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28 Oct 2012

Vienna Cookies (Sable)


My first practical test in school had finally passed last week and a part of it was to bake these Vienna
Cookies (Sable)! Sable is French for ''sand'', which refer to the sandy texture of these delicate cookies. I
have been practising to make these cookies at home as I needed to get used to making them. The shape
was not supposed to be that way as I gave them additional loop (I only realised that after my test!
Noooo....). I made 4 batches in total, 2 batches were vanilla (original) and I experimented with cocoa and
milo version too.

The Original Cookies freshly taken out of my oven! My practical test was on a Wednesday and I started
practising baking these cookies on the previous Fri, Sat, Sun and Tue which was the day before my test!
So hardworking right? 

The size affected the baking timing and I tried to standardise all the sizes to be as similar as possible. About 
180 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

This batch was the one I tried with 50g of cocoa powder. I felt that 50g was a bit too much as although it
had a really strong dark chocolaty taste, it was slightly bitter. (If adding cocoa powder, you would need to
replace the flour with it.)

This batch was with milo powder. Next time I need to reduce the amount of icing sugar used as milo
powder was already sweetened in the first place. The taste was not that off anyway. Another thing to take
note was that milo powder cloyed rather easily and quickly when left exposed. It was difficult to mix once
they cloyed and they ended up showing up as little lumps within my cookies. Take them as 'chips'!  

I also tried sticking in glazed mocha beans (chocolate) into some of my milo cookies. They definitely boost
the taste, making the cookies more flavorful. The beans melted slightly when being placed in the oven
though. 
           
           The recipe that I followed:

              30g       egg white (1 egg)
         200g       unsalted butter
  225g       cake flour
     75g        icing sugar

26 Oct 2012

Challah Bread


Challah Bread is a Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and on holidays. It was the 1st bread which I
 leaned and baked, and it was done in school! It was a challenge for me to braid the bread as I got rather
confused with the 3 layers, not knowing which over which. Not my fault as I do not have long hair which
many girls do to practise with. Anyway, I took sometime before figuring that out.

This was after baking to a golden brown and the bread were left to continue its carry over baking process.

White sesame seeds were normally sprinkled on Challah Bread and sometimes raisins can be added too.
The photos were taken from my course mate Hinna's camera.