Aspiring Bakers#2: Christmas! (Dec 2010) - Cranberry Shortbreads

Few days before chirstmas, on 20 Dec 2010, my attempt to bake a oatmeal-cranberry cookie failed after I realised the oats had expired only after I mixed it into the butter-sugar batter. The next few days were christmas gatherings and I knew I would not have the time to do another baking. All thanks to my stubborn-ness, I told myself I must bake cookies for christmas this year, for it has not failed me all these years. :P

I wake myself extra early on one of the morning, prepared the cookie dough, and chill it in the fride in advance. After getting home that night, I made these cookies, with the dough prepared in advance, and finished it around 1am. Only then could I go to bed, satisfied. :)

This recipe was adapted from a recent cookie book I got - The Australian Women's Weekly:Cookies. It as a plain shortbread designd like a button but I added cranberries to the shortbread dough and cut out using cookie cutters. The red cranberries added gave a plain cookie a christmas-y feel. Love the colour contrast when added to the dough.

I'm submitting this to Aspiring Bakers#2: Christmas hosted by Passionate About Baking. Do hop over to her blog to see other interesting christmas baking/cooking postings!

Cranberry Shortbread

Ingredients:

250g butter

75g caster sugar

35g rice flour

335g plain flour

120g cranberries, diced and chopped finely

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Line oven trays with baking paper.
3. Beat butter and sugar with electric beater until smooth. Stir in sifted flours. Add cranberries and knead to form a smooth dough.
4. Divide dough into two portions and chill dough in the fridge for about 1 hour, until firm.
5. Roll dough to about 3mm thickness (you can use the thicker end of two chopsticks as a guide).
6. Cut out your desired shapes with a cookie cutter.
7. Bake for about 12 minutes in the preheated oven (my cookie is about 4-5-cm, if your cookie is bigger, you have to increase the baking time. When cookie is slightly browned, it is ready).
8. Remove from oven to cool on a wire rack.

Adapted From: The Australian Women's Weekly: Cookies

Another Little Venture

This month has really been a real busy month for me. Without realising it, it's already the last week of the month and I have not blogged a single post! I have spending my days working Overtime as usual, meeting up with friends, buying christmas presents... It is a happy festive season with lots of gathering and eating. :D

Sad to say though, I have not been baking as much as I used to during this period of time in past years. Presently, hubby and I are also busy with researching for our new home renovation ideas, design, and brands and type of appliances to use etc. It really is no easy job to have to go down to every little bit of details, fro floorings, carpentry, colours, curtains, etc. We decided to design ourselves and source for our own contractors. Engaging an ID (Interior Designer) is just way too expensive. Anyhow, after talking to a few IDs and browsing magazines, we found out that the designs that IDs come out with for a typical small 4-room flat like ours are usually the same, unless we are renovating a big house. Most importantly we need to know our lifestyle and what we want.

Although I told myself that the blog is mainly for my own baking journal, now that it has been going on for a few years and do attract visitors, I do not wish to keep it lying idle for too long. :(

This is going to be a really short post without a recipe. I have made these berry crumble muffins before and surprisingly my colleague who saw the photos on my faceook was attracted to them and requested me to make some for her because she loves berries+crumbles+muffins. :) I picked out these two recipes - blueberry crumble muffin and mixed berry muffins, not knowing which texture she prefer, and topped with the blueberry crumbles. It was a hit with our co-colleagues! I made one batch using bueberries and another using raspberries. She preferred the mixed berry muffins, and I was wondering was it because of the muffin texture (the blueberry crumble muffin recipe is the cake-like texture) or the raspberries!

Since this is such a hit, I would recommend to those who love berrry muffins. ;)