Spritz cookies for my lazy day

This is an easy cookie for the lazy day because all you have to do is mixing and pressing your cookie press, plus this cookie is delicious. This recipe is from ................This cookie make me feel like a child (ok, that was a long time ago), when I usually got a big box of sugar cookies which look different but taste the same. But this one taste great, buttery, sweet, a bit salty and a lovely vanilla fragrance. You can make different shape of cookie with this dough, but beware of different baking time too. So, I can make a big box of sugar cookies which better than childhood time.

Spritz cookies

MAKES 4 DOZEN 2-INCH COOKIES

2 ¼ cups (270g)	all-purpose flour, spooned in and leveled
⅛ teaspoon	Salt (if you like the cookie to be salty, you can increase to ¼ tsp)
1 cup (2 sticks / 225 g)	unsalted butter, slightly firm
2/3 cup (150g)	sugar
3	large egg yolks
1½ teaspoons	pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon	almond extract

1. Position the shelves in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Heat the oven to 350°C.

2. Strain together the flour and salt. Set aside.

3. In the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter on medium-low speed until creamy and lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar in a steady stream, and continue mixing until well blended, about 2 minutes. Blend in the egg yolks and the extracts, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing only to combine after each addition.

5. Place the forming plate of your choice into the cookie press. Following the manufacturer’s instructions, fill the press with the dough and press the cookies onto the cookie sheets, spacing them about 1½ inch apart. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the bottoms are very lightly browned. To ensure even browning, toward the end of baking time rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Let rest for 2 or 3 minutes before loosening with a thin metal spatula. Cool on wire racks.

STORAGE: Store in an airtight container, layered between strips of wax paper, for up to 3 weeks. These cookies may be frozen.

Apricot Financier (Gluten Free)

Not all people are the same, even in the world of sweetness. This recipe is coming from............... This book is devoted to the rice flour because the author wants to create the recipe that suitable for the people who allergic to wheat flour. I really love the idea even I don’t have any member in the family that allergic to wheat flour but using different kind of flour is quite interesting for me. The rice flour and wheat flour are different so it not easy to replace the rice flour for the wheat flour without adjusting the moisture in the recipe, so if you don’t want to use rice flour in this recipe you will need 18g of cake flour than 16g of rice flour.

PS. This is a super small recipe so you can double the quantity if you like.

Apricot Financier (Gluten Free)

Makes 8 pieces (5X3cm)

16g	Rice flour
16g	Almond powder*
40g	Egg white
40g	Caster Sugar
40g	Unsalted butter (melted and cool)
½ tsp	Vanilla extract
40g	Dried apricot (cut into small dice, not larger than 1cm)

*If you don’t have almond powder, you can make it by processing the slivered almonds with the rice flour in a food processor until finely ground.

Preparation:

Sift the rice flour and almond powder together.

Preheat the oven to 170°C

Butter the small muffin pan.

Put the egg white in the bowl with the sugar and vanilla extract and whisk until thick and white.

Pour the sifted almond powder and flour into the egg white mixture, using a whisk to combine.

Pour the melted butter in and using a rubber spatula fold to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the apricot on top

Bake the financiers for 20 minutes, until golden.

Chinese Steamed Buns with Minced Pork

Not too easy but not hard to make if you know how to knead bread, this is a simple meal by itself, and delicious too. This one of my favorite from childhood time, we usually have these buns on festival or family gathering, talking, eating and drinking tea, what a lovely day (even I finished consuming too many buns, I still love it). This is quite a huge recipe for a small family so I include the half recipe so you can make and enjoy them without having too much left because this bun is more delicious when freshly made. And when you have a lot of creativity, you can use other kind of filling, like custard, shrimp, sweet bean paste and etc. So, don’t be timid, give it a try and you will love to have a little ethic bun at home (and you make it by yourself too).

Note: It will be good if you can find pastry flour because the pastry flour will give the right among of gluten in this recipe but you can use half cake flour and half all purpose flour instead of the pastry flour.

Chinese Steamed Buns with Minced Pork

Makes about 35-37 for large recipe or 17-19 for small recipe

Sponge
Large	Small
375 g	190 g	Pastry flour
10 g / 1tbsp	5 g / ½ tbsp	Instant yeast
10 g / 1tbsp	5 g / ½ tbsp	Sugar
225 g / 1cup	113 g / ½ cup	Water

Sift the flour, and combine flour and yeast.

Dissolve the sugar in the water and pour into flour mixture, mix until soft and smooth (picture 1).

Let the sponge rise for 60 minutes, the sponge will be almost double in volume (picture 2).

It will look like a sponge (picture 3).

While waiting for the sponge to be ready, make the minced pork filling.

Minced pork filling
Large	Small
300 g	150 g	Minced pork
225 g	115 g	whole water chestnuts, finely diced
20 g	10 g	Sugar
½ tsp	¼ tsp	Salt
2 tbsp	1 tbsp	Soy sauce
2 tbsp	1 tbsp	Oyster sauce
1 tbsp	½ tbsp	Sesame oil
2 tsp	1 tsp	Grounded pepper
1 tsp	½ tsp	Corn starch
2	1	Spring onions (chopped)
2	1	Dried shitake (soaked and chopped into small pieces)

Put the minced pork in a bowl of a mixer fitted with paddle and beat until sticky, put all the ingredients except shitake and spring onion and beat to combine.

Mix the shitake and spring onion into the pork mixture, beat to combine.

Cut into portion (it will be easier to put the filling in a pan and cut into portion).

Cover with the plastic wrap and put in the fridge until use.

Dough
Large	Small
150 g	75 g	Pastry flour
5 g / 2 tsp	2.5 g/ 1 tsp	Baking powder
40 g	20 g	Water
100 g	50 g	Sugar
4 g / 1 tsp	2 g / ½ tsp	Salt
50 g	25 g	Vegetable oil
		Sponge

Sift together flour and baking powder into a bowl and mix in the sugar and salt; make a well in the center.

Pour the water into the center and place the sponge on top and mix to combine.

Pour the vegetable oil on top and knead to combine.

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead until smooth and elastic.

Then cut into pieces (you can weight and cut into pieces or cut into 30g/ piece: about 35-37 for large recipe and 17-19 for small recipe). Roll the dough into a ball.

Flatten each ball with the palm of your hand into a 3" diameter circle. Place a filling mixture in center of each dough round, and gather up edges to enclose filling, twisting edges together and pressing to seal and place over paper baking cup. Repeat with remaining dough and filling, covering buns with plastic wrap.

Let the buns rise until double in volume, about 30 minutes.

Cook in a steamer for about 12 minutes taking care to leave each bun enough space to expand. Do not open the steamer while the buns are cooking. Serve warm.

Adaptation from this web forum (in Thai language)