On the 9th day of Chinese New Year, I had ... Cashewnut Cookies

If you check in every Singaporean or Malaysian mother’s recipe book for Chinese New Year cookies, I bet you'll find a recipe for cashew nut cookies. These cookies are ubiquitous during Chinese New Year and I’ve never had one go past without seeing and eating these cookies. It is also mainly during this period that my mom fries up kilograms of cashew nut cookies and packs them into glass jars for relatives to snack on. Why so? Well, knowing how superstitious Chinese people are, we have associated symbolisms and meanings even to food we eat. I mean, the entire process of lo hei (捞起) yu sheng or yu sang (鱼生) is filled with symbolism - check out this website for the 'prosperous words' to say when you're in the process of making the prosperity salad and tossing it.

As for cashew nuts (腰果), we Chinese believe that the nuts resemble gold ingots from days long gone, and so we eat them in a bid to get wealthy. Ironic much? In any case, you can choose to roast the cashews by placing them on a tray in a preheated oven, but from experience, these are not as nice as compared to fried ones. All you need to do is to use some oil (olive oil is good) and continually toss and 'fry' the cashews. They turn a lovely golden brown (as you can see above), and taste better. And because you're making this snack yourself, you can choose NOT to salt them. And they are cheaper if you buy them raw and fry/roast them yourself rather than buy them packaged and salted, ew. The healthier option of course is to roast them in the oven, but I justify it by eating less of these nuts. Another good thing about these cashews is that they have a lower fat content than most other nuts and more than three-quarters of their fat is unsaturated fatty acids. They contain high quantities of oleic acid, which is the same fat which promotes good heart health. But as with any foods, eat in moderation! About 20 cashews (35g) count as one serving, and as with most nuts, do not eat more than one serving a day. It's best to eat less than 3 servings per week. Most importantly, cashew nuts are rich in minerals, such as zinc (important for growth and development) and copper (important for your joints and antioxidant defenses) among others. I learnt this recently, and I've been encouraging my mom to eat more cashews because she suffers from low blood pressure and has a weak constitution, so iron and minerals in any natural form is most welcome!

So as I was saying previously, oldies are goodies, and these are my mom's super good cashew nut cookies recipe. I'm not sure where the original was from, but I'm pretty sure both the ingredients and instructions have been modified enough over the decades for my mom to call it her own. I find it rather astonishing (and amusing) at how similar my mom and I are in terms of recipe jotting – my mom crams a few recipes on a page, which I do now without knowing she did the same, and she writes comments such as “very good” on the side of recipes she tries, which I do as well. 

If you recall, I also baked this last year, but I used the original recipe and didn't post the recipe up. So here it is: 

120g butter

120g shortening

125g sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 cup ground cashew nuts

155g self-raising flour

125g plain flour

Some cashewnuts for decoration

This year however, I had to do some modifications. As usual, I only decided to bake this very last minute (ie, on the eve of New Year’s eve), so I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed. I didn't have the shortening and self-raising flour that was required, so I replaced it with margarine and normal flour with baking powder instead. So here is 2012's modified recipe:

Cashewnut Cookies

At least 100 cookies

120g unsalted butter

120g margarine

125g castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

120g ground cashew nuts

280g plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

Some cashewnuts for decoration

1 egg yolk for egg wash 

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. 
2. Choosing the smaller sized cashew nuts, split them into half along their seams and place them face up on a baking tray. Place the tray in the preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes, making sure that the cashews DO NOT turn too golden brown. You just want them less raw so that they can bake in time with the cookies later. 
3. Weigh the discarded or weird shaped cashew nuts (until you get 120g) and place them in a food processor. Grind them up and set it aside. 
4. Sift the plain flour together with baking powder and set it aside. 
5. Let the butter and margarine both sit at room temperature until softened. Cream butter and margarine together, then add sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Cream until pale yellow and fluffy. 
6. Add in the ground cashew nuts and give the mixture a quick stir. Next, add in the sifted flour and stir the mixture until all traces of flour has disappeared. 
7. Next, proceed to measure out small balls (depending on how large you want your cookies to be - mine were about 7-9g each). Place them on a greased baking tray and leaving about a thumb's space between each ball, because you will have to slightly flatten them and the cookies do spread a bit. After flattening your cookie balls, press in your pre-roasted cashews. Use an egg wash over each cookie if you want them to have a golden brown hue (much like gold ingots). 
8. Bake at 160°C (fan-forced) or 175°C (conventional) for about 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the cookies when they're done, and allow to them to cool before storing them in airtight containers. Do resist the temptation of eating them immediately, because the cookies taste better the next day. 

