With the lunar new year closing in, it's time to roll up my sleeves and start googling for recipes.
As with the past years' celebration, I will usually bake an item or two for the family. This year shan't be any different.
However, this year I attempt to do the almost impossible: to bake the almost unheard of festive cookies that got lost with time: the notorious Kuih S. Kuih S, or S-shaped cookie, was once very popular amongst the Kuching community in the eighties or seventies, or even earlier. For some reason, it seems that this wonderful creation is only known amongst the Kuching community, hence the speculation the S shaped represents the State of Sarawak. And for reasons unbeknown to us, this cookies seems to have slowly disappeared from the festive cookies list in modern years.
So I tried searching for this recipe (since last year, can you believe it?), and thus far my google search only lands me with one related entry -
Guai Shu Shu's recipe. I did try his recipe out last year, but I failed miserably. (
By no means am I saying that Guai Shu Shu's recipe ain't good. There are folks who succeeded by his recipe, so I presume it's my own lack of skills that contributed to my first Kuih S failure.)
But since Kuih S is Mister Tan's favorite cookies of all time, I took it on as my wife-duty to search high and low for this recipe (remember what they say: the way to a man's heart is through his stomach).
Anyways, after much desperate search, I've finally gotten the recipe which I believe to be as authentic as it gets. The only challenge with this recipe though, is that there are literally no precise weight measurement given. Every items are measured in a really, really vague manner so it was quite a challenge. But fear not! Missus Tan is here to the rescue! Okay too much of an exaggeration. But I will impart the recipe with measurements (as accurately as I can get) so it won't be too much of a hassle for you.
Okay. Less nonsense and let's head on to business:
S-shaped Cookie (or fondly known as Kuih S)
Ingredients:
- 227 gm of your favorite butter.1
- approximately 400 gm of plain flour2
- 2 egg yolks
- 120 gm of sugar
- 6 tablespoons of coconut cream
Method:
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
- Add in the add yolks to the mixture. Beat until even.
- Add in coconut cream and beat until even.
- Fold in flour and start kneading until it forms a dough. Okay, this is where it gets a little tricky.
- Roