Famous Amos Wannabe Chocolate Chips Walnut Cookies

The search is on to find the Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies recipe after I was given a gift box from Famous Amos by a visiting relative. I used to buy them when I was working in Singapore... a little treat after a busy week at work. These little morsels don't come cheap now. The last I checked on my last trip back to Malaysia, it was about RM7+ for 100gm for their regular chocolate chips cookies. 

During the lockdown, someone shared about a Malaysian housewife managed to decode the secret recipe that tasted closest to the real thing but after looking at the recipe which includes cooking oil I decided not to follow. A member in a food group posted this recipe which uses coffee emulsion/emulco/oil to elevate the aroma of the cookies caught my attention. Was thrilled I found a bottle of coffee emulco in my pantry which I have brought back from my last trip to Malaysia.

Without further hesitation I made a batch to taste. Followed the recipe to a T but somehow the texture of the cookies don't feel right. They lack the crunch factors. In fact they tasted rather doughy and hard. 

Comparing both recipes to see where are the missing links and found that this recipe does not include cornflour. So, made another batch by using this recipe as a base and tweaked the self rising flour and corn flour ratios. After 3 tries I finally achieved the texture I was after and believe me, once you started you really can't stop!

Ingredients

290gm   Self Raising Flour
70gm     Cornflour
250g      Butter - softened at room temperature
90gm     Dark Brown Sugar
90gm     Raw Sugar/Caster Sugar
½ tsp     Salt
½ tsp     Coffee Emulco/oil /emulsion
1            Large Egg
1 tsp      Vanilla Extract
25gm    Oats - toasted and grind to powder
25gm    Ground Almond Powder
250gm  Dark Chocolate Chips
100gm  Toasted Walnuts - crushed to smaller bits

Methods

1. Beat the egg with coffee emulco and vanilla extract in a small bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it infuse for at least 2 hours or overnight in fridge. Bring to room temperature before to use (you can skip this step as I find it did not make any huge differences).
2. Using a mixer, beat the softened butter, salt and sugar for about 5 minutes until well combined.
3. Add in the egg mixture, ground oats and ground almond. Mix well.
4. Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture using a spatula.
5. Mix in chocolate chips and toasted walnuts and mix till you get a workable dough.
6. Pre-heat oven to 160°C.
7. Pinch about 10gm of dough and place on lined cookie tray with about 1” gap from the next cookie dough.
8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or till cookies turn slightly brownish.

Mango Salad

If you've noticed now is the Thai mango season here. We have been buying lots of mango over the last few weeks as all of us love them so much and without fail will indulge in some even when their prices are on the high side. PiggyBeng loves those Green Skin King Mango which is exceptionally crunchy and sweet even when the skin is still dark green in color.

I was shopping at one of the local supermarket chain when I saw that there was an assortment of Thai mango on promotion. Only RM2.90/kg which is so cheap! The Elephant Task looks really nice so I can't resist getting some and thought I'll do mango salad with them since I've chosen some really green and unripe ones. The sour and tangy feel gave me a really good vibes! :P

We have been eating too much meat lately so thought a salad dish will be good for the heart and the body!

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Ingredients

• 2-3 Mango (preferably the sour and unripe ones)


• 1/2 stick Carrot (optional) - I added in for color purposes


• 1 stalk Lemongrass


• 2-3 Shallot


• 2 Lime (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)


• 1-2 Calamansi/Limau Kasturi (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)


• Some Corriander (leaves only - finely chopped)


• 1-2tbsp Dried prawn - pan fried and chopped coarsely


• 2-3tbsp Dried shrimps (optional)


• 1 Chili padi - sliced thinly


• 2-3tbsp Fish sauce


• 3tbsp brown sugar


• A pinch of salt


• Some chili powder (optional)


• 1/4 cup Roasted peanuts (whole or coarsely chopped)

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Methods

1. In a low heated pan, simply pan-fried the dried shrimps and chopped dried prawns till it is slightly fragrant. Lift up and set aside.


2. Sliced the shallot, lemongrass (just the head), coriander leaves, chili padi, lime and calamansi rinds very thinly.


3. Slice away the mango skin and shred them into thin strips. Do the same for carrot if you are adding them.


4. Put everything into a big mixing bowl and add in brown sugar, fish sauce, lime and calamansi juice and some salt. Mix well before adding the roasted peanuts and mix once more before serving.


5. Best if served right away or else the juice from the mango will 'wet' the mixture.

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If you can get hold of some ginger flowers, you can add them in too as they will give the salad a better taste.

'Lup-lup' Delight

This is one of my favorite dish which I learned from my mom many years back. I am not too sure if this dish is from Hakka, Hokkien or Cantonese influence as we are a mix of the three. What I like about this dish is the varieties of ingredients used and of course it is extremely yummy and appetizing but required a little more work.

Previously, like some 20 years ago, we can get really good 'tau-kua' or a type of bean curd which is harder than the normal tofu. They used to be yellow in color and has a very fragrant smell. However, I can't seem to find this particular 'tau-kua' anymore. Though they are still selling the same thing but the taste and texture is completely different.

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Ingredients

• 200g French beans (cut into small piece of 1.5cm)


• 2pcs 'Tau-kua' - hard bean curd


• 150g Lean pork or pork belly (not too fatty ones) - cubed


• 2pcs Red chilies


• 150g Raw peanut (toasted with skin removed)


• 10g Preserved black beans


• 3 cloves Garlic (minced)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the French beans and tau-kua separately. Lift them up and put aside.


2. Add some more oil into the wok and stir-fry the pork cubes until 50% cook. Lift up and put aside.


3. If the wok has not enough oil, add a little bit more and saute the garlic, add in the red chilies (squares) and stir for a while before throwing in the preserved black beans and continue to stir.


4. Add in the pork cubes, French beans and tau-kua and stir further for another few minutes till the pork is thoroughly cooked.


5. Before you life them up, throw in the roasted peanuts and stir.

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