These are great with coffee, milo, hot chocolate, milk or just as it is! The great things about these cookies are that it’s easy to bake, use very few ingredients and it’s vegetarian!

You first beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Then you add in plain flour and use your hands to mix it in and knead into a smooth dough.

Then you roll it into a log / sausage shape. Place on a sheet of grease proof paper and sprinkle some brown sugar on the paper. Roll the dough over the sugar. Alternatively, you can use icing sugar, cinnamon powder, ground almonds, chopped peanuts or anything you fancy. You can then shape the log into squarish shape or even triangular, up to you.

Then you wrap it up and put it into the fridge to chill till firm. That should be about 30 minutes or so. In fact, you can make this and then keep it in the fridge till you are free to bake it.

Once the dough is firm, remove from fridge, and cut it into thick slices. Then, you can decorate it with chocolate chips, sugared hearts or leave it plain. Bake it for about 20 minutes at 160°C or till it turns brown at the edges. Remove from oven, leave to cool and then keep in air tight container. Keeps well for a week or so.

When I bake it, I shaped it into triangular shape and then after cutting it, I decorated it with sugared hearts. So pretty and nice to serve to guests. Or..

Use chocolate chips to press into the slices before baking and it will turn out just as nice. See?

The best thing about these cookies is that you can also add other ingredients like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, chopped dried fruits, raisins and various flavouring to jazz it up if you don’t want it to be too plain.

Here’s the recipe:

Crunchy Butter Cookies (vegetarian)

Ingredients

1/2 cup superfine sugar (or brown sugar if you like)

3/4 cup butter, softened and diced

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 1/2 cup plain flour

Instructions

1. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla essence.

2. Add the flour and knead into a smooth dough. If you don’t want it to be too plain, you can add chocolate chips or chopped nuts or chopped dates or candied cherries or grated lemon rind or ground cinnamon or almond essence, whatever you fancy.

3.Then roll it into a sausage shape. You can either pat the sides to make it a square log or a triangular log.

4. Sprinkle some brown sugar on a greaseproof paper and then roll the dough over it. Wrap up the dough and refrigerate it till firm (about 30 mins).

5. Remove from fridge, cut into thick slices. You can also decorate the slices with sugared hearts or chocolate chips.

6. Preheat oven to 160°C and bake the cookies for about 20 mins or until it browned  at the edges.

If you want it to be less sweet, you can also reduce the amount of sugar to 1/4 cup or use molasses for a healthier option.

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Imagine my delight when I found a low fat brownie recipe. OMG. I can be on a diet and still eat brownies. It is a life saver, I tell you. Now, this recipe may be low fat, it is not exactly healthy either. It still has sugar and flour and calories. So, do enjoy it but don’t sit right down and eat the whole pan of brownies no matter how tempting it is and no matter how long you’ve been on a diet. Trust me. It is damn tempting but will-power, please. If you finish it in one go, then there won’t be any left tomorrow, right? So, here it is. Just salivate over it.

The low fat chocolate brownies are low fat but the topping is not. It is very simple to make. Really.

Just sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the mixing bowl.

We need two eggs.

I used brown sugar instead of white sugar.

Then, add the yogurt, vegetable oil, vanilla and eggs (lightly beaten) to the flour and sugar mixture. Stir till very well mixed.

Pour the mixture into a prepared pan for baking. After about 20 minutes….

You get this!

Here’s the recipe proper:

Very Low Fat Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used blueberry yogurt)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the baking pan with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the mixing bowl. Add in the sugar.

3. Then mix in the yogurt, eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil. Combine well.

4. Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes.

5. Leave in the pan to cool.

Now, for the icing / topping. It is NOT low fat but damn good. If you are really on a diet, don’t use this!

Rich Peanut Butter Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

6 tbsp dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp low fat milk

3 tbsp peanut butter

3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

1. Melt the dark chocolate and butter in the microwave for about a minute.

2. Stir and mix the dark chocolate and butter. Add the peanut butter, milk and sugar.

3. Combine well and you will get a smooth, chocolate paste.

4. Scoop onto the brownies and serve.

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It contains dates, almonds, rolled oats and chocolate chips, that’s why it doesn’t need that much sugar.

The actual recipe used chopped pecans and since I don’t have that, I substituted with almonds. All you really need to do is to beat the butter, sugar and egg together and then stir in the rolled oats, seeded dates, almonds and choc chips.

Then scoop spoonfuls of the batter onto the baking tray and bake. You will get these…

Here is the recipe:

Fruit and Nut Choc Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cup self-raising flour (or use plain flour and add 1 tsp baking powder)

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped seeded dates

1/2 cup chopped, toasted almonds (or pecans)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Beat butter, sugar and egg until smooth.

