Vegan Green Pea Cookie

I baked this for Chinese New Year earlier this year, cos it is probably the easiest cookie to bake.  Completely forgotten about it until I bake off this recently to use up the green pea powder, and brought them to SC's house during the dumpling making day.  His sis asked for the recipe!

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These green pea cookie is not only easy to make, they are guilt-free too - uses sunflower oil instead of butter not to mention the goodness of veggies.

Green Pea Cookie

Recipe from here but amended with some personal preference.

• 260 gm green pea powder (avail at Sun Lik)
• 120 gm icing sugar
• 1/2  tsp salt
• 340 gm plain flour
• approx. 200 ml sunflower oil 

Method

1. Sift flour with the salt and sift in the icing sugar.  Add in the pea powder and mix all the ingredients thoroughly.  Add oil sparingly and slowly mix till the dough does not stick to the hands.  I didn't measure.  Just keep adding until the ingredient comes together. Too much oil will make the cookie too frail and break easily. 
2. Let dough rest for about 15 mins., covered.
3. Roll dough into small balls and arrange them on a parchment lined baking tray.
4. Bake in a preheated oven @ 180 deg C for 15 mins. 
5. Cookie will be very delicate when just out of the oven and will crumble easily now. Allow cookies to cool on tray before removing them onto a wire rack  to cool completely.
6. Store cookies in an air-tight cookie jar.
   

Note :Alternatively you can roll the dough to 1/4  inch thick, in between 2 plastic sheets and cut out with a cookie cutter. 

Unbearable lightness of Keiko's Chocolate Cake - Die die must try

Life can get a little lonesome when you work from home too often.  I know what I am missing - the long coffee breaks when you argue over how the European crisis going to unfold next, the excuse of having extended lunch when the afternoon rain comes unexpectedly, the "alarm" telling you its time to go home when the building air con gets turn off (yes, when I work from home, things somehow goes non-stop until B arrives home, and that's well past 9pm).

To make up for the "loss", I took out my copy of Keiko Ishida's "Okashi Sweet Treats Made With Love" and went baking during my lunch break.

It is good enough to make me want to stay home and bake this everyday and chomp all day.  But again, I think if I do that, i probably end up never be able to walk out of my door - 4 eggs and 160g of sugar is far from being a recommended daily diet =p

Everything is good in moderation.  Pls try this once if you love japanese sweet - this is one rich chocolatey cake without the heaviness of cake that are baked with creaming method.  The meringue, when done correctly, always lift the cake!!! 


Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
35g pastry flour (I used cake flour)
50g cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
100g sweet chocolate 55% cocoa (I use Ikea's milk chocolate) 
80g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
50g superfine sugar
4 egg yolks

50g whipping cream (I use President)
4 egg whites
110g superfine sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Line 7" cake pan with parchment paper.  (I made a mistake of baking it in a muffin pan without the paper liner.  Idiot makes mistake, the smart one, please, learn from it) 
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder twice
3. Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a double boiler
4. Once chocolate and butter have melted, add sugar, egg yolks and cream and mix well using a whisk. Set aside
5. Make meringue. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half of sugar and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and beat until egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form
6. Add one third of meringue to chocolate mixture and fold with a whisk
7. Add flour and cocoa powder and fold in thoroughly
8. Add remaining meringue and fold until just incorporated.

9. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for about 50mins (or less if you are baking in muffin as i did). When cake is done, remove from pan and leave to cool on a wire rack