Janine's jots: 

• Note: This recipe can be easily modified by substituting any other ground nuts, and I'm sure it'll taste equally good. In fact, I think it will be a really good base for a gluten-free cookie (though not nut-free).
• Taste: I love cashew nuts, so these cookies taste perfect for me (and all my relatives). They are also not as sweet as those you get from shops, and hence are the perfect sweetness. I didn't have to experiment with the sugar amounts because this sugar amount has been tried and tested, and derived after many years of baking them (by my mom). 
• Texture: These cookies are an absolute delight - crispy with an extra crunch from the cashew nuts. Everyone who ate these cookies loved them. I believe the crispiness is derived from a mixture of margarine and butter, because I can't seem to get this same texture with an all-butter recipe. But I might be wrong. More experiments next year ;p
• Serving size: I can't recall how many cookies I made, but I could fill 3 large containers with cookies, so perhaps 100 cookies at least? 
• Modifications: NONE. They're perfected well enough already, in my book. 
• Storage: These cookies store really well in an airtight container. It has been almost two weeks since I last made them and they still are as crispy and yummy. 
• Would I make this again?: Definitely. My aunt made me promise. And among all the cookies I made for CNY, this was one of the more well-received ones, because it was traditional, and because it was yummy. Also, I loved making it because it was so simple - I got the dough made and the cookies baked in less than three hours. And this is taking into consideration that my oven can only bake one small tray at a time!

Anyway, today's the ninth day of Chinese New Year, and it's the day that Hokkiens pray to the Jade Emperor (or 天公). There are varying stories of why this is so grandly celebrated by the Hokkiens, but the common thread is that the Hokkien people were forced to hide in sugarcane plantations by their enemies during the Chinese New Year, and when it was finally safe, it was the 9th day of Chinese New Year already. So these Hokkiens went back to their homes and celebrated this 9th day as if it were the 1st day, hence the grand celebrations and the act of giving thanks. Not sure how true this story is, but at least it explains the grand feasts that some have on this day (roast pig, et al).

I don't exactly celebrate Chinese New Year besides the first and second day, because that's all the holiday I get from the Singapore government, so these cashew nut cookies reminiscent of gold ingots are all that I'll be offering to 天公 for now :]

And yes, I took these photos the same time as I did the gluten-free orange poppy seed cookies the previous post, and was still experimenting with indoor flash. I'm still not too pleased with the photos but I was in a rush as usual, so I can only grumble and learn from my mistakes now, after post-processing. 

Healthy CNY cookies #3: Gluten-free Orange-Poppy Seed Squares

Oldies are the goodies. Although I've been trying all sorts of newfangled recipes, be it cakes or cookies, sometimes, mom's recipes still are the best. It may be because of the memories that we associate with the tastes, that makes it taste good, or perhaps the sheer number of generations that a single recipe has fed that makes an 'old' recipe good, so let's not question it ;p For Chinese New Year, in addition to the new recipes (white chocolate oatmeal cookies for example) I looked through my mom's recipe book, torn and tattered that it is, for some of the more traditional and loved CNY cookie recipes. I found this recipe entitled Oriental Cookies, and despite the exotic sounding name, it looked like a traditional butter cookie to me. So I decided that it was the perfect recipe to use for a batch of gluten-free cookies I was planning to make for my cousin.

I've been baking up a storm this CNY season, but even as I make the usual pineapple tarts and cashew nut cookies, I wanted the diabetics in my family (the 2 eldest folks in my family) to be able to partake in the cookies during breakfast and tea (CNY is all about the cookies in my family), so I came up with the sugar-free butter cookies. Looking back (now that I'm back in Singapore), I should definitely increase my repertoire of sugar-free or healthy cookies to a greater number, because the single jar that I brought back was readily consumed by my grandma and uncle, and it was the fastest cookie to disappear. I'm sure if I can make the cookies taste almost the same as the original, people won't be able to tell the difference! The only thing holding me back for now is that exorbitant prices of the sugar substitutes :/

