spring is here. almost.

with the strong winds these days, it feels like spring.  

well, almost. if you can ignore the humid afternoon sun. but staying indoors and baking cookies are such fun. no more sweating and cussing under your breath as you knead the dough and wonder why oh why, didn't you install an air-conditioner in the kitchen just for baking days?

anyway, chinese new year is just days away.

and our family is just about ready to welcome it.

btw, where did all that time go?  we are now twenty one days into the new year and we are approaching february!!!

i didn't even get to blog about my new year resolutions.

not that i have very original ones. same old, same old.

2008 was a good year. well, physically at least, but not financially esp in the second half.

so, i  thought i'll renew my resolutions. exercise more, cook more, bake more, volunteer more, save more, love more....you get my drift.

and i've started to put that into practise with my chinese new year goodies.

no buying of cookies ( i end up giving 75% away every year to the sweeper lady in this estate and the colex staff ), and bak kwa. we get them as gifts most of the time so time to cut down on excesses.

i baked my own pineapple tarts and bak kwa cookies this year. the results have been very encouraging so i think i'll do this every year.

this is how i feel, after a week of intense baking.

this is a bak kwa cookie. 

my new concoction.

i have heard of bak kwa cookies but couldn't lay my hands on any recipe. even the ingterneck yielded nothing.

so i modified a cornflakes cookie recipe.

first, i tried mixing olive oil and cornflakes and bak kwa. 

very salah.

healthy olive oil just doesn't go with unhealthy fat-ridden barbequed sweet meat.

no choice. had to use butter. and chopped up the meat real fine. tweaked proportions of ingredients and it turned out a winner. crunchy, sweetish, yet savoury morsels.

and real easy to make too.

can't say the same for pineapple tarts, though.

it's a lotofwork.

the pineapple jam has to be cooked a day in advance. standing in front of the fire, stirring like a witch guarding her brew.

it takes about one and a half to two hours before the correct consistency is reached.

and i did it four times in the course of the week, cooking a total of 20 pineapples.

by the second time i did it, i grew smarter. i'd read the papers or a magazine as i did my witch-brewing work.

i used the recipe G gave me a few years ago. i tweaked her pineapple jam recipe but her pastry recipe is very good. must be the 3 tablespoons of full cream milk powder added to the flour. 

 
after the kneading, it's the rolling.

and the moulding.

and egg-washing, and weighing the exact weight of each jam filling (8g to be exact) and then baking....

the final product!!

the last batch, baked yesterday, i have kept some away.

somewhere safe. 

where my daughters and husband will not get to lay their hands on them. 

otherwise, there'll be none left come chinese new year :-)

so friends and relatives are getting these cookies as gifts this year.

actually, walnut butter cakes were also in the grand baking plan but after 600 pineapple tarts and 200 bak kwa cookies later, i don't think so.

i read of people taking orders for these cookies for CNY from their blogs and wonder how they do it.

gong xi fa cai!!