Baking Coconut Crunch.

I think i am really hooked onto baking. I actually missed it. Due to recent happenings at home, i din have the mood. And oso now i dun have the luxury of the kitchen all to myself... guess there gonna be less baking from me.

I was fortunate to have a few hours of the kitchen to myself ydae. Jioed my Gweesie to come over to do some baking with me. He was sweet enuff to come accompany me. Coconut Crunch was the recipe i eyed from the recipe book(the 1 gwee got me). Mum dried up some coconut last week. She wanted to teach me how to make kueh gosui but unfortunately, time failed us. So instead of throwing the coconut away, she decided to dry them up in the oven so that i can use them for baking somedays. The word is desiccated! hehe! Learn from the recipe book!



Ingredients:
(A)
250g Butter
1/4 tsp Salt
220g Sugar

(B)
1 Egg

(C)
50g Desiccated coconut

(D)
250g Flour
2 tsps Baking Powder

The steps are as follows:

1. Cream (A) till smooth.
2. Add in (B) and cream till light.


Gweesie did all the mixing! I was in charge of adding the ingredients and instructing him. He did it till his hand got blisters! I said he was lousy. He claimed he was mixing the mixture thoroughly. As if! hehe! But i sure like not doing all the hard work! hehe! Hafway thru it, Gwee was complaining(looking at the box of danish cookies in my hse) that y cant we jus buy. haha!

3. Add in (C) then sieved(D) and mix till well-blended.
4. Shape it into balls and roll it in desiccated coconut. Place it into grease pan and press it slightly.


The mixture din turn out very dough-like but recipe din sae how did the final mixture will look like. But the mixture was thick enuff to be rolled in to balls.


It's time to get yr hands dirtee!! Those hands belong to Gwee. GWee was incharge of shaping the mixture into balls. i was incharge of rolling the balls in the coconut. I din see a point in rolling the balls in coconut... so i sprinkle loads of coconuts on the balls.


The final product! all of different sizes! the more he did... the bigger the doughs! In the end, we used a spoon for estimation. still quite huge!! I was warning him about it expanding... dun make so big!

5. Bake at 175 degC for 20 mins.


Always rem to heat yr oven first! i always do it for 10 mins. See see! the cookies expanded in the oven! kissing each other! oppz! i knew it! Because of its bigger size(compared to the 1 in the pic), we deicded to bake it 2 mins over. We even use a toothpick and poke poke to make sure it is done. hehe!


Our cookies!!!! Nice smelling cookings. Nicely brown!! First time joint effort with no major argument! maybe because my cuzzie was there... hehe!

Verdict: taste like those butter cookie. Crunchy throughout (except for my second batch, abit soft in the centre...too huge). No coconut taste though i feel which is good coz i m not exactly a fan of coconut! Quite a few good comments... from gwee's sis and also a few relatives! WOooHoo! I love baking! hahaha! Adding some more comments here: some pple commented a bit too sweet. SO less sugar next time.

FINGERS!!

Baked something called "Fingers today". I ate this before. Its sweet and crispy looking like thing! Gweesie bought me a book like 3 days back! Decided to show my appreciation and try to bake something from the book!


This is how the fingers looks like! Snap from the book! I am sure most pple noe how it taste like!


Here are the ingredients for this recipe:
(the book divide them into categories so i shld follow suit! hehe!)

(A)
- 3 egg yolks
- 10g sugar
(B)
- 3 egg whites
(C)
- 70g sugar
(D)
- 70g Flour
- 20g Cornflour
(E)
- Some Icing Sugar


To get the egg whites and egg yolks, we obviously have to divide them from 3 eggs! DUh! Hehe!


Whip (A) till light and thick. I can not figure it out. How can something b light and thick at the same time? Maybe he meant colour. DOesnt look very thick to me. Stopped when it din seem too watery anymore.


Whip (B) till soft peaks. Jus make sure its no longer watery and can form little peaks. I think u pple better use machine for this cause more whipping in the next time.


Add in (C) and continue to whip till stiff. This part takes super long time! So tiring! esp doing so much whipping earlier... U pple better use a mixer. Mum help me with the whipping for a while. WHip till stiff! u noe? like u watch on tv...can put over yr head. Hehe! as seen from the pic... i only dare to tilt the bowl n not over my head... scarly wait drop on the floor... i will cry!!

Mix the egg white mixture with (A) till well-blended.
Fold in sieved (D) and mix till well-combined.

The baking part consist of 2 steps.
step 1: Bake at 200deg on the middle rack for 10 mins or till golden brown.
step 2: Let it cool. Bake at 130deg for another 20mins till crisp.


Pipe into finger shape on the lined pan and dust it with (E).
USed the nozzle thingy i bought from Daiso! hehe! This part reminds me of when i was baking the "Cat's tongue". Same way. The way stuff ard the "Fingers" are actually the icing sugar. I am lazy. So jus dust all ard the pan using my sieve.


The first batch after the first round of baking. DUst too much sugar. Visible thick layer of sugar on top of the "fingers". Hehe!


While letting it cool, i decided to bake the second batch.

The second batch looks better. The sugar on the "fingers" looked nicely sprinkled on. Even the shape looks better than the first. But its still too fat to be called "fingers"! Mine shld b called "toes", short and fat. Haha!

While waiting for the first batch (second round of baking), decided to take a break by having a snack! My frn, mei, highly recommended this yoghurt to me! Finally tried it! Love the aloe vera bits! Refreshing snack! Plus.... It's Healthy! haha!


First and Second batch done from the second round of baking! I think i noe whats the second round of baking is for! Its like a "drying" process! At low temperature, the heat will slowly dry the fingers. U can actually see some of the sugar crsytalise. Kewl right?


A close up view! This is from the first batch! Told ya i dusted too much sugar! hha! look at the layer of sugar!


The third batch! This batch landed in the bin! I guess the mixture i left it out too long. Was concerntrating too on the first and second batch that i decide to do the third batch much later. Bad mistake! Kept to the timing but din not keep a lookout n the "Fingers" burnt! Some how it was flat too! oh well! jus throw~ so sad! thats like haf the amount of "fingers" went down the drain. Tok about "burnt fingers". haha!

Verdict: Tasted exactly as i expected it to be! Sweet and crispy! but for the first batch. its soft in the middle! must b too fat liao.... 2o mins not enuff! hehe! Anyway, wanna do this another time! I wanna perfect the shape of "FIngers"! Try to get used to using my nozzle! and this time round... i am so using the machine!!!!! hahahA!! i dun care! it will definitely reduce my workload by half!

Tips from the book: The egg white and sugar must b whipped till stiff. If it is too soft, the "fingers" will turn out flat.