Buttery Rock Buns with Macadamia Nuts

Recently I saw a post of rock buns by a fellow member G of Facebook group, Making Food with Love and it brought back memories of the yummy taste of this old school cookies and of course I asked for the sharing of the recipe and was told that it was by DeQueenKitchen. DeQueenKitchen also shared with me that adding some nuts in will give it some crunch and make it even more delicious. So here I was today baking this and the cookies are just soooooo addictive! The best part is it is not difficult nor tedious to make them!

Adapted from Rock Buns by DeQueenKitchen

Makes about 30 pieces

Ingredients:

- 200 gm plain flour
- 80 gm caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 gm unsalted butter, cold
- 160 gm mixed dried fruits
- 110 gm macadamia nuts
- 1 egg (60 gm sized)¹
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method: 

1. Sift flour, sugar and baking powder together.

2. Cut cold butter into flour mixture using a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

3. Stir the nut and fruits into the flour mixture evenly.

4. Lightly beat egg and vanilla extract together.

The mixture should look like this after all ingredients are mixed in.

5. Mix egg mixture into dry ingredients evenly. Refrain from adding extra liquid. Mixture will look dry and crumbly at first but the dough will come together as you continue to stir and mix.

6. Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto lined baking trays. Flatten slightly using your fingers and bake at fan forced 170C for 17-18min.

Notes:

1. Some of you might have noticed that this recipe is 2x that the recipe of DeQueenKitchen but yet my egg quantity remains unchanged. Nope, there is no typo in the above recipe; this 'mistake' came about when I was trying to make 2x the recipe but I forgot to double the egg used but yet the recipe turned out very nice and of just the right texture so I shall leave it as 1 egg. I have also reduced the sugar used since I am using quite a bit of the sweet mixed fruits.

Serene's Butter Cake

I'm sure many of you have heard of the famous Mrs SK Ng's Butter Cake recipe and have baked it at one point or another; I have baked that too myself and have loved the fluffy fine texture of it. I also love to eat butter cakes but I am also a lazy baker, so the egg separation method used in Mrs SK Ng's recipe often makes me think twice to take out my mixer. Then one of my baking friends, Serene shared her whole eggs butter cake recipe and Voila! Since then I have been baking this recipe. And for this, I'm going to call it Serene's Butter Cake :).

Marbled Chocolate version

Here is her recipe with slight adaptions made by me:

Makes a 8x5 inch loaf tin cake.

Ingredients:

- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 90 ml mlk
- 250 gm butter, softened
- 140 gm castor sugar, sifted
- 30 gm icing sugar, sifted
- 3 eggs (60 gm sized)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 gm self raising flour, sifted
- 1 tsp Grand Marnier (optional)

For marbled chocolate flavour only:

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 tbsp castor sugar, sifted
- some milk

Method:

1. Mix the lemon juice with the milk and set aside.

2. Cream sifted sugars and butter together until light and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs in slowly as you continue to mix. Ensure the eggs are evenly incorporated into the mixture.

4. Add vanilla extract and Grand Marnier (if any) into the buttermilk from step 1.

5. Fold alternately the flour and buttermilk into the creamed butter in 2 to 3 additions.

6a. For plain butter flavour, pour batter into a lightly greased loaf tin and bake at 
170C non fan forced for 45-55min. Cover the cake with a piece of baking paper in the last 10min of baking if the top browns too much. 

6b. For marbled chocolate version, scoop 1/3 of the batter into a separate bowl and mix in the cocoa powder and castor sugar. Mix it well. Add enough milk to make the chocolate batter the same consistency as that of the plain batter.

Layer scoops of chocolate and plain batter alternately in a lightly greased loaf tin and use a skewer to make marbling patterns. Bake at 170C non fan forced for 45-55min. Cover the cake with a piece of baking paper in the last 10min of baking if the top browns too much.

7. Cool slightly in tin for about 5min before inverting cake out onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Updated 13 Aug 2018

My apologies for the typo in the ingredient list; I have actually missed out the eggs! Thanks to a friend who was trying out the recipe and brought my attention to the missing eggs which I have stated in the steps. Thanks J!

