Baking Tips

10 Tips to Help You Bake the Perfect Cookie

Baking cookies is a great treat for children and adults. I've put together a few tips to help make sure your cookies bake perfectly each and every time you make them. I wish you success with each sheet of cookies you bake!

1. Use shiny cookie sheets.

You could even cover dark cookie sheets with aluminum foil. The reflective quality of the pan insures even baking and browning of your cookies. With the right cookie sheet, you will produce perfectly browned cookies each time you bake.

2. Use a spoon or other measuring device to measure out drop cookies.

Making sure your cookie dough is evenly divided is essential. Your cookies will bake more evenly during their cooking time. If your cookies are different sizes, they will require different cooking times. You will end up with some underdone and some overdone cookies. We definitely wouldn't want that to happen!

3. Chill dough thoroughly if you are rolling out cookies.

By making sure that the dough has been chilled completely, the dough will be much easier to work with during rolling and cutting.

4. Monitor the baking time of you cookies closely.

Remove your cookies from the oven when they still look a little underdone in their centers. They will finish cooking on the cookie sheets.

5. Use the correct fat for your cookies.

If the recipe calls for butter, use butter. Butter happens to be my personal favorite for baking cookies! I never use margarine. If the recipe calls for shortening, I will use butter flavored. Butter and shortening provide the bonding fate that keeps our cookies from spreading too thin while cooking. If you use margarine when it calls for butter, your cookies may be thinner and may cook too quickly for optimum taste benefits.

6. Rotate your cookies halfway through the baking time.

Often ovens cook faster towards the rear of the oven. Rotating the cookies insures even baking of your wonderful treats. If you are cooking more than one sheet of cookies at a time, make sure you switch top and bottom sheets halfway through baking time also.

7. Always use large eggs.

This is the standard size egg used for developing cookie recipes. Your cookies will mix perfectly by using the correct size eggs.

8. Measure all of your ingredients carefully.

Don't use heaping cups of flour or sugar. Make sure you use a flat surface to level all dry measured ingredients. Measure your liquid ingredients carefully also or else you might end up with very dry or very runny cookie dough.

9. Preheat your oven to the correct temperature.

Do this before you place your cookies in the oven. This will make sure your cookies will cook properly to become the perfect cookies!

10. Have Fun!

Baking cookies is a wonderful tradition in homes today. Have fun while you are making them, and the smiles will be even bigger when you eat them! Having fun and smiling makes everything taste better!

source: popularcookierecipes.com

Javanese Almond Layer Cake/ Kue Balapis Kenari

Ingredients

10 pandanus leaves*, sliced
20 suji leaves*, sliced
100ml water
500g multi purpose flour
445g granulated sugar
1/2tsp salt
1700ml coconut-milk
50g cocoa powder
200g Javanese almond, minced well
vegetable oil for spreading

How To Make

1. Put pandanus leaves and suji leaves into a blender and blend them until delicate, then squeeze and strain the water. Take about 120ml or so. Keep a side.
2. Mix multi-purpose flour+granulated sugar+salt in a medium bowl, then pour in 1600ml coconut-milk little by little while keep mixing them until they become soft. Dissolve cocoa powder with remaining coconut-milk, mix it well.
3. Split the dough into two part. Pour pandanus-suji water mix into one part and mix them well until it turns in to green color. Pour cocoa powder mix into the other part, mix well until it becomes chocolate color.
4. Pour about 200ml of green dough, leave it for about 5minutes then pour another 200ml of chocolate dough above the green dough, spread Javanese-almond on top of the chocolate dough, leave it about 5 minutes. Repeat the above process until the dough mix are over.
5. steam again the whole cake for about 30minutes.
6. Take it out of steamer, let it cool on the baking pan itself, then cut it into slices and serve it nicely. Make sure the cake is cold before u cut.

*could be substituted with green coloring food paste.

