Lapis Chocolate Mint

Lapis Chocolate Mint
Souce: Bro Rozzan

Ingredients:
300g butter
120g fine sugar
6 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
80g kaya
250g sweetened condensed milk
80g malt powder (Horlicks)
160g Hongkong flour (I used cake flour.)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp hot water - mixed with cocoa powder
2 tsp peppermint essence
green colouring

Directions:

1. Line & grease bottom of a 7 x 7 inch pan. Set aside. (I doubled the recipe & baked in a 10x7 pan.)
2. In a large bowl, cream butter & sugar on high speed until light & fluffy. 
3. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition.
4. Reduce speed & beat in vanilla essence, condensed milk, malt powder & kaya. Mix until well blended.
5. Stop machine & fold in flour.
6. Divide mixture into two parts. Add cocoa into one & peppermint & green colour into the other. Mix well.
7. Preheat oven at about 180-190 deg C, top & bottom heat. Pour 2 ladles of cocoa mixture into baking pan & spread mixture evenly. Bake for about 6-7 minutes or until cooked. Once cooked, remove pan from oven & press top of cake gently using a lapis presser or bottom   flat  surface of glass. 
8. Then adjust oven setting to grill (top heat only) at temperature of about 200-210 deg C.
9. Pour 2 ladles of peppermint mixture into baking pan & spread evenly. Bake untill cook. Continure baking alternate layers until finish. (I baked 2 layers of cocoa mixture followed by 2 layers of  peppermint mixture.) 

Cashew Nut Chocolate Cookies

It feels like it's been ages since I last posted an entry in this blog. That's because it's been more than a month since my last entry, the longest break I've had. The month of Ramadhan is traditionally a very busy month for me. Work  & family commitments, coupled with Ramadhan activities & lots of baking during the weekends, left me hardly any time to keep up with my blog...... Likewise, the Eid celebrations had kept me busy during the weekends with visits to our relatives & friends' & guests who came over to my place. 

I'll be sharing with you the recipes of my Eid bakings, especially those I've  not shared yet, in the next coming entries. For a start, I'm posting a Hari Raya cookie recipe that was hugely popular in Singapore about 30 years ago. Remember Chocolate Chip Cookies? Not the American version, I think it's the Asian version...  I remember making them every year for Hari Raya. It was so popular that there was nothing left by the second day of Eid, Back then, during the pre-internet era, one way to get hold of this prized recipe was to attend the weekend baking classes. I was lucky, there were a few generous people who shared the recipe with me, all from different instructors. Amazingly, the recipes were all identical! I wonder who created the recipe...

Anyway, my source of  this recipe is Mdm Zaleha Osman, the name printed next to the recipe. It was given to me by my best friend then.  I've decided to change the name of this recipe to Cashew Nut Chocolate Cookies so as not to be confused with the Chocolate Chip Cookies that we all know.

Cashew Nut Chocolate Cookies
Recipe by Zaleha Osman.

Cookies:
4 oz butter
2 oz powder sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3 oz ground cashew nut (I toasted it lightly & left to cool before adding to mixture.))
4 oz top flour (I used plain flour.)
2 oz chocolate block - grated

Topping:
renchoco / mohrenglanz chocolate or any compound chocolate - chopped  (I used Selbourne.)

Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir chocolate until melted. Ensure that bottom of bowl doesn't touch the water. Also, ensure that not a drop of water goes into the chocolate as that will affect the consistency of the chocolate. Once melted, remove bowl from pot & wipe bottom of bowl dry.

Method:

1. Combine butter, sugar & vanilla in a bowl & mix until mixture turned pale. 
2. Add groud cashew nut,  flour & grated chocolate. Mix until just incorporated. 
3. Cover bowl with plastic & leave aside to allow dough to rest for half an hour. 
4. Shape dough into  balls. Place each ball into a mini foil cake liner & press slightly. (Note:  the size of the balls should be such that, after baking, the cookie will fill up about 3/4 full. The cookie will rise slightly after baking.) Bake at 180 deg C for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven & leave to cool.
5. Pour melted chocolate over cookie & leave aside until chocolate hardens. If you wish, you may sprinkle colourful jimmies or chopped toasted cashew nut on the chocolate. You may also place the cookies in the fridge for about 5 minutes, but not more than 10 minutes,  to accelerate the hardening process. 
6. Store cookies in an air-tight container in room temperature.

Tart Teratai

Time really flies... tomorrow will be the 14th day of Ramadhan. I'm feeling a bit anxious... there's a long list of things to do as Eid is approaching. And at work, the pace is also picking up as the term assessments are around the corner & before long, it's the end of the school term... I'm glad next weekend will be a long one in view of Singapore's National Day. I hope to do my shopping & lots of baking!

Anyway, I've started my baking for the Eid celebration. I made the must-have pineapple tarts last Tuesday. I used the same recipe that I've been using for the last decade or so... You may refer to my post last year for this Lotus-shaped Pineapple Tart, aka Tart Teratai, recipe.

Have a good weekend! I'm sure I'll have a busy one!