My Melody French Sablés (Cookies)

Photo source: Eugenie Kitchen

If you have been active on social media, Instagram for instance, I bet many of you would have noticed the overwhelming number of bakes on these Valentine Rainbow Heart Cookies originated by Eugenie at Eugenie Kitchen. These pretty-looking cookies first caught my attention on a youtube video featuring a detailed-making process of these cookies. With the power of social media nowadays, the video has been shared so widely that the whole world seems to be making these cookies now! How impressive is that?! In fact, Eugenie is not only behind the creation of these rainbow heart cookies, she has also made various impressive cookie designs, including the recent Instagram cookies, Facebook cookies, and her previous Mille Crepe Cake with Hidden Rainbow Heart was definitely a hit! Hands down to Eugenie and her incredible creations! So, whenever I see unique creations like that, I would think hard on how I could re-create them into the desired shapes and patterns I desire, which is none other than everything to do with the Sanrio© character, My Melody! Love love love to the max! ^_^

My Melody French Sablés (Cookies)

But I'm no way comparable to Eugenie's skills and creativity. So I'd decided to try out something really simple and easy. And here's my version of My Melody French Sablé Cookies inspired from the rainbow heart cookies! Not too bad uh? Honestly, I had no idea how French Sablés (cookies) taste like prior and how different they are from the Danish butter cookies or shortbread cookies which I had baked in my previous posts. But now I know. However, I don't really know how to describe it, except the texture of these cookies are somewhat between butter cookies and shortbread cookies. Oops... If I have to say, they are certainly crumbly and delicate, and has a salty taste in every bite (although there isn't a lot of salt in the ingredients), and it still has the crunch on first bite. Oh no, I hope I have not made you confused at this juncture. In conclusion though, these are definitely delicious, especially if you are not in favour of the buttery smell from the usual butter cookies. Now that I have made this possible, I hope there would be a day I could add on the features of My Melody into this cookie design and impress! Hee hee! Oh and if you have tried it before me, or work with other cartoon designs, do remember to share with me because I would very much love to share and admire, maybe taste too that's if you offer free sampling! Hahaha.. Alright, for now enjoy and till next time!!

Peanut Cookies

It was the second day of Chinese New Year and I made some peanut cookies - a fail-proof and really quick and easy recipe which even a non-peanut lover me loves it. In fact I first made these cookies last CNY and I guess I wouldn't have tried this recipe and realised how delicious they are if not for my husband, a "nut" lover. He is a non-dairy person and it cracks my head to think of the different CNY goodies that I could make at home for him so that he gets the feel of CNY. And these peanut cookies definitely add to the homely CNY feel which we would have otherwise felt if we were back in our own homeland. But it's not a pity that we can't celebrate CNY back at home anymore with the companion of these homemade CNY goodies (and not forgetting our friends here)... ^_^
I'm sure you will love it too!

Peanut Cookies

I am sharing these delicious melt-in-your-mouth Peanut Cookies with the following blog events:

Cook and Celebrate: CNY 2015 organised by Yen of Eat Your Heart Out, Diana of Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids;

Treat Petite (Feb 2015 theme: Love is in the air) hosted by Stuart of Cakeyboi and Kat of The Baking Explorer;

The Biscuit Barrel Challenge (Feb 2015 theme: Loved Ones) organised by Laura of I'd Much Rather Bake Than… and hosted by Alexandra of The Lass in the Apron;

CookBlogShare hosted by Lucy of Supergolden Bakes;

  

Bake of the Week organised by Helen & gang of Casa Costello; and

last but not least, for the first time, I am also sharing this Peanut Cookies recipe with event, My Treasured Recipes #5 (Jan & Feb 2015 theme: Chinese New Year Goodies) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.

Pineapple Cookies (Dairy-free)

Gong Xi Fa Cai! (To my non-Chinese/Asian readers, this literally means, "Wishing you a prosperous year!")

Can't help it, but oh my it's yet another year! I was reading the news and came across an article titled, "Is it the Year of Goat or the Year of Sheep"? While it didn't bother me slightly, I wonder if it really mattered since goat or sheep, they both belong to the same family. Haha! Anyway, it's the second year my husband and I are celebrating our Chinese New Year abroad. That meaning, it's time for some home-baked Chinese New Year goodies again. *_*

I have been in search for a pineapple tart/cookie recipe that I could substitute easily with non-dairy ingredients since my husband doesn't take butter, cheese, milk or anything that comes from the cow. Haha! Well, perhaps I should have come to terms after more than 12 years (or maybe I have), but I'm still puzzled with my husband's weird taste bud. All the while, I have been insisting that he is being lactose-intolerant in psychological sense rather than being lactose-intolerant in health, if you know what I mean. It is strange how dark chocolates, peanut M&M's® chocolate candies, Nutella® and all other food that possibly contains dairy which he decides he can eat are in his "lactose-tolerant" list of edible dairy products while milk chocolate, milk, all buttery pastries and etc that he decides he cannot eat by way of "smell" are in his "lactose-intolerant" list of non-edible dairy products. Anyway, I have given up on asking him to try on those he-feels-he-cannot-eat-but-I-feel-he-can-eat food after so many years. Guess this would all the more be better since I can have all the goodies to myself. Hee!

Back to my recipe search, so I've finally found and experimented one pineapple cookie recipe that allowed me to substitute the dairy ingredients and still yield equally crumbly and soft pineapple cookies. Although without that buttery aroma from traditional pineapple cookies, these pineapple cookies are still amazing delicious! I hope with this recipe, more people get to enjoy yummy pineapple tarts/cookies during this festive occasion!

Soft and crumbly Pineapple Cookies

Here's wishing all a Happy & Prosperous Year of Goat/Sheep! May the new zodiac year brings you and your loved ones lots of happiness and good health! Cheers!

Chocolate-coated Shortbread Cookies

The talk topics lately have been surrounding the 2014 FIFA World Cup™. Fortunately this year, I was able to catch the matches without having to wake (or stay up) in the wee hours since we're in the Central Time zone. Though I'm not really a football fan, it's somehow the only sports tournament I enjoy (or perhaps love) watching, and that would make me sacrifice my sleep (in the past) especially since it's only held every four years.

And for the same reason, I haven't been blogging lately since there were matches almost everyday during the past weeks. *Oops! So here's a quick recipe that I've made as my snack companion for my chilled diet soda or iced tea which I haven't been able to live without since Summer kicked in. Though I would prefer such seasonal Summer heat over the almost all-year "summer" weather experienced in Singapore (because it's not just hot but humid), I'm still very much overwhelmed by the scorching July sun. And yes, it has been a chilled beverage with snack during tea-time instead of my usual hot floral or green tea. ^_^ But be it a chilled or hot beverage, these cookies are a great treat for sure as you can simply grab and bite into it without taking your eyes off the "ball" on the screen, if you know what I mean. Hee~

Chocolate-coated Shortbread Cookies

I am sharing these Chocolate-coated Shortbread Cookies, one of my Summer tea-time snack companions with Treat Petite July 2014 theme, Summer hosted by Kat of The Baking Explorer and Stuart of Cakeyboi.

White Lover's Cookies (Shiroi Koibito)

Recently, my sister posted a photo of the souvenirs she'd received from a friend's recent Japan trip. It reminded me of my own trip to Tokyo, Japan with my husband last May after we got married in November the year before, which he had always regarded as our "mini" honeymoon. Well, I kind of agree with him since it was a place we haven't been to, but only so reluctantly because I didn't consider honeymoon a honeymoon anywhere within Asia. Haha~ But don't ask me where we went for our "actual" honeymoon because it wasn't really planned to date, although we went on a holiday to New York last fall. @_@

Thinking back about the Japan trip, I miss the snacks and the food there more than anything else. One of the goodies that I couldn't resist from buying was this 白い恋人, also known as "White Lover" in English translation, which is a very popular snack from Hokkaido (no, we didn't travel up to Hokkaido but this snack can be found easily at the airport and many departmental stores in Tokyo). Here's a picture of the packaging I took back then if some of you don't know what I'm referring to. It is also called the "Chocolat Blanc et Langue de Chat" as the name on the packaging suggests. It consists of chocolate sandwiched between two butter cookies.

Nowadays, with the advancement of international trade and shipping services, one may easily get it from a local store or purchase it online even if one don't get to travel. But ever since I got into baking, my natural chain of thoughts wasn't to look up an online store that sells and delivers the snack to where I am, but instead, the possibility of making them myself at home. ^_^ I hope everyone will enjoy these home-baked Shiroi Koibito as much as I do.

White Lover's Cookies (Shiroi Koibito)

Danish Butter Cookies

Danish Butter Cookies

One of my favourite childhood snacks is the danish butter cookies that come in assorted shapes and flavours packed in a round blue tin, which I'm sure many are familiar with. I recalled my brother, sisters and I would always snatched up those coated with sugar while leaving the ones that contains raisins, which are the least favourite to the last. Although I have been eating these cookies for years, I have little clue as to why they are called the danish butter cookies, except that the association is probably due to the famous butter cookies brand originating from Denmark. 

