A simple butter cookie

A simple taste yet really nice, my mission of butter cookie is to bake as good as the expensive blue tin butter cookies, which I don really remember the name,brand or company, just recognize the blue tin. I haven't got the best one yet, but this is reliable

Ingredient:

175g    Unsalted Butter/margarine
90g      Golden Caster Sugar
250g    Plain Flour
optional: Demerara(Raw) sugar for coating

• Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add flour and beat until mixture foams a smooth dough
• Roll as in sausage, cylinder or any shape 
• sprinkle above or coat all around it with demerara sugar 
• wrap it with plastic wrap and chill for 30minutes or next day
• cut it into thick slices and place on baking sheet
• bake it at 160'C for 20minutes
• Let it cool and it will harden eventually 

Who said flour is flour?

Flour

Most cookies recipes use plain(all purpose) flour, it has low gluten content, resulting in a crumbly texture. 

The grains are processed with chlorine to make the flour whiter(It is unhealthy, no good). You can buy unbleached flour, which has a greyish colour. All flour must be sift before use, for better result.

Self-Raising flour

•  This flour contains raising agents that make cookies spread and rise, giving them a lighter texture.
• if you run out of self-raising flour, you can substitute plain flour, adding 5ml/1 tsp baking powder to each 115g/1 cup of plain flour. 
• SRF should not be kept for longer than 3 months because raising agents gradually deteriorate.

Wholemeal Flour

•  Milled from the entire wheat kernel and contains all the nutrients and flavour of wheat. It is coarser than white flour, giving heavier result. It absorbs liquid than white flour so recipes should be adjusted if wholemeal flour is used.
• Brown (wheatmeal) flour contains only 80-90% of the bran and wheat germ and has finer texture and milder taste

Non-wheat flours

Potato flour/starch

• This fine powder is made from potato starch and can be mixed with wheat flour to give a lighter texture to cookies

Chestnut Flour

• This light brown nutty flavoured flour is made from ground chestnuts and is often sold in italian delicatessens 

Cornmeal

• also known as polenta or maizemeal,this is bright yellow and coarse or medium ground

Cornflour/cornstarch

• This fine white powder is made from the middle of the maize kernel. It is often used in piped cookie mixtures to give a smooth texture.

Soya flour

• Made from soya beans, this has a distinctive nutty flavour. It has a high protein content. Medium- and low-fat varieties are available

Rice Flour

• This is made by finely grinding polished white rice and it used in many cookie recipes, to give a short, slightly crumbly texture. 

Gluten-Free Baking

Some people are allergic or intolerant to the protein gluten, which found in wheat and rye. Specially produced gluten-free and wheat-free flour mixtures can be used for baking, as can any of the naturally gluten-free flours such as cornmeal, potato flour, rice flour and soya flour.

Ref: The cookie Book by Catherine Atkinson and others

Cookies Knowledge? [Butter,Sugar and other sweetener]

Butter

Unsalted (sweet) butter is best for making cookies

•  It has a sweet, slightly nutty taste and firm texture 

Temperature of Butter

• For rubbed in cookies, butter should be cold and firm but not to hard                                                  (Take it out of refrigerator 5 minutes before using.)

• To cream butter, it should be in room temperature if you forget to take it out from refrigerator in advance, you can microwave it low power for 10-15sec

• If using butter to brush baking tin(pans) or sheet. Use unsalted butter rather than salted, which tends to burn and stick

Storing Butter

Butter should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
It can absorb other flavour easily so protect it by wrapping

Salted butter can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month
Unsalted butter should be used within 2 weeks.
But all butter frozen in freezer can last up to 6 months

Other Fats

Margarine

• -This won't produce same flavour as butter but it is less expensive and can be use in same way
• -Block margarine are better for cookie-making
• -Soft margarine are better for creaming

White Cooking Fats(Shortening?)

• Made from blended vegetable oils or a mixture of vegetable and animal or fish oils. White fats are flavourless and create light, short-textured cookies. They work well in highly flavoured cookies, in which you won't taste the butter. Lard is an opague white fat made from rendered pork fat and features in some traditional cookie recipes. 