Anyway, these gluten-free cookies were very very well-received by the family, even with the rest of the family who didn't need to eat gluten free. I didn't know exactly what foods my cousin couldn't eat, because a year ago, I was ignorant about these things, so I just made it gluten free. I actually found out later that he was on a GFCF and nut-free diet, which means that I shouldn't have added the almonds into the mix. Luckily, he's not allergic to them, so it's okay in small quantities. With my increased awareness of foods and baking, I'm definitely making something more interesting for him next year - I'm thinking of not only making it gluten-free and casein-free, but going all the way and making it vegan by doing an egg-free and butter-free version. That should be pretty interesting :]

For those of you who might be thinking, what the heck is this gluten-free thing and how does it affect me? I can eat anything! Well, I can too, but this didn't stop me from exploring. A gluten-free diet is basically a diet on which no gluten can be consumed - it may be for health reasons (eliminating wheat and enriched carbohydrates) or it may be simply because your body cannot process gluten (coeliacs). This was perhaps a lesser known phenomenon in Singapore and in Asia, but there has been increasing awareness of this disease because of the greater number of people being inflicted (or diagnosed) with coeliac disease. So what is gluten? Gluten is basically a protein found in wheat - it's the thing that makes bread rises and makes it so elastic and yummy. Thankfully for those in Asia, our staple food, rice is gluten-free. There are many other grains and seeds which are gluten free, such as millet and buckwheat, and other root starches like tapioca and arrowroot - these are the typical flours used in gluten-free baking. Sometimes, a binder or glue is required to mimic the action of gluten, and this is where xanthan or guar gum gums comes in. It's a gum derived from trees, and it acts as a 'glue' for the flours to 'stick' together. This gum might sound exotic, but trust me, it's not - it's a stabilizer commonly used in many processed food products - if you check your food label, it goes by the name E415.

So even though I'm perfectly healthy, I have been reading a lot about a gluten-free diet, because I think that by eliminating wheat flours in our diet, we are actually introducing a great variety of flours and new ingredients that we normally will not encounter. I still make cookies and cakes with white enriched flour, but this also goes hand-in-hand with my bread made of rye and spelt, my rice which has millet mixed into in, my granola which has flaxseed and quinoa and all sorts of other seeds and grains. All these serve to introduce interesting and healthful ingredients into my family's diets. This post is getting rather long, so I'll stop my long spiel for now. Be warned that this is but the first of many posts on such a topic - I do believe that more Singaporeans are looking into a healthier lifestyle (with all those organic food stores and 十谷米 products on the rise), and this is but one way of incorporating healthy living into our daily lives. 

Gluten-free Orange-Poppy Seed Stars
Adapted from one of my mother's recipes entitled Oriental Cookies (source unknown)
Makes about 60 star-shaped cookies 

60g      unsalted butter
⅛ tsp   salt
¼ tsp   baking powder (gluten free)
⅛ tsp   baking soda
½ tsp   orange zest (half an orange)
1 tsp    poppy seeds (or sesame seeds)
50g     icing sugar, sifted
12g     egg
100g   gluten-free flour mix*
½ tsp   xanthan gum

*I used a homemade mixture of the following flours:
10g cornstarch
20g tapioca flour (or tapioca starch)
20g almond flour (or ground almonds)
10g millet flour
15g sorghum flour
10g glutinous rice flour
10g rice flour
5g buckwheat flour

Method: 

1. Sift the various flours together. Then, sift the flours together with the xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. 
2. Cream butter with icing sugar and salt, until pale and fluffy. Then, beat in the orange zest and poppy seeds. 
3. Beat in the egg white until it is well-incorporated. Beat for about a minute at medium speed.  
4. Add in the sifted flour mix and beat until all traces of flour is gone. You can beat the mixture for slightly longer because the lack of gluten in the flour means there is no fear of tough cookies! :]
5. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1cm, and you can either use cookie cutters or cut rectangular shapes. You may also roll the cookies into balls and flatten them. The cookies will be crispier if they are flatter. 
6. Bake at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cookies turn a light golden brown. Cool on a rack until totally cool to touch before storing in air-tight containers.  