Ever since I got into baking, I have always like to try out recipes of every favourites that I enjoy, or as many as possible, in my home-made ways. While not every recipes could replicate the taste of store-bought ones, these danish butter cookies recipe which I've found is definitely a must-try recipe. It is simple yet versatile. It takes almost just one step or at most two to combine all the ingredients together to form the batter before turning them into yummy cookies. And it is versatile because the batter can be pressed (piped) out into shapes for baking immediately without first chilling the batter. At the same time, the batter can also be chilled to harden, before rolling out and cutting up into shapes for baking. This is definitely a must-try recipe for all danish butter cookies lover and beginner bakers.

I am sharing this post with the event, Little Thumbs Up (June 2014: Butter) organised by Bake For Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY hosted by Jozelyn of Spice Up My Kitchen.

I am also sharing this post to the event, AlphaBakes (June 2014: Letter "D") hosted by Caroline of Caroline Makes and Ros of The More than Occasional Baker. The name of this recipe says it all. The letter "D" represents Danish Butter Cookies. ^_^

Last but not least, I am submitting this post to Treat Petite June 2014 theme, Childhood Memories hosted by Stuart of Cakeyboi and Kat of The Baking Explorer.

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

It was my plain excuse of "fighting" with the lazy bug for not baking lately. The fact is ever since I started watching my first Hong Kong drama show online, I have been so addicted.  In a period of less than a month, I have completed three drama series plus the fourth one with the last four episodes to finish. It was then I thought to myself that I have to pause because this is so horrible and unacceptable of me. Although I'm as eager to finish the remaining episodes of my fourth drama show, I've decided I should (at least) bake one recipe this week. To regain my momentum, I thought I would try out something easy which doesn't take quite as much time and so I've settled with the so-claimed Famous Amos® Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe which my brother had tasked me sometime ago. And what I thought was "easy" turned out to be a disaster (at least it didn't work out for me)! @_@ I'm not sure if there was a typo in the recipe since it was posted in 2011 but I am quite certain that the amount of butter stated in the recipe might not have been accurate from the result of the cookies I'd made (regret my impulsiveness of deleting the pictures because the cookies were just too ugly to look at, otherwise I could have shared here). Although I ended up spending two days instead of one as planned in my cookies baking, I was satisfied with the results of my chocolate chip cookies after my own trials and errors. With that, I have completed my "mission"! ^_^

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Rainbow Flower Butter Cookies

My other flower inspired bake are these pretty butter cookies. They were re-created from my previous baking post on Colourful Checkered Butter Cookies. These are just too pretty and tasty to resist.

Rainbow Flower Butter Cookies

For ease of reference, I have included the recipe and preparation steps for making these lovely flower cookies here. Happy reading and have fun baking!

Colourful Checkered Butter Cookies

Being a home-maker doesn't deny me from looking forward to weekends. Since I will be pretty much occupied with chores, meals preparation, baking and etc during the weekdays, weekends are usually my (self-declared) "off" days.

However, it was pouring heavily in this small city in the west of Florida last Sunday morning. I reckoned, and true as forecasted, the rain should last for the rest of the day. Although I managed to sleep in a little later just like other weekends, I decided to turn my "off" day into a "working" day since I was reluctant to step out of the house.

I began running through my "to-bake" list, a list which I have built over time from recipes I come across from everywhere, and wondering what I could "twist' and execute to fit the Aspiring Bakers last theme event on Rainbow and Ombre Party when I spotted the checkered butter cookies, originally in vanilla and chocolate flavour. I instantly related the checkered cookies to my recent MultiColour Checkered Cake and decided to make a colourful version of the butter cookies.

Colourful Checkered Butter Cookies

M&M's® Cookies

I hope my flaming enthusiasm will not be extinguished too soon. My brain activity has been working overtime since I started my blog. But apparently, it has also given me a great sense of satisfaction and contentment which I've not quite felt for a while after I left my last job of more than seven years about six months ago.

However, I must admit that my recent zest is largely attributed to the eagerness to participate in the current and also the last Aspiring Bakers theme event.

I thought I had a "clever" idea when I was staring at the load of items stacked in the cabinet and saw a tube of M&M's® chocolates until I tried to google online that I realised I wasn't as creative after all. Nonetheless, it did not dampen my excitement and I was even more excited to carry out my baking experiment.

M&M's® Cookies