Oreo Truffles

Remember the nutella cheesecake last time? I mentioned there was another thing we wanted to make using cream cheese. Even though we didn't need to use up any more cheese, these Oreo Truffles sounded tempting, so we went out and bought another pack! Haha. Anyway, its not a difficult recipe, but it does take a bit of time and effort, so you have been warned. We brought it to another family function, as there would be too much sweet things for the people of the house otherwise! Anyway... here we go...

What you need:
250g cream cheese, softened
450g Oreos
White chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate, for coating, melted

What you do:

1. Beat the cream cheese in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon, just enough to make it smooth.
2. Use a food processor to blend the Oreos into a fine powder - or go crazy with a rolling pin. :)
3. Add in the Oreos, a quarter at a time, to the cream cheese. Mix well to combine, then continue adding the rest in batches.
4. Press the resulting mixture firmly into the bowl. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
5. When ready, remove from the refrigerator and roll into small balls. The size of the balls is your choice, but I don't suggest making them too big. Arrange the balls onto trays and chill again until firm, about a couple of hours.
6. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate of your choice into a small bowl.
7. When ready, dip the Oreo truffle balls into the melted chocolate and roll to mix. Place on trays lined with baking paper and leave until set. Place in the fridge or freezer if you wish to hasten the process. ;) Before its set, you can decorate with sprinkle-ables of your choice. I've used rainbow sugar sprinkles on the white chocolate one, but you can use crushed nuts, more crushed Oreos, etc.
   

Like Cookie Monster, we had a bit of a problem with the white chocolate coating as well. The first bar we had was a disgusting snow-white bar of something... I'm not sure what, but it wasn't white chocolate. Probably a whole load of sugar. In any case, we decided to use a leftover bar of Dream, Cadbury's white chocolate. However, probably because this was meant for eating, the resulting melted chocolate was a bit too thick to coat the truffles in. We tried to remedy this by adding more liquid, but that just messed up the consistency completely. We got a few truffles out of it, but the melted semi-sweet chocolate gave a much better texture.

The semi-sweet chocolate batch was actually left over from the Nutella cheesecake and had butter in it. We forgot about the butter, but it actually gave a much better texture for dipping, I think. It was smooth and shiny and thin enough to coat propely but not too thin that it all drips down before setting. The truffles made with this batch looked very pretty, but unfortunately, we soon ran out.

After that, we were a bit too lazy to melt more chocolate, so what we decided to do was just roll the truffles in Milo. The end result is... ta-dah!




Haha. I know... its not the prettiest thing on earth. Initially the Milo looked okay, but soon after, the Milo got all damp from the truffles and became a dark brown colour that you could hardly see. So it was a bit useless, I guess, but I gotta tell you... the Milo coating is my favorite one of the batch, hehe. Mainly because I like Milo. :P But taking this technique, you don't even have to roll your truffles in melted chocolate. If you so wish, you could roll them in crushed cookies, nuts, etc. Just make sure to press them in firmly so that they don't fall off.

Anyway... these truffles had a mixed reception, as far as I could tell. Mainly because of the presentation, I think. The later truffles looked really really... well, not pretty, let's just put it at that. The earlier ones which were coated in the semi-sweet chocolate were the best of the lot, looks-wise. But taste-wise, the truffles were really really good. My sister who was "helping" me make them (haha) couldn't stop having samples. But they are very rich, so you quickly get tired of them. Which is why I would suggest that you make these truffles really small and dainty and bite-sized. :) In any case, anyone who likes Oreos would love these, and anyone who likes Oreos AND cream cheese would go nuts about these truffles. So go on... have a try!

Quote of the day: There’s more to life than chocolate, but not right now.

Penne with Ham, Tomato & Chilli

After the relative success of the pepperoni pasta, my sister decided to make another pasta dish for lunch from the same book. After hemming and hawing her way through, she decided on this one. We decided to sub the ham with roast beef slices, again from PDS. So... here we go!


