Cream Crackers - Back To The Basics

There is a myriad of emotions and memories associated with the trusted Jacob's / Khong Guan cream crackers and here are a few of them...

1.Milo dipping, Coffee dipping - do we all remember how we would dip the square crackers into our hot beverage and munch away at the soggy biscuit.
2.The image of the signature retangular tin is indelible. They also used to be our trusted secret safe boxes where we would stash away rolled up cash, precious gold trinkets and not forgetting dusty old love letters.
3. Donations to Orphanage and Old Folks Home - Practical food for the under previledged.
4. Poor man's food - the last moldy piece of cream cracker in the tin is often featured as the ultimate symbol of destitution in movies and dramas.
5. To the kids, this was the most boring biscuit we've ever grown up with - how we would always long for the lemon cream sandwich biscuits, the wafer bars and for the more affluent families,Danish butter cookies....

Fads come and go. For a while, everyone was crazy over cupcakes, macarons and what not but at the end of the day,it is the simple and good that prevails. I bet for most of us, the trusted pack of Kong Guan cream cracker is a standard item in our larder ... next to the instant noodles. There is something wonderfully comforting and reassuring about the cream cracker. When the hunger pang strikes in the afternoon or in the middle of the night, this would be the healthy and trusted option we reach out for. That explains why, most office pantries would stock these boring but cheap snacks. The last time I went for my annual health check- up at a posh downtown health screening center,  these humble snacks were served at the coffee  table together with cereal and sandwiches after the blood test.

Obviously more varieties are now available in the market. My favourite would be the Khong Guan wheat cream crackers and the butter cream crackers. Retaining the original crispy outside and slightly softer center texture, cream crackers today are more fragrant and flavourful. They come  in smaller 3 slices handy packs now which makes it easier to carry around for a quick pick-me-up and are 'enriched' with calcium, vitamins and what not... And honestly, when I start, I can't stop at one slice - such a far cry from the old days where I would honestly say that this was my least favourite biscuit!

I did a quick search on Tastespotting and Foodgawker for a cream cracker recipe and couldn't find one. I guess this is one those humble accessible snack which no one has bothered to make. I eventually found Mercy's cream cracker recipe on Recipezzar and decided to give it a try.

I was a little concerned by the simplicity of the recipe and worried that it would be tasteless. Suprisingly, it was pretty tasty and my neighbour's kid liked it. However, I do have to say that the texture is far from the Kong Guan/ Jacob's texture. I remember reading somewhere that this cracker which originated from Dublin, is made with wheat flour and yeast. I suppose the yeast is responsible for the definitive light puff-like outer layer and the softer center.


I shall keep searching and hopefully I will be able to get closer to the Khong Guan or now Julie's crackers :).



Recipe :
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup heavy cream

Method:
1.Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2.Use an ungreased cookie sheet.
3.Combine the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl, stirring with a fork.
4.Slowly add the cream while continuing to stir; mix well until the dough holds together in a ball (if the dough is still too crumbly, add another tablespoon of cream).
5.Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and.
6.Roll it out to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.
7.Using a cookie cutter or a large drinking glass, cut the crackers into 3 inch rounds.
8.Place the crackers on the cookie sheet, and prick the center of each cracker twice with the tines of a fork.
9.Bake on one side for 8 minutes, turn the crackers over with a metal spatula, and bake for 6 to 8 minutes more, or until the crackers have several golden spots and are slightly colored on the edges.
10.Remove and place on a rack to cool.

Sakura Cookies - The Macrobiotic Way

Something wierd happened when I was traveling to Korea and Japan for business 2 weeks ago. It was mid April, early spring weather that ought to be warm enough for the Sakura (cherry blossoms) to start blossoming in full glory. On the day I was supposed to touch down in Korea, it started snowing in the morning and temperature dipped to 5C when it really ought to be in the 15-20C range. Luckily when I touched down in the evening, weather had become quite normal. My trench coat was enough to keep me warm. Then 3 days later, when I was supposed to move from Seoul to Tokyo, I saw with dismay that it too started to snow in Tokyo - the latest snow in history, according to NHK news. The weather fairy must have been  exceptionally partial towards me on that trip for by the time I touched down at Narita that afternoon, blue skies and temperate weather greeted me.

The Sakura was blossoming in full force when I was in Korea. I was at a reknowned reserach institute to do a technical discussion and the whole campus was bathed in the powdery pink softness of the blossoms. Utterly breath taking. Unfortunately by this time, Tokyo has already seen its Sakura blossom season come and go. However, the celebratory mood for the arrival of spring is still very evident. Food, pastries and fashion items with sakura motifs are prevalent.

During my trip to the fine baking supplies store Cuoca, I picked up a new sakura cookie cutter, sakura extract and Sakura flakes. While searching for a recipe to play with my 'new toys', I had really wanted to make something that is healthier - to experiment with something along the macrobiotic line - after I had spent 2 hours in a bookshop in Tokyo poring over their collection of macrobiotic recipes. I found my recipe reference eventually in my trusted Okashi Cookbook by Keiko Ishida. She had published an eggless green tea cookie recipe based on unbleached flour and ground almonds. Instead of sugar, brown rice syrup and maple syrup were used. Grapeseed oil replaced butter. I tweaked the recipe for my Sakura Cookies.




The end results is a subtly fragranced cookie with a slight saltiness from the Sakura flakes (the sakura flowers are usually salted in Japan for food garnish). The cookie has a firm snappy texture which I was a little unused to. When one has always been striving for the melt-in-the mouth texture in cookies, this cookie started me wondering if this is the way dog biscuits taste. It took a few more cookies for me to get used to the firm snap but I really don't mind to keep a bunch of these around for healthy munching.


Recipe:

Unbleached plian flour            100g
Baking powder                       pinch
Ground almonds                     50g
Brown Rice Syrup                  15g
Maple Syrup                          45g
Sea Salt                                 pinch
Grapeseed Oil                       25g
Sakura Extract                       10 drops
Sakura Flakes                        for garnish

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150C.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and ground almonds and chill in the refrigerator for a few minutes.
3. Combine brown rice syrup, maple syrup, sea salt,extract and grapeseed oil in a bowl and mix well. Add the chilled flour and fold in with a spatula, then rub dough quickly with your fingers until crumbly.
4. Roll out to 5mm thickness and chill in the fridge before cutting.
5. Cut cookies with cookie cutter and garnish with Sakura flakes.
6. Bake at 150C for 15mins or until firm. Remove from heat and cool on a wire rack.