Janine's jots: 

• Note: Poppy seeds are banned in Singapore, but there is a variety of blue poppy seeds available in Malaysian supermarkets that you may use. Alternatively, you can use black sesame seeds or totally omit poppy seeds if you want. The poppy seeds merely add an extra crunch to the cookies, and for course are aesthetically interesting for kids to eat. In addition, if making for someone who needs to eat gluten-free, make sure that your baking powder is certified gluten free, or make your own. This is because baking powder is usually combined with wheat or some other products which contain gluten, so please please be aware of this! It could be deadly if you use normal baking powder for someone who is seriously allergic to gluten!
• Taste: I love how the various flours used add to the complexity of the taste of each cookie. For instance, the buckwheat flour gives it a grassy nutty flavor, which is why I used a small portion of it. The almond flour, which I deliberately ground rather coarsely, gave it the nuttiness and crunch. Millet and sorghum both provide sweetness to the cookie dough, and you can also add gluten-free oat flour for more sweetness! 
• Texture: In my mom's recipe book, she also adds that you can add a maximum of 30g chopped nuts (almonds or walnuts) for extra nuttiness and crunch. 
• Serving size: This recipe is a halved version of the original, and depending on how large your cookie shapes are, you should get about 50 cookies or more. I had enough cookies to fill 2 8x11inch trays. 
• Modifications: The original cookie recipe does not include the orange zest and poppy seeds, but I decided to add them in, because I thought the fragrance of oranges would be apt for a CNY cookie, with all those mandarins and tangerines around. 
• Storage: These cookies store extremely well in an air-tight container, for 2 weeks or more. 
• Would I make this again?: Definitely! Not only were they well-received by the family, it got a thumbs up by my friends who tried it as well. I personally think it's a nice cookie to eat, and most people didn't even know it was a gluten free cookie until I told them :] 

The first two parts of my "Healthy CNY Cookies" series were Pseudo-pineapple tarts (which were apple tarts in disguise) and sugar-free butter cookies. This post rounds up this short series, but it's definitely not the last healthy cookie recipe I'm going to attempt. I've been reading up a lot on 'alternative' baking (for want of a better word) and it's high time I changed that into real experiments, so stay tuned!

PS: These photos are taken on my granite dining table back home, and I was playing around with my indoor flash. I definitely have much to learn about indoor flash!

Healthy CNY cookies #2: Sugar-free (Xylitol) Chocolate Spritz Cookies

I’ve to confess that I took a long time to overcome the hurdle that is sugar. I mean, I've seen the evils of sugar (see this super informative video "Sugar: the Bitter Truth") but after an epic no-sugar disaster (I tried to make no-sugar muffins using only the sweetness of fruits which failed more than majorly), I steered clear of anything labelled as no-sugar. Furthermore, I haven't had good experiences with sugar substitutes, as I find that most have a nasty or weird aftertaste to them. These two coupled together was a huge hurdle and I couldn’t get over the fact that anything without sugar would taste horrible and turn out blah.

But since my granny came over for a visit over Christmas and I wanted to bake some cookies for her, I had to make them sugar-free so that she could enjoy them without suffering the consequences later. So I began experimenting. I used the most simple of recipes – a butter cookie recipe. I made it sugar-free by substituting equal amounts of sugar substitute, xylitol for the sugar and I also changed it into a chocolate flavoured butter cookie.

My Christmas Cookie Selection (which are experiments for CNY actually)

Now, my granny has not always been diabetic - in fact, she only tested positive only last year? I suspect old age has something to do with it. My uncle also has diabetes, of the more serious sort, and ever since then, I’ve been ever so conscious that all of us in the family are pretty susceptible too, and we should consciously note what kinds of sugars we are consuming. I’ve been reading up a lot on refined and natural sugars - in fact, as usual, I've come up with a huge long list of these sugars which I will share soon after I make it look more organized. So, I recently got myself some xylitol to experiment with. Why Xylitol? Well, after some reading up, I found that xylitol must suited to my needs. Most sugar alcohols when consumed in excess can cause some gastrointestinal side effects such as diarrhoea and bloating, and these are definitely symptoms I want to avoid. Xylitol on the other hand has a lower incidence of such side effects because it’s more easily tolerated than other types of sugar alcohols.

Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol found in various sources such as corn husks, oats, mushrooms, etc. Mine however, is that which was extracted from birch. It has about 9 calories per teaspoon, about half of that of sugar. It also has a glycaemic index of 13. This is in comparison to refined white sugar which has a GI of about 65! The best thing of course, is that there is no nasty aftertaste like what you’ll get from some brands of stevia or other sugar substitutes. For those who might think - wow xylitol? Sounds totally exotic and foreign! I'm sorry to burst your bubble but xylitol is not something new. If you check your chewing gum or toothpaste, you might realize xylitol being used as one of the ingredients. It provides the necessary sweetness and it appears that it is also tooth friendly and helps reduce plaque and tooth decay as well! I haven’t been able to find xylitol in grain form in Singapore, so I got this shipped from UK along with other products (like xanthan gum).

Of course, there are other types of sugars suitable for diabetics, such as “Sugar-free” and Equal, the more common brands in the market. However, these are more of synthetic sugars and I don’t really want to put in any more artificiality into my body, so xylitol it is.

So onto the cookies. I used a cookie press to make them, and boy did I have tons of fun with it! I forgot my mom had such a contraption, and was only reminded when she saw me piping the cookies with a piping bag and commented that she had a cookie press in the drawers somewhere. I used the Christmas tree plate to create Christmas tree cookies for Christmas, which has of course since passed, but as you can see above, you can also create a whole melange of cookie shapes with the cookie press. It was my first time using the press, so if you scrutinize the plate above, you'll see varying shapes and sizes :/ There are so many plates to play around with, and you can get different shapes with the same plate if you just vary the amount of pressure used, so do play around with your cookie press if you have one, because these can be the perfect simple cookies to make for Chinese New Year. In fact, I believe I took less than 30 minutes to make the cookie dough, and press them out before baking. You can churn out jars of CNY cookies in less than a few hours :]

Sugar-free (Xylitol) Chocolate Spritz Cookies

Makes about 50 odd cookies, depending on how large or small

Adapted from Pierre Herme's sable viennois

95g     unsalted butter
¼ tsp  fleur de sel
¼ tsp  vanilla paste
40g     xylitol (or any sugar substitute, or icing sugar for the non-sugar-free aka original version)
15g     egg white
125g   all-purpose flour

Method:

1. Cream butter and salt until light and fluffy. Next, add in vanilla and sugar, making sure to beat well. 
2. Add in the egg white and beat until well incorporated. 
3. Sift in flour and mix until all the flour is incorporated. Do not over mix. 
4. Place the batter (it will be quite soft) into a piping bag with your selected tip and proceed to pipe out shapes. If the batter is too soft to handle, place it in the fridge to chill for less than 30 minutes. Do not place it in the fridge for too long as the batter will harden and it will be impossible to pipe out. 
5. Bake the cookies in a 160°C preheated oven for about 15 minutes. The cookies do not spread much, so you can pipe them quite close to one another, leaving less than 5cm spaces between each cookie. 

Janine's jots: 

• Taste: I couldn't taste an obvious difference between the sugar-free and refined sugar versions of the cookie actually, which means that this experiment is a success :] I mean, if you want to be particular, I thought the refined sugar version was probably more crunchy, but this version was definitely fine too! 
• Texture: In my first batch, I accidentally added an entire egg white instead of the 15g required by the recipe, so the cookies didn't turn out as crispy as they should have, but the subsequent batch turned out fine. Using xylitol did make the texture of the cookies less crispy, but it was okay for me since this was meant for my grandma and I think she'd prefer a cookie with more 'bite'. 
• Serving size: You can fill about one tin (those typical plastic jars with the red lids) of cookie using one batch of this recipe, so you might want to double or triple it if you wish to make a couple jars.
• Modifications: None, because I really like this recipe, although I do much prefer the original non-chocolate ones better. I think chocolate cookies need to be a tad sweeter.
• Storage: These cookies store very well at room temperature. Just be sure to keep them in an airtight container, and they will last for at least 2-3 weeks. If you store them in those disposable type plastic containers, they will start to lose their crispiness after a few days.
• Would I make this again?: Definitely, but my granny wants them to be normal butter cookies this time for CNY because she's superstitious and doesn't like 'orh' (black) things for CNY =X

 
Do stay tuned for my final installation of my "Healthy CNY Cookies" series in a few days! :]

