Tag Archives: Cookies

New Addiction – Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Recipes May 14, 2013 Comments: 32

Today, I have a confession to make and that is…Mr Bao and I have found a new addiction and that its PEANUT BUTTER! I know it may sound awfully strange to most people, because most like if not LOVE the good old peanut butter but neither of us did :P We never put it on our toast, would never order a PB dessert or even buy a jar! Then…last year April (My Food Trail) made us some chocolate peanut butter brownies for Christmas and has totally converted us! All of a sudden we liked the salty peanut flavour especially with chocolate, since then we’ve made PB Brownies, PB molten cakes and now I present to you the Peanut Butter Cup Cookies :D

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Recently I took my parents to Costco being their first time they were amazed at how big everything was and they had fun buying everything in bulk. I’d had my eyes on the 1.5 Kg Reeses Peanut Butter miniature cups for a while but didn’t want to buy it. But dad saw how I was lurking around same aisle sagain and again so he ended up getting it for me! YAY to parents who spoil their kids :P

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Immediately that night, I wanted to make something with PB, so ended up making these cookies which are essentially chocolate chip cookies but I replaced some of the chocolate chips with chopped pieces of PB cups and to top it off I placed a whole PB cup in the middle for baking them ~

I think next time to make them even more Peanut Buttery I’m going to add some Peanut butter to the cookie dough batter ;) I wonder if we’ll ever get over this addiction but for now its here to stay.

Recipe – Peanut Butter Cup Cookie adapted from Taste.com.au
Yield – 20 Cookies

Ingredients
185g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200g), brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g), caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cup (300g) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g Reeses Peanut Butter cup, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips (dark or milk)

Method
1) Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking power
2) Use an electric mixer to beat butter and two types of sugars in a medium bowl until pale and creamy (approximately 3 to 5 minutes)
3) Add the egg and egg yolk and beat until well combined. Add flour and baking powder, stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Alternatively continue beating with electric mixer until just combined and finish up by hand. Add Peanut butter cups and chocolate chips and stir to combine.
5) Using an ice-cream scoop or spoon, roll two tablespoons of cookie dough into a ball and place on the lined tray, slightly flatten with fingers.
6) Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until slightly golden (leave in oven if you like it crisper). Remove from oven and cool on tray before transferring to a cooling rack.

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First Guest Post – Go Bake Yourself (Uru)

Other, Recipes September 17, 2012 Comments: 27

Hello everyone :) hope you’ve had a nice weekend ~ today it’s going to be a super short post from me, because I am guest posting for the very first time at Go Bake Yourself. I’m sure many already know Uru but for those who don’t, she’s a a young, passionate and talented teenage girl from Sydney. She has an amazing blog, sharing wonderful recipes with occasional reviews of cafes and restaurants.

She’s currently doing her exams, therefore, doesn’t have enough time to blog and asked for volunteers to guest post while she takes a short break ~ I’ve been following Uru’s blog for quite some time and immediately jumped the opportunity :) I had some trouble deciding on what recipe to share… a cake recipe? Cupcake recipe? Then I decided to share a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, because Uru identifies herself as ‘Choc Chip Uru’ on her blog ~ couldn’t think of a better recipe to share with her and her Readers.

I’ve been testing out a few chocolate chip cookie recipes, and I personally like the texture of Mrs Field’s cookies and have been trying to replicate them. That’s when I remembered buying David Lebovitz Ready For Desserts book and decided to give him recipe a go :) And boy am I glad I did ~ it is by far the yummiest chocolate chip cookies I have made so far! Mr Bao ate 5 of these cookies in a row LOL and he claims he doesn’t even have a sweet tooth :P

Please hop over to Uru’s blog for the recipe ~ I know we all have our own chocolate chip cookie but please give these a try, it’s SO delicious!

Would also like to thank Uru for giving me the opportunity to guest post on Go Bake Yourself! Good luck with all your exams and can’t wait till you blog again :D

Who Wins – Caramel Chip Cookies

Australia, Melbourne, Recipes June 10, 2012 Comments: 69

To all my Readers in Australia, HAPPY LONG WEEKEND :) Woo Hoo! We get tomorrow off because it’s Queen’s Birthday, it’s a little annoying though that we don’t get an extra day off like my friends in the UK do because it’s the Queen’s Jubilee celebration :D

Even though, I’ve only gone to the UK, I’ve always had a strong connection with the Queen hehe I’ve always liked her and the whole royal family ~ I was quite young when Princess Diane passed away but I still remember it was such a shock and have since read so many autobiographies of her :)

They’re both invincible and incredible together :)

I’m totally in love with this picture and just really wanted to share with everyone, Queen Elizabeth and her Prince Phillip are surely invincible and incredible together after so many years, they are still very much in love! Sooooo Sweet :)

Anyway,  I always get side-tracked lol like most couples… Mr Bao and I bicker a lot… and we always have stupid bets and challenges…and these caramel chip cookies are one of them.