What you need:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, finely chopped
150g ham, diced - we used roast beef slices, chopped up (PDS)
2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1 fresh red chilli, seeded and finely chopped - subbed with 1 cili padi, lol. (That's bird's eye chilli)
400g canned chopped tomatoes
300g dried penne
Basil for garnishing, chopped finely (optional)
Cheese, to serve
Salt and pepper, for seasoning

What you do:

1. Put the olive oil and one tablespoon of the butter in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat.
2. Add the onion and fry for 10 minutes until soft and golden. Add the ham and fry for a further 5 minutes until lightly browned.
3. Stir in the garlic, chilli and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer over a medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes until thickened. Add water as necessary.
4. Cook the pasta in a pan of lightly salted boiling water for 8 -10 minutes, or until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain and transfer to a warmed serving dish.
5. Pour the sauce over the pasta. Add the herbs and cheese. Toss well to mix and serve immediately.

Truth be told, this is very very similar to the pepperoni pasta. Its got the same basic sauce made of chopped tomatoes, but instead of pepperoni, this uses roast beef and chilli instead, to give the spicy kick. One difference though was that the sauce for this one was the spicy one, not the meat inside it.

Anyways, even though this was pretty similar, I liked the pepperoni pasta better, because I thought the pepperoni + minced beef gave a richer, more flavoursome sauce. :) However.... other people liked this one better because they found the pepperoni too spicy, or something. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. My sister said she liked this sauce better (not because of the meat, but just the sauce) but I think she's just biased, haha, since its basically the same thing. :P Oh wait, she did make this one more liquidy than mine, so maybe that's why. I like a thicker sauce though, so ... to each, her own. :)

In any case, both pasta dishes were delicious (I am so glad Brunei sells canned chopped tomatoes) so go on... have a try. :)

Quote of the day: There are five elements: earth, air, fire, water and garlic.

Cheezbox Review

A couple of months before I came back to Brunei this year, I kept on hearing talk of this new (for me) restaurant called Cheezbox. It had replaced the Dome at the Mall which was apparently not very popular - I've never been there myself though.

In any case, after I suggested going out for lunch one day, Hamizah decided she wanted to eat at Cheezbox it is... :)

I've never been to Dome as I said, but it was apparently very expensive. Cheezbox is sort of in the medium-high range, with drinks roughly about $5 each and food about $5 to $8 each dish. I asked Hamizah what their specialty dish was (if they do have one - besides the desserts) but she didn't know, so I ordered the Kolomee (with char siew chicken and minced chicken). I know... doesn't sound like it would be their best dish, but it wasn't too bad, actually. I didn't like the char siew chicken though, which was really sweet. Not what I expected it to be, but oh well. At least I won't be trying to make char siew chicken anytime soon. :P


Hamizah ordered a potato bake thing. I forget how much it cost, but it was just a small ramekin-type dish. Maybe it was just an appetiser, but still. It was tiny. The drinks were just so-so. For the price, it probably would have been nicer if you made it at home yourself. I actually ordered ice lime juice, but they gave me ice lemon juice. The waiter dude offered to replace it, but I was like, meh. It wasn't too bad, except that I found it too sweet. Again with the home thing, if I had made it at home, I could have made it as sweet as I wanted (or as sour) and it would have been much cheaper.


But of course, by going to these types of "establishments", people are not usually going only for the food and drinks, but also for the ambience. Cheezbox was a bit dimly lit hence the not-excellent photos (from my phone, which isn't too bad, considering.). The cool thing was they had computers at some of the tables, where you could browse the internet for free. Which is kind of awesome. Our computer was a bit wonky and the display on the screen was pink-toned, but hey... at least its free, right? Another cool thing was the waiter call button thingy, so you don't have to wave your hands like a maniac to get a waier's attention. Just press the button and they should be there within the minute.

I think the main attraction of Cheezbox is probably the desserts. I don't normally go for desserts but was swayed by the... Ultimate Chocolate... thingy. Forgot the name. Its basically a chocolate fondant cake (chocolate cake with a molten centre) which I've been trying to make for ages, but have been having trouble finding the time as well as the people to eat it. The thing about it is that it must be cooked right before serving so the centre stays liquid. So you need to get the timing absolutely right. In restaurants such as this one, they just cook it as your order and make you wait, so that's fine. :P


Look at that... a pool of chocolate yumminess! The dish was a bit expensive, at about $5 for a tiny portion, so I am really really tempted to try to make it at home soon. Someday. But anyway... I don't doubt the other desserts at Cheezbox would be just as nice. :)

So anyway... if I had to go back to Cheezbox, I would either try one of the pasta dishes or just stick to the desserts. That is probably their specialty dishes (I am guessing). Anyway, for now, Ihsan is out. Look out for the next recipe, coming to a computer screen near you soon!

