Buttery Cream Biscuits

Well Happy New Year everyone! Yay, doing my first post of the year which is not really that late into the month yet, haha! I guess nowadays I am only driven to blog when there is a demand for the recipe. Really don't wanna post something that people won't even take a second look at. :P Okay, back to my success story of my maiden's attempt on baking these buttery cream biscuits. I am rather apprehensive about baking scones / biscuits mainly because the fear that the dough be over-kneaded, and thus resulting a hard rock pastry which is flat and pathetic is not exactly what I wanna waste time baking.:P Although  do have several success with scones...but never tried baking a biscuit. So anyway, no more procrastination! Presenting you my tall and quite awesome looking cream biscuits! Lol!

The biscuits taste pretty much like scones but it's less sweet and usually served savory. If you have been to States, you probably had these with meat gravies....oh my I so so miss it. :( Anyway, making the gravy will be another post haha! So here it is, the recipe of the cream biscuits:

Ingredients for Cream Biscuits (makes 10-12 of 1.5" diameter circles)
375g cake flour
1.5 tbsp baking powder
75g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
60g confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp salt
70ml cold heavy cream
1 large egg + cold fresh milk that makes 140ml of mixture

• Sift the flour, salt, confectioner's sugar and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
• Then add in the cold butter cubes. Knead in with your fingertips, making sure the butter is not melting. If it is, return it to the fridge and let chill for 10 minutes.
• Once the butter has mixed in, the mixture will look like fine bread crumbs. Add in heavy cream and the egg milk mixture. Stir in gently and mix till just combine. Please do not overmix, just enough to not see any white lumps.
• Chill the mixture again in plastic wrap for at least 30 minutes this time. This is crucial as you do not want the butter to melt.
• Line a baking pan with parchment paper.Take out the chilled dough and roll out to about 1" thick. Using a cutter of your choice, dip in flour and cut out the dough.
• Chill the cut out dough again (I know I know hahaha) for 10 to 15 minutes. In the meantime,
  preheat the oven to 200C. 
• Bake the dough for 15minutes till top is golden brown. (no egg wash necessary)
• Let cool slightly before serving.

 Super happy that the biscuits turned out so tall! Yay! Smear on some whipped butter and sweet homemade strawberry jam and I am good! Great for breakfast, tea or even for savory dishes! 

Do try this recipe out and tag me on Instagram or leave a comment here to tell me how did yours turned out. :) Thanks!

Okay, gonna go get some shut eyes. Till next time folks! ;)

Kafta with Pomegranate Molasses - AFF featuring West Asia

Decided to post up my final post of the year by participating in this month's AFF. In fact I have been procrastinating on recipe since 1st week of Dec haha! Anyways, I am glad I finally got it done and over with....and it was really delicious haha! So no regrets there for sure. :) In fact this is perfect timing to make this dish since poms are on sale and you will need at least 4 of those big fruits to extract a cup of the precious molasses for this dish.

Please pardon the qualities of my pictures as most of them are taken using my phone camera haha! Anyway, brown coloured food are usually harder to produce nicer shots. ;P There is basically two steps in making this dish, first is of course making the pom molasses is most of the tedious part is the reduction of the juice. So here is the recipe:

Pomegranate Molasses (makes 1 cup)
3 large pomegranates, yields about 500ml juice
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup caster sugar

• Place all the pomegranate seeds into a blender and zap at high speed for about 1-2minutes.
• Using a fine sieve, drain through all the pom juice and toss the pulp and seed.
• In a saucepan, add in all the pom juice, lemon juice and sugar. Set to medium fire and bring to a boil. Then lower the fire to low and let it cook down till it is thick, much like syrup consistency.
• Let cool completely and set aside for later use.
• 

 Kafta with Pomegranate molasses (Serves 2-3)

Ingredients:

200g minced beef

1 large onion

2 -3 sprigs fresh parsely

3 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp seasalt

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp bread crumbs

1/2 diced onion 

2-3 tbsp pomegranate molsses

• In the blender, add in onion, parsley, garlic and all of the seasoning. Once it blend till paste form, pour into a mixing bowl.
• Add the minced beef & bread crumbs into the mixing bowl and stir to combine paste with meat till uniform.
• Form about 1.5" balls from the meat mixture. Then chill if needed prior to cooking so that it will be more firm.
• In a large skillet, add about 1 tbsp of cooking oil over medium heat. Add the kafta balls and cook till golden brown. Add a couple tablespoons of water to steam cook if necessary.
• Remove the kafta balls from the skillet once cooked and add in the 1/2 diced onions and cook till soft.
• Return the cooked kafta balls into the skillet and 2-3 tablespoons of the pomegranate molasses.
• Toss and coat the meatballs with the molasses and dish up.Serve when it is still hot with steam rice.

I was really please when my two little ones love these meatballs! The meat was moist and tender and flavorful, yummy! Loving the slight tang the pom juice gave the meatballs, plus the spices wasn't overpowering at all...definitely a keeper around my household.

I am please to submit this month's  Asian Food Fest: West Asia hosted by Shannon from Just As Delish.

Signing off now and wishing everyone a wonderful new year! Promise I will post more often haha