February 2, 2011

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit!

I'd wanted to continue participating in the Aspiring Bakers challenge on Chinese Year Cookies but I was too busy to submit my post by the closing date of 1 Fen 2011. :P
Chinese New Year cookies has become my yearly to-do event and of course I have my favourite new year cookie, and that is almond cookies! I've never failed to make this every year after I make my first almond cookie years back with Florence's recipe. I had tried other almond cookie recipes and by far this is still my favourite recipe. I believe using toasted almonds really enhances the taste, much more than using ground almonds alone.
This year, I made my own pineapple jam, after reading Wendy's blog which gave really clear instructions on how to make it. Her instructions and tips really helped alot as I found it less intimidating to do as I had thought. The only problem was that my jam was too wet and soft, even though I had cooked it once more the next day and chill it in the fridge. Being too soft, I had such a difficult time wrapping the pastry dough over the jam.


This year, I made kok chai again with my mum's help. I used a bigger drinking glass to mould the shape of circle for the dough, for fear of the dough shrinking but it dodn't this year. Hence my first batches of kok chai were so big that we think it looked like mini curry puffs! LOL

I finally made kueh bangkit again this year after a few years of rest. :D

My favourite almond cookie.


We have just ushered into the year of the Rabbit and I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous year ahead!

18 comments:

Pei-Lin said...

Aimei, you've been very productive this CNY! LOL! I'm worse off! Haha!

Been like 2 years since I made gok zai. I grew up with this a lot as a Cantonese. Thanks for the reminder!

Happy Chinese New Year to you! May the Year of the Rabbit bring you lots of wealth and good health!

Aimei said...

Thanks Pei Lin! Without my mum's help, I doubt I can make so many kok chais. LOL. Happy Chinese Year to you too!

love melody, love baking said...

U made several types of cookies too!! I only have a couple of melody stuff toy, abt 4 and they are all wrapped up except one coz I dun want them to turn yellow! The rest are mainly small items like mobile accessories, mouse pads etc... :D glad to find a fellow baker blogger who likes melody too! Happy new year!!

ICook4Fun said...

Wishing you and your family Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

daphne said...

U hv been working hard aimei! happy new year!

Passionate About Baking said...

Wow, fantastic! So much baking. Wish you and your family a happy and prosperous lunar new year!

Small Small Baker said...

Wow, you have baked so many types of cookies! No wonder you have no time to blog about it. Wishing you a Happy Rabbit Year!恭喜发财!:)

Kym Kym said...

Hi. Remember me? We met once at Kino. I am your hubby's uni mate. You made so many varieties of CNY cookies. Impressive. Happy Chinese New Year.

Kym Kym said...

Hi. Remember me? We met in Kino once. I am your hubby's uni mate. Wah. You made so many varieties of CNY cookies. Impressive. Happy Chinese New Year.

j3ss kitch3n said...

wah! what a wide array of cookies! happy rabbit year aimei!

Aimei said...

Thanks to all! Happy New Year!

quizzine said...

I wanted to try out your Kok chai recipe this year but didn't have time to do it. Looks like I can only do it after CNY.
Happy lunar new year to u and your family!

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

Aimei, so many Chinese new year goodies! This would also be your first year to give out ang POWs, yeah? :) Happy New Year!

The Sweetylicious said...

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 兔 dear friends (: hope im not 兔 late. wish you 兔年行大运。 may wealth and health stay with you and your family (:

Jean said...

wow that's a lot of hard work! Really beautiful and lovely cookies galore. Happy CNY to you :)

Aimei said...

Shirley, nope this would be my last year receiving ang baos as I've not gone thru customary wedding yet. My only last year! :)

Thanks Sweetylicious and Jean! Happy New Year to you too! :D

WendyinKK said...

Oh ya... it does seem wet.
But it will definately dry out further if you cook it longer. Let it cool down, while being spread out on the wok. Patience... must be patient. :)

WendyinKK said...

Sorry, I've written another method to dry out the jam w/o cooking in reply to ur comment on my post. You can check that out when you have the time.