0.5cm thick and cut into shape with a pineapple tart mould, or any shape you like with a cookie cutter. Fill the center of the tart with some pineapple jam. Repeat until the dough is finish.
6.  Bake the tarts in a pre-heated oven at 350~F / 180~C until golden brown which is about 15-20 minutes. Cool tarts on the wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

Tips: If you find it difficult to roll out the pineapple jam into a small balls (as it's very sticky), wet your hands, it will not stick ;)

Cookies # 3 - COLOURFUL CUPS
(Recipe adopted from Y3K New Year Cookies Cookbook by Alan Ooi) 

 *Sorry for the blur picture, as the camera I used was not functioning properly.....sigh :(

Ingredients
(A) 200 gm ghee/clarified butter
      100 gm icing sugar
      1/2 tsp fine salt

(B) 340 gm plain flour (I used Superfine Flour)
      40 gm almond powder / ground almond

For decoration : Some yellow, green, red colouring, 100 gm castor sugar

Method
1.  Beat ingredient (A) in a mixer until fluffy. Fold in ingredients (B) and mix to form a soft dough.
2.  Divide no. (1) into 4 equal parts. Leave one part natural, and colour the other three parts seperately, one yellow, one green and one red (I used pink instead of red).
3.  Roll out each piece of dough flat between sheets of plastic. Stack flatten dough one on top of another.
4.  Scale at 10 gm each piece, shape into rounds. Roll over castor sugar and place into paper cups. Arrange cups on tray, and bake in pre-heated oven at 180~C for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool o the rack, and store in containers.

Cookies # 4 - ALMOND SQUARE COOKIES
(Recipe adopted from Y3K New Year Cookies Cookbook by Alan Ooi) 

Ingredients
(A) 180gm butter (I used Butteroll instead)
      110gm Icing sugar
(B) 1/8 tsp vanilla essence
      1 egg
(C) 180gm plain flour (I used Superfine flour)
      10gm cornflour
For topping: Some Almond flakes
For glazing: 1 egg (beaten)

Method
1.  Place ingredient (A) in a mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Add in ingredient (B) and mix well. Fold in ingredient (C) to form a soft dough.
2.  Grease or scatter some flour on the surface of a 14" x 10" tray. Pour half of portion no.(1) on it. Level with a spatula and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180~C for 12 (Mine baked for about 15 - 17 minutes.) Cut into square pieces of 1-1/2". Cool cookies and then glaze the surface with egg wash. Press almond flakes on top and glaze a second time. 
3.  Bake no.(2) in the pre-heated oven at 180~C for another 5-8 minutes. Cool well before serving.

Cookies # 5 - SEMPERIT BUTTER FINGERS
(Recipe adopted from Y3K New Year Cookies Cookbook by Alan Ooi) 

Ingredients
(A) 250gm Butter
      150gm icing sugar

(B) 1 egg
      1/2 tsp vanilla essence

(C) 360gm  plain flour (I used Superfine flour)
      30gm custard powder
      50gm cornflour
      20gm milk powder

Method
1.  Beat ingredient (A) in a mixer until fluffy. Add in ingredient (B) and fold in ingredient (C) to combine into a dough.
2.  Fill mixture no.(1) into mould and press onto lined baking tray and cut into pieces, spaced apart. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170~C for 15-20 minutes. Cool well before storing.
 

Happy, Happy Cookies Baking.....lots of em'~