Jam Heart Cookies (Glass Biscuit)

I came across an interesting biscuit recipe which used orange zest when I was flipping through the recipe books. I quickly swing into action to bake it as Anncoo Journal's Little Thumbs Up April theme is Orange! 

This Glass Biscuit (should be Jam heart Cookies but it spelled out as Glass Biscuit in Vincent Gadan so I just follow) recipe is from my "Homemade Patisserie Pastry Made Easy" by Vincent Gadan. The biscuit dough has a higher butter content than sweet dough so you can imaging the taste of my buttery glass biscuits is, it is a wonderful afternoon with this glass biscuit to go with a cup of tea or coffee! 


I let my hubby tried one and pass another to my son, when my hubby finished his, he said "can I have another one?" Then both of them kept munching on the biscuits, this was just right after dinner!! I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up Event month April hosted by Anncoo Journal. 

The far right two pieces are with Nutella filling, you like it too?

Recipe from "Homemade Patisserie Pastry Made Easy" by Vincent Gadan with minor change in method.

Ingredients: 

375g all purpose flour

10g almond meal

220g unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

grated zest of 1/2 orange

1/2 vanilla bean, cut length ways, scraped (used 1 tsp vanilla essence)

2 pinches table salt

8g baking powder (omitted)

150g icing sugar/ pure confectioners sugar

2 eggs 

Method:
1. Place flour, almond meal and cold butter into a mixing bowl and rub the ingredients between hands until it forms a sandy texture.
2. Add the grated orange zest, vanilla essence, salt, sugar and eggs. Then mix the mixture with hands to make a smooth dough ball or until all well combined. 
3. Flatten the dough into a rectangle between two sheets of baking paper to a 3 mm thickness (I divided and flatten it into 3 rectangles, so is easy to handle later on) Wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for at 30 mins before using (my place is super hot now). Remove from the refrigerator, on the worktop, cut 30 disc using the round cookies cutter and another 30 disc with your desired chosen insert shape  (I made around 30 pairs, about 60 pieces).
4. Using a spatula, carefully lift and place the discs on a lined baking tray and chilled for 10 mins before putting into a preheat oven at 170C and bake for 12~15 mins or until lightly golden brown (oven temperature may varies as it depends on the capacity of your oven)
5. Cool the cookies on rack completely. Invert bottom cookies, spread with a teaspoon of jam or Nutella. Dust the top cookies with confectioners' sugar; gently sandwich cookies together.

I'm submitting this post to Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal 

and also linking to 'Cook Your Book #11', hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours

Classic English Scones

I actually love to eat scones but I seldom buy it. The most unforgettable scone's eating experience was once I went for a day trip with my sister family and we stop by "Pie in The Sky" restaurant in Victoria selling their hand made scones, it was fluffy, light yummy scones!! Is very hard to find such a perfect scones! 

Today, I swing into my kitchen to make these lovely fluffy light scones just because I lugged back a good baking book from Switzerland! The name of it is "Mastering the Art of Baking" by Anneka Manning. There are so many recipes which I love to try out immediately and making scones is so easy because it doesn't use the electric mixer! 

I gives the recipe a twist by adding orange juice into the scones so I can link this post to Little Thumbs Up Event month April hosted by Anncoo Journal. 

Honey Tomato Orange Grilled Drumsticks

The summer is starting to show its colour, we have to switch on the AC when we are at home. My son is having Easter break, and I try to make the food he likes as much as I can. Today is Easter Sunday, I don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. Make this yummy honey tomato orange grilled drumsticks, basically just let the oven do the work. 

First time for me to add orange juice in the chicken, with tomato and honey in the sauce, you hardly notice there is citrus in the chicken, it blended well with others seasoning. I love that refreshing taste from a grilled chicken drumsticks.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up Event month April hosted by Anncoo Journal. 

Happy Easter!

Recipe by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House

Ingredients:

8 small chicken drumsticks

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1.5 tbsp orange juice 

Method:

1. Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients in a zipper bag for at least 30 mins.

2. Place the chicken through a skewer like what I have shown in my previous post arrange it across the baking tray, so that the chicken is like hanging in between the baking tray.