Oil

• This may sometimes be used instead of solid fat. Sunflower and safflower oils are preferable as they are light in colour with a mild taste. Olive oils has a distinctive flavour but may be added to savoury crackers

Sugar
 There are many different types of sugar, all of which add their own distinctive character to cookies

Refined Sugars

• Produced from sugar cane and sugar beet, refined white sugar is 99.9% pure sucrose

Castor/superfine sugar

• This is the most frequently used sugar for cooking-making. It has a fine grain so is ideal for creaming with butter. It is also used for melted mixtures, meringue toppings and sprinkling over freshly baked cookies.

Icing/confectioners' sugar

• This is fine, powdery sugar is used to make smooth icings and fillings and for dusting. It may also be added to some piped mixture

Soft Brown Sugar

• This is refined white sugar that has been tossed in molasses or syrup to colour and flavour it; the darker the colour, the more intense the flavour. It makes moister cookies than white sugar, so never substitute one for the other.

Unrefined Sugars

• Derived from raw sugar cane, these retain some molasses. They often have a more intense flavour but tend to be less sweet than refined sugars

Golden caster/superfine sugar/ Granulated sugar

• These are pale gold and are used in the same way as their white counterparts.

Demerara/raw sugar

• This rich golden sugar has a slight toffee flavour. the grains are large so it is only used in cookie doughs if a crunchy texture is required. it is good for sprinkling over cookies before they are baked.

Muscovado/molasses sugar

• This fine-textured, moist soft brown sugar may has a treacly flavour.

Storing Sugar

• Sugar should always be stored in airtight container. 
• If white sugar forms clumps, break it up with finger
• if brown sugar dries out and hardens, warm it in the microwave for 1 minutes

Other Sweeteners

Golden/light corn syrup

• Slightly less sweet than sugar, this produces moist, sticky cookies and it often used in no-bake recipes

Maple syrup

• Thinner than golden syrup, this has a distinctive flavour.

Honey

• Use blended honey in cookie doughs as the flavour of milder honeys will be lost.

Malt Extract

• This concentrated extract made from barley has a distinctive flavour, thick consistency and dark, almost black in colour

Molasses

• A by-product of sugar refining, molasses looks like malt extract but has a slightly bitter taste. 

Ref: The cookie Book by Catherine Atkinson and others

Banana Cake

Even though banana cake is low cost and easy to find anywhere in shop. But Still I must know how to bake this, I tried one recipe before this, it was sucked haha, no ideas who wrote it. From the Blue Ribbon Aussie recipe book, I found this perfect(for me) banana. I lovin't it.

Ingredient:
125g               Butter
3/4 Cup          Sugar (165g)
2                     Eggs
3                     Big Banana(ripped and smashed)
1tsp                Bicarbonate Soda
2tbsp              Milk
1 1/2Cups       Self-Raising Flour
Optional:         Glyerine

Method:
1. Beat Butter and sugar until it dissolve in butter
2. Add egg one at a time,when beat well. Stir in banana
3. Add Flour, separate into 2 portion
4. Dislove soda and (glyerine)in milk and pour it in
5. Bake at 180'C for 1 hours; or until brown and springy when touch

Sweet Bun for my sweet ^^

Story:
haha.. I always wanted to try bake bread, I knew how to bake cakes,pie and other minor thingy. But bread? I still have no ideas, out of the many kinds of breads, I wanted try croissant but...... it is too difficult to try it now, ingredient is hard to find in Australia, especially the small town i stay. Second choice is the sweet bun, I tried it yesterday, it turn out not bad, just a little hard(over bake, my dad ask me to calculate bills, by the time i realize is a bit over, but still good) Today I did a lot of improvement ^^ I love it; just the sausage make it sucky a bit haha

When I was still at middle school, I used to day dream, my mother will bake me sausage bun for me to take to school, but chances never came, we were poor once. Oven and learning is costly. So my dream come true by friends and family who encourage me today. Everything I do and learn is from others person than myself

Ps: choose the right sausage for the right bun ^^ and I don't create this recipe, I took it from internet; please refer to the owner I just edited a bit for my own personal taste


Ingredient:
150g Self Raising Flour  (300plain flour + 1 3/4 tsp Baking powder)
150g Plain Flour
5g     Active Dry Yeast
3g     Salt
125g Milk
1       Eggs
60g   Castor Sugar
50g   Butter
(Eggs for glazing when bake)

