German Cookies Recipe (with different varieties of flavors and shaping ideas)

This recipe yields approx 60 pieces of Cookies, approx 12g dough per piece.

Found this cookie extremely popular to be used shape cute animals cookies. It's definately easier to handle then most of the cookie doughs we've manage before. However, we're unable to find out why is it call German Cookies! Do enlighten us if you have some history behind this cookie.


Base Shortbread Cookie Dough Ingredients:
250g Butter
80g Icing Sugar
250g Potato Starch Flour
180g Top Flour or Cake Flour

Step By Step
1. Cream Butter and Icing Sugar until light in color.
2. Add in Vanilla Essence and mix till incorporated.
2. Sift in the All Purpose Flour, Potato Starch Flour and fold till well combine.
3. Preheat the oven to Fan mode 160°C or Top Bottom mode 170°C.
6. Shape the dough as desired. Place on the baking sheet, leaving 0.5" apart.
7. Place in the oven to bake for 25mins.
8. Cool completely before serving.

Some Extra Tips Below:
- Recommended to mix the dough and let it chill overnight in the fridge so the dough cam be more manageable and the flavor will develop.
- You can store the mixed cookie dough (well wrapped) in the fridge for up to 3 to 5 day or it can last up to 2 months in the freezer.
- Remember space it 1" apart to let the cookie have space to expand and brown evenly.
- To allow the flavor and fragrance to develop further, store cookies in an airtight container overnight before serving.
- Store cookies in an air-tight container with a piece of bread or a slice of apple to retain the softness as the cookie will absorb the moisture from the bread or apple to stay soft longer.

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Below are my creations hopefully it'll inspire you. You may split the base cookie dough is 2 parts and half the portion as per suggested below for more varieties. Hope you all will love this recipe. Included our specially shaped German Cookies too!

Vanilla German Cookies
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Chocolate German Cookies
3 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
65g Icing Sugar (Change to this measurement)
(Optional) Roll in confectioner's sugar for a pretty effect.

Monkey shaped German Cookies
Mix the base dough and put aside 102g.
Then mix in 2.5 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder into the balance of the dough.
Use a heart shape cutter to get the love shape for top of the face. Make an oval the bottom half of the face. 5th, deco by black sesame n choc chip.


Coming Soon~
Matcha aka Green Tea SGerman Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
2 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
70g Icing Sugar (Change to this measurement)
(Optional) Roll in confectioner's sugar for a pretty effect.

Beet Root German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
4 tablespoons of Beet Root Powder
70g Icing Sugar (Change to this measurement)

Pork / Chicken / Fish Floss German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
80g of Pork / Chicken / Fish Floss
10g Seaweed Snack (blended)

Oreo German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
10 Oreo Cookies (blended or crushed)

Chocolate Chips German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
80g mini Chocolate Chips

Raisins German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
80g mini Raisins (cut into small pieces)

Cranberries German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
80g mini Cranberries (cut into small pieces)

Coffee German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
2 tablespoons of thick Coffee Emulsion (Coffee Powder + 2 tablespoons of Hot Water)
(Optional) Roll in confectioner's sugar for a pretty effect.

Milo/ Ovaltine/ Malt German Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
3 tablespoons of Milo/ Ovaltine/ Malt Powder


Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Shortbread Cookies Recipe (with different Savory & Sweet varieties ideas)

Base Shortbread Cookie Dough Ingredients:
160g Butter
60g Icing Sugar
240g All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence / 0.5 teaspoon of Vanilla Paste


Step By Step
1. Cream Butter and Icing Sugar until light in color.
2. Add in Vanilla Essence and mix till incorporated.
2. Sift in the All Purpose Flour and fold till well combine.
3. Pour in the ingredients you love (our suggestions below) and fold till evenly distributed.
4. Place in the fridge to chill overnight or for minimum 4 hours to let the flavor infuse and dough to be manageable.
5. Preheat the oven to Fan mode 160°C or Top Bottom mode 170°C.
6. Remove chilled dough from fridge and shape the dough as desired. Place on the baking sheet, leaving 1" apart.
7. Place in the oven to bake for 15mins or until edges are lightly golden brown.
8. Cool completely before serving.

Some Extra Tips Below:
- Recommended to mix the dough and let it chill overnight in the fridge so the dough cam be more manageable if you want to slice.
- You can store the mixed cookie dough (well wrapped) in the fridge for up to 3 to 5 day or it can last up to 2 months in the freezer.
- If you're using a mixer, remember to do remove and manually fold in the ingredients you love (our suggestions below).
- Remember space it 1" apart to let the cookie have space to expand and brown evenly.
- To allow the flavor and fragrance to develop further, store cookies in an airtight container overnight before serving.
- Store cookies in an air-tight container with a piece of bread or a slice of apple to retain the softness as the cookie will absorb the moisture from the bread or apple to stay soft longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below are my creations hopefully it'll inspire you. You may split the base cookie dough is 2 parts and half the portion as per suggested below for more varieties. Hope you all will love this recipe.

