You Say Cookies, I Say Biscuits

The one time in the year that I completely over-indulge in cookies (or biscuits as they are called in this part of the world) is during the Lunar New Year. It used to be that all the CNY cookies were (or had to be) hand-made at home. And there-in lie a lot of the magic and appeal of CNY cookies - memories of weeks and weeks of baking by my mum and aunts in the run-up to the New Year. In those days, the biscuits had a down-to-earth, almost rustic appeal to them… cornflake cookies, rice crispy cookies, even milo cookies. My love for CNY cookies (for some reason, these cookies are not made nor sold outside of CNY) is very much colored by my recollections of the colors and images of nut-grinding with a mortar and pestle, mixing the batter, rolling the dough into tiny balls… the smells of the baking cookies… and that moment when we, the kids, are finally allowed to taste the fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies. Heaven!

Each family would have their own recipes, or variations of a popular recipe, each with its own unique taste. The fun was in trying all the different varieties as we went from home to home, visiting family and friends over the 2 weeks of CNY.

Nowadays, most families buy their cookies ready-made. The choices available are mind-boggling, and there are some really tasty options out there. We usually aim for a combination of both ready-made and home-made.

“Chinese cookies” are rather different in texture and taste-balance from “Western cookies”. I find that the Americans tend to prefer their cookies with a soft, chewy texture, whilst the English/Europeans prefer a crispier/crunchier texture. Chinese cookies tend to be “soong” in texture. I have thought for hours on an accurate translation for this word, and have come up with nothing. There doesn’t seem to be an English equivalent of this word. The closest I can come is that it is a crispy yet soft, tender and melt-in-your-mouth texture, and still this would not really approximate to the real meaning of “soong”. (Anyone knows a better translation of this word? Please help!)

Unlike “Western” cookies, Chinese biscuits, even sweet biscuits, all tend to have a slight savory overtone – it’s a finely balanced combination of saltiness and sweetness. So one can actually eat tons of the stuff without feeling “jelak” (getting sick of it).

Every year we usually have a range of at least 12-14 types. This year, we made a very late start on the Lunar New Year shopping (ban nian huo). So, what is in our biscuit collection so far this year?

(Above picture, from left):
Almond Nut Crunchy (by Bengawan Solo, Singapore). Very fragrant, crispy and “soong”. I like the addition of Nestum in the cookie batter. I think it adds a little extra to the texture and aroma of the cookies.
Peanut Cookies (by Glory, Singapore). A firm favorite of my mum every year. I personally find it a just a tiny tad too much on the salty side. However, it has great texture, and a beautiful smell of peanuts.
Pistachio Pumpkin Cookies (by Johor-based Lavender Confectionery). This is one of their new flavors this year, and makes a nice change. I can’t really taste the pumpkin, but the tiny bits of chopped pistachio makes for a very nice crunch. [On a side note: I also like Lavender’s Vegetarian Almond Cookies (no eggs). I am tempted to buy this…]
Walnut Cookies (by Tarts n Pastries, Singapore). I like this. Very tender, melt-in-the-mouth, “soong” texture.

I had grand ambitions of baking most of the cookies for CNY this year. However, as always, things pile up (work, social commitments, spring cleaning, family obligations and on and on), and time slips by… and nothing gets done. I’ve only managed two varieties (one of which I made into two sizes and shapes).

The cornflake cookie is a “must” in this family. It is hardly available commercially. The only bakery offering it, that I’ve seen, is Bengawan Solo, and I don’t particularly fancy that version. Previously, my mum would bake them. For the past few years, an aunt has been making them and giving them to us for CNY. This year, yours truly was supposed to make them. And boy! has that been a journey!

As I was about to make the cookies, I discovered I had misplaced the recipe my mum had given me many years ago, and which I had since then tweaked and adjusted to my satisfaction. The recipe just couldn’t be found, and it was too late to be asking my mum for the recipe. So, I ended up surfing the Internet, but cornflake cookie recipes were few and far between. I finally settled on this one. For some reason, the cookies came out American-style: chewy. That was not what I was looking for. Feeling very frustrated that I had “wasted” an entire evening (it was close to 2am by then), I gave up, and decided to start afresh the next day.

I got the original recipe off my mum again, but I just could not remember what I had adjusted and how. It has been a good 6-7 years since I last made this recipe! Well, to cut a long story short, the cookies are very crunchy and crispy, but they are not “soong”, and that is what I really want. They taste great, just not the perfect texture I am looking for.

I also made some choco-almond cookies based on a recipe from cooks.com. I substituted the shortening with butter, and added toasted almond flakes to the batter. Half the dough was shaped into a fairly slim roll, and cut into bite-sized pieces. The other half was rolled out and cut with a cookie-cutter to form heart-shaped cookies. These are also slightly soft/chewy – perhaps because of the butter/shortening substitution? They pass the taste-test, but not quite what I was looking for texture-wise.

Pineapple tarts. The GREAT love of Singaporeans and Malaysians for CNY. There have been so many Google and Yahoo searches for “pineapple tarts” to my site! I can’t tell you.

There are basically two types of pineapple tarts – the open-faced one and the “closed” variety. The latter being an innovation on the former. The pastry used in both types is very different from each other. The open-faced tart has a crispier/crunchier, flakey pastry dough, whilst the enclosed tart is made with a very soft, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth pastry. The taste and “bite” of the two variations are completely different. The latter usually has the addition of cream and milk powder in the pastry batter.

The taste-test for the open-faced pastry is that it should be crispy without being hard. It has to have a tender crumb. For the “closed” tart, the challenge is to produce a pastry that is very, very soft and crumbly almost, and yet will hold together and keep its shape.

The filling of both types of tarts is the same – a sweet, very slightly spiced, pineapple paste made by cooking down fresh pineapple with sugar and a touch of cloves. This is an extremely time-consuming and tedious part of the preparation. It takes more than 1 hour of continuous stirring at the stove before the pineapple paste is ready. Only for those who want an intense bicep workout!

When the “closed” pineapple tarts first made their appearance over a decade (?) ago, they were made elaborately into the shape of pineapples. Nowadays, most confectionaries/bakeries make them into simple log or round shapes.

Our favorite for this type of pineapple tart is the version made by Smiling Orchid. Each tart is still hand-made, and the crust is deliciously soft and melt-in-your-mouth, with a nice buttery and creamy taste. The filling is also neither too tart nor too sweet. However, this year, we were too late in placing orders, and the order list has closed. So we are doing without Smiling Orchid pineapple tarts this year. We have bought several other versions, and nothing quite compares. The ones from Indonesia (center in picture) are not too bad. Not much to look at, but pretty good taste wise. The ones on the right were given by a friend. If I’m not wrong, they are from Ho Kee Pau in Geylang. The filling is on the tart side, which some people prefer. The crust is not particularly soft nor crumbly.

We have also ordered some of these pineapple tarts from a friend of a friend, and will be picking those up this weekend.

I personally have a slight preference for the open-faced tart over the closed version. I find them less rich. We normally buy the ones by Glory (above left). After trying many, many versions, I still like theirs.

Well, the “treasure trove” of cookies is slowly but surely growing! With just one more week to go, I’m sure more will be added before New Year Day rolls around. I’m not done with my Lunar New Year shopping yet! We have also placed orders for some cashew nut cookies and more peanut cookies from another friend of a friend. Yes, more and more people seem to be baking cookies at home for sale. It must be a lucrative venture. And inevitably, there will be more and more requests from friends to buy from friends of friends of friends… It will become harder and harder to turn down such requests. Sigh! But hey, I love CNY cookies!

Happy cookie-ing!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.