Muah Chee (Mochi)

A quick snack that takes less than 5 minutes to put together from start to finish. The soft chewy mochi coated with crunchy sugar topping is so delicious and fun to eat. I can easily eat the whole plate myself.

Muah Chee
recipe adapted from Buttermilk Pantry
makes 2 servings

Mochi:
65g glutinous rice flour
8g (1 Tbsp) tapioca starch
110g water
3g sesame oil
4g regular oil

Coating:
90g peanuts, finely crushed
40g sugar
2 Tbsp black sesame powder
sea salt (skip if using salted peanuts)


1. Mix all mochi ingredients until thoroughly combined and smooth.
2. Microwave for 1 minute. Mix. Microwave for another minute.
3. Let cool slightly and drop into coating.
4. Using oiled chopsticks and scissors, cut mochi into bite size and toss in coating.
5. Enjoy!

The mochi and coating ingredients are very flexible and customizable. I subbed oolong tea for water in the mochi dough and added black sesame powder to the coating the second time around. The subtle changes make this snack very fun to make and eat.

Taste: 5 stars out of 5
Texture: 5 stars out of 5

Homemade Pocky

Pocky
recipe from Not Quite Nigella
-makes 65 pockys

105g/3.7 oz strong baker’s/bread flour
80g/2.82oz plain all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
13g/0.46oz icing sugar sifted (I only used 10g)
6g/0.21oz dried yeast
65ml/2.20 fl oz milk, lukewarm (I opted for soymilk)
16g/0.56oz tahini (omitted)
25g/0.88oz honey
zest of 1/2 mandarin or 1/4 orange
25g/0.88oz butter at room temperature



1. Combine the yeast and lukewarm milk in a small bowl and stir to combine. Fit a dough hook in an electric mixer and mix the dry ingredients on a low speed.

2. In another bowl, mix the honey and tahini together. Add this mix and the milk and yeast mix to the dry ingredients. Mix together on medium speed to form a dough. Add zest and butter and 60ml water and continue mixing until the dough is firm and elastic. I needed to add a bit more flour to make the dough come together after the addition of the butter as it was a little too wet.
3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 180c/350F. Divide the dough into two and knead the dough until smooth then roll it out into a rectangle. Roll it out to 4mm thick (1/4 inch). With a ruler and a sharp knife, cut 5mmx15cms strips and carefully transfer these onto a lightly greased baking tray or greaseproof paper lined baking tray.
5. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (watch it, it may take a bit longer or shorter). You want it golden brown, not light yellow as it will not “snap” properly.



I was really excited about the idea of making my own POCKY! I love pocky! It is definitely one of my favorite childhood snacks. I can snack on it all day if I can. I was especially excited about making them since they are a little pricey for the amount you get in the market (around US$2-3). I can save tons if I can make my own!

This recipe was "a little" disappointing. They didn't turn out like the pocky you get at the market. However, it might just be the reason that I omitted tahini and substituted milk with soymilk. I also found the dough hard to work with. It was hard to get them to be skinny and thin.. hence the big fat not-so-crunchy outcome.

The biscuit part of the pocky didn't turn out too well. But I did enjoy the chocolate/nuts coating part. I shall try this recipe when I get ahold of tahini and I definitely want to try a white chocolate and toasted coconut flakes coat! Oh, and I highly recommend halving the recipe when you are trying it out the first time. This recipe makes an enormous amount of pocky.

Taste: 2 stars out of 5 (bland, slight sweetness, not the biscuit-y taste I want)
Texture: 1 stars out of 5 (too thick, chewy, not crisp and crunchy)

Chocolate Peanut Biscotti

Chocolate Peanut Biscotti
recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped almonds, blanched or unblanched (used peanuts)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped or 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat over to 350F.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment.
3. Sift together flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. With electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until pale (~2 mins).
5. Add eggs and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes.
6. With mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients in 3 additions until dough forms.
7. Mix in the chopped nuts and chocolate. (Knead dough if any dry ingredients have escaped)
8. Divide dough in half. Roll each dough into 12 inch long logs. Flatten logs to 1/2 to 1 inch high and about 2 inches across. Lift dough onto baking sheet.
9. Sprinkle each log with a little sugar. Bake for 25 minutes until they are just slightly firm. (Note: it is ok if the log spread and crack)
10. Remove from oven and put on cooling rack for about 20 minutes.
11. With a long serrated knife, cut each log into slices between 1/2 and 3/4 inch thick. Stand slices up on baking sheet.
12. Preheat over back to 350F and bake the army of biscotti for another 10 minutes.
13. Cool& enjoy!


^ready for first bake

Thank you bestie for thinking of me when you went to the library! This might just be the first cookbook I actually read and baked something out of(: Since the cookbook was almost 2 inches thick of recipes, my bestie and I had ideas of just flipping to a random page and whatever we landed on, I would bake. It would only be nice if all the ingredients were at hand though. In the end, I decided to just skim through the whole cookbook (I was going to anyways). The recipe/ picture that caught my eyes was the Chocolate Biscotti, a Twice-Baked Cookie. Butter. Check. Chocolate. Check. Cocoa Powder. Check. Check. Check. Check. Yes! Here it goes.

Biscotti is actually pretty easy to whip up. Once you have all the ingredients, it takes at most 10 minutes to get the dough ready. The tedious part of the whole process was probably the cooling after the first bake (The biscotti is more prone to cracking if you don't wait for it to completely cool!). Gotta be patient! (;


^after first bake

**These biscotti would definitely be better if it was another combination of ingredients. I didn't like the peanut in it and the chocolate was too strong/sweet to my liking. The big peanut pieces also made it hard to cut thin slices for the second bake. (As I am posting this, I also made the Lenox Almond Biscotti from this cookbook, which I like a lot better. >>post coming soon)