Matcha Linzer Cookies with Lemon Curd

It's time to shower a little love to all the mums out there! My mum knows I love to bake, so whenever I come home to LA she makes me bake so much bread I sometimes feel like an overworked baker 😓. And that doesn't include all the sweet treats I make for her Sunday church meetings!

But, I love watching my mum ooh and aah over the things I make and the hard work totally pays off. Besides, whenever I'm home I have sooooOoo many demanding requests for home cooked foods. I guess I shouldn't really complain about a tray or two of cookies 😜. I love these cookies because they're not too sweet due to the matcha powder and the zing of lemon curd just brightens them up! My whole family gobbled them up in no time.

Matcha Linzer Cookies with Lemon Curd

adapted from allrecipes.com
makes 20-30 cookies

Cookies
10 tbsp butter, unsalted, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 3/4 cups almond flour
3/4 tbsp matcha powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon Curd
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter, unsalted
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

1. For the lemon curd: Whisk all ingredients in a small pot and heat on medium - medium low flame. Continue to whisk until it has thickened considerably and will stick to your whisk (about 5-10 mins). It will cool even further when placed in the fridge, so no worries. Cover layer with plastic wrap once off the heat and let cool. Place in fridge once at room temperature.
2. For cookies: 
• Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy in standup mixer. Add flour, almond flour, matcha and vanilla. Stir until all ingredients just becomes into a stiff dough
• Split dough in half and roll to 1/8 inch thick on floured surface between wax paper. Place into refrigerator for at least 2 hours or place in freezer for 15 mins
• Preheat oven to 325F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper
• With a 2 inch linzer cookier cutter, cut out as many circles as you can. Knead leftover scraps of dough into a ball and roll out again on floured surface. If the dough becomes too soft, you can always place in freezer. The dough can be quite sticky and difficult to handle so freeze often!
• These don't spread in the oven so you can place them a little less than 1 inch together. Refrigerate any trays of cookies while working on remaining dough
• Bake cookies until lightly brown on the edges, 9-12 mins. Let cool in tray until they stiffen for 5 mins and then cool completely on wire rack
3. Assembly: spread a coating of lemon curd on each cookie round and press two together to make a sandwich

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Mochi Stuffed Almond Cookies - 찰떡쿠키

Chinese new year is just right around the corner and soon it will be the year of the monkey!! This is one of my fav holidays, because it represents new beginnings, good food and merriment with the family. Back in Hong Kong, we used to get a week break from school and the day would start with wearing new red colored clothing, taping all kinds of good omens written on red paper on our doors and walls. Then we would go about town visiting friends and families to wish them a happy new year and to collect red envelopes full of money! I never did get to see where all that money went, since my mum said she would "safe-keep" it for me :/

I really miss the CNY atmosphere in Asia. People are super happy and the whole city is decorated in all kinds of red colors including red building lights, red candles, and red lanterns. Everyone is singing CNY songs and wishing each other luck for the new year and there are lion dances and fireworks going off in the background. The typical new year foods are so so so good. Usually there is a mochi/rice cake dessert called nian gao, literally meaning "higher year" and so it's lucky for every household to eat it during cny so that their whole year will be very prosperous. I've kind of adapted the traditional Chinese almond butter cookies and added a gigantic mochi filling in the middle so that you too can have some lucky cookies for the new year :D!

Here are some blogger friends who decided to take a spin on Chinese New Year cookies. Check them out below!

• Vermilion Roots - Vegan Cornflake Cereal Cookies
• The Missing Lokness - Fried Red Bean Puffs
• Daily Cooking Quest - Chinese Peanut Cookies
• Curious Nut - Chocolate Almond Cookies
• What To Cook Today - Tapioca cookies
• Butter & Type - Red Bean & Strawberry Pinwheel Cookies
• Wok & Skillet - Pineapple Jam Tarts
• Bams Kitchen - Sesame Spiral Pie Cookies
• Brunch-n-Bites - Cherry Blossom Cookies
• Foodie Baker - Chinese Gluten-Free Peanut Cookies
• Hapa Nom Nom - Honey Almond Cookies
• Omnivore's Cookbook - Quinoa Sesame Brittle
• Yummy Workshop - Browned Butter Chinese Walnut Cookies 
• Thirsty for Tea - Macau Almond Cookies

Mochi Stuffed Almond Cookies - 찰떡쿠키

makes 10 cookies

1 cup flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tbsp condensed milk
1 tsp almond extract
3 tbsp butter, melted
egg wash + almonds

