Cookies Cutters & Ribbons: Green Tea Cookies Part II

I've fallen again.

Fallen prey to these gleaming metallic, sturdy stainless steel cookie cutters with Japanese motifs.

Fallen in love with a roll of beautiful ribbon. It is printed on both sides!!!!!!!!! (Yes, it's almost impossible to find consumer-available, double-side printed ribbons these days!) Sorry to sound like such a creep, but I look out for details like these.

At the point of purchase, I haven't figured when I would have a chance to use this lovely piece (I wanted to use "precious" but the word took on a whole new meaning after watching Lord of the Rings). But having a weak spot for ribbons (and paper, fabric, stationery by and large), my approach is to buy when in doubt. Hee hee :)


Things started to piece up slowly: a sakura cookie cutter, green tea powder (leftover from the previous bake), a ribbon which seems a perfect match to package green tea cookies.


I got on to more baking again, and packaging, and eating.


Actually there is one overlooked point about packaging baked goodies in pretty, small sealed bags: It delays gratification! I absolutely love these cookies, but I can't bear to tear the little pyramids apart! The calories accumulate still, just more slowly... ^_^

Nostalgia with the Coming of X'mas - Green Tea Tree Cookies Part I

Had recently gotten some very likeable X'mas tree cookie cutters from Cuisipro . I almost ran out of ideas on how to make a green cookie without any colour additives (even contemplated grinding some fresh herbs and puree-ing avocado), green tea powder appeared on the supermarket shelf just in time to save me from some making some cookies which probably just looked green and just aren't too edible. Relief.



The fun part of making rolled cookies is really the cutting part. I subsequently bought more cutters, expressing no signs of restraint for my (over-)spending habit on baking supplies (gasp). I personally prefer metal cutters to plastic ones, but the great shapes and ascending sizes from Cuisipro's are irresistible (words from a baking-gear-fallen-prey).

Just some small tips on making rolled cookies:

1) Metal cutters tend to have a smoother "release" than most plastic ones, but take note to get good stiff stainless steel ones, it's frustrating to work with flimsy malleable cutters (imagine your round cookies turning oval-ish after some tough handling).

2) If your dough isn't sweet enough, dip them in granulated sugar before baking. They will bake beautifully. I did that for this batch of cookies, and the sugar coat adds a crunchy crust.

3) Chill. Chill. Chill. Chill till firm before rolling. Chill again if dough turns soft during handling. You can bake trays of chilled dough, just adjust baking time accordingly (usually 1-3 min more, depending on oven).


I can't believe X'mas is so near. It's often a love-hate relationship with X'mas. Whilst I enjoy the festiveness, shopping, spirit of giving, warmth, good company from old friends, I often can't bear to see the end of the year coming. I hope time could pass a little less quickly! There's so much more to do, so much to bake, so many more things on the 2007 to-do list that haven't been striked out yet!



The turquoise tea towel probably isn't too X'mas-y, but imagine a weekend morning, with tea in your favorite teacup, your little journal with the year's resolutions (and probably 2006's), and some cookies. Probably a good time to look back on things, in anticipation for the year's end. ^___^

To Christmas~~~~

Gooey Gooey...

It would be fun to called these blobby cookies little brownies, except it is fudgier, gooey-ier and probably walnutier. (pardon the blunt non-existent adjectives!). I can't think of a better description than the author's.



Adapted from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet Decadence Cookies, these little treats are "ultrachocolatey and richer than sin, slightly crunchy on the outside with a divinely soft center..." True to every word and more, this cookie delivers a lovely jolt of bittersweetness and an intense (not to mention instant) chocolate fix.

Nothing subtle, and definitely not for the cocoa-neutral, the batch of 700g dough comprises of 300g-400g (depending on cocoa content percentage) and only 35g of flour. Ahhhhh... if you are a nut-lover, you would be pleased to know that there is 200g of walnuts in the batter as well. So, really, it's actually chocolates and nuts baked with some eggs and a tiny dust of flour.

Exciting proportions, a good sunny Saturday afternoon, ample chocolate and some fresh nuts = these gooey treats.