Jacket Potatoes, version Izzah

Recently, my sisters have decided that while I shall be cooking lunches during weekdays, they wanted to cook the lunches during Fridays and Sundays. As of today, that has only happened once, but oh well. Their excuse right now is that they have exams. :P In any case, one of my sisters likes potatoes a whole lot, so she decided to make begedil and jacket potatoes. A nice lunch, I should think. So here we go!

What you need:
4 baking potatoes - large ones, not small ones!
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Butter or margarine
Cheddar cheese, to your liking
Beef, cut into long thin strips - or you could use minced beef - cooked to your preference
Salt and black pepper, for seasoning

What you do:

1. Prick the potatoes with a fork. Rub the oil over the potatoes and bake in an oven preheated to 180 C for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours, or until cooked and tender. Leave to cool slightly.
2. Carefully, cut off a slice from the top of the potato (its usually done horizontally, but Izzah cut off the vertical end). Using the hole that results, use a spoon to scoop out the flesh of the potatoes, leaving a thin shell. Reserve the scooped out potato insides.
3. Mix in enough butter to make it nice and smooth.
   
4. Mix the cheese and beef with the potato flesh and season to taste. Carefully scoop the mixture back into the potato shells. You will not be able to fit it all back inside.
5. Place it back into the oven for 10 - 15 minutes, or until piping hot and the cheese is all melted. Serve immediately.

I know. Its not the prettiest dish in the world. But it tastes really really good, especially with all that cheese. :D Saya like cheese, very very much. I'm not quite sure why Izzah used the beef strips instead of minced beef, but they worked very well. It was like you had to search for the treasure, haha. If she had used minced beef instead, it would have been mixed in with the potatoes and would have been less beef-y. Which might be a good thing, depending on your preferences.

Of course, this is the type of recipe that you can modify to your liking. You can use fish, chicken or just stick with the cheese. Or you could use no cheese. *gasp* If you're too lazy to scoop out to make a potato-shaped shell, you could just cut it in half and put the two halves over each other one done. You could mix in the meat and cheese with the potatoes, or you could have it as a topping. Your options are endless. :D

In any case, this was a rather popular lunch for us. If the boys were here, they would probably have gobbled it all up, but oh well, never mind. Maybe Izzah can cook it for them next summer. :D

Quote of the day: The potato, like man, was not meant to dwell alone.

Nutella Cheesecake

One of my brothers is quite proficient at making a particular tiramisu dish which is very popular with family members, as far as I can tell. (I shall have to post the recipe of that someday...). So when he left for UK for university, he left behind several packs of cream cheese. When we realised this, the cheese was close to their expiry date. (In fact, one of them had already turned icky and had to be thrown away.) I vaguely remembered Cookie Monster had some recipes involving cream cheese, so I had a look at his blog and came up with two recipes. Both sounded tempting, but due to a lack of time, I went for the easier option. ;) Here we go!

What you need:
2 packages of soft cream cheese, 250g each
150g chocolate hazelnut spread (e.g. Nutella)
Sugar, to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg

Your choice of crust - I used crushed Oreos mixed with butter and a bit of melted chocolate

What you do:

1. Press crust in a 8-inch square tin. Prebake the crust in a 180 C oven for about 7 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2. Since we decided to make a marbled cheesecake, we set aside about a third of the filling (after mixing with the egg) and sweetened this to taste with sugar. The rest of the filling we mixed with the Nutella. We poured the Nutella flavoured filling over the cooled crust, then plopped tablespoonfuls of the plain batter over the top. Using a knife, we then tried to make a marbley appearance. :D
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, then switch of the oven and leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven for at least 2 hours, in order to prevent cracking. Once cool, transfer to the refrigerator and chill for at least 8 hours or overnight. Since we had extra butter+melted chocolate, we decided to drizzle it over the cake before placing it in the fridge. This had the effect of hiding the nice marbled effect we had, but oh well.