Filling
1 cup glutinous rice flour (mochiko)
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare greased baking tray or line with parchment paper
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder, sugar and salt. In a medium bowl, melt butter and then beat in sugar, salt, condensed milk, almond extract and lastly a beaten egg. Mix dry and wet mix together until you get a smooth yellow dough. Wrap dough in seran wrap and let it rest while you make the filling
3. For the mochi filling. In a medium bowl, mix mochiko powder, sugar, salt and milk. Microwave on high for about a minute. Take out to mix with a heat proof spatula (be careful because it will be hot). It won't be done yet, so microwave for another minute. It is done when it looks like one block of white mochi. Protect your hand with gloves or use the spatula to cut out 10 equal sizes of mochi (or let it cool a little first haha)
4. Once your cookie dough has rested for about 20-30mins, evenly divide into 10 balls. Flatten balls of dough in your hand, place mochi in the center and wrap around. It will take some molding with your hands to get it around the mochi. Repeat for the other cookies
5. Make egg wash with a beaten egg and brush on top of cookies and press in an almond
6. Bake for 10-15mins or until golden. Cool for 5 mins before eating. You can keep remainders in a ziploc bag in the fridge, but the mochi will harden and the cookies will need to be microwaved for 20-30secs to soften it again!

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Matcha Watermelon Cake

I'm all about reading unmotivated/demotivated posters and memes currently... Sometimes, I get these spurts of energy to do stuff and then I fall into a lull, and just want to sit on my couch with a bag of Cheetos on my belly and lick cheese dust off my fingers. I'm also in a fairly chill rotation right now with no stress, no early mornings or late nights.

I should be feeling pretty good, but it's kind of like that stillness before the storm. In two weeks, I'll be on internal med rotation and all hell will break loose. It'll be back to panda eyes, frizzy hair, caffeine IV drip and mismatched clothing. <-- haha, sometimes I seriously don't notice what I put on in the morning at 4.30am and I'll go to work in an all olive green ensemble looking like a pickle (true story).

I'm taking advantage of all this free time to do lots of baking though! I recently made a lot of matcha stuff, just because I love matcha and want more of my friends to be exposed to it! I have a whole recipe page dedicated to it here. For this post, I have a light as air matcha almond cake base, sandwiching a watermelon layer with almond scented whipped cream. It's then topped with fresh strawberries, almonds and dried petals. The cake is quite reminiscent of Japanese/Asian bakery cake density...something like a chiffon cake. The watermelon really works as a layer here. It's super refreshing and unexpected. My roommate and I devoured this cake in 2 days... but then we're also your no-so-typical-vigorous eaters ;).

Matcha Watermelon Cake

inspired by black star pastry
makes a 5 inch layer cake

Cake	Frosting
2 eggs, room temp 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/2 cup almond finely ground meal (plus more) 1 tbsp Panatea matcha 3 tbsp flour 3 egg whites, room temp 1/8 tsp cream of tartar 2 tbsp white sugar 1 slice watermelon	1.5 cups heavy whipping cream 4 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp almond extract 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 pint strawberries sliced almonds dried petals (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 and place parchment paper on bottom of a 5 inch spring form pan.
2. Beat eggs, powdered sugar, almond flour on low-med until pale yellow. Mix in matcha and flour. Transfer to another bowl and wipe clean mixer bowel (or if you're lucky, whip out your other mixer bowl)
3. Whip on low egg whites and cream of tartar. Add sugar and whip on high until stiff peaks form. Fold egg white mixer and matcha cake mix gently until all incorporated
4. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30-40 mins. At 20mins you make need to foil the top because it will brown easily. Test with skewer for done-ness. Once out of the oven, immediately flip over on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely in it's pan
5. While you're waiting for your cake to cool, cut a 5 inch watermelon slice about 1-1.5cm thick. Sprinkle both sides with sugar ~1 tbsp and allow to macerate on a rack for 30 mins
6. Mix heavy whipping cream, sugar and extracts on high until stiff (but not too long that it separates). Set aside
7. Stick cake once cooled into the freezer for 10 mins, so it is easier to slice in half. If you used 2 pans, then forget about this step.
8. Place top layer of cake cut side up and spread frosting over it. Sprinkle almond meal over it (absorbs extra watermelon juice). Pat watermelon layer with kitchen towel and place over frosting. Sprinkle almond meal over watermelon and then spread more frosting over it. Top with final layer and more frosting.
9. Refrigerate cake for 1-2 hours to firm up. Cut up strawberries into quarters and halves. Decorate cake with sliced strawberries, sliced almonds and petals. Will keep for a few days!

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