I'll Have Some Toast With That, Thank You...

Made kaya for the first time ever, despite having intentions for years. It was simpler than I thought, and I finally found a use for the gula melaka that has been sitting in my pantry forever...

Recipe taken from here, although it came out a tad sweet for my taste. I shall probably reduce the amount of gula melake to 2 tbsp rather than 3.

Ingredients:

- 4 egg yolks at room temp, well-beaten 

- 45g palm sugar/gula melaka, or 3 rounded tablespoons

- 45g white sugar, or 3 rounded tablespoons

- 200ml undiluted coconut milk, fresh or canned 

- 4 fresh pandan leaves (I used a few drops of pandan essence instead)

Directions:

Beat 4 egg yolks thoroughly with a handwhisk 

Add the palm sugar, white sugar, coconut milk and pandan leaves in a pot over medium heat. 

Stir constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon until the mixture begins to simmer. Turn off the heat. Slowly pour 1/2 of the coconut milk into the egg yolks, stirring at the same time.

Pour the combined mixture back into the remaining coconut milk in the pot, turn on the heat back to medium-low / medium. Keep stirring for the next 10-15 minutes. 

The kaya will thicken gradually over the next 10-15 min. Remove the pandan leaves and transfer the thickened kaya into a clean sterilized glass jar, leave the jar lid open to cool down completely.

When it is completely cooled, close the jar and keep in the fridge.

 

 Meet my harshest critic...
She has developed quite a taste for kaya and butter toast from our recent trip back home to Malaysia

   

It met her standards. 

Phew

Cookie Countdown #2 & #3

Again, this makes it strongly apparent that I am horrible at keeping/continuing lists...

These are obviously not cookies, but work with me here....

Again, true to my procrastinatic nature, I didn't work on the daycare teachers' gifts till last night (heck, I haven't even started finished my X'mas shopping yet, and we are leaving tonight!)

Just a little something homemade to go with the more impersonal gift cards - They get a choice between Darby's Cinnamon Honey Butter (this is sweet stuff - literally...it's probably really good on warm, fresh out of the oven rolls) and Karla's Sugared Pecans (yummy stuff - reminds me of those nut vendors on the streets of NYC)

Top it off with some delicious Amy Butler fabric and we are good to go!

(and in true scatter-brain form - I seem to have deleted the pictures of the jars when they were done...crud)

Since I've distributed them all out this morning, you'll have to make do with a picture of my beloved mixer --

A generous gift from my cousins out in CA for our wedding. Believe me, when you get married at 22, fresh out of college and still looking for a job, this is a HUGE gift - and it was something that I was frothing at the mouth to own. So thank you Audrey, Jamie, Isaac and Eddy once again! (not that they even read this blog, I don't think - but just so that this message of appreciation is out there)

Cookie Countdown #1

When we go up to Michigan for Christmas, each family will always bring their batches of baked goods for the cookie stash.

This year, I'm trying to find new recipes so that there'll be something a little different than the same old chocolate chip cookies that hubby always ends up making. And there's really no other way to go about doing this than to test drive it (I know, it's such a sacrifice!)

First up are these chocolatey minty cookies from allrecipes.com that I found via How Does She

According to my husband, it's a keeper - he's only ate like, oh, 5 since he came home about 10 minutes ago. If you like cakey type cookies and chocolate, then this is for you

(And don't you just love the cookie jar? It's my husband childhood one)

Chocolate Mint Candies Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

3 (4.5 ounce) packages chocolate covered thin mints (like Andes mints)

Directions:
In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, butter and water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate chips until melted and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll cookie dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, be careful not to overbake. When cookies come out of the oven, press one mint wafer into the top of each cookie and let sit for 1 minute.

When the mint is softened, swirl with the back of a spoon or toothpick to make a pattern with the green filling of the mint wafer. For smaller cookies, break mints in half.

Yields about 3-4 dozen cookies