2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Roll batter into small balls and place on greased baking sheet. Flatten it slightly with a floured fork.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes.

5. Stand for 5 mins before placing on wire rack to cool.

The cookies contain very little sugar compared to other cookie recipes BUT it is still quite sweet because of the dates and the chocolate chips. The rolled oats definitely added some texture to it and the toasted nuts gave it the extra crunch.

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I baked this cake quite a while bake and did not have the opportunity to bake it again. But still, recipes and pictures don’t grow stale, right?

It is rather easy to make and with quite few ingredients too. Preparation time takes about 20 minutes or so and baking time is about 45 minutes. The results are well worth it. After baking this, you won’t want to eat store-bought butter cakes anymore!

You will need to beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. As shown here, I used brown sugar because it is healthier and I like the taste better than white sugar.

You will need to add eggs, vanilla essence and milk too.

Just add the egg one at a time and beat thoroughly. Then add the vanilla essence and fold in the flour, alternating with the milk. Then its ready to bake! Here’s the recipe proper:

Simple Rich Butter Cake Recipe

Ingredients

200g butter

1 cup sugar (caster or brown, up to you)

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line cake tin.

2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.

3. Add in the egg one at a time as you continue beating.

4. Add in the vanilla essence and mix thoroughly.

5. Fold in the flour and milk alternately.

6. Pour batter into prepared cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes or until cake is done.

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Anyway, the recipe isn’t my own. I found it here. It was actually a recipe for chocolate cookies with vanilla-cream filling. That’s what Oreos are. And the results are…

Homemade Oreos

Okay, so, they don’t look anything like the original Oreos but heck, these are homemade without any machines to shape it and put the logo on it. Still, the taste is absolutely spectacular…if I may say so myself. Ahem.

The steps to making it are pretty easy too.

First, you need to mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar together.

Then, you add the butter and the egg and continue mixing.

No need for elbow power. Just use the hand-mixer or stand-mixer or food processor to continue mixing the ingredients until you get this..

Then, you spoon out blobs of the dough and pat it into round shapes on the baking sheet like this:

Of course, the sizes are a bit uneven but that’s messy me. You can be as precise as you want using a cookie cutter or your very precise hands. Me? I don’t bother. After all, they are ending up in my stomach anyway. Who cares if they are not perfectly round shapes,eh?

Then, you pop these darlings into the oven to bake for about 10 minutes or so.

They are good to eat as it is without the vanilla cream filling. So, if you are not into cream fillings. You can just stop here. Okay, here’s the recipe for the chocolate cookies.

Homemade Oreos Cookies Recipe (Chocolate Cookies Recipe)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large egg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C (or 375°F)

2. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl using a mixer.

3. Add in the butter and then the egg while still using the mixer to mix it all together until you get a sticky dough.

4. Using a spoon, scoop up the dough and place on a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart (so that there’s room for it to spread) and flatten the dough using your hands.

5. Pop into the oven and bake for 9 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Easy, right?

Now, on to the vanilla cream filling which are even easier to make.

Then, using the mixer (again), beat it all together until real creamy like this:

And your vanilla cream filling is ready to be sandwiched! All you need to do is to add a dollop of it to the cookies and sandwich ‘em.

So, you then get these!

I know, I know, the shapes are uneven and they are not perfectly round. But heck, like I said, they are going to the stomach, who cares what they look like? What’s important is what they taste like!

Anyway, here’s the recipe for the vanilla cream filling:

Vanilla Cream Filling Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups sifted icing sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Place the butter and shortening in the mixing bowl.

2. Using a mixer, beat in the sugar and vanilla.

3. Beat for about 3 mins until the mixture is light and fluffy.

4. Take a spoon and start helping yourself to the yummy sweet cream since there’s lots to go around (heheh..that is if you are into eating the cream from sandwich cookies)

After this, just simply start sandwiching your cookies with teaspoon blobs of the cream and pressing the cookies together. The cream is very light and fluffy in the beginning but will firm up later.

Now, didn’t I say it’s pretty easy to make your very own Oreos at home? Just don’t blame me when you can’t fit into your clothes. I can’t fit into my old clothes either.

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Ice cream sundae

All you need are some plain vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream. For the garnishing, you need chocolate sauce, marshmallow, chocolate chips and plain butter cake (or cheese cake, if you prefer). Just scoop the ice cream onto the dish, dribble on the chocolate sauce, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and then add the marshmallows and the cake (broken into smaller pieces).