Cranberries Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
80g Dried Cranberries, cut in to smaller pieces

Cranberry and Walnut Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
45g Dried Cranberries, cut in to smaller pieces
35g Walnuts, chopped

Lemon Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
2 teaspoons of Lemon Juice
1 whole Lemon Zest


Coming Soon~
Orange Cumin Shortbread Cookie (Sweet+Savory)
2.5 tablespoons Orange Zest
1.5 teaspoons Cumin Seeds
2-3 tablespoons Orange Juice

Parmesan Cheese, Rosemary and Thyme Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
0.5 cups grated Parmesan Cheese
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Spicy Cheddar Cheese Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
2 cups grated Cheddar Cheese
0.5 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
0.5 teaspoon chopped Fresh Thyme Leaves
0.5 teaspoon chopped Fresh Rosemary

Garlic Parmesan Cheese Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
Pinch of Cayenne Pepper

Maple, Bacon and Parmesan Cheese Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
4 strips Smoked Bacon
0.75 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
0.75 cup Maple Syrup
Cook the Smoked Bacon until crisp, and pat off any excess fat.
Using a food processor, pulse the Smoked Bacon with the Flour and Sugar until the bacon is finely chopped.

Bacon and Cheddar Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
4 strips Smoked Bacon
0.25 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
2 cups coarsely grated old cheddar cheese
Cook the Smoked Bacon until crisp, and pat off any excess fat.
Using a food processor, pulse the bacon with the Flour, Sugar and Black Pepper until the Smoked Bacon is finely chopped.

Gorgonzola Cheese and Pistachio Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
120g Gorgonzola Cheese
reduce All Purpose Flour to 120g
0.125 teaspoon of Cayenne
1 teaspoon of Lemon Zest
50g Pistachios, chopped

Date and Hazelnut Shortbread Cookie (Savory)
3 Dried Dates, stoned and chopped
40g Hazelnuts, chopped

Slivered Almonds Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
50-60 whole Slivered Almonds
After shaping the dough to the desire shape, place the whole Slivered Almonds and give it a little push.

Rainbow Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
Split dough into 6 portion and mix in Coloring Paste. Roll the colored dough into same flat square shape. Stack by Color: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple.

Sanded Diamond Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
1 Egg Yolk, for coating
50g Granulated Sugar, to sprinkle on top
After shaping the dough to the desire shape, burst the Egg Yolk, sprinkle the Granulated Sugar.

Chocolate Top Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
100g Chocolate
After the Shortbread cookie is baked and cool.
Option 1: Dip the top of the cookie into the melted Chocolate.
Option 2: Prepare fancy pretty chocolate that are just right for the Shortbread cookie size. Pipe some melted chocolate on your cookie and carefully place a piece of chocolate on top and allow to set.

Cinnamon Sugar Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
40g Fine Sugar
2 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
Mix and sprinkle on Shortbread Cookie before baking.

Coconut Lime Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
1/2 cup Coconut, shredded and toasted
2 tablespoons Lime Zest
Lime Glaze Ingredients
320g Icing Sugar
1 teaspoon Lime Zest
1 tablespoon Lime Juice
2-3 tablespoons Water
In a small bowl, whisk together Icing Sugar, Lime Zest, and Lime Juice until combined. Add in the two or three tablespoons of water, and whisk until it reaches a good consistency for spreading.
Drizzle each cookie with the Lime Glaze, adding extra lime zest on top if desired.

Lemon Glaze Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
Lemon Glaze
240g Icing Sugar
3 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1.5 tablespoons Corn Syrup
1 tablespoons Lemon Zest
In a small bowl, whisk together Icing Sugar, Lemon Juice, Corn Syrup and Lemon Zest until combined. Add in the two or three tablespoons of water, and whisk until it reaches a good consistency for spreading.
Drizzle each cookie with the Lemon Glaze, adding extra Lemon Zest on top if desired.

Almond Glaze Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
Almond Glaze
240g Icing Sugar
3 tablespoons Milk
1.5 tablespoons Corn Syrup
0.13 teaspoon Almond Extract
1 tablespoon finely chopped toasted Almonds
In a small bowl, whisk together Icing Sugar, Milk, Corn Syrup and Almond Extract until combined. Add in the two or three tablespoons of water, and whisk until it reaches a good consistency for spreading.
Drizzle each cookie with the Almond Glaze, adding finely chopped toasted Almonds on top.

Blackberry Glaze Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
Blackberry Glaze
1 cup Frozen Blackberries
240g Icing Sugar
1.5 tablespoon Corn Syrup
Press thawed blackberries through a fine-mesh sieve to extract juices. In a small bowl, combine Blackberry Juice, Icing Sugar, and Corn Syrup.
Drizzle each cookie with the Blackberry Glaze.

White Chocolate-Pistachio Glaze Shortbread Cookie (Sweet)
White Chocolate-Pistachio Glaze
200g white chocolate
4 teaspoons Vegetable shortening
4 teaspoons pistachio paste
0.13 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped pistachios
In a medium heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt white chocolate and vegetable shortening. Remove bowl from heat and stir in pistachio paste and fine sea salt. Allow mixture to rest for 1 minute. Dip cookies as directed, and sprinkle with finely chopped pistachios.


Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Ultimate Chocolatey Cake Recipe

Happy 2016 to all our readers / baking recipe followers.

I've been consuming and drooling over dense chocolatey cake loaf in bakery and wondering how it is baked. Finally in 2016, this recipe solves the mystery! Ooooo...lalala! Only for Chocolate lovers out there! If you're not probably you might fall in love with chocolate after tasting this.

This recipe yields 2 Loafs of 3" x 6" baking pan.


Ingredients:
115g Butter
150g Sugar
2 Eggs
200ml Sour Cream / Greek Yogurt
245g Top Flour
55g Cocoa Powder
0.5 teaspoon Baking Powder
0.5 teaspoon Salt
1 cup of Chocolate Chips

Step By Step
1. Sift the dry ingredients (Top Flour, Cocoa Powder, Baking Powder, Salt), grease the loaf pan and set aside.
2. Cream Butter and Sugar together.
3. Preheat the oven to Top Bottom mode 170°C.
4. Add in Eggs and Sour Cream, beating until smooth and creamy.
5. Add in 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix until will combined and repeat.
6. Stir in 3/4 cups of the Chocolate Chips.
7. Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 50mins or until when insert a cake tester it comes out clean.


Some Extra Tips Below:
- If the batter looks thick or too dry add 1 tablespoon of Full Cream Milk at a time, adding too much will reduce the density of the cake.
- To have a lighter texture cake use Greek Yogurt instead of Sour Cream.
- If you prefer sweeter add additional 50g of Sugar.


Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Grain-Fed Aussie Beef at Wildfire Burgers + Bar, Singapore!

It seems like it should be simple enough to make a burger. Cook a beef patty, sandwich it with some cheese and other stuff in a bun, add some sauce, done. How hard can it be, right? And yet in reality it's remarkably easy to screw up a burger. Your patty could fall apart. Too much (or too little) sauce or seasoning. Bun that's too soft. So we really like checking out restaurants or cafes - like Wildfire Burgers + Bar - that specialize in burgers, because they've probably put in a lot of effort to ensure their burgers are awesome.


To start off - some coffee! The lattes ($4.50) are nice and smooth to the tongue. The choice of bean is a little low on the intensity scale though.


We try out the Wildfire Breakfast from the breakfast menu (available until 4pm). For $19 we didn't have much to complain about, other than the scrambled eggs perhaps being a tad bit under-seasoned.


Also off the breakfast menu: Eggstarter, the ultimate breakfast burger ($15). This burger was a very interesting combination of kurobuta sausage patty, scrambled eggs, cheddar and sriracha mayo. Sort of like a McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with Egg, but three times more expensive and five times as delicious.


Moving on, then, to the burgers (available from 11am). We start off with the Triple Bacon ($19) - a 150gm patty with lettuce, streaky bacon, bacon jam, beer caramelized onions, cheddar cheese and baconnaise sauce (bacon-flavored mayo, I guess).


The Umami ($17) pairs the same 150gm patty with arugula, tomatoes, mushrooms, parmesan crisp, 'umami dust' and 'master sauce.' Maybe it's just the cynic in me, but wouldn't 'umami dust' fairly accurately describe ajinomoto / MSG?

Note: Wildfire Burgers has confirmed that umami dust "is our special blend of all natural umami boosters like shiitake mushroom, tomato, bonito flakes, anchovy and so on. There is no ajinomoto/MSG at all."


Wildfire prepares its burger patties from AACo's 1824 Australian beef - each one from a cow that was grain-fed for at least 120 days - and then grills them directly over Japanese binchotan charcoal. In theory this should be a recipe for absolute deliciousness, but in practice, we felt the patties were overcooked and a little dry. Most of the moisture came from the sauce rather than from the meat.

We also aren't fans of this height of burger. We like 'grabbable' burger sizes - the type that you can pick up and eat with your hands. These ones venture a little too far into 'fork and knife' territory.

Flavor-wise we thought the burgers were great, with just the right balance of seasoning, sauces and the various ingredients. The brioche was also really good, and sturdy enough not to disintegrate into a watery pulp like the weaksauce one at Omakase Burger.


The restaurant doesn't levy service charge, so the meal came up to around $21 per person (including the coffees) -- which is remarkably great value when compared to its peers. It's easiest to get here by car; Public transport is also possible, but it's a 15-20 minute walk from the nearest MRT station (Botanic Gardens). Also, most of the tables are in a non air-conditioned seating area.

Wildfire Burgers + Bar is at 26 Evans Road. Non-halal.