We took this to a family function as there was no way the house people could finish it, not with all the boys away. Plus, the only person who actually *likes* cheesecake in the house (excluding our dear brothers) is Babah. So our only other choice is to dump it on our cousins and aunts and uncles, hehe.

So anyway... we cut it all into nice little squares. The intial response was a lukewarm, possibly because people didn't really know what it was plus it was mostly adults who were around. But when the teenaged-boy demographic got their hands on it, its popularity shot up instantly. ;) Which is good, really. Unfortunately, our teenaged-boy population has gone down drastically due to university attendees, so the response was not quite enough to finish off the cake. It was a pretty big cake, and pretty rich too.

Oh, and I did have a taste for myself, even though I don't like cream cheese all that much. And I have to say... *if* I liked cream cheese, I would probably like this. Unlike other chocolate cheesecakes I've tasted before (see previous post - Hadi's birthday), this was chocolatey with a hint of Nutella. And Nutella is delicious, so yum! I found it a bit too sweet though, even though we reduced the Nutella a little. I would suggest you add the Nutella in bit by bit until you get your desired amount of sweetness. The oreo cookie crust was also delicious, although the melted chocolate was probably an unnecassary addition, hehe. Never mind.

But... I do have to say... I like the unbaked chocolate cheesecake made with mascarpone cheese better. Its like a really rich chocolate mousse. But mascarpone is absurdly expensive here, so oh well. Oooh, and my cheesecake didn't crack! Unlike our previous baked cheesecake. So yay! :D :D :D We did do better the next time round.

Well, I hope this brightened up your Monday morning. (If you are reading it on Monday, that is...) Look forward for more treats soon! (Must... catch... up...)

Quote of the day: I could give up chocolate but I'm not a quitter.

Marbled Chocolate Muffins

Whoops. Took a longer break than usual before posting, hehe. Sorry about that. Been busy doing absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell.

Anyways, possibly being tired of the cookies we had been making, my sister requested another dessert for her to bring for her friend's birthday. After leafing through all the books we had, we decided on these marbled chocolate muffins, because they look so pretty! So... here we go.

What you need:
280g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
115g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
250mL milk
85g butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon cocoa extract

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with 12 paper cases.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar.
3. Lightly beat the eggs in a large jug or bowl then beat in the milk, butter and vanilla extract.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined; do not overmix.
5. Divide the mixture between two bowls. Sift the cocoa powder into one bowl and mix together.
6. Using teaspoons, spoon the mixtures into the prepared muffin tin alternating the chocolate mixture and the plain mixture.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch. Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Pretty, aren't they? All marbley and stuff. But there's a but coming...

But... I made the rookie mistake of overmixing the batter while mixing in the cocoa powder. And while I was at it, I thought I might as well mix the plain one more "thoroughly". Of course, as any experienced baker knows (ahem), this would usually result in your muffins being very dense and a bit too firm. Muffins that feel heavy are somehow unappealing. And that was exactly what happened to this batch.

The taste of the muffins were fine. The chocolate bit was nice and chocolatey, but I really didn't like the texture. The muffin was heavy and not at all light and fluffy. Of course, this was completely my fault which is why I gave you the recipe, because I'm pretty sure it will work properly since I've made muffins with the same basic recipe successfully before.

Of course, this being a defective product, you can't really give it as a birthday gift, so we decided to make another batch of the amazing brownies instead. These muffins were brought to school by another sister, where they somehow proved to be popular enough. But when that same sister brought the brownies to school, her friends were elated. Seriously seriously good brownies, let me tell you. Even Ibu likes it! ;)

So anyway, the lesson for today is... never ever overmix your muffin batter!

Quote of the day: The three best pleasures in life are scratching, sneezing and eating chocolate.

Pepperoni Pasta

So... apparently, while I was in the UK, my dear dear family had gone eating at all sorts of places. Of course, they stuck by old favorites such as Excapades, but apparently, a new favorite was Capers at Kiulap.

