Little Joy Factory

爱上了烘焙，就好象在我原有的生活空间里打开了一扇明亮的窗。透过它，我看到了外面色彩斑斓的美食世界。也是透过它，我才知道马来西亚有这么多擅长烹饪的高手。 这源于马来西亚是东南亚风味美食的聚集地，传统美食在当地得到了很好的传承。尤其是槟城和怡保，无论是当地人还是游客，说起那里的美食都啧啧称赞。 食物，还是旧时的美味啊。

Chinese New Year is approaching, food bloggers here are busy baking CNY cookies.  I have baked pineapple tarts, almond cookies, peanut cookies. How about you? Since there is still one week away, I'd like to bake one more type of CNY cookies. Read a few posts about Chinese Walnut Cookies (核桃酥) recently.  Some recipes add alkaline water, some add shortening, some use vegetable oil, some use butter.  Despite the difference in recipes, I notice there is one thing in common:  food bloggers are trying to create the traditional taste of walnut cookies from their hometown, from their childhood memories. In my hometown, Chinese walnut cookies are crunchy and full of walnut fragrance. There is no butter in it,  but for sure there are walnuts. They are so delicious that I have always been tempted to buy them whenever I see similar ones at bakery shops here.  How...

Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is still 20 days away, but Singapore is already getting ready for the Year of Horse. CNY decorations are all over the shopping malls, very pretty and impressive. As a home baker, it's time for me to bake CNY cookies . As usual, pineapple tarts are the top in my baking list. This year, I decided to try a different recipe.  Actually, I saw this recipe from Sonia's blog ( Nasi Lemak Lover ) last year. She said it's the "Best Melt-in-the-Mouth" pineapple tart recipe. As I have already finished baking  pineapple tarts  with my own recipe then, so did not have the chance to try.  A few days ago, Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids  shared her experience of baking pineapple tarts with 3 popular recipes. One of them is Sonia's.  Zoe provided a comparison table with ingredients and method used in each recipe, and concluded that Sonia's recipe yields the best melt-in-...

We would bid farewell to the year of Dragon on Feb 9, 2013, and usher in the year of Snake thereafter. To celebrate CNY (Chinese New Year) , this month becomes the most busy month of the year. Shopping, spring cleaning, cooking and baking are taking up all my weekends. To me, new year is never complete without new year cookies. My CNY cookies baking list is getting longer each year. I started with Pineapple tarts, then slowly added Peanut cookies , Almond cookies , Cheesy cookies , and even Kueh Makmur (a peanut-filled traditional Malay cookies). Though my favourite cookies are pineapple tarts and almond cookies, I usually bake 4 or 5 types of cookies and put in a nice goodies box during new year period. This symbolizes Four Happiness (四喜) or Five Blessings (五福) . Wondering what are Four Happiness and Five Blessings in Chinese culture? Google them... Starting from this week, I would bake 4-5 types of new year cookies, and hopefully by end of Dra...