Deepavali - a time for churning out those cookies!

This blog (and my personal one too) has been dreadfully neglected these last couple of months since I returned home to KL and hit the career ladder once again. The workload and hours at my "new" job are practically triple what I put in with the old one, combined with spending 3 hours of my daily life in a traffic jam made even the idea of even cooking anything more than a slapdash dish exhausting! But I'm back with renewed inspiration (we'll see how long this lasts... lol) after re-reading the first post I ever wrote here while scouring for some old recipes.

Anyways enough of the moaning and groaning - to the main event - new recipes! :) I usually hate doing cookies since I always end up burning them somehow... but having missed Deepavali with the family for the last two years, was eager to do something. And hey hey, they turned out great (good thing I finally learnt that cookies need to be cooled before they harden/crisp up)!

Left: Melting Moments, Right: Sugee Biscuits

Sugee Biscuits
Ingredients:
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
200g ghee or butter
150g icing sugar
150g semolina flour (note: I added about 50g more as my dough was too sticky)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Preheat over to 180C.
2. Sift plain flour and baking soda.
3. In mixer, cream ghee/butter, icing sugar together. Add in semolina and salt, and fold in sifted ingredients.
4. Divide dough into balls (I used a half teaspoon as a measure), put on tray and flatten slightly.
5. Bake for 12 minutes.

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Melting Moments
Ingredients:
100g salted butter
75g unsalted butter
1/4 cup heaped icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornflour
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In mixer, cream butters, sugar, vanilla until smooth and light.
3. Stir in sifted flour, cornflour and lemon zest.
4. Fill dough (it has a very soft consistency) into piping bag and pipe rosettes onto baking-paper lined tray or little paper cups. Top with sprinkles.
5. Bake for 9 minutes (small ones) or 12-15 minutes (larger) at 180C.

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The infamous hoax "Famous Amos" Chocolate Chip Cookie

This was from one of those emails revealing that someone was trying to get back at being charged hundreds by FA for asking for the recipe. But, still it is pretty darn yummy!

Ingredients (makes a lot, so half the recipe for 2 trays):
250g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups sifted plain flour
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
340g chocolate chips
100g nuts, chopped (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat oven t0 190C. Note: the cookies baked at this temperature will have a chewy centre. If you prefer them crumbly, bake at 195C.
2. Cream butter, sugar, eggs, vanila.
3. Fold in rest of the ingredients.
4. Roll into small balls (I used a teaspoon measure)
5. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes at 190C (chewy soft middle) / 195C (crumbly).