Quince Jam Cream Cheese Cookies

Looks like I've been baking every week~! Yippee ^0^

Anyway, I made these cookies for my Mum's cell group.

I decided to use my freshly made jam (because we had one whole jar of it!), I'm curious to know what they think of it. And instead of normal shortbread, I incorporated cream cheese into the cookies.

And then I had a dilemma. Some recipes said to put the jam after the cookies baked, while some said to put it before. So I tried one tray before, and one tray after. The one with the jam before baking was so much better, as the jam had sort of dried up in the middle and held better. The ones after baking, the jam was too watery, so I placed it back in the oven for a little while more.

The verdict? Flaky, melt-in-the-mouth cookies with the tangy after taste of cheese, paired perfectly with the sweetness and fragrance of quince jam. Delicious~ (if I do say so myself, hehe)! Cookies taste amazing with cream cheese in them! I hope my Mum's cell group will like it.

Jam + Soft Chewy Muesli Bars

My brother complained of being hungry during lectures, so I decided to make some muesli bars for him to munch on. These are packed with heart-healthy oats, sunflower seeds and raisins, andthey don't break your teeth off like some brick hard muesli bars out there. Instead, they are soft and chewy, my favourite type. =)

They are really easy to make, just combine the wet to dry ingredients, bake them and let it cool. I've also deviated from the recipe a bit, so I eye-balled most of the ingredients, hehe...

Next is Quince jam. The first time I saw it, I had no idea how to eat it. It had a sort of furry covering on the skin, and was hard like rock.

So I googled it, and apparently it was good for jams and jellies. So why not? I like to try new things. To make the jam I grated this stone-like fruit, (and my arms were killing me afterwards) reduced down with sugar and popped it into a glass jar. It smells really fragrant, and tastes....not sure how to describe it. I guess between an apple and a pear. Really nice on hot toast, yum~

Pear Almond Cream Cheese Tart

Finally, I got a chance to use my tart pan! Instead of an apple tart however, I christened it with a pear tart. Only because we had a block of cream cheese in the fridge that just had to be used. But this pear tart was really nice =DDDD

The crust was not pastry, but a bit more like shortbread. There was a cream cheese layer, followed by pear slices and sliced almonds on top. Or supposedly sliced almonds. It looks like I've just hammered them to pieces, when I've actually painstakingly tried to slice them up! Maybe that's why sliced almonds cost more than whole ones...

It came out of the oven perfectly baked, and the taste was superb. My family liked it, and it goes great with vanilla ice cream. I'm happy I finally got to bake a tart, though for the next one I'd try to make a pastry one.

Chocolate Chiffon

I'll be trying to bake at least every fortnight or so, even though I might be super busy with uni. Assignments and tests won't stop me baking!

I made a chocolate chiffon cake. It didn't sink, which I'm pretty happy about. But it got burnt a bit on the side. Oops.

The texture was fluffy, cottony soft, fuwa fuwa, Q-Q. Haha. Love the smell of chocolate after it came out of the oven, freshly baked.

A very yummy cake. Love it~!

Ondeh Ondeh

Sweet potato Ondeh Ondeh. Yum yum. The method for making it is basically the same as making tang yuan, or mochi. How you can tell them apart is from the filling, or coating on the outside. It is a Malaysian kuih, but I never recalled having it before... Poh's recipe caught my eye and I decided to give it a try this weekend. After a busy Uni week, the best thing to do is cook =)

I tried to follow Poh's recipe to the tee, but found the dough was way too sticky. So I just agar-agar it and made it based on feeling. It worked! I incorporated sweet potato and pandan on the outer skin, and for fillings I made 2: black sesame and gula melaka or palm sugar. I think I'm in love with palm sugar. It's rich and caramelised like brown sugar, but has a fragrant aroma that's just amazing. For coating it I used grated coconut and more black sesame.

Here are the sweet potato ondeh ondeh with palm sugar, and black sesame ones on the side:

I especailly love that when you bite into it, the melted sugar comes oozing outside, and it's still warm and fresh... so yummy~!

These are the pandan ones:

The coatings got mixed in the end... black sesame and coconut. The flavours work well together though.