Chewy Raisin Cookies

My kids love this cookie. Not only enjoy eating the cookies, most important they help me to bake these cookies! They are the one who put the dough on the baking tray :)

These cookies are easy to keep in an air-tight container for days. Good source of energy bites for kids after school or during weekends!

Here are the ingredient, simple to bake.

The butter I always stored up is the Star brand. Normally for baking, I used are unsalted one to control the taste of the dish. I get it cheaper in SengSong for this butter.

Ingredient:

1) 2 cups of all purpose flour

2)1/4 teaspoons of salt

3) 2 teaspoons of baking power

4) 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar

5)3/4 cup of light brown sugar. (I don't really like very sweet stuff, if you have sweet taste bud, you can increase to 1 cup)

6) 180g of unsalted butter, soften. ( I soften it immediately taken out from fridge, via microwave for about 15 sec, some are melted and rest are in lumpy but soft, I mesh them together well together to soften all the butter)

7) 1 egg

9) 1/4 cup milk

10) 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

11) 1 cup of dark raisins

Preparation:

1) Before you start mixing the ingredient, Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees.

2) Lay the baking sheet on the tray if not you can butter or oil the tray so that the cookies will not stick to the tray.

3) Mix item 1-4 together - flour, salt, cinnamon sugar, baking power.

4) Add in item 5-10 - brown sugar, egg, butter, milk, vanilla extract. Mix well. If you using electric mixer, beat for abt 30 sec.

5) Finally add in raisins and beat for 1 min, to form the batter.

6) The dough is soft hence you cannot use cookie cutter. Drop the batter using teaspoon on to the tray with the baking sheet. Remember space the cookie at least 1 inch apart.

7) Bake it for about 15 mins. Until the edge are start turning brown but the top is ok.

8) Remove from oven and let the cookie cool in the rack for 5 mins.

Enjoy these cookies with a cup of coffee or tea! Serve as a great afternoon tea cookie for a lazy weekend afternoon! :)

Why cook – when you can easily get many delicious foods out there.

Why cook when there are so many delicious foods out in the street and easily available in Singapore. Here I share my motivation of cooking for my family.

I am a working mother of 2 young school going kids. I do baking and cook mostly during weekend, especially Saturday. During weekdays, if I not too tired, I will do some simple dessert or use bread maker to bake bread for the week.

So with the busy schedule - work, housework, and teaching kids with their work, why do I still choose to cook?

I believe being a mother and a wife, your husband and kids must be feed well. Food is the easy way to capture their hearts. You can buy lots of stuff, toys for kids. However, after sometime they will not remember what toys and stuff they have. But they will remember what their favorite dish you have made for them when they are young. Think back, what are the dishes you miss most that your mom or even your dad has cooked for you? Normally you wouldn’t be able to find the same taste as what your parents or even grandparents cook for you. This is home cook food. This is what I call 家传菜 and is无价之宝.

Don’t worry if you do not have any家传菜yet in your family. Cos you will be the one who started and your kids will thank you forever for what you have done for them.

As what the old saying goes, to capture a man heart is first to capture his stomach. This works for anyone else too, including your kids.

I am blessed to have a mom and mom-in-law who cook so well, even my kids enjoy their cooking. I am so proud of their talent in cooking!

I once have a colleague who shares with me that these days why there is a lot of youngsters who prefer to stay out with their friends for whole day rather than come back home for dinner. Reason can be as simple as they brought out in a family who no one cooks. They normal settle their meals outside. When they grown up, there is no reason to return home for meals, they are capable to settle it themselves with friends after school. Then parents complaint they don’t see their kids often when they grown-up. If you want to see our kids or grandkids often, start cooking now. What your hard work will pay off for generation to generation!

For your husband as well, to motivate him back early for dinner, make some of his favorite dishes. This will help him to release stress as well J(at least in my case, my husband loves to eat!)

Besides satisfying their stomach, home make dishes are healthier. You can alter the dish to the sweetness or salts level that is acceptable to you. Even as simple as bread that sold in the market, many of them have chemicals added which are not good for young kids.

Well, I have said so much, will you consider starting cooking for your family now?

Do not worry how to go about it. As you read along, I will share how you can cook some simple dishes for your family. I will also share what is the basic equipment you need to equip and where to get cheap and nice tools or ingredients.

I just enjoy shopping and by saving just a single cents will make me satisfy, while getting the stuff I need. I am a cheapo mother… hahaha!

Home Make Kaya

Kaya can be easily made using bread machine. If you don't have, and like home-make Kaya, don't worry, all you need is to stand in front of the stove for hours ;p. But is all worth the effort, to have your own kaya to make the way you like.

All the ingredient is easy to get. My favorite brand of coconut milk is Kara UHT natural coconut milk which you can get from any supermarket. I am a very cheapo mother, I save every single cent that I can. Hence, I like to compare prices from place to place. To my blessing, I have 2 major supermarket near my house, walking distance - NTUC and SengSong. SengSong sell cheaper, cost at 70¢. Price difference is 5¢. If there is any sales, is worth keep stock for this. I always buy small packet cos I don't need to worry how to finish the rest. Per packet is always enough or just nice to cook for a pot of curry, dessert - mango sago, or any other dish that can feed a family of 4 like mine :)

The eggs that I choose are those normally you see in SengSong or NTUC a tray of 30. To save money of course. And keep in the fridge you can normally able to keep up to 3-4 weeks whereby then you will already have finished. Eggs can used in many ways such as bake bread, make cookie, or simply cook for breakfast.

For pandan leaves, you may like to grow a pot of pandan leaves and every time you need for cooking you will have ready pandan. You can easily get a pot for $5 at any nursery.

Here is the simple recipe.

Serving : 1 - 1¹/_{2 cup of kaya.}

Ingredient:

1 cup of coconut milk (1 packet of kara coconut milk, I add in about 2 tbs of water to clean out all the coconut from the packet.)

4 eggs (depend on the size of your egg, should make up to 1 cup of egg)

3/4 cup of sugar (If you like sweet, you use 1 cup of sugar instead. 3/4 cup will be just nice.)

14-16 pandan leaves (a pack normally has 3 bunch, I used 1 bunch. You may like to add more if you prefer greener.)

Preparation:

Using Bread Machine

1. Wash the pandan leaves. Dry and tie the leaves into a bundles. If you find to difficult to tie, you can tie up 5 leaves in each bundles.

2. Measure the eggs and beat lightly till the yolk and white mixed.

3. Add the coconut, eggs, sugars and tied pandan leaves into the breadmaker tin.

4. Set to 'Jam' function.

5. When the breadmaker complete the function, remove the tin and take out all the pandanleaves.

6. You may find that the mixture look chunky. Do not worry. You are in the right step. Now remove the mixture into a blender and blend till smooth.

7. Depend of your breadmaker, if the mixture is too watery, you may drain out some water. If is too thick, you may add in some sugar water while blending.

For cooking over the stove.

1. Do step 1 & 2.

2. Add all the mixture into a pot that is NOT hot, else the egg will start cook.

3. Place the pot over a low flame and remember constantly stir it. Cook till it thicken becomekaya.