Now, I had gone to Capers (like, once) and I didn't really like the food. Maybe I ordered the "wrong" dish, or maybe I just don't like Italian food all that much, who knows. But in any case, my point is that apparently, one of my sisters really really likes pasta. I only found this out (bad Ihsan!) when she was rhapsodising about the food in Capers - and when I showed her one of my cookbooks which is all about pasta, haha. Anyway, when I offered to make a pasta dish for lunch one day, she was like, Yes! So here we go!

What you need:
(serves 4)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
800g canned chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste - horribly expensive in Brunei, I just used Tomato Maggi, haha. Nyaman jua.
1 teaspoon paprika - couldn't be bothered to buy this, so omitted
225g pepperoni sausage, sliced
150g minced beef
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus extra to garnish - I subbed with basil <3
450g dried penne Salt and pepper, to taste

What you do:

1. Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until softened.
2. Add the red pepper, tomatoes and their can juices, sun-dried tomato paste and paprika and bring to the boil.
3. Add the peperoni, minced beef and fresh herbs and season to taste with salt and plenty of black pepper. Stir well, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add water as necassary, or if you require a more liquidy sauce.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large, heavy-based saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta, return to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain well and transfer to a warmed serving dish.
5. Add the remaining olive oil and toss. Add the sauce and toss again. Garnish with herbs and serve immediately.

Mmmmmmmmmm! I took plenty of samples of this while it was simmering, and yum! The sauce was all lovely and thick and rich and all beefy, hehe. Don't be shy with the pepper. I would have added the paprika, but I could only find smoked paprika and didn't really want a smoky taste in this. Plus, I don't like the taste of normal paprika all that much anyway, so I decided to omit it.

In the simmering, the chopped tomatoes melted to make a rich flavoursome sauce. So delicious! I suppose it would be possible to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned, but canned makes it so much easier. Also, it would also be possible to use pasta sauce instead as well, but I think chopped tomatoes are... well, better, haha. They give the sauce a nice texture, and taste nicer as well, I think. So go with the chopped tomato cans I say!

As for my sister, she ate a lot lot lot. So its safe to say she liked it a lot, I think. Babah seemed to like the pepperoni slices. In fact, everyone seemed to like the pepperoni slices. I've never used pepperoni before and only had them on pizza, but I must say, I like it. I like the slight spiciness. :D Very yum. The original recipe didn't have minced beef in it, but I added it to make the sauce a bit more substantial. But you can omit it, if you like.

So anyway... if you're tired of your usual pasta, try out this one. Its definitely a nice change, I should think. :D

Quote of the day: As long as there's pasta and Chinese food in the world, I'm okay.

Crispy Waffles

We here at our house have a thing about crispy things. Keropoks are very popular, and cookies are usually requested to be crunchy. When I suggested we make waffles for breakfast (2nd day Raya :D), my sister recalled this recipe she once read that claimed the waffles were really crispy. A quick google search pulled up a lot of recipes, most of them involving yeast. So we selected this one as a starting point. So... here we go!

What you need:
1 envelope active dry yeast (6-7 g)
1/2 cup warm water (40.5 - 46 C)
2 cups warm milk (40.5 - 46 C)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

What you do:

1. Combine yeast and water in a glass measuring cup. Let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Combine yeast mixture, milk and the next three ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add flour and stir until smooth.
3. Cover and chill for 8 hours.
4. Whisk in eggs and baking soda.
5. Bake in a preheated oiled waffle iron until crisp.

I know. There's an 8 hour chilling time. As far as waffle recipes go, this isn't the easiest one, but let's see how the results compare, shall we?

Now, I haven't made waffles in years (judging from the state of our waffle iron, no one in the house has), so my "experience" with waffles have been mostly either with toasting waffles or those waffles they sell in those little stalls in the UK (Very yum!). I do know, however, that the sugar in this batch of waffles seem a little low. Isn't it a little sweeter? But I guess they don't want to kill the yeast or anything...?

Anyway... I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it sure wasn't what we got. We made it the night before and by the next morning, the batter was all light and airy and bubbly. How nice. :D But the downside of it was that the bowl was now a bit too small. So when they say large mixing bowl, really go for the large mixing bowl, haha. We barely had enough space for the eggs.

