Tuesday, February 2, 2010

CNY Cookies II

Yes, I am in the mood to bake again. My last baking session was the Swiss roll back in Aug last year and I haven't been baking until last week when I did the CNY peanut cookies. I have plan for the pineapple tarts too although I wasn't very confident in making it.

Today, I thought of baking the pineapple tarts but then I went with the peanut cookies again. My dad gave me a tip when I gave a bottle of my last result to my parents. I said why my cookies were not as golden brown as those sold commercially? I did brushed the top with egg but still it wasn't as nice. My dad said I have to brush it twice actually, once before it went into the oven and take it out from the oven when it is half done and brush it again. Yup, he was the baking expert for my grandfather when my grandfather was running the famous Penang Dragon Ball biscuits shop. My dad was assigned to the oven baking role while my other uncle was assigned to make the pastry and fillings. My dad didn't know the ingredients for the different type of biscuits that my grandfather used to sell but he was the expert when comes to temperature and the finishing of the "product". The oven my grandpa had was an old fashion, huge, wood fire, and manual "oven" by the way.

So I took my dad's advise and true enough the cookies came out with very nice golden brown and shining look. I also found a perfect tool to imprint the circle on the cookies this time!


Actually, I outsourced the labor intensive part of the task to my maid this time. I measured all the ingredients called for, made the dough and brushed the egg and watch over the oven when it is about time to remove the cookies (the time on my oven is no longer working), and my maid did the rest, including the washing (hehe!).

So, while waiting for the peanut cookies to bake I started with the pineapple tart preparation. I rolled out the pineapple jam into small portions, made the pastry dough and line the baking trays. The dough smells very good already even before going into the oven because of the custard powder. Then it was ready for the action. I wasn't very confident in making pineapple tarts because this tool...


I couldn't imagine how to hand press the pastry through it but I was told by the seller that most people feedback that it is very easy to do with this tool! So I bought it with 80% of doubt, and 20% of back up plan in my head. I was planning on creating other shapes of pineapple tart if this failed. But true enough, it is a very simple yet good tool to make pineapple tart! See how nicely the tarts lining up on the baking tray and ready for the oven.

I used the egg brushing tip that my father taught me on these tarts too and they turned out very well! MIL was just visiting when I was ready to put these into the containers. I let her try one and she said very good (because I put a lot of pineapple fillings!). She happily took 1 container back (it only yield 2 containers actually).

I still have a small portion of pastry dough left, will do more pineapple jam and bake more pineapple tarts soon. Now I am getting the hang of it :)


4 comments:

  1. Looks like an activity for the young and old! Looks tasty!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your pineapple tart looks yummy. Can I have the recipe :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your pineapple tart looks yummy. Can I have the recipe :)

    ReplyDelete