Mini Cinnamon Palmiers

I haven't eaten Palmiers in ages. Palmiers are also known to me as "butterfly biscuits" - that's what they call these in HK and the name is so fitting because the curly bits really do remind me of wings on a butterfly.

Since I had only 1.5 pieces of puff pastry in my freezer, it wasn't a hard decision to use them all up to make my butterfly biscuits. I made mini cinnamon palmiers which are perfect as mid morning snacks.

I packaged these mini palmiers and took them to work for a few friends of mine. They were very well received!


Mini Cinnamon Palmiers


1.5 sheets of puff pastry, partially thawed
1/8 cup raw sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp hot water

- Preheat oven to 220c. Line a tray with non stick baking paper.
- Place puff pastry on the workbench. Sprinkle one side with raw sugar. Turn this over and sprinkle the other side with raw sugar and cinnamon.
- Tightly roll one end of the puff pastry to the middle. Do the same with the other end. Cover with cling wrap and put this in the freezer for 15 mins until the pastry becomes hard.
- Take the pastry out of the freezer, unwrap cling wrap and cut roll into 0.5 cm slices. Place palmiers on the lined tray. Allow room for the puff pastry to expand when baking.
- Bake this for 8 mins. Meanwhile, dissolve the honey in hot water. After the palmiers have been baking in the oven for 8 mins, take the tray out and brush each palmier with the honey water. Put the tray back into the oven for an extra 3-4 mins until brown.
- When browned on one side, slip each of the palmiers over and brush the other side with the honey water. Bake for another 3-4 mins until brown.
- Cool on wire rack.

Chocolate Chips & Sultana Oats Cookies

It's time to refill our cookie jar again!


I adapted this recipe from a fellow blogger Little Corner of Mine. I've always wanted to make these cookies but for some reason, everything else I wanted to make took over and jumped the queue. However since I had a bit of alone time tonight and all the ingredients were in my pantry, I finally decided to bake these to fill up my cookie jar. I should've made these a long time ago. They turned out so well.

These cookies are healthy and delicious. They're crumbly in texture, the sultanas become a little caramel-y when cooked and who doesn't love chocolate chips?



Chocolate Chips & Sultana Oats Cookies
(makes 30)

(A)
1 egg, beaten
125ml olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup of sugar

(B)
1 1/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup oats (not quick oats)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup sultanas

- Mix (A) in a bowl. Then add in (B). Mix well.
- Roll the mixture into balls and place on parchment paper. Slightly press down the cookies.
- Bake at 180C for 15 mins.
- When ready, let the cookies cool in the pan for 5 mins before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store these in an air-tight container.

Sugared Hazelnut Biscuits

These biscuits are so fragrant! They are fantastic. Once you have combined all of the ingredients together, you'll love the smell of the hazelnut, mixed spice and vanilla essence of your biscuit mixture. Now, just because this biscuit doesn't require the use of butter or olive oil, it doesn't mean the mixture won't stick together. The mixture may look a little crumbly at first but once you start combining all of the ingredients together with your hands, it will come together. So don't worry. Nuts have oil in them so the mixture will come together and will take shape as you roll it into a ball.

I adapted this recipe from Donna Hay's sugared macadamia biscuits. I was lazy and I didn't want to finely chop any macadamias so I used ground hazelnut instead. I also didn't have any ground star anise in my cupboard so I increased the amount of mixed spice by 1/4 tsp.


Sugared Hazelnut Biscuits
(makes 25)

220g ground hazelnut
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup plain flour
2 egg whites
raw sugar, for sprinkling

- Preheat the oven to 180C & line your baking tray
- Place the ground hazelnut, caster sugar, flour, mixed spice, vanilla essence and egg whites in a big bowl. Mix the ingredients together using your hands
- Roll the mixture into small balls, place on the baking tray and press the mixture down with your fingers
- Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake for 10-12 mins or until light golden
- Cool on tray

Low Fat Peanut Butter Cookies

If you love peanut butter, you'll love these cookies.

I baked these so hubby could take them with him to his poker game. I packed quite a big pack of cookies for 4 guys and they apparently gobbled them all up that night! Mind you, these are big cookies - who would've thought that a cookie dough the size of a 20 cent coin could blow up to be close to the size of an inner rim of a dessert plate?

These cookies are apparently low fat and gluten free. They're deliciously light and crumbly in texture. Hubs call them his "peanut butter crumble". Peanut butter is the main ingredient in this recipe so the cookies are quite rich and peanut-y. The dark chocolate chips found in them just add to their decadence.


Low Fat Peanut Butter Cookies (Makes 24)
(recipe adapted from this website)

1 cup peanut butter (I used light peanut butter)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 180c, and line baking sheets
- Beat peanut butter and light brown sugar together until well blended
- Combine egg and sprinkle baking soda on top
- Beat the ingredients together until well combined
- Fold in dark chocolate chips
- Roll dough into approximately 1-inch balls, spacing them about 1.5 inches apart, pressing each dough slightly
- Put cookies in the oven for 10 mins (fan-forced), or until the cookies are lightly browned
- Remove the cookies from the oven when done. They will be soft to touch. Transfer these to your wire rack to cool completely before serving

These cookies should be stored in airtight containers at room temperature and could be kept for about 1 week (somehow I don't think these cookies will last 1 week coz they're really quite delicious and addictive).

Lemon Cookies

I noticed that we haven't been buying any biscuits or snacks at home recently so I decided to make these cookies so I could snack on them when I get home after work (and just before dinner time - I get really hungry during this period!). Also my parents stayed over at our place last night so I thought it would be nice for them to arrive at our place to a welcoming smell of freshly baked cookies :)

The recipe I used here was from Nigella's website http://www.nigella.com/. As I was rolling these cookies into balls, I decided to make some with jam drops in the middle just to make some look a little different! I love the lemon-y smell of these cookies.

Lemon Cookies

(makes 18)

110g butter softened plus extra for greasing
1 lemon
50g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour, plus extra for rolling out the cookies
icing sugar, to sprinkle (your choice)
raspberry jam, for jam drops (your choice)

- Preheat the oven to 190c. Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside
- Using the side with the smallest holes, grate the peel from the lemon and set aside
- Using a wooden spoon, beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy
- Add the lemon zest and flour to the mixture and mix thoroughly
- Put some flour on your hands and roll 1 teaspoon of the mix into a small ball; place on baking tray
- Flatten the balls to cookie shapes with a fork, or you can flatten them using your hand
- If you are making jam drops, fallen the ball using your hand then by using the back of a chopstick, put a small hole/indent to the cookie; put jam in the indent
- Bake cookies for 8-10 mins until golden
- Cool on tray for 10 minutes then move them to a cooling rack
- Sprinkle the cookies with icing sugar if you wish