But anyway, once we made it... the waffle was indeed crispy. On one side. I think the problem was that it didn't really rise all that much once in the waffle iron, so that while the bottom half was all nice and golden the top half couldn't really reach the metal bit and wasn't crisp and all.

But the half that was baked properly was indeed crispy. Very crispy. And the whole waffle was oh-so-light. Almost like pastry instead of bread. Because it wasn't that sweet, you can use a huge excess (ahem) of sweet things like sauces and whatnot. Our condiment of choice was ice cream. (Yes, for breakfast. I know. So healthy).

So I think... if we ever had a craving for waffles in the near future, this would probably be the recipe of choice. I might try adding a bit more baking soda, or perhaps try to use baking soda to see if I can make it rise up some more. I think I might also try to add just a bit more sugar (after the overnight rising), just to give it a bit more taste.

If you decide to try this... good luck. :)

Quote of the day: What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.

Chunky Chocolate Drops

Oh well, here's a last minute post. :) I meant to post this last weekend, but for some reason, Reading has very wonky reception and wasn't able to get on the internet.

Anyways, this was the last thing me and my sisters made before I left for UK at the beginning of this month. After the success of our brownies, we felt like trying another cookie recipe, other than the version 6.5 chocolate chip cookies which have proved to be very popular. ;) After poring through Ibu's books, we decided on this recipe which looked very chocolatey and very rich. So, here we go!

What you need:
175g plain (semi-sweet) chocolate, chopped
115g unsalted butter, diced
2 eggs
90g granulated sugar
50g light brown sugar
40g plain flour
25g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
115g pecan nuts, toasted and lightly chopped (optional)
175g semi-sweet chocolate chips
115g good-quality white chocolate, chopped into 5mm pieces
115g good-quality milk chocolate, chopped into 5mm pieces

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C. Grease a large baking sheet.
2. Melt the plain chocolate and butter together, then set aside to cool slightly.
3. In a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugars together for 203 minutes or until pale and creamy.
4. Gradually pour in the melted chocolate mixture, beating until well-blended.
5. Beat in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla essence and salt until just blended. Stir in the nuts (if using), chocolate chips, and white and milk chocolates.
6. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls (we used teaspoons for smaller cookies) of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets. Gently flatten with the back of a spoon.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes (see below) until the tops are shiny and cracked and the edges look crisp, but do not overbake or the cookies will become fragile.
8. Remove the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool for 2 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely. Do not allow them to cool on the sheet, or they will become too crisp and break when you try to transfer them.

A note about the baking times, I know it says 8-10 minutes, but after that time, the cookies are more of a very dense brownie texture. The people in our house much prefer very crispy cookies, so we baked it for 25-30 minutes instead. This made really crispy cookies, so we're happy, but if you want chewier cookies, you might want to go for a shorter baking time.

Anyway, as you can probably guess from the ingredients, this cookie is very very rich. Its somewhat similar to previous cookie recipes I've made (see Chewy Chocolate Cookies and Double Fudge Cookies), but I have to say, this one is much better. Mostly because its crispier, haha. I suppose we could have made the other two cookies crispier as well, but I didn't really think about baking them for longer last time.

We were a bit worried that it might turn out too sweet though, so we reduced the amount of the milk and white chocolate chunks by a bit. Which was a good idea, I think, because otherwise, the cookies might have been a bit too sweet for me - though Hadi might like it. :P But he had left for UK by then, so it was up to my two other brothers to gobble it up, and gobble it up they did!

I think this is a bit rich for me though, and prefer the chocolate chip cookies. They're a bit easier to eat. ;) I mean, these cookies are nice once in awhile, but you'll probably feel a bit ill if you eat too many, haha. But in any case, they are a *delicious* alternative to chocolate chip cookies. We should try other recipes more. :D

Anyway, SELAMAT HARI RAYA to all Muslim readers. (Not sure who will be reading this, but hey... :D) Enjoy all the festivities, but remember not to eat too much, haha. This being my first Raya home in four years, I certainly intend to enjoy it!! Alright, Ihsan is out~