Pineapple Tart 黄梨饼

Pineapple Tart has became one of the popular Chinese New Year cookies in Malaysia besides the traditional kuih kapit (love letter), kuih bangkit (tapioca
starch coconut milk biscuits), and kuih ros/loyang (golden rose /honeycomb biscuit).
Due to the pronounciation of "pineapple 黄梨" in many Chinese dialects, sounds like "旺来 = 旺盛/旺运", meaning "coming fortune", it is consider very auspicious during the Chinese New Year celebration.
Home bakers love to bake some to share with friends - wishing good fortune coming continuously...
There are few shapes of Pineapple Tart, either wrapped pineapple jam completely with dough and garnished with clove or exposed pineapple jam at two ends while baking. I prefer the latter, as sugar in the jam would be caramelized further by exposing to the oven heat. It definately enhanced the flavor!

Kids waiting for tart...

Ingredient:

• 500g Butter


• 4Tbsp Condensed Milk


• 80g Icing Sugar


• 4nos Egg Yolk


• 1no Egg White


• 800g All Purpose Flour


• Extra Egg (to brush tart surface)


• ~1.25kg Pineapple Jam

Method:

1. Cream butter, condensed milk and icing sugar till pale in color.


2. Add egg yolk and white one at a time and mix well.


3. Gradually add flour into the mixture, and mix completely.


4. Press dough through mould. Wrap and roll with jam.


5. Brush tart surface with egg before bring to bake at 180 degree C.

Point to highlight: Shaped pineapple jam into individual ball before preparing the dough.

Christmas Molasses Ginger Cookies

It is the best time of the year to bake ginger cookies. Living in Malaysia, we can get fresh ginger thoughout the year and preserved ginger is easily available as well. I used preserved ginger for the cookies instead of grounded. I love to bite on the ginger pieces when chewing the cookies.
As we are going to have kids around for the Christmas gathering, I make it less ginger... These ginger cookies will disappear quickly, so I make a large batch!
Ingredient:

• 115g Butter


• 125g Brown Sugar (extra brown sugar to sprinkle on top of dough before baking - optional)


• 4 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses / Treacle


• 1tsp Fresh Lemon Juice


• 275g Plain Flour


• 1tsp Baking Soda


• 50g Preserved Ginger (coarsely chopped)


• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon


• 1/4 tsp ground cloves


• some dusting sugar (decoration)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degree C. Lined baking tray with parchment/baking sheets.


2. Sift flour, baking soda and spices together.


3. Cream butter and sugar. Stir in egg, molasses and lemon juice. Add in flour mixture and mix well.


4. Spooned the dough (desired size) on the prepared baking tin. Place about 5cm apart. Sprinkle some brown sugar on top (optional).


5. Bake until cookies are just firm to the touch, abvout 12 minutes. Leave to cool on wire rack.

Point to highlight:

Do not chopped preserved ginger too fine, I love biting on ginger pieces.

Melon Seed Cookies 瓜子饼

This is the second year we bake Mooncake. My sincere gratitude goes to my best friend at “yong-hobby.blogspot.com” for sharing her recipe and provide invaluable guide.

The very first two items that I baked last August, two months after delivered my second child, were Mooncake and Melon Seed Cookies. She is 15months old this month and loved my homemade mooncake and cookies… I have my sister helping me this time around and it makes my baking tasks much easier and smooth.

Ingredients:
750g Low protein flour
450g Golden syrup
250g Peanut oil
1 Tbsp Alkaline water
¼ tsp Salt
250g Lotus paste
150g Melon seed (lightly roasted)
25g White sesame seed (lightly roasted)
25g Black sesame seed (lightly roasted)
150g Meat floss 鸡丝 (optional)

Methods:
1. Mixed 200g flour, golden syrup, peanut oil, alkaline water, and salt evenly and leave it overnight or at least 6 hours.

2. Then use finger tips to rub lotus paste into fine particles and mixed well with the balance flour (550g).
3. Add in roasted melon seed, white and black sesame seed and meat floss (optional). Mixed well.
4. Lastly pour in “Step 1” mixture. Mixed all ingredients into dough.
5. Weight dough into 25g/piece. Roll and lightly press.
6. Brush eggwash on surface before baking.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes or the desired color (lightly brown) at 160ºC.
8. Best to eat 5-7 days after baking. Do not store in the airtight container, as humidity in the air is needed to moisten the cookies.