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in milk, egg and butter. Mix into doughy(hand)
    Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough until the gluten developed,
    keep kneading for 20mins. Even it is sticky, just keep twisting and kneading making sure all mix well.
2. Place the kneaded dough in the bowl and cover it when dam towel or plastic wrap, this help to
    seal the moisture. Allow to dough to ferment. Will double it size in 1 hour
3. Take out the dough and punch out the air produced. Let it rest again for 15min
4. Dive the dough in your way, usually 60g a portion. Shape and filling with desire, place on the greased or
    line pan and let it proof again for 30min-45min before into the oven
5. Brush eggs oven the top and oven it for 190'C for 15mins.
6. Done and let it cool down and put into your mouth! haha

ref: http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com

MT Benson's Wehls

Finally able to head to the farm after saying it for 3 weeks with valerie, always buzzing her “hey.. Tmr going farm? When U going farm?”

I wanna go farm so much because I thought to myself, since I ready to stay her permenantly, I sure treasure each moment and oppurtunity that God given to me. I wanna learn about their life and understand the farm in Aussie better. And I always wanted to take some good photo, I really think farm is a great place to practice. Today Caleb,Valerie, Amy and I are had one of best time ever in farm, farm is a beautful country lifestyle. Peter wehls the farm owner also a friend are so kind to show us around his place with a lots of  moment to appreciate. The wehls family are one of the most beautiful family in Robe I met. Along with Jessie and Leia, I forget the brother name.... nevermind I will ask again

Firstly, we have a “Road Block” of sheep haha. Nice sheeps, smelly and a lot of shit haha. They were herding it to elsewhere and was on the road when we passed by, they so afraid of humans and keep running away from crowds haha, cute. Ka wa ii~

Peter first show us around the house and the trees around them, don think the trees is a common trees, there orange and this and that, Peter knowns each kind of them.  Peter peel an orange for us haha, go for a walk in the vineyard and have a visit ANDY!! The grumpy old sheep haha. There 3 of them, not sure which is andy, oh well, moving on.

Second is dragon hunting in farm!! ^^ Peter and jessie told us, quite common we will meet a Beaker Dragon. So begin the hunting!! Whoah~ Jessie found one not even 10 minutes haha, such a great spotter she is. I can’t even see with the comouflage with the dragon have, and it is sun bathing and we disturb it by carrying it around, it just lay lazy, very OZ kind of life haha. Amazing how wild but very tame kind of lizard, doesn’t defent itself or runaway. We carry it around and taking sweet photos even kiss it haha. And back it goes to the spot we found it. We love animals~ Everything included.

Guess what next? Australia MUST DO. THAT RIGHTS! KANGAROOS~~ Wild kangaroos hunting, we hop on in peters jeeps and with some beers and goes kangaroo spotting! It is wild, the kangaroos will just come into the farm and have rest. For 30minutes drive we spotted quite a few, I was careful not to scare them off, while trying to snap some photos, but I just too afraid to scare them off, so I kept my distance.

Today is a great day, Really enjoyed every moment when peter show us around. I love the farm, I really respect it a lot, wasn’t easy to run a country farm. I really love today ^^ makes my mood gooood~~~

Cinnamon Scrolls (Aust)

Valarie and I met in Robe, she works for my Dad at the restaurant. So nice I met one person who loves to bake, she is also a History and Arts graduate. I'm glad that she share her skill in decorating and design cake. We learned this recipe together :)

Ingredients:
250g  Self-Raising Flour
90g Butter,chopped
170ml Milk
Pinch of salt

Filling:
60g Butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

Icing:
125g icing sugar
1 tbsp boiling water

Method:
1. Preheat the oven first for 210'C
2. Sift flour,salt and butter into the mixing bowl, using your finger to rub the butter into the flour
    By making a well in the center and add almost all the milk. and use hand to knead into dough
3. Knead the dough into a flat on the "light floured surface" Roll out about 25X40cm rectangle of 5mm thickness
4. Make the filling just put all ingredient into a electric mixer until well mix and spread it above the flat dough
5. Roll the dough into a spiral and cut it about 3cm pieces, put in on oven for 12minutes/until golden brown
6.(icing) combine the icing and boiling water. Beat the mixture until smooth[Spread it on top of baked dough and let it cool]

Tips 1: spread some egg yolk before baking for extra golden brown
Tips 2: Option for Icing, just sprinkle it haha.