Articles and Recipes — Cooling Rack

We lived in Hong Kong for 30 years, longer than I lived in the United States!         In that time Chinese New Year became a traditional holiday for our family, rivaling the festivities of Christmas. This year Chinese New Year falls on Feb 12, 2021, and it begins on the evening before is celebrated for at least 3 days and often longer. It is a time of elaborate dinners, gift-giving, trips to the Victoria Park Flower Market, Dim Sum, and Lion Dances. 

Food is central to Chinese New Year traditions in the way it is created, gifted, and consumed.  There are customs and traditions going back generations in regards to the variety, shape, and color of the food. So when I saw Helen Au’s Vegan Chinese Almond Cookies I knew I had to make them. 

Unfortunately, I do not have traditional wooden almond cookie molds. A quick google search will show you what I am talking about. However, as I was contemplating this challenge I came up with an amazing cheat! The basic premise of a cookie mold is to compress the sandy texture dough into a solid shape that can be turned out onto a baking surface. While living in HK for 30 years I became very adept at substitution and ingenuity- So I just reverse-engineered, and used what I have to create a mold - the base of the 1/3 cup Stainless Steel Measuring Cup fits perfectly into the second smallest Stainless Steel Cookie Cutters and the 1/8 Stainless Steel Cup can be used in the smallest Stainless Steel Cookie Cutter. 

  

   

A great English Scone starts with a great recipe- I used Nigella Lawson’s, Lily Scone recipe. I love that her website translates British to US measure with the click of a button - Thank you! There are two reasons I choose this recipe - one is the leavening agent and the second is the cold butter method. 

Assemble everything you need first, equipment and ingredients. 

Turn on the oven and prepare baking pans. I find it very helpful to read the directions thoroughly before beginning to assemble the ingredients. 

I used a scale to weigh my ingredients. As directed I cut the butter, then returned it to the refrigerator until it went into the bowl. I think cold butter creates less gluten and allows the flour to stay loose and airy, which helps with the rise during baking.

The recipe calls for two leavening agents Baking Powder and Cream of Tartar. Did you know that Baking Powder is simply 1 part Baking Soda plus 2 parts Cream of Tartar? When you use a part Cream of Tartar you create a better flavor in your Scone.  

A few technical tips I have learned across the years, first do not over mix or over handle the dough, mix it just until the flour is incorporated. Second, after turning the dough out, knead it by folding and turning to allow the lamination to remain intact and only a few turns. Third, when cutting, push straight down and lift straight up with a lightly floured cutter, this allows for that puffy rise in the oven.

This cookie cutter set will be a go to set for my kitchen with it’s versatility in sizing, easy clean up, and ease of use.  They are well weighted and comfortable in my hand.  

An Instagram video of this recipe will be posted on Saturday Jan 30, 2021 come have a look at the process. 

husMait products used: 

In the husMait kitchen we baked the Forks Over Knives, The Cookbook, Tea Scones; and they are delicious! Although not traditional scones, the batter is scooped, not rolled and cut.

It was so useful to have the Set of Three Melamine Mixing Bowls while following this recipe which required separate bowls for the dry ingredients, the liquids, and to blend almond butter and apple sauce. The bowls pair perfectly with our Silicone Flour Scraper. 

Using a water spray bottle was a fantastic piece of advice in the FOK recipe to spray water into the cup between scoops so that the batter came out easier. We used the husMait 1/4 cup Stainless Steel Measuring cup for the perfect scoop.

We experimented baking on both the 10 x 14 Non-Stick Baking Sheet, and the Silicone Baking Mat. The scones released cleanly and easily from both, while the baking sheet gave the scones a crisper bottom. The Baking Sheet and Silicon Mat are available individually or in the Essential Bakeware 5 Piece Set. 

Served with a little jam, these are perfect with a cup of tea.

Come over to our Instagram for a video tutorial! 

With warm wishes for your home,
From the husMait home kitchen.