Nestle recently released their new caramel bits for baking, which are the same as the chocolate chips but their caramel ones YAY :) I LOVE anything caramel hehe ~ so I immediately picked them up. I got quite busy so just left them lying at the back of my pantry, but then fellow blogger The Suz Chef Instagrammed a photo of these chips and jolted my memory.

So I made these last night, and while I was scooping them out onto the baking trays, Mr Bao decided my cookies were ‘ugly’ and that I should be using my hands and rolling them into little BALLS before I bake them… so he decided to come and ‘show’ me…

*Rolls Eyes*

*COUGH COUGH* Excuse me! Who’s the baker in the house? LOL

Anyway so we got into a pretty heated argument and we can’t decide who’s cookies look better?!? They taste exactly the same, but I must say mine are crunchier on the outside and oh so chewy on the inside.

So my dear lovely Readers, please vote who’s Caramel Chip Cookies look the best :D Just be honest and place a vote ~ I wont be made if you only voted for me hahaha.

If I win I wont need to do the washing for the next two weeks! But if I lose…I’ll have to do the washing and ironing…so PLEASE cast your vote :)

Mine – The Left
Mr Bao – The Right

Back to the recipe, these Caramel Chip Cookies were SO easy to make and SO good :) I think I’m gonna make another batch for work next week ~ They’re seriously sweet and delicious and very ‘Mrs Field’ like which is the type of cookies I like hehe ~


Recipe – Caramel Chip Cookies from Nestle (the package) 

Ingredients (Makes 15 large or 30 small) 
125 grams butter, soften
165 grams, brown sugar
1 egg
255grams, self raising flour
250 grams, Nestle Caramel Bits

Method
1) Preheat oven to 170°C/150°C fan-forced. Grease and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2) Place, butter, brown sugar and egg in a bowl of a stand mixer or use a handheld electric mixer, beat until mixture is plate and creamy.

3) Stir in flour.

4) Add Caramel Bits. Mix until well combined

5) Roll level tablespoon of mixture, place on prepared trays of about 4cm apart. Flatten slightly.

6) Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until golden. Set aside on trays for 5 minutes to cool; transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

If you haven’t seen these Caramel Bits, you can get them from most Coles and Woolworths in Australia :) As for other places I’m not too sure ~ But if you do see them, pick some up and try making these yummy cookies!

Before I head off ~ Please please PLEASE cast your vote!

Thanks xoxo

PS. I’m the one on the LEFT :D

Long Awaited – Momofuku Ssam Bar and Milk Bar

New York City, Reviews, Travel Adventures February 2, 2012 Comments: 28

Huge thank you to everyone for the lovely birthday wishes :) I don’t think I’ve received so many birthday wishes before! I am so behind with all my blogging! I had to help my Sis Macy do something the last few days, so I’m sorry for being a little slow with replying to comments and reading all your fantastic blogs ~

Getting on with today’s post, I wanted to share with you, my long-awaited experience at Momofuku Ssam Bar and try Christina Tosi‘s unique goodies :)

I have heard so much about David Chang and the Momofuku chain by so many bloggers that I just HAD to go try it out for myself :) I tried to book for a table at Momofuku ko two weeks before going to NYC…but no luck…it was full…I know I should have booked a month in advance, but I really didn’t expect it to be so full!

Day 2 of our trip, I dragged Mr Bao out of bed extra early, had some breakfast at our hotel, then jumped in a cab and headed to the East Village on my quest to find Momofuku :)

We arrived at Momofuku Ssam Bar at around 10:30am and  it wasn’t open so early…Mr Bao was getting very impatient, we took our time to walk around the East Village and enjoy the nice scenery ~ I really like this area, it’s not as busy as the other areas in Manhattan and people seem more at ease ~ and we found this nice church :)

Think it's the St Mark's Church ~

After a good hour of mindless walking, we went back to Momofuku Ssam bar and was greeted by a nice but probably still half asleep waiter :) he led us to our table which was near the window and handed us the menu.

Even though we had breakfast a mere 3 hours ago, Mr Bao was starving and I knew if I didn’t order and get some food in front of him, he wasn’t going to be very happy :P But there was a problem, the whole menu was full of dishes with duck – Rotisserie Duck Over Rice, Duck Dumping Soup, Duck sandwich and Pulled Duck Bun : D Poor Mr Bao is on a special diet because of his eczema where he can’t have duck…so the only thing he could really have from the menu was the Spicy Pork with Rice cakes.

Spicy Pork Sausage and Rice Cakes $19USD

The spicy pork sausages is minced and tossed in a Korean chilli sauce with chinese broccoli and sichuan peppercorns :) it was a fantastic mix of all the flavours ! We both really enjoyed it, went especially well with the spring onion and dried garlic pieces. Even though I thought the rice cakes were a little too chewy, Mr Bao seemed to like the texture. We recommend this dish to anyone who likes a bit of spice and rice cakes ~

Pulled Duck bun $7USD

I was surprised that they didn’t have the Pulled Pork Bun, so I had the Pulled Duck Bun instead :) It was brilliant with the mayo and the bun was so fresh, which is something hard to find in my opinion ~ I’ve never had pulled duck, but definitely like the texture the pulling technique brings to the duck ~ I think Mr Bao was a little jealous and kept complaining that it was tiny, but I think it was the perfect size for me :)

Then conveniently, Momofuku Milk bar was right across from the Ssam Bar, so we quickly paid and I basically ran across the road I was SUPER DUPER excited about trying it!

