Chocolate Thumbprints

I baked these cookies "Chocolate Thumbprints" for my friend Susan. This recipe is from "Gorgeous Biscuits" by Periplus Mini Cookbooks. I simply adore this little book! The recipes are easy to follow, especially for people who are new to baking.

Ingredients

250g butter, cubed and softened

1 cup (125g) castor sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

3 cups (370g) plain flour

2/3 cup (80g) cocoa powder

4 tbs milk

4 tbs orange marmalade

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg celcius. Line a baking tray with baking paper. 
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the vanilla essence and beat in.

3. Sift the flour and cocoa into the butter mixture. Add the milk and mix to a soft dough.

4. Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into balls and lay well apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

5. Make a deep indent in each ball with your thumb and fill with the marmalade.

6. Bake for 20 mins. Leave for 5 mins, then cool on a wire rack.

This recipe makes about 40 pieces.

Recipe source: "Gorgeous Cookies" by Periplus Mini Cookbooks

Ang Ku Kuih (Part I)

When I was back in Singapore last December, there were sales going on everywhere in the shopping malls. Bookstores were no exception, and I managed to purchase five cookbooks. =)

I have been wanting to make nonya kuihs for quite a while, and I saw this book "Nyonya Kuih Passions" by Andrew Kow at a cookbooks section in a departmental store. Flipping through the book, I was mesmerised by the pictures of many colourful kuihs in it. Needless to say, I bought it =)

A few days ago, I made Ang Ku Kuih for the first time. The result came out quite all right, but I feel that the skin of the Ang Ku Kuih could be more even (could see the bits of the filling showing through the skin after the steaming process). Perhaps it was the wrapping of the dough skin.. would definitely need more practice. Other than that, the taste was nice.. M said it reminded him of Muah Chee (I used peanut paste as the filling). I have another recipe on Ang Ku Kuih using sweet potatoes and glutinous rice flour to make the dough skin. I will experiment on this recipe soon and see how the result will turn out. Till then, this is the Ang Ku Kuih recipe that I would like to share.

Ingredients

Part A
250g glutinous rice flour
30g sugar
250ml water
75ml oil
a few drops of red food colouring


Part B
50g rice flour
125ml water


Filling*
300g dried mung beans
250g sugar


*You can use different types of fillings such as peanut paste and red bean paste for Ang Ku Kuihs.


Others
About 20 pcs of banana leaves - cut to fit size of mould (to be cleaned and scalded with boiling water before use).

Method
1. Soak mung beans for 3 hours and steam them for 1 hour. Mash mung beans.
2. Fry the minced mung beans with sugar until well combined.
3. For Part B, cook rice flour with water.
4. Mix Part A with B to form dough, add the oil last. Divide dough into 25g each.
5. Wrap filling with dough. Place the dough into an Ang Ku Kuih mould to set it in shape.
6. Turn out each cake on to a pieace of banana leaf.
7. Steam for 8-10 minutes over medium heat.

Note: I brushed the Ang Ku Kuihs lightly with oil while they were still hot.

Recipe source: "Nyonya Kuih Passions" by Andrew Kow