This really hits the spot on a hot afternoon. Or any time of the day. Definitely NOT a diet food. Heh.

Homemade Oreos

Do you know you can make your very own Oreos? Not the exact ones but close enough. I tried making them and let me tell you, it’s really worth the trouble. At least you know what’s in them.

Rich butter cake

I love the smooth, rich taste of butter cake too and the best part is that it’s pretty easy to make too.

What’s missing are some cherries and nuts but since I don’t have that on hand, it will have to do as it is.

Rich butter cookies

Butter cookies are also another simple recipe you can make and enjoy. Once you’ve made your own, you won’t want to buy those manufactured ones EVER. Amazingly, these cookies only need flour, sugar and butter. Easy. I use chocolate chips as decoration.

That’s it for this post. I will be posting up the recipes for the homemade oreos, butter cake and butter cookies pretty soon. Just remember to check back here.

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I had posted an apple and blueberry crumble recipe before this and also an apple crisp recipe, this recipe is almost similar but it is much simpler with less ingredients. It is a recipe where you just use very few basic ingredients and come up with absolutely delicious golden crumbly apple crumble.

All you really need are butter, apples, sugar and flour. Simple and easy.

The first step is to rub the butter into the flour and then add the sugar and mix thoroughly to come up with the crumbly, golden mixture above.

Then, you peel, core and cut the apples into small slices and bake them for about 10 minutes so that they are half-cooked and semi-soft.

After that, you pour the crumbly mixture on top.

Then, you pop it into the oven and bake. Simple, easy and no hassle.

Here’s the recipe proper:

Simple, Easy Apple Crumble Recipe

Ingredients

4 large apples

50g unsalted butter

100g flour

1 tsp baking powder

50g sugar

Instructions

1. Peel, core and slice apples into thin slices and place on baking pan. Bake in the oven at 190°C for about 10 minutes, remove and put aside.

2. While the apples are baking, rub butter into the flour until crumbly.

3. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.

4. Sprinkle the flour mixture on top of the baked apples until it fully covered the apples.

5. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake at 190°C for about 30 minutes.

Best serve warm or with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

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Considering I have been limiting my baking activities because I was not in the mood much nowadays, I thought heck, why not? A non-bake cake with loads of cocoa in it sounds simple and good enough.

The reason it’s called Batik Cake is pretty obvious looking at it. It looks like Batik pattern. I think it originated from East Malaysia, well, that’s what I found out when sifting through the numerous recipes available and custom-making it to suit my own taste.

As easy as it sounds, it actually turned out to be quite a lot of work too. But the end result told me it is worth all the work. The ingredient calls for rich tea biscuits (or Marie biscuits), sugar, butter, eggs, cocoa and fresh milk.

First, you smash up the rich tea biscuits into small pieces. This is a good time to let go of any frustrations or stress you have. Just imagine smashing the head of the person who had irritated you. What? The biscuits won’t feel a thing. It is a great stress reliever. Really…okay, if you are all serene and at peace with the world, you can always use the food processor to do the ‘dirty’ work.  Then set it aside for later.

Next, you pour the sugar (I use brown sugar but you can always use regular white sugar), eggs, milk and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine it all together.

Place a pan on the stove, dump the butter in and melt it over low heat. You don’t want to burn it or anything. Then, when it is all melted, you pour in the milk, eggs, flour, sugar and cocoa mixture. Let the mixture cook over low to medium fire until it has thickened. That should take between 10 to 15 minutes. Oh and remember to stir it all the while or else you may burn it.

It should thicken to this consistency. I know it looks lumpy but it is supposed to be like this. This is because the eggs are cooked, thus the lumpiness. But don’t worry, you won’t taste any lumpiness when you eat it later.

Then, you stir in the smashed tea biscuits. By that, I meant, really stir in. Mix it all up really, really well.

Make sure each tiny piece of biscuit is really covered in the thick cocoa mixture.

Then, you can spoon the thick mixture into a pan lined with greaseproof paper and pat it in. Don’t worry about hurting it. Really push it all in and flatten in. You want it to be compact.

To me, no chocolate cake, bake or non-bake, is complete without a nice chocolate ganache topping which I later add to the top. You can leave this out if you want to. After adding the topping, just put the pan into the fridge and let it set for several hours. It is best serve cold with a nice glass of milk. Yummm…

What does it taste like? Well, the tea biscuits gave it a slightly salty, biscuit-y flavour and the chocolate, oh, the chocolate is darn good. It’s like having rich chocolate covered tea biscuits, except better. Much, much better.

