My Chinese New Year Baking Endeavors

You may wonder, why I would go through all the trouble baking Chinese New Year cookies when, we (my family and I) are so… health conscious.

I have not baked any cookies for the past 18 years.

Some of the reasons being :

1. I do not have the time
2. I had a wonderful supplier, who supplied me some of the best and reasonably priced cookies.
3. My late mother-in-law helped to make arrangements for our needs.

 My wonderful friend, has started her young family and she can no longer supply those great cookies. So I am stuck, no supply, you pay expensively for below par cookies.

Recently retired, I definitely could not use the excuse of being too busy to bake, although sometimes, mother nature seems to work extra hard reminding me that age is catching up and that I cannot do ‘all’ I  want, the way I want.

My family and I love Kueh Bangkit, although, I do not even remember baking Pineapple Tarts.  Kueh Bangkit, yes, the last time being in year 1993 but not pineapple tarts.

I checked out the internet for some recipes. There are more than you care to read, and no 2 recipes are the same. All I had to do was just to compare them, adjust them a little to my own traditional (for Kueh Bangkit) recipe.

Similarly, I checked for some Pineapple Tart recipes, however… I do  not have a traditional Pineapple Tart recipe, just a Short Crust Pastry recipe, picked up a long time ago from my secondary school Home Science lessons. Came across a long filed up baking tip on pastry too, which advises to add eggs for Pineapple Tarts but omit that if you are using the pastry recipe for Curry Puffs.

My Kueh Bangkit 2012

I decided on starting off with my favourite, the Kueh Bangkit. Checked out the wet markets for fresh, pure coconut milk. No, one seller was honest enough to tell me no, they do add some water, another seller vehemently denied adding any water. Finally, the neighbourhood grocery shop was happy to sell me an old freshly grated coconut. To get all that wonderfully thick and rich ‘santan,’ kneaded and worked the coconut well with 2 tablespoons of hot water, then squeezed out the rich ‘santan’ using a muslin cloth.

I had fried the tapioca flour a couple of days earlier and make some preparations to ease the workload on the actual baking day.

My Kueh Bangkit Recipe

• 500 g tapioca flour (fry with 4 pandan leaves, till dry and smooth)
• 1 egg and 2 egg yolks beaten up with 180 g castor sugar
• 1 coconut (I gently cooked the coconut milk (+/- one cup,to thicken it without boiling, have to be careful not to bring out the oil)

1. Alternatingly, mix egg batter, coconut and flour. Leave some of the batter and coconut milk for keeping your dough the right consistency. (if the dough gets too dry later on , you could add a some of the remaining egg batter and coconut milk)
2. Knead dough well.
3. Dust bangkit moulds with adequate amounts of flour (use a brush to help you)
4. Press dough on moulds and bang to dislodge the cookies.
5. Bake at 160° for 15-20 mins. on lightly floured baking paper.

For my oven, the bottom browns faster than the top. The dough cannot be too soft otherwise it will stick to the moulds, of course if too hard than it will not taste nice.

The Result :  They are good but not good enough as they are a bit too crunchy, not soft enough, although they did shatter when I dropped them. (LOL)

 

I think it would taste better to switch the eggs to 3 egg yolks. Most recipes use only egg yolks, but that’s for Y2013.

My Pineapple Tarts 201 2

Actually, the thought of stirring for hours to get the pineapple jam just right, puts me off.

Somehow, I told myself, all you have need are pineapples, sugar, flour and butter or margarine. All easily available, just had to get my butt going. Then…my bulb lit up.

My pineapple tarts are going to taste better than those on sale.

I found a recipe that says add the sugar after your grated Pineapple is dry.

My Pineapple Tart Recipe

Pineapple Jam

• 1 ripe pineapple (the last one at the neighbourhood shop, all green ones at the market, some recipes advised using not so ripe). I manually chopped it up about 450 gm of pineapple only as it is so ripe and soft.
• 5 tablespoons castor sugar, it is probably about 125 gm
• Cook till caramelized, and do test for your preferred sweetness.

The Pastry

• 300 gm plain wheat flour
• 150 gm salted butter (skip the sugar if using salted butter)
• 80 gm of icing sugar (only if using unsalted butter)
• 1egg and 1 egg yolk
• 2 tabsp. of ice cold water

1. Cut cold butter into flour with pastry cutter, thereafter use a food processor or chopper to chop it into ‘breadcrumbs’ like mixture.
2. Add beaten eggs and cold water to get a smooth dough.
3. Refrigerate dough for an hour before working.
4. Roll out pastry, and cut into 5 cm lengths.
5. Fill pastry with pineapple filling (rolled into cylindrical strips), do not overlap pastry ends.
6. Brush pastry with egg or yolk mixture.
7. Bake at 175° for 15-20 mins.

Most pineapple tart recipe uses more fat than my basic pastry recipe. I prefer less fat. I used a chopper to help me get the pastry into fine breadcrumbs texture. (I split it up into about 5 portions, with 2 short spurts for each portion. You could try doing it in 3 portions, and maybe 3 short spurts).

The Result :  They are good but not very nice to look at, no consistency in size, real amateurish. As I only used 40 gm of sugar for the pastry (did not want it too sweet) it ended up rather flat as my butter was salted. I like it though.

Should I change the eggs to 2 yolks? I have about a third of the pastry left, so if your pineapple is small, adjust the portions accordingly.

Now, these Almond Flakes Bites and London Almond Chocolate Cookies were baked by my sister-in-law. They look and taste so very professional.

Suggestions

All in all, I fried my Kueh Bangkit flour while I was doing something else (multi-tasking) so that it will not seem too long. A word of caution though, do not leave the stirring if you are going to be gone for too long (you surely do not want burnt flour). Just switch off your gas, you can continue frying when you are back after 2-3 minutes.

It was the same for my pineapple jam too, multi-tasking makes it all so much easier. Add sugar only after your pineapple jam has become dry. Our local pineapples taste so much better and the juices are full of flavour.

Another way to cut down your work is to buy pineapple roll pastry press or mould and of course a food processor.

I wonder if I am able to get a Kenwood multi pro compact FP250 with 15 functions (not available anymore, that’s what I have been told). Otherwise, I shall have to settle for something else.