Tiger Butter Cookies & Apple Crumble Muffins

So exciting! The Chinese New Year is just around the corner and everyone is just busy cleaning, buying, baking, and decorating! The mood is really in the air. :) It's been so many years since I am home, really home to enjoy this festive holiday with my family in Singapore. I remember the years in California, the first day of CNY is still a working day! And eating reunion dinner would be just me and my husband plus my girls. Not that mood if you know what I mean. It's really good to be home again. :) And in view of the coming Tiger year, I have decided to make some Tiger shaped butter cookies. :) These cookies are very easy to make, only took me 3 hours to complete them. I have adapted the recipe from Sonia (Nasi Lemak Lover) butter cookie recipe. I did make a slight change to the recipe by adding extra 25g of cornflour into the batter to make it a wee bit more firm. I actually planned to make these for my younger daughter's school CNY celebration next week. But thought I made some in advance for the family to enjoy. Indeed these cookies are light and crisp...and literally melt-in-your mouth, superb! I simply just piped melted dark chocolate ganache over the cookies to draw out the tiger faces. My girls love the buttery light cookies and were even more amused after seeing the tiger faces and chocolate on top. I tasted it again the next day and it is still very good. :)Will definitely keep this recipe for next year. Yummy!

So far this year I only managed to bake Peanut Cookies, Pineapple tarts, 2 kinds of Butter cookies and cornflake cookies. I have to thank my MIL for being so patient and allowing me to bake up so many CNY cookies and cakes in her kitchen. Hopefully next year in my own kitchen I will be able to come up with more yummy bakes for all to share. :)

The next item I wanted to post is Apple Crumble Muffins. I made this mainly for my elder daughter to bring for snack during her recess time. She loves apples, whether it's fresh or made into apple pie, apple tarts etc. And lately she demands to eat apples everyday...at least half or 1 apple. So I thought why not make her something that she likes so much.

Ingredients for Apple Crumble Muffins (makes 12 standard):
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
75g caster sugar
75g brown sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
240g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
130ml fresh milk

Apple filling:
2 medium to large apples, peeled and cored, cut into small chunks
50g brown sugar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon powder

Crumble topping:
60g cold butter, cubed
60g brown sugar
100g cake flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon powder

Method:

• Using a small heat proof sauce pot, cook the apples together with the rest of the filling ingredients till it's semi-soft, about 10 minutes. Let cool before use.
  
• In another mixing bowl, mix everything in the crumble topping ingredients together. Using your finger tips to knead till it resembles bread crumbs. Set aside or refrigerate till needed.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
• Cream the butter and both the sugars together till light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat till well mixed. Add vanilla extract and blend well.
• Add 1/4 of the flour mixture into the butter & sugar mixture and mix well. Then add 1/3 of the milk in and again mix well. Repeat till all of the flour and milk has been added.
• Stir in the apple fillings and pour the batter into the paper lined muffin tins to about 3/4 full. Then scoop about 1 tbsp of the crumble topping over the top, gently pressing a little to make sure it will stick.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes till tester comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on cooling rack.

I love the moist texture of this cake and the crusty salty sweet crumble toppings. Although the apple scent and taste is not as evident as I hope it is, but it was still a delicious delicate cake to enjoy. My daughter loved it and so did I. :) In fact this muffin is a delicious choice over the usual bread and butter.
Perhaps the next time I tried this recipe again, I shall use Granny Smith rather then those China Fuji, which is less intense in apple taste. I would also reduce the cooking time for the apples so that it has more texture in the muffin. Interested? Do try it out...maybe after CNY.

Lastly, I would like to wish everyone out there:

虎年快乐！　身体健康！　财源广进！　国太平安！