Double chocolate chip cookies

Recipes

Ingredients:
1¼ cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons or 150 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3cup (120 grams) (packed) light brown sugar
¼ cup (50 grams) sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces (150 grams) dark/milk chocolate, chopped into chips

Steps:
1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

2. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour. Drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

4. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

5. Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about one inch between them.

6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Siew Bao

Ingredients:
Pastry:
Water Dough:
1. 200 g all-purposed flour, sifted
2. 100 g water
3. 50 g shortening or lard
4. 50 g icing sugar

Oil Dough:
1. 200g plain flour
2. 100g lard

Filling:
1. 300 g BBQ pork (Char Siew), diced
2. 1 medium onion, finely chopped
3. 1/3 cup of green peas
4. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
5. 1 tbsp soy sauce
6. 1 tbsp water
7. 1/2 tbsp corn flour
8. 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
sesame seeds

Methods:
Char siu filling
1. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, water, corn flour and sugar in a small bowl and stir to mix well.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Stir fry BBQ pork, onion and green peas until fragrant. Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce, water, corn flour and sugar mixture and stir well.

Skin
1. Put all the ingredients of water dough in a food processor and pulse until it forms a soft dough. Cover it in a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Repeat the same with oil dough.
3. Divide the water dough and oil dough into 18 equal portions.
4. Roll out a piece of the water dough into a flat circle.
5. Place a piece of the rounded oil dough in the centre of the flat circle.
6. Gather the outer edges of the water dough circle and wrap up the oil dough ball.
7. Pinch and seal the edges.
8. With the heel of your palm, gently press the dough down to flatten it lightly.
9. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into rectangle shape.
10. Roll up the dough Swiss-roll style.
11. Turn the rolled dough 90 degrees.
12. Repeat steps 9 and 10.
13. The pastry is now ready for filling and shaping.

Assemble
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
1. With the heel of your palm, gently press the pastry down to flatten it lightly.
2. Roll out the pastry into a flat circle.
3. Place 1 tbsp of filling in the centre.
4. Gather the outer edges of the dough circle and pleat and pinch to seal.
5. Brush egg wash on the surface and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
6. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.