Now, here’s the recipe:

Batik Cake Recipe

Ingredients

200g rich tea biscuits (Marie biscuits)

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

250g butter

1 cup cocoa powder (optional: you can also use 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup Milo)

1/2 cup fresh UHT milk

Instructions

1. Smash up the rich tea biscuits and set aside.

2. Combine the sugar, eggs, cocoa and milk in a mixing bowl and mix well.

3. Melt the butter in a pan over low fire and then add in the cocoa mixture.

4. Cook the mixture until it thickened. Remove from heat.

5. Stir in the biscuits and mix it well to ensure the biscuits are all covered in the thick cocoa mixture.

6. Spoon the mixture into a pan, pre-lined with greaseproof paper (if you prefer), and press it all in firmly.

7. Spoon the chocolate ganache topping on top and spread it out evenly with a spatula or the back of the spoon.

8. Refrigerate the mixture for several hours, preferably more than 4 hours, and serve it cold.

Chocolate Ganache Topping Recipe

Ingredients

225g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

115ml heavy cream

60g butter

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a pan over low heat. Add the cream and bring to a boil, careful not to burn it.

2. Pour the butter-cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until melted.

3. The chocolate ganache is ready!

Since I don’t have heavy cream on hand, I didn’t add that but added some icing sugar with more butter and a tablespoon of condensed milk and it turns out pretty okay too. I mostly used non-sweet dark chocolate so the addition of icing sugar did not make it too sweet. However, if you want perfect chocolate topping, do use the heavy cream, it does makes a difference, especially teamed with the batik cake!

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So.

I decided to make it myself. I mean, if I can bake up cakes and cookies, what are scones, right? Right. So, I went searching around the net and found several recipes until I decided to take whatever I feel comfortable with and wing it from there. My main focus is on using the least ingredients and the simplest method. Well, I have to limit my baking time these days as I can’t stand for longer hours nowadays what with a big huge belly and aching back.

And do you know scones are made up of the simplest recipe ever? You only need flour, butter, milk and baking powder. That’s all!

You need to cube the butter and rub it into the flour until crumbly. Then add in the milk.

Knead it into a smooth dough. Then pat into small round shapes (the size depending on you, I like bite-size scones so I made them really small) and place on baking tray. Sprinkle them with some flour and then bake them.

Scones are best eaten with some nice jam and cream.

Oh and yeah, they are damn good hot from the oven!!

Here is the recipe:

Easy English Tea Scones Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup plain flour

40g butter, cubed

1/2 cup milk

3 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Rub the cubed, softened butter into the flour until crumbly.

3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk.

4. Mix with a spatula until it forms a soft dough.

5. Take the dough and knead it on a floured surface but don’t over-knead it.

6. Shape it onto small rounds and place on baking tray. Sprinkle with flour.

7. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

These scones are best enjoyed hot from the oven with some fresh cream and jam.

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I made it with a can of evaporated milk instead of soya milk since I had that available. It is pretty easy to make actually and does not take up much time, except for the waiting time for it to firm up.

All you really need is sugar, jelly powder, water and milk or soya milk. If you like some canned longans in it, you can also have that ready and open a can.

Get the containers ready, the plastic cups with covers. I use the cup as measurements for the amount of water or sugar needed. I think each cup is about 200ml. So, if you are making 15 cups of pudding, you will need 15 cups of water, 1 cup sugar, half can of the evaporated milk and half packet of the jelly powder. First, you will need to dissolve the jelly powder, bring the 15 cups of water to boil, add the sugar, jelly solution and the milk.

Once it’s cool down, you can pour into the containers.

You then wait for it to really become firm before you add the canned longans and some of the syrup from the canned longans.

Refrigerate and serve cold. It’s great as dessert, tea time snack or for the sake of eating something sweet but not so sinful. The cups I’m referring to here are the containers we use for the pudding. Here’s the recipe and simple instructions:

Soya Milk Pudding Recipe

(This recipe is for 34 servings)

Ingredients

34 cups of water (about 200ml each cup)

3 cups of sugar (300g)

1 can of evaporated milk or soya milk (400g)

1 packet of the jelly powder (as in the picture above or about 50g)

Instructions

1. Dissolve the jelly powder in 200ml of water

2. Heat up the 34 cups of water in a pan.

3. Add the sugar and let it dissolve.

4. Add in the dissolved jelly and the milk or soya milk.

5. Stir over medium heat for about 15 minutes.

6. Remove from heat and leave to cool but before it firms up.

7. Pour into the cups and leave it to firm up.

8. Add the canned longans to each cup, then refrigerate. Serve cold.

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