茶叶蛋 Tea Leaf Eggs (Half boiled )

During one of the Chinese New Year I was planning to bake a kueh lapis cake but my oven decided to go on strike so I had to ditch the plan. But not before I already bought 5 boxes of eggs! Stuck with so many eggs, I decided to cook tea leaf eggs (茶叶蛋) since this is one fast route to get rid of one box of eggs at a shot. However I was not satisfied with the regular tea leaf eggs. And my last round with this dish wasn't that fantastic either when I followed the recipe that came along with the tea leaf egg herbs sold by Eu Yan Sang. So I decided to tweak it a bit: I will cook it without the shells (so that the marinade really gets into the eggs) and I want wobbly yolks (like those in Ramen!). So here is what I did:

Ingredients:

- 10 eggs (60gm sized)

Marinade:

- 1 sachet of Eu Yan Sang tea leaf eggs herbs
- 500ml water
- 1 tbsp dark soya sauce1

- 1 tbsp light soya sauce1

- 50-60 gm rock sugar1

Method:

1. Bring the herbs and water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the remaining seasoning and taste to adjust seasoning1 if necessary. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

2. Put the eggs in a pot of room temperature water deep enough to cover the eggs completely. Bring it to a boil. Stir the eggs gently while waiting for the water to come to a boil.

3. When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and continue to simmer the eggs for 4.5 minutes2.

4. Remove the eggs from heat immediately and rinse under running tap water till they feel just barely warm to touch. Leave it aside to cool completely in a bowl of water. Peel the eggs when cooled.

5. Soak the peeled eggs in the cooled marinade sauce overnight in the fridge. Make sure the eggs are put into a small based glass container so that they get fully covered by the marinade.

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Notes:

1. The seasoning amounts are pretty much up to own preference. Above stated amounts are suited to my palate and it is not too salty. If u prefer a saltier version, you can add a pinch of salt or more light soy sauce.

2. Most recipes making eggs with runny yolks require an ice bath for the eggs once they are removed from the heat but I didn't keep ready made ice cubes in my freezer, so lazy me rinsed the eggs under running tap water till they were just warm to touch and I soaked it in a bowl of room temperature water for complete cooling. For this entry I simmered the eggs for 4.5 minutes but the yolks were not runny enough for me, so I will advise 3 or 3.5 minutes (tried 4 minutes before too and still way too cooked for me) of simmering. If you are using an ice bath, u might want to simmer for 4.5 minutes since that will cool down the eggs (hence stop further cooking) faster than my lazy method.

Sweet Toasted Macadamia Nuts

Sweet toasted macadamia nuts: super addictive be-a-couch-potato-and-watch-tv snack to munch on. Need me to say more? Recipe is adapted from a recipe for a pie topping from Martha Stewart's book.

Ingredients:
- unsalted macadamia nuts of any amount
- water that is slightly lesser than enough to cover the nuts completely
- caster sugar of the same weight amount as water

Method:
1. Put everything into a small sauce pan. Use a small based pot. Make sure the mixture is just enough to fully cover the nuts. Bring everything to a boil. Boil for 1-2min.

2. Strain n spread nuts on a baking tray. Bake at fan forced 160C for 15min or until golden brown. Cool completely.

Crumbly Butter Cookies

Recently I have been so busy and tired (read: lazy) that I haven't been doing any serious baking. Not to mention trying new bakes. So in a bid to use up my expiring ingredients and to get my butt moving, I decided to do some simple bakes: butter cookies.

 

 

I have baked butter cookies previously and the 1st recipe I came to love is one from my SIL. I don't know where she got it from because she also can't remember but it was most likely from some show or the Internet. I loved the cut and shaped ones my SIL made but the problem I encountered back then was my cookies are often too crumbly to handle so it is quite a mess to eat them. Hers are not like that and we didn't know why. Later I kind of figured out that I might have to knead them a bit longer to get the gluten forming and hence holding the cookie together after baking. In any case this is not very relevant today because I have modified her method to one that suits the lazy me today.

 

Here's the recipe:

crumbly buttery cookies

cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy

 

Ingredients:
- 250gm unsalted butter, softened
- 90gm caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 350gm plain flour
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

 

Flatten the dough slightly into a disc

 

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175C (fan forced).
2. Cream softened butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
3. Add yolk and extract (I also added in a bit of vanilla paste today because I had some bits left in the bottle). Mix well.
4. Sift flour and salt into butter mixture in 2-3 additions. Fold in between each addition. Give it a quick mix at the lowest speed to ensure dough is mixed evenly. If you prefer a cookie that holds its shape well and not too crumbly, mix it a few sec more.
5. Scoop the dough using a cookie scoop (size 70) onto lined baking trays. Flatten slightly with a spatula or your hand.
6. Bake for 12-15min or until edges of cookies are slightly browned. Cool completely before storing.