Healthy CNY cookies #1: Pseudo-Pineapple Tarts for Diabetics - Apple Tarts

As the Chinese New Year (CNY) draws near (it's 23 and 24 January this year for those still in the dark - which means yet another long weekend :D) and my CNY cookie making frenzy heats up, I’ve been thinking about not only the different types of cookies I'm able to experiment with, but also cookies fit for everyone in my extended family to eat. This means that cookies fit for diabetics, celiacs, as well as persons with high or low blood pressure. This also means that I have to experiment with cookie recipes by making some sugar free, some gluten free, and some full of the good stuff (fibre, nutrients, etc), especially for my elders who are getting on in their years ;p

I've decided to start simply - by adapting tried and tested recipes to fit these new requirements. This will be the first of a few 'healthy' CNY cookies that you too can choose to make if your family suffers from the same afflictions as mine.

I've started things off with the most important ‘cookie’ for CNY (in my opinion) – the pineapple tart. We all know that pineapple tarts contain an inordinate amount of sugar – just the pineapple paste itself will contain enough sugar to kill a diabetic (figuratively, not literally I hope). I’m not sure how true this is, but my mom always warned me against eating too many pineapple tarts because according to her, 3 tarts has enough calories for a meal! So I’ve always restricted myself to not more than 3 at a sitting ;p

Now, the use of refined sugar in making the pineapple paste is definitely bad for a diabetic, but I wasn't too daring to make the paste with sugar substitutes (and also because it would be expensive to do so). So instead, I I decided to substitute pineapple paste with a fruit already rich in fruit sugars – apples. Apple paste, or apple jam or more properly called applesauce is definitely way easier to make than pineapple paste. My applesauce contains no additives and no extra sugar. Any sweetness is derived from the natural sweetness of the apple you use. As such, I highly recommend the use of Royal Gala or Fuji Apples which are ripe and sweet, as well as one Granny Smith, to mimic the tartness of the pineapple.

For the crust, to make it diabetic friendly, you can opt for a sugar-substitute such as Equal or Stevia or xylitol, and mix it with some whole grain flours instead of the refined white flours that we usually use. Why whole grain flours? Well, highly refined products like enriched white flours are not good for diabetics because first, it lacks natural nutrients and it gets translated into the blood sugar very rapidly, causing a spike in blood sugar levels. This is not good because diabetics do not have enough insulin to regulate their blood sugar. So whole grains, are definitely a good choice to go with that sugar-free option when you wish to indulge but don’t want to run the risk of elevating your blood sugar level overly.

Apple Tarts

Makes about 60 pieces, depending on how large or small they are and what decorations you put on top

For the crust:

Adapted from Pierre Herme's Pâte Sucrée recipe

125g   all-purpose flour

15g     almond flour/meal

45g     icing sugar (or equal amounts of powdered sugar substitute)

75g     unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ tsp   salt
½ egg  (about 25-30g)

Seeds from an inch of vanilla pod

Method:

1. Sift the flour and icing sugar separately.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter until it softens.
3. Then, add the following: icing sugar, ground almonds, salt, vanilla seeds and beaten egg. Lastly, add in the flour. Use your mixer on the lowest speed until the pastry comes together in a ball. As soon as it does, stop and flatten it into a disc. You can also choose to use a food processor. Clingwrap it and chill for at least 3 hours before use.

For the Apple Jam:

See my applesauce recipe here

To assemble:

1. Make the crust first, and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1-3 hours before using. In the meantime, prepare the apple jam. Basically, use any applesauce recipe and be sure to cook down the applesauce until it is relatively drier than usual.
2. After it cools, remove the crust from the refrigerator and proceed to roll it out, to about 3-5mm thick, depending on how thick you like your tart.
3. Portion the jam onto the tarts before decorating with more dough (optional). You can place the tarts relatively close to one another on the cookie tray because they do not spread/expand that much. Before baking, you can choose to use a egg yolk glaze on the tarts. I did not do this as I was lazy.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for about 20-25 minutes or until the tart is slightly golden brown. Note that if you don't use an egg yolk glaze, your tarts will look like mine below - slightly on the pale side.

