#29 - Butterscotch Orange Cookies

Are you having a craving for something sweet and crunchy and yet you are sick and tired of the regular chocolate chips cookies? If you are feeling just like I do, try these! 

Due  to my previous craze in baking any butterscotch related recipes (eg. Salted Oatmeal Scotchies with Chocolate Chips & Butterscotch Molten Lava Cake), I have bought these bags and bags of butterscotch morsels, all stocked up in my baking pantry. It has been a long time since I have paid any attention to them. At last, I decided that it was time! Time to turn these pretty little morsels into something crunchy and yummy!

I actually baked 2 batches of these cookies, one batch on Sunday night and the other on Monday morning. The first batch was baked for 10 minutes (with 2 eggs in the recipe) and it resulted in a soft and chewy texture in the cookies when cooled. As for the second batch, due to hubby's request for a crunchier version, I baked them for an extra 3 minutes (with only 1 egg in the recipe) and with that, the cookies was slightly firmer yet provide a really good crunch to it. So, depending on your preference, you may vary the baking time accordingly. Just make sure you check on them regularly and do not over baked the cookies. You wouldn't want them to be all bitter and hard, would you?

And oh yes, if you would like your cookies to be flat like the Subway version, just follow the recipe below but to use two eggs instead of one.  That should do the trick. It works for me! I was pretty pleased with the final texture and taste of the cookies and was definitely more than happy to share them with my friends and students. Am so glad that they enjoyed it as much as I do.

 ***************

Recipe: Adapted and modified from here

Servings

Make approximately 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup Butterscotch Morsels

113 grams Unsalted Butter, softened

80 grams Granulated Sugar

80 grams Brown Sugar

1 Egg

2 tbsp Milk

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp Orange Juice

Zest of 1 Orange

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Prepare 2 baking sheets, lined with baking paper. Set aside for later use.

3. Sift and combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt). 

4. In a small bowl, toss 1/2 cup of butterscotch morsels with 2 tablespoon of flour mixture in Step (3). The will ensure that the butterscotch morsels will be evenly distributed throughout the batter. Leave aside the remaining butterscotch morsels to serve as toppings on the cookies later.

5. In a mixer bowl, cream together butter with both sugars until creamy.

6. Add in egg, milk, vanilla extract, orange zest and orange juice gradually and beat until smooth. 

7. Combine dry ingredients in Step (3) to the wet ingredients in Step (6), one third portion at a time and mix well.

8. Add in butterscotch morsels in Step (4) to the batter. Use a spatula to mix well. Ensure that all the ingredients are well-incorporated.

9. Using a small ice-cream scoop, scope and divide the dough into small portions (ball-shaped). Place them on the baking trays. Ensure that they are at least 3 cm apart from one another. Top each cookie dough portion with several butterscotch morsels.

10. For a soft and chewy texture in the cookies, bake for 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies start to turn light golden brown. For a crunchier texture in the cookies, bake for an extra 3 minutes. 

11. After removing cookies from oven, allows the cookies to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

#28 - Mango Sago with Pomelo, 杨枝甘露

Mango Sago with Pomelo, better known as 杨枝甘露, a very popular dessert in Singapore. Somehow, this also happens to be the one dessert that I make year after year (after each Lunar New Year). Maybe it is because of my hubby's love for mangoes, or maybe it is just due to the abundance of pomelo I have at home after each Lunar New Year. Whatever it may be, there is no reason not to indulge in this sweet yet tangy dessert, especially in the hot and humid weather these days.

The only problem I have with this dessert item is having to seek for really ripe and sweet mangoes. Last year when I was making this dessert, I did not manage to find the type of mangoes I was looking for and had to settle for whatever I could find at the local supermarket. I ended up with these mangoes which were SO sour that it kind of spoilt the whole dessert for me. 

This time round, I managed to find these honey mangoes from Thailand instead. Although they were still slightly sour, but overall, they were much better. Furthermore, with the generous helpings of pomelo and creamy sago in the dessert, it was just heavenly! 

On the recipe for this dessert item, you would probably realised that for most of the recipes circulating on the internet, it is most common to have a mixture of the sago pearls, pomelo, evaporated milk/cream within the mango puree itself. However, I like mine slightly different. I separated the mango puree from the creamy sago (totally fattening I know, but yummy!) before I top up the dessert with a generous helping of mayo cubes and pomelo. Not only does that looks prettier, the creamy sago provides a smooth and rich texture to the dessert that I totally love! 

***************

Recipe: Adapted & modified from here.

Servings
6 - 8

Ingredients
Mango Puree Mixture
2 medium size ripe mangoes, cubed
500 ml mango juice
150 ml evaporated milk

Creamy Sago
60 grams sago pearls
200 ml Kara Coconut Cream
1/4 C dairy cream (35% fat)

Toppings
Pomelo, peeled and sacs separated
1 medium size ripe mango, cubed

Directions

1. In a saucepan of boiling water, add the sago pearls. Let it boil for 10 minutes before lowering the heat and continue to simmer until the it turns totally transparent. Strain the sago pearls through a sieve and run it under cold running water. Drain and set aside.

2. Mix the ready sago pearls with coconut cream and dairy cream. Keep it chilled in the fridge for later use.

3. To prepare the mango puree mixture, blend the mango cubes with mango juice and evaporated milk  with a blender on high speed. Make sure all the ingredients well incorporated in the mixture. When mixture is ready, set aside in the fridge for later use.

4. When ready to serve, layer the mango puree mixture at the bottom, followed by the creamy sago and lastly, top the dessert with some mango cubes and pomelo sacs according to your personal preference.

Note: Alternatively, you may also omit the use of creamy sago, and simply add the sago pearls to the mango puree mixture, mix everything thoroughly before serving.

#27 - Citrus Baked Fish

This is just a very simple baked fish recipe to share with all. Nothing too complicated at all and basically, it's just the oven doing all of the work. Personally, I like the tangy taste of the baked fish and since not much seasoning is used at all, it feels like a pretty healthy dish to me. Kudos to that!

***************

Recipe: Adapted & modified from here.

Servings
2 persons

Ingredients

Fish of your choice (I used a combination of salmon and cod fish)
2 tsp Butter
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic (minced)
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1 Lemon & 1 Orange (sliced)
Parsley

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 190C.

2. Line baking sheet with aluminium foil and coat with cooking spray.

3. Combine butter, olive oil, minced garlic and spread the mixture evenly over the fish.

4. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

5. Place a layer of lemon & orange slices over the fish.

6. Bake for 5mins. Remove from oven and sprinkle with parsley before serving.