CHOCOLATE CHIP, CRANBERRY & MACADAMIA NUT COOKIES

Just take a look at the cookies, these babies are each packed with the goodness of choc chips, macadamia nuts and dried cranberries. The three combination is so cleverly put together which yields a fantastic flavour. Please try this and you would probably give yourself a perfect score on the taste-o-meter!



Recipe adapted from My Kitchen Snippet

Ingredients

3 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks/226 grm butter – room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped toasted salted macadamia nuts



1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into medium bowl. By using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until combined and slightly fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time and then vanilla. Mix well.

3. Add in the shifted ingredients and mix just until blended. Using spatula, stir in cranberries, chocolate chips, and nuts.

4. For large cookies, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, as for smaller cookies, drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto sheets. Bake cookies for 20 minutes of until golden brown. Remove and cool the cookies before storing.

SEAFOOD TARTS

I am so glad I made these tarts for Christmas. I found this wonderful recipe from Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippet - one of my favourite blogs. I am sure you have one or two blogs on top of your list which you go to faithfully simply because you have found a connection to it. It can be a common interest in tastebud, ingredients, measurement, etc. I have tried quite a few recipes by Gertrude, and it always, yes always turns out successfully. I found my 'connection'.

I managed to snap this before the tarts were gone. Aren't they a pretty thing to look at?

I took the easy way out to make the tarts. I used store bought shortcrust pastry which came in prepared sheets. All I did was to cut it out and place in mini tart pans. As for the seafood fillings, no worries at all because it was so easy to make.

However, if you prefer to make the pastry yourself, hop over to My Kitchen Snippet for the recipe.

Here's the recipe for the seafood fillings, adapted from My Kitchen Snippet

2 cup of cooked shrimp – roughly chopped

1/2 cup of artificial crabstick – roughly chopped

1 stalk of celery – cut into tiny cubes

3 spring onions - finely chopped

1 egg

1/2 cup of low fat cream cheese

1/2 cup of light mayonnaise

1 tsp of chili powder

1/2 tsp of sugar

2 tbsp of lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

1. In a mixing bowl mix all the filling ingredients together until well combined. Set it aside.

2. Roll about the dough to about 1/8” and line the pastry into little tart moulds.

3. Fill it up with the filling and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F for half an hour or until the crust is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

CUT OUT COOKIES - NIGELLA LAWSON

This is the third cookie which I made for Christmas. This is also widely known as sugar cookies - the all time favourite cookie during Christmas, especially amongst the kids! I omitted the icing decoration part.


Ingredients
adapted from Nigella Lawson

Cookies:
6 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Icing:
2 to 3 tablespoons just-boiled water
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Food coloring, preferably pastes
Special equipment: cookie cutters


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Form into a fat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place disk of dough on it, and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to a thickness of about 1/4-inch. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the cookies a little apart on 2 parchment or silpat lined baking sheets.

Bake for 8 to 12 minutes; obviously it depends on the shape you're using and whether they are on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after about 5 minutes. When they're ready expect them to be tinged a pronounced gold around the edges; they'll be softish still in the middle, but set while they cool.

Remove the cookies with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack. When they are fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoons of not-quite-boiling water into a large bowl, add the sieved confectioners sugar and mix together, adding more water as you need to form a thick paste. Color,as desired. I think pastes are much better than liquid, not just because the range of colors is better but because they don't dilute the icing as they tint. Ice cooled cookies, as desired.

CRISPY CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Some like it crispy, some like it soft and some like it chewy. Yeah, I am talking about chocolate chip cookies - the all time non-stop debate if soft is better than cripsy, vice versa. So to cut the chase, I have found one recipe which caters all, adapted from Smitten Kitchen . Even the title of this recipe suggests that you should look no further but try this one now, pronto!

I made this cookie for Christmas give away, and here's the recipe which I had promised in my earlier entry.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar (I reduced to 1/4 cup)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

3. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

4. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time (for giant cookies) or a tablespoon at a time (for smaller cookies) onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

5. Bake larger cookies for 15 to 17 minutes, or 10 to 12 minutes for smaller ones (check your cookies before they’re done; depending on your scoop size, your baking time will vary) in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

For Step #4 - I used 1 teaspoon to make bite size cookies.

MERRY XMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

New year, new hope, new beginning. May peace and happiness be with you all.

This is a late entry, but nonetheless I am excited to show you what I had baked for friends and relatives. I have made three types of cookies for Christmas and packed it in small cute goodie bags.

Picture above from left: Polvorones, Chocoloate Chip Cookie and Sugar Cookie.

The Polvorones were very popular amongst the adults. As for the kids, they kept reaching out for more chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies. Afterwards, friends and relatives were asking for recipes!

I had posted the Polvorones recipes dated 31 Oct 2010 which you can refer to that anytime. I will be posting the other two cookie recipes soon. Watch out for it!