3. Bake in preheat oven at 220C and bake for 25~30 mins. In between bake, open the oven and brush the chicken drumstick with remaining sauce three times. Check if the chicken is thoroughly cooked using a skewer, if not continue to bake until chicken thoroughly cooked. (As the oven heat may get lower when you open the oven door for long)

Are these cuties lovely? I bought them from Switzerland ^.^

I'm submitting this post to Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal 

Orange Mango Ice-Pop: Little Thumbs Up

Today is a super hot day, my son has friend came over and after the play they asked for ice cream ...which I don't have in the fridge. I remember I saw Jessie of CookingMoments made her beautiful ice-pop and I have the Zoku's quick pops maker with me, so I make the Orange Mango Ice-pop with the store bought juice. Is fast and easy, one of the rules in Zoku's quick pops book is...make sure you keep the ice pop maker in the freezer all the time, so you can make ice-pop anytime. Of course, if you have extra time, you can extract fresh juice from any fruits you love.  

This ice-pop is not very sweet but a bit sour because I laid the lime slices in it, but the boys seem to love it and licked the ice-pop until the end of the bit! ^o^

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up month April hosted by Anncoo Journal. 

Note: After this post, I'll be away for Holiday ^_^ Happy Easter! See you soon!

Recipe by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House
(yield one)
Ingredients: 
50ml Store bought Orange Mango juice 
two slices of lime, cut into very thin

Method:

1. Place the Zoku ice-pop maker in the freezer for at least 24 hours. Is better to place it in the freeze 24/7 so it will be ready to make tasty pops anytime!

2. Get the maker out from freeze, lay the fruit slices in the Zoku's ice pop maker using fruit wand, if you don't have it like me you can use a chopstick. Stuck the fruit slice against the tip of the chopstick and press the fruit against the wall of the maker, remember not to touch with your fingers as you might get cold burn. 

3. Place the pop stick in the maker, pour in the juice and watch it freeze! 

4. Once frozen, the ice pop is locked into the maker, use the super tool that come with the maker to remove the ice-pop. Ta-da, happy eating! 

I'm submitting this post to Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal 

Honey Soy Glazed Chicken Drumsticks 蜜糖酱油烤鸡 ^_*

This was made last November before I packed up my kitchen and leave Melbourne.  Kept it in my draft for so long because lazy to draft the post :D It kept coming out in the recent post column when I published my post, so annoying :< Anyway, the chicken meat was really tender and Gabriel was willing to try and eat chicken drumstick for the first time! May be the honey soy sauce also one of the reason which encouraged him to try the food :) 

I have mixed sauces which left over in my fridge, and I think the way I placed the chicken drumsticks in skewers does help to bake the chicken drumsticks more evenly. Oops! I still burnt one of the chicken drumstick part, but the meat was cooked thoroughly. 

The Inland Sea-Khor Al Daid

This was the desert trip we had last month.  We went to the Inland Sea or Khor Al Daid, it is a huge inlet surrounded by giant rolling sand dunes. My first time and it will not be the last one, the desert trip impressed me so much with it beautiful natural feature.

It is important to go in convoy, as you don't know what will happen there, the car stuck in the sand is the last thing you want it to happen there. There is no tarmac road leading to Inland Sea, you drive whatever you like off road! It was so fun, we have to deflated all four wheels outside the Beach Resort before we enter into the desert. It took us 1.5 hours to drive from my place to the Beach Resort and another 45 mins from the Resort to reach Inland Sea. It is advisable to go with someone knowing the way, then it will be a smooth and easy drive or else it will be a bumpy and roller coaster trip! 

It is really a surprise for me to see such a clear and beautiful sea in the middle of desert, across the sea you can see Saudi Arabia. The beach is so soft, so soft! We can't get this type of beach any where in Singapore or Malaysia. When your feet steps on the sand, you thought you are stepping on the mud, that is how soft the sand is. 

Orange Jelly: Little Thumbs Up

The weather here is getting hotter, AC is on everyday including the kitchen area! My dish washing machine has been down for nearly a week already, the daily dishes pile up is really a chore to me after being pampered for the last four months. 

Today make a simple Orange Jelly for my son, to be precised it should be agar-agar. Agar-agar which derived from a special type of seaweed. The traditional agar-agar that I used to eat when I was small. My mum loves to make agar-agar for us in this type of shape or in a big plate than cut into diamond shape. Her agar-agar has only two flavors, either rebina or orange.  

Surprisingly, my son loves this agar-agar, I served three agar-agar to him and he refused to let me have one! I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up month April hosted by Anncoo Journal.