Cereal Milk $5USD and Latte $3.85USD

The cereal milk was so nice :) Very nostalgic hehe it sure reminds me of the days when I’d have Frosties for breakfast and loved drinking the milk! Mr Bao thought it was ‘weird’ hahaha I said to him ‘because you’re too Asian and don’t have cereal for breakfast!’ He ordered a latte as he needed a coffee fix, we were still jet lagged hehe he really enjoyed it, said it was nicely made and was smooth. But to me…it was a very regular cup of coffee ~

Crack Pie $5USD and Corn Cookie$1.85USD

The corn and compost (sorry forgot to take a photo) cookies were amazing! So soft and sweet :) LOL Christina Tosi is so creative to add pretzels and potato chips into cookies ~ yummy!

Compost Cookie Mix $16USD

A little expensive but I couldn’t help but buy it and try at home :)

Deathly sweet ~

‘Deathly Sweet’ is how I would describe the crack pie :) it’s like nothing I’ve ever had before, so sweet, so rich and so unique ~ I think it’s one of those desserts, where you either ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’. I know Mr Bao definitely hated it :P he took one bite and gave me a death stare like I had just slapped him across the face. He said that it was so sweet that he felt sick hahaha I think he was over exaggerating, I don’t think I can really describe how it tastes unless you try it for yourself, but the taste reminds me of the American candy corn lollies :) Is it just me being weird again? I think it was a little too rich even for me, but definitely worth a try!

Candy Corn

Source: Wikipedia 

I don’t think I need to convince you anymore :) definitely go check out the Momofuku stores when in NYC and if you can get a table at Momofuku ko, please don’t forget to share your experience with me!!!

Momofuku Ssäm Bar on Urbanspoon

Momofuku Milk Bar on Urbanspoon

First Recipe – Gingerbread Men

Recipes December 24, 2011 Comments: 13

ONE day LEFT till it’s OFFICIALLY Christmas!!! I am so thrilled :) it’s been a bit of a wait hehe I’d like to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS with their significant other, family and friends!!!

I wanted to share with you, my very first recipe post – “Gingerbread Men” it’s the very first time I’ve made them…I’m not really a fan of gingerbread men so I was a little worried that they wouldn’t turn out the way I wanted them to…but thanks to the Baking Addict’s wonderful recipe and Sasa’s (my bestfriend) help the cookies turned out perfectly!!

My ugly gingerbread men hahaha

Even though they look and taste perfect, I’ve gotta work on my decorating skills hahaha i didn’t seem to be able to draw the facial features properly grrrr so i ended up wrapping them up without any decorations and gave it to my family as a Xmas gift ~ they didn’t seem to mind that some were so ugly family love is so forgiving :)

Recipe: Gingerbread Men
Adapted from The Baking Addict 

Makes: Approximately 24 gingerbread men (depending on the size of the cookie cutter)

125g Unsalted Butter (softened)
110 Dark Brown Sugar
2.5 Cups Plain flour (sifted)
1 Egg yolk
1 tsb Bi-carb Soda
4 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
270ml Golden Syrup

(Note: Baking Addicts recipe asks for 2 tsp of mixed spice, I didn’t have any at home so I just used what I had :)

  • Preheat oven to 160C/320F
  • Beat butter, sugar and egg yolk in a bowl until smooth
  • Stir in the remaining ingredients until mixed properly
  • You may need to add a little more golden syrup if the mixture is crumbly or too dry
  • Knead the dough on a floured surface and roll it out to approximately 5mm in thickness.
  • Cut shapes using cookie cutters (or templates for the gingerbread house)
  • Place on a baking tray and bake for approximately 12-15 minutes until they are brown (a little hard to tell because the doughs a brown colour)
  • Cool on a rack until cookies harden
  • Decorate the cookies anyway you want :)

Please visit the Baking Addict’s blog at http://themorethanoccasionalbaker.blogspot.com  for more recipes and baking tips! She’s my number one supporter and I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to the Baking Addict for all the encouragement!

What  do you have planned for Christmas? Family gatherings or spending time with friends? Would love to know how everyone else is celebrating this special day ~ Mr Bao and I have a tradition, where we spend Christmas eve together without any family or friends and have a nice dinner for two :D

Have a wonderful day!!

PS. I promise this is the last time you will see blurry, low quality and unprofessional photos on this blog because as an early Xmas pressie to myself, I finally got a new camera :) the Olympus EPL3 YAY!!!

Source: Olympus

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