Janine's jots: 

• Taste: If you like, you can also add some cinnamon to the applesauce, to bring out the apple flavour more.
• Texture: I would definitely cook down the applesauce a little more since I used my normal method and it was still quite liquid. I thought the applesauce would dry out in the oven when baked with the crust, but it did not and was rather wet still. This meant that the tarts had to be consumed on the day itself, otherwise the tarts turned a tad too soggy.
• Serving size: The recipe is a quartered version of the original, and will definitely make about 1-2 trays worth of tarts, but the exact number is hard to determine because your tarts may be of different sizes.
• Modifications: If you want a more healthy option, you can definitely up the almond flour, and substitute the all-purpose flour with a bit of rice or millet flour. This also means you can mix/process the dough longer since there's no gluten in these flours. Millet also adds a wonderful sweet taste (and browness) to the tarts as well.
• Storage: My tarts only kept well for 3 days, because it started getting soft on the third day and that's not the texture you want for a pseudo-pineapple tart.
• Would I make this again?: I would definitely want to try this again, but making the enclosed version this time because I think the moist apple jam is more suited for a crumbly, melt in your mouth enclosed tart :]

Disclaimer: Please do note that I am not a nutritinoist or medical professional. All recommendations made above are based on what I've read on the internet and in books, so please do consult your doctor if you have any doubts.

I am merely stating that this might be a suitable alternative for diabetics craving for that ubiquitous pineapple tart during CNY. The tart might not be safe for diabetics to consume in large quantities, because it still does contain fruit sugars as well as refined flours and sugars. Please do consume at your own discretion, and always remember, everything in moderation!

PS: I know my tarts aren't very well-made (the filling is so horrible looking) and I have been quite stingy with the filling but this was merely an experiment which went well ;p

Mom's Birthday 4-layered Strawberry Cake with Whipped Cream and Strawberry Jam

Before I begin my long spiel, HAPPY 2012 everyone! And hurray for the long weekend ;p

This post is actually a timed post, because as I speak, I probably am having the time of my life shopping and eating, whilst taking a well-deserved break overseas. Anyway, Christmas weekend came and went rather quickly, and with work and all, I haven’t been taking nice photographs of what I’ve been baking recently. I actually wanted to post about the Christmas log I made this year, but I didn't have my camera with me when we had it for tea, so :(

I know I was contemplative the last post, but thinking back on that last Christmas log and eating my current one really makes me very very proud at how much I’ve progressed as a baker. In fact, I think I've come full circle nicely, because this Christmas log cake was probably the first proper cake I made myself, with a new recipe, with the untested oven and with my new mixer. Thinking back, it certainly was horrible and the people must have been lying through their teeth when they told me it was nice. I remember the dense layer at the bottom of the cake, and at that time, I didn’t know what it was caused by. Now, I know so much better, that the dense layer is caused by overmixing of the batter and deflation of the egg whites. I cringe when I think about those guests eating the cake with that dense layer.

So anyway, since this year's log cake was made with my favorite sponge cake recipe and with equally delicious whipped cream and chocolate ganache, it was tons better than last year. My family, my harshest critics, enjoyed it immensely :] Since I don’t have a nice photograph of the Christmas log cake, I’ve decided to blog about my mother’s birthday cake instead. It’s made from the same cake base as the Christmas log cake and perhaps half of the cake recipes on this blog. I know I’ve blogged about this sponge cake time and time again, but it really is my favourite cake. This is not something I write about lightly, because if you could see the countless swiss rolls and sponge cakes that my dogs ate during the time I was experimenting with various recipes, you’d be alarmed.

Here, I've slathered on whipped cream and jam in between the cake slices, as well as brushed each slice with sugar syrup. After that, I crumb coated the cake with a thin layer of whipped cream, then proceeded to decorate it. Be sure to refrigerate the cake for at least an hour after you're done because it allows the jam and alcohol laced syrup to meld into the layers. If you notice, I fiddled with 2 different designs for the cake. I initially wanted it to be covered with roses, but the roses didn't turn out too good because I doubt whipped cream is suitable. Buttercream would be far smoother and give better results. So I 'erased' the roses off and decided to go with simple ruffles at the side and a huge "50" on the top, because my mom turned half a century old!

Alright, so here’s the recipe again for those too lazy to refer to my older posts!

