Quick Easy Chewy Vanilla Jam Cookies / Jam Drops by Donna Hay - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Every weekend can be like Christmas or Chinese New Year at my place.

Simply because I love baking and bake at least once a week. I love filling up our cookie jars / containers with goodies. Otherwise, I would bake or make interesting and mostly exotic Asian-influenced breads, cakes and kuehs. Rain or shine or even when I'm busy or tired, I will try to bake or make something nice every week. So this is why I have a collection of super-easy fail-proof recipes to share.

I know everyone who are celebrating Chinese New Year must be busy preparing this festive event. So if you are looking to bake something quick easy and nice to bake, I would love to recommend you to bake these Easy Jam Butter Cookies which is also known as Jam Drops to most Aussies.

Chewy Vanilla Jam Cookies / Jam Drops
Quick and Easy to bake. And very yummy!!!

Open Faced Melt-in-the-mouth Brown Sugar Pineapple Tarts - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Let me guess.

If you type “brown sugar” in Google search, the first recommendation that you will get is to search for “brown sugar milk tea”, “brown sugar... something else” then again “brown sugar boba”.

Is Google a psychic? Nay. We see this recommendation because “brown sugar milk tea” have always been one of the highly searched phrase at Google.

Why is brown sugar milk tea (also known as brown sugar boba) so popular everywhere? Obviously, the delicious combination of brown sugar caramel syrup, fresh cold milk and tapioca pearls has made the drink so irresistible.

I love any food that is made brown sugar! Do you? This is why I am thinking of baking my pineapple tarts with brown sugar!

Guess what? This idea is brilliant!!

Proudly presenting my Brown Sugar Pineapple Tarts!

Melt-in-the-mouth Open Faced Gula Melaka Coconut Pineapple Tarts 马六甲椰糖黄梨塔 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

What is the first thing you think when you are celebrating Chinese New Year?

Hong Bao 紅包? meaning red packet with money $$$ in Chinese
Reunion dinner 團圓飯?
Visiting relatives and friends 拜年?
Yu Sheng 魚生? A Cantonese-style raw fish salad that is often consumed during CNY celebration

For me, it is always PINEAPPLE TARTS! LOL!!!

Pineapple is known as "Ong Lai" in Hokkien and it also means "Good luck arrives". Hence, this is why the Hokkien side of my family love baking and enjoying pineapple tarts (also known as Ong Lai Piah in Hokkien) for all of our Chinese New Year.

Pineapple tarts are also known as Feng Li Su 凤梨酥 and Huang Li Ta 黄梨塔 which are mostly the enclosed type of pineapple tarts.

Feng Li Su is more like the Taiwanese version of pineapple tart, typically larger than the Singaporean / Malaysian pineapple tarts and are made in square or rectangle shapes with pineapple jam encased inside. Wanna to bake Feng Li Su? My Favourite Feng Li Su 凤梨酥 recipe is mentioned at here.

What about Huang Li Ta 黄梨塔? It means "pineapple tower" in Chinese. This name refers to the open-faced type of pineapple tarts that has a generous serve of pineapple jam stacked on top of a buttery pastry. My Best Sturdy Melt-in-your-mouth Open Faced Pineapple Tarts 黄梨塔 is at here

Besides these two versions of pineapple tarts, I have baked many other versions: 

Best Melt-in-the-mouth Enclosed Pineapple Tarts at here
Best Ultimate Melt-in-your-mouth Nastar Pineapple Tarts at here
Ultimate Melt-in-the-mouth Malay Style Condensed Milk Enclosed or Nastar Pineapple Tarts at here
Ultimate Melt-in-the-mouth Salted Egg Yolk Pineapple Tarts that are baked with Salted Egg Yolk Butter Pastry at here
Melt-in-the-mouth Parmesan Cheese Nastar Pineapple Tarts at here
Melt-in-the-mouth Gula Melaka Pineapple Tarts at here
Melt-in-the-mouth Maple Syrup at here

Vegan Coconut Oil Pineapple Tarts at here

Open Faced Egg-less Less Sugar Honey Pineapple Tarts at here

Yes that I have created and baked really gula Melaka pineapple tarts at here but why am I baking another recipe today?

My melt-in-the-mouth gula Melaka pineapple tart pastry at here were previously made with gula Melaka syrup which is made by dissolving gula Melaka in coconut milk.

Don't get me wrong. I love love love those melty buttery gula Melaka pineapple tarts but I want to bake something with MORE coconut and MORE gula Melaka taste!

So this time, I added MORE finely chopped gula Melaka and also desiccated coconut, directly into my tart pastry and yield these melt-in-the-mouth gula Melaka coconut Huang Li Ta 黄梨塔. YUM!!!

My Melt-in-the-mouth Open Faced Gula Melaka Coconut Pineapple Tarts

马六甲椰糖黄梨塔

The BEST Coffee Butter Cookies that are made with real coffee - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Happy New Year! Hello 2022!

Despite the on-going increasing Omicron cases in Australia, I had a wonderful Christmas break. How about you? When I wasn't baking and bloging, I ran my 9th marathon at 3:58:58. I went to Sydney to rest and relax and also country Victoria to hike. Although the Covid cases are relatively high in Melbourne and Sydney, we are trying to live with it and enjoy everything like normal.

Now, feeling refreshed. I'm back to baking and sharing, especially for the coming Chinese New Year...

I love butter cookies and also wish to bake butter cookies with real coffee. No coffee flavouring or emulco please!!!

After baking my Coffee Hot Cross Buns at here, I realised that baking with real coffee is actually not so straightforward like just adding coffee into my cake, cookies or bread mixture. This means that I will have to do several bake-and-taste investigations... And this is how I found my BEST Coffee Butter Cookies recipes.

Looking for the BEST Coffee Butter Cookies?

Happy that I have found mine ^-^