Baking these was not hard (except loads of cleaning up because of such a wet batter), but photographing them was a total nightmare! I never really know how to make dark brown little things look pretty, and it's getting harder with each post (if you notice I made loads of truffles and different chocolate cookies). I have decided to jar them up, so there is a little gloss. It turns out to be a great packaging size. Yeahhhh, my little cookie business seems to be shaping up! (unrealistically optimistic.. haha...)

Crunchy Truffles

It turned out all delightful. It was partly because I was too lazy to infuse tea in my ganaches, so I looked through the kitchen stash, and decided to make some truffles with chocolate crunchies, a valuable buy from Shermay's.




It was a high cream to chocolate truffle. 500 ml of whipping cream to 300 g of Araguani! I always loved creamy yet dark, melt-in-the-mouth truffles, so I went to quite an extreme for the cream proportion. The ganache was surprisingly easy to roll, maybe because the morning was a chilly one.


All of it was shared with friends promptly and finished up in less than a week!


I was not working from my own kitchen, so I was a little short on some of my favorite tools and packaging materials. Nonetheless, I managed alright. No fancy pictures, no cookies with ribbons, no truffles in martini glass. Just a little hill of truffle balls, crying to be eaten, and rightfully deserving so.

Yum... I'm thinking of dark truffles of white chocolate balls now. It's true you can't stop once you start, be it the eating or the making.

Baking with Chunks - Part II

I got down to the real baking! For readers looking for recipes, I am afraid I can't offer you much (yes, you are free to click on another blog link), because I have recently decided to give a shot at setting up a cookie shop (had a sudden awakening). Most of the recipes I'll be trying out in the next few months would be those I'm keen to use for my shop. So, I'm going to evolve into a cookie-ninja and you'll find me posting pictures with vivid descriptions but elusive, evasive references (if at all) to the recipes. Yes, call me awful, selfish, annoying, but I had kept those precious recipes in my 10-over year-old notebook with a tingling thought during my teens that I could set up a bakery one day, and like the baker-owners all say, "Ah.. that's my secret recipe." You won't deprive of having a chance (no matter how slim) to say that one day yup? ^___^

While this blog have never really been targeted to garner a huge audience (Yup, I think and write like I would love to read, and it serves more as my own kitchen diary). Those who have been reading regularly (I'm very thankful) would know they can skip the first few paragraphs because I never get to the point quickly. Alright point taken, let's get to it!



I have been baking a chocolate cookie with different types of chocolate chunks. I had used Valrhona's Guanaja before, and now recently tried the same recipe with Araguani, thinking its floral notes and subtle bitterness would go well with some cookie sweetness. The cookie is still good, but Guanaja's slight citrus sourness had a better go with this ultra chocolatey treat. (Personal take of course!)



I tried a sister cookie (yes I treat white chocolate and strawberries as feminine objects). It's really hard to get dried strawberries (please let me know if you know!). I emptied these morsels from an entire box of Post's cereal, and they were weightless on an digital scale! They rarely filled half a cup.

There are some distributors carrying freezed dried fruit (which researchers have reported to retain high levels of nutrients), but we have to order by the kg.

These cookies turn out quite crisp on the outside, and some bigger choc chunks remain liquidy, giving slight chewy centre. Ever wondered why some cookies turn out crispy and thin, some thick and chewy? Ah... mystery mystery. I have a thing for permutations and possibilities. I variate the same core recipe with difference types of sugars, flours, fats, and alter the amounts slightly. I would also bake the same dough under different conditions (temp. and time). Of course, with experimentation comes loads of failures and some nice surprises. Please check out this great information site on chocolate chip cookie for the theory part of it! The practical side of things: You just have to get down to doing it. The same dough produces different textures from different handlings, different ovens (tricky, but it's the whole mystifying nature of baking that gives you the kick ne? ^_-)



The second best part of baking goodies is definitely packaging them! Eating them comes a close 3rd. Yes I am one of those weird ones who doesn't eat much of what I make, my taste buds are numbed from the long hours of baking (and test tasting). These are carefully packaged to be given out to friends to "test-run" for me.



And you absolutely have to eat cookies with chilled milk. The duo sends a lovely cold jot of crumbliness, crunch, melting-ful of sensation, milky goodness, loads to chew and starts a new day like it's going to be a real good day.