Strawberry Sponge Cake

Not sure why the cake looks greenish here :/

Components: 

• 4 sponge cake layers 
• Simple sugar syrup
• Stabilized whipped cream 
• Strawberry jam (I used my strawberry-apple jam)

To make 1 layer of sponge cake:

2       large eggs 

30g   castor sugar

20g   all-purpose flour

Strawberry powder (dried strawberries processed into powder form)

1 tsp red coloring (optional)

Method: 

1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. 
2. In a bowl, whisk half of the sugar into the yolks. Sift in the flour and strawberry powder, stirring until you get a smooth paste. Add in the red coloring if using. 
3. In another bowl, whip up the egg whites until foamy, before adding the remaining half of sugar. Continue whipping until you get shiny, stiff peaks. Mix some of the egg whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it up before folding the remaining whipped egg whites into the yolk mixture. 
4. Pour into a lined baking tray and rap the tray against the counter to get rid of any air bubbles. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 10 minutes. 
5. Leave the cake to cool in the tray for about 10 minutes before placing it on the cooling rack. 

For the stabilized whipped cream, 

Adapted from Rachael of La Fuji Mama

1 tsp gelatin 

4 tsp cold water

250ml cold heavy whipping cream

30g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put all the cold water in a small saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface. Let it stand for 5 minutes without stirring. Place the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the gelatin dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature. 
2. Combine the whipping cream, sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract. Beat the mixture for a minute before gradually pouring in the cooled gelatin mixture. Continue whipping the mixture at high speed until you get stiff peaks. 

For the simple sugar syrup, 

30g granulated sugar

60g water

1 tsp of your preferred alcohol, or vanilla extract

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat the mixture. Stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool a little before stirring in the vanilla extract (or alcohol - I used rum). 

To assemble: 

1. If baking as sheets, cut out 6-inch circles from the cake sheets. You will be able to cut 2 6-inch circles from the 2 sheets and get quite a bit of excess cake. 
2. Brush the cooled sugar syrup on each layer. Be sure to brush on both sides of the cake. 
3. Spread a thin layer of jam on each layer of the cake, followed by a thin layer of whipped cream. 
4. Stack all the layers together and begin spreading whipped cream in a thin layer on the outside of the cake. This will be your crumb coat. Place the cake in the freezer for about 15 minutes before removing to decorate the cake. Alternatively, you can chill the cake for an hour until the crumb coat has set (i.e. the whipped cream is slightly stiffer) and proceed to decorate as desired. 

Janine's jots: 

• Note: To get the color gradient, substitute the all-purpose flour for strawberry powder, using a maximum of 15g all-purpose flour and 10g strawberry flour. Also use some red coloring for a more intense red color. For the first two layers, I didn't use any red coloring, merely using strawberry powder to get the red-ness. I made 4x of the batter above, then used my estimation to divide the batter into 4. This perhaps explains why the layers are not too even and the bottom 2 layers are actually almost the same color :/ 
• Taste & Texture:  I absolutely adore this cake because it's so easy to make. My family loves it too. Just a tiny caveat - this cake is quite ‘spongy’ when it comes out of the oven and tastes pretty eggy without any addition of flavouring, but this is easily amended with the addition of vanilla extract or any other flavouring you desire. 
• Serving size: This makes a 4 layered 6-inch cake, which serves a family of 5 perfectly for a heavy tea (about 1.5-2 slices per person depending on how large each slice is cut). My family is not a fan of icing or cream, hence the very thin layers of cream between the cakes and on the outside. If you love whipped cream, be sure to double the recipe and be generous!
• Modifications: You can choose to bake them as sheets, which will take about 10 minutes to bake up - if you touch the top, it’ll be slightly moist and may stick to your finger. So just test with a cake tester and if it comes out dry then the cake is done. You can also choose to bake them in round or rectangular pans and later slice them in half. That works as well. Just increase the baking time to about 20-30 minutes for an 8” round pan.
• Storage: The cake stores well in the fridge, covered. If you are serving the cake right away, you can choose to forgo the sugar syrup, but I highly recommend using it because it gives you a far moister cake. The syrup also ensures that your cake stays moist in the fridge! 
• Would I make this again?: Definitely! You might actually realize that this recipe is almost identical to my strawberry shortcake posted a while back - with virtually the same components!

With that, I end 2011 with what I term “a blast” in my own books. As I usher in the New Year, I fervently hope that I will still be able to find time to blog and post recipes to share with you readers. And I’m hoping to come back with a few goodies from my trip to share with you, to celebrate my first year blogiversary with :] 2012 is the start of many new things for me, so here's to many wonderful things ahead!