KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — Honestly, one of my most beloved parts of Chinese New Year is all the cookies.
From golden pineapple tarts to pale almond cookies, one jar is never enough as my family will go through so many of these sweet treats during the festive period.
But my favourite cookie would be anything with chocolate inside.
Most of the commercially available chocolate cookies aren’t quite decadent enough for my taste however, even the double chocolate variety.
Also I find myself hankering for a soft and chewy cookie for a change, as most chocolate chip cookies during Chinese New Year are of the crunchy and crispy variety.
(These keep better in containers at room temperature, of course, but I don’t find it a hassle to keep softer cookies in the fridge or freezer and reheat them in the oven.)
The trick, I have discovered, is to include a smidgen of molasses sugar in my usual cookie recipe. This not only makes the resultant cookies softer but imparts a lovely dark golden hue and intense aroma.
Can you say, “Kong Hei Fatt Cookies”?
‘KONG HEI FATT COOKIES!’
Because of our climate’s inherent humidity, you might have to play a bit with the ratio of molasses sugar to light brown sugar. Start with less molasses sugar as I have done here and up the amount if required, reducing the light brown sugar by an equal amount.
Keep the quantity of granulated white sugar constant throughout — this is essential for the structure of the cookie.
Three types of sugar are used here — white, light brown and molasses — Picture by CK Lim
Now, I’ve made chocolate chip cookies before where the citrus or acid element comes from lemons. Here, to match the festive spirit, I have used mandarin oranges for their juice and zest.
I find mandarin oranges sweeter and less sharp compared to lemons but not cloyingly sweet like the run-of-the-mill, all-year-round navel oranges. It’s a nice change.
Auspicious mandarin oranges infuse some zest to the cookies — Picture by CK Lim
Their usage won’t really change the look or colour of the cookies much — you aren’t going to have neon orange cookies! — but the tangy, zesty hint will be there in each cookie.
Some citrus also helps balance the dark chocolate element in the cookies. As always, I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate though you can choose your preferred sweetness of chocolate.
You may use dark chocolate chips or semisweet chocolate nibs here but I always make my own coarsely chopped dark chocolate. All you need is a sharp knife and your favourite bar of dark chocolate.
Coarsely chop the dark chocolate — Picture by CK Lim
I find a dark chocolate of 70 per cent and above works well. But you do you – take the trouble to hunt down a chocolate that you would actually eat as is.
Ingredients
120g butter, softened
80g granulated white sugar
60g light brown sugar
20g molasses sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 mandarin orange: 2 teaspoons (10ml) freshly squeezed juice, plus zest
150g all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
230g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
110g slivered almonds
Flaky salt, for finishing
Method
Cream butter, white sugar, brown sugar and molasses sugar in a mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
Next add the eggs, vanilla extract, mandarin orange juice and zest. Blend on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the mixer bowl as needed.
Put the mixer on low speed before adding flour, baking soda and salt. Blend for about 45 seconds and no longer to prevent overmixing.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in chopped dark chocolate and slivered almonds.
Slivered almonds offer an additional nutty note — Picture by CK Lim
Portion dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Each scoop should be about 3 tablespoons of dough and placed about 2 inches apart.
Portion dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper — Picture by CK Lim
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with flaky salt. Allow to cool on a baking tray for 20 minutes to 1 hour before eating or storing in an airtight container.
