Some Of My CNY Cookies

I've finished baking my CNY cookies a week ago. I am glad that this year Sharlene’s nanny was around to help me out. With her assistance I managed to make 4 types of cookies in 2 days. Apart from that I also have 2 little helpers in the kitchen and they were none other than Sharlene and her piao cheh.


I gave them the easiest task i.e. to sift the flour. They did pretty well with one holding the sieve and the other one scooping and scraping the flour into the sieve. But obviously crumbs of flour were scattered everywhere by them. I think my flour weighs a little lesser at the end of the sifting process. *frown* My 2 keen helpers weren’t so eager after all. They didn’t stay in the kitchen for long.


Here are the first 2 types of cookies which I baked on a Saturday –

My all-time favorite, Choc-chips Hazelnut cookies. This cookies are very crunchy, nutty and full of hazelnut flavor. Simply yummy!!

My very first attempt in baking traditional peanut cookies. For this, all you need to have are peanut, sugar, salt, flour and peanut oil. It’s simple and the ingredients were cheap too. I was satisfied with the outcome but maybe lack of appearance, as I was too lazy to decorate it with half a peanut on top of each cookie.

Cornflakes and Mixed Fruits cookies which were baked on the next day. For this, I reduced the sugar too much and hence, the cookies taste a bit plain. Sigh! my oversight. :(

Nevertheless, I was very contented with the overall result. I actually produced quite a few containers of cookies this year – the above 3 varieties plus ‘kok chai’, ngaku and seaweed crisps. I’ve since kept my baking utensils in the storeroom and will not be baking any more cookies until the next CNY.

1st Weekend Of 2009

It was another busy weekend for me where I had spent most of my time in the kitchen. I have started baking my first batch of cookies for Chinese New Year. It’s the right timing to start now as CNY is approaching very soon, in about 3 weeks’ time only. As I am working the only time I can bake is during the weekends. I normally prefer to bake my own cookies for CNY, as they are cheaper, tastier and not too sweet. If I am following a particular recipe I always reduce the amount of sugar by 20gm – 30gm. In times like now, I am sure a lot more people will home baked their own cookies. It really saves you a great deal than buying them from shops. But the only thing is that you need to spend a lot of time doing it.

I already planned to bake 5 types of cookies this year. Hopefully, I will have enough time to bake all of them. During the weekends, I managed to do ‘kok chai’ (mini peanut puffs) and fry approximately 7kg of ‘ngaku’ (arrowhead chips) with the help of Sharlene's nanny.

I love to eat ‘kok chai’ make by Sharlene’s nanny. Every CNY I would look forward to her tasty and crusty 'kok chai'. I wanted so much to learn the way of doing it and finally I’ve got her to teach me how to do it last Saturday :)


Here's the mini peanut puffs ready for deep-frying. The pastry dough consists of plain flour, peanut oil and water only. It took me one whole hour to master the skill of pinching the sides (which resembles flower plait) to enclose the filling. Phew! really not an easy job but so glad I was able to acquire the technique and I am an expert now...haha. Besides doing this way, you can get a mould to save the hassle of pinching with hands.


And here is the filling for the puffs - combination of ground roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds and castor sugar.


All you need to do is to deep-fry the puffs in hot oil until the pastry turns golden in colour (like the pix above).


Dish out the puffs and drain them well on kitchen paper. Once they are completely cool store them in air-tight containers.


While we were busy making 'kok chai', hubby and sil went to Tesco for grocery shopping and they bought about 7kg of 'ngaku' (arrowhead) back. So on Sunday, we spent most of our time in the kitchen again to fry the 'ngaku'. Everyone in the house loves this snack to bits!