Chinese Pineapple Cake/Pastry 鳳梨酥

This is a famous pastry from Taiwan. These little square cookie-like pastry is filled with real pineapple (not like pineapple bun or bo law bao which does not have any pineapple) . I read somewhere that most of these in stores are not made with pineapple anymore. Instead, it is filled with some kind of melon and flavored with pineapple extract.

They are usually wrapped very nicely and packed in boxes as gifts. I suspect that the packaging costs more than the pastry :)

The recipe I used here is made with 100% pineapple filling (besides the sugar : )).

Wife Cake 老婆餅

Kung Hey Fat Choi ! Good Wishes to all of You in the Year of Rabbit !!

Traditional food to celebrate Chinese New Year involves a lot of deep frying. Since I seldom do any deep frying at home, I'll stick to baking for the new year.
There are many stories about the origin of this pastry. But whatever it was, the inventor was very creative. Like other kinds of traditional pastries, it is loaded with lard. I'm so glad that there are many versions nowadays that use other forms of oil/fat which produces comparable results.
Sweetened winter melon is the original filling for wife cakes. They are widely available now during Chinese New Year.

Biscotti with walnuts and cranberries

Biscotti means "cooked twice" in Italian. A few weeks ago I made the lean version crisp chocolate biscotti, now it's time for the real thing :). For me, it's twice baked as well ! This time it has all the butter in it to make it all crispy and buttery.

Chinese Scallion Pancake 葱油餅

Chinese New Year is around the corner, and my mind is shifting towards Chinese food. There are so many festive new year foods that I don't know what to start with...

This scallion pancake is not typically for new year. It is enjoyed year round and in almost every Chinese restaurant that offers dumplings, it also has scallion pancakes.

Chocolate Lava Cake, part 2 朱古力心太軟,下集

It really bugs me that the lava cake I made last time did not really flow out. It tasted good but did not have the effect that I aimed for. After doing some research, I learned that in order for the luscious liquid center to flow, the ganache has to contain chocolate which has a certain percentage of cacao content.

Sourdough Baguette

This is the first time I have made sourdough bread. Oh my...it took me more than a week to make the seed culture from scratch. It reminded me of the days I was in the cancer research lab doing cell cultures...

Ginger Milk Pudding 薑汁撞奶

Ginger has a very long history. It is greatly treasured in the East. The medicinal and healthy benefits of ginger is undisputed. I still remember when I delivered my babies, ginger was with me for a whole month, ginger with vinegar, ginger in fried rice...

Crisp Chocolate Biscotti

I rarely make cookies. They are last on my list of favorite baking items (except macarons :) ). If I make them, I always make sure that they have many goodies in them such as oats, flaxseed or raisins. Otherwise, they are just fat and sugar. (My son begged me not to put oatmeal and flaxseed in them when I make them next time! He said they are not "real" cookies.)

Belgian Waffle

After trying a number of waffle recipes, I am still not satisfied. They are all a bit dense and not like the store bought ones that are light, crispy and fluffy. Finally I came across this recipe from Allrecipes.com. It has yeast in it to help produce the light and fluffy texture. It is super simple to make with all simple ingredients ready in the kitchen. You don't have to whip egg whites or use the folding method.

Chocolate Cinnamon Twist Whole Wheat Bread 朱古力肉桂全麥麵包

I make bread at least once every week. Bread for breakfast, sandwich for school lunch and sometimes for dinner. I try to find different flavors and shaping methods to make it more fun to make, delicious and nutritious to eat. This chocolate cinnamon twist is a variation of cinnamon rolls. I modified it from the original recipe and made it my own by using whole wheat and tong zhong method.