Indian Vegetable Samosa (Pastel)

Ingredients:

For Cover:

1 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
Water to Knead dough
2tbsp oil
Little salt
1/4th tsp. Ajwain (optional)
For Stuffing:
3-4 Potatoes (boiled, peeled & mashed)
1/2 cup Green Peas (boiled)
1-2 Green Chilies (finely chopped)
1/2tsp Ginger (crushed)
1tbsp coriander finely chopped
Few chopped Cashews (optional)
Few Raisins (optional)
1/2tsp Garam masala
Salt to taste
Red chili powder to taste
1/2 tsp. Dry Mango powder( Amchur) (optional)

How to make samosa:

For Cover:

• Mix all the ingredients (salt, oil, ajwain) except water.
• Add a little water at a time.
• Pat and knead well for several times into a soft pliable dough.
• Cover it with moist Muslin cloth and keep aside for 15 minutes.

For Stuffing :

• In a bowl add mashed potatoes and all dry masalas (salt, chili powder, mango powder, garam masala) and green chilles, ginger and Mix well.
• Add green peas, cashews and raisins and mix well.
• Add coriander and keep aside.

To Proceed :

• Make small rolls of dough and roll it into a 4"-5" diameter circle.
• Cut it into two parts like semi-circle.
• Now take one semi circle and fold it like a cone. Use water while doing so.
• Place a spoon of filling in the cone and seal the third side using a drop of water.
• Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry till golden brown (fry on a medium flame).
• Serve samosa hot with hari chutney, tamarind chutney.

recipe and photo by indianfoodforever

Our Christmas Cakes

All are chocolate cakes with difference decoration.

Sun Flower Cupcakes

Made these cupcakes for my friend mba Trini :-) Thank you so much for trusting me to make you these cupcakes for your birthday. Love you sooo much :-)

Birthday Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes ( total 30cupcakes) as Ima's order for her lovely nephew-Denzel's 8th birthday. Hope you guys love it. Exactly, I have birthday candles for each cupcake, just I didn't use them on these pictures.

The recipe for the cupcakes is using Blueberry Cup Creamy Brownie.

Kenari (Java Almond)-Cheese Cookies

Canarium strictum known as Java Almond or Kenari

Perhaps some of you do not know what Java almond is. Well...this is a kind of nut which is very famous in Indonesia, especially in east-Indonesia -Sulawesi utara (North Celebes) and Maluku (Moluccas), where you can find the best quality of these nuts. In Indonesian language, they are called as "Kenari". Indonesians use this kind of nuts for cakes and cookies. And as Indonesian, I wanna share one of our recipes using "kenari".

Ingredients:
350 gr butter/ margarine
04 egg yolks
125 gr Java Almond, minced - keep aside
450 gr multi-purpose flour
01 tbsp baking powder
230-250 gr cheddar/edam cheese, grated - keep aside
01 tbsp salt


How To Make:
- Mix butter/margarine until smooth with an electronic mixer.
- Add the egg yolk one by one while keep mixing.
- Add flour+baking powder+salt, then mix it with spatula.
- Add Java almond - Add grated-cheese and mix well. - Place the dough on a greased baking-pan, shape it round with teaspoons
- Bake for about 20 minutes with 160degrees celcius until golden brown.

Basic Pancakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (optional)
• Fresh fruit, butter, and maple syrup, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl until evenly combined; set aside.
2. Whisk together milk, 1/2 cup of the oil, eggs, sugar, and vanilla (if using) in a separate large bowl until eggs are foamy and sugar is dissolved.
3. Add flour mixture to liquid mixture and stir until just mixed and moistened (the batter will be lumpy), about 50 strokes. Set batter aside to rest while the griddle heats or cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. If the batter has been refrigerated, stir before using.
4. Heat a large, seasoned cast iron skillet, frying pan, or griddle over medium heat. Test to see if the pan is hot enough by sprinkling a couple of drops of cold water in it: If the water bounces and sputters, the pan is ready to use; if it evaporates instantly, the pan is too hot. Once the pan is ready, use a paper towel to rub it with the remaining 1 teaspoon oil.
5. Ladle pancake batter into the pan: 1/2 cup for large (6-inch) pancakes or 1/4 cup for smaller (4-inch) pancakes. Cook until bubbles completely cover the top, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until the bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Serve immediately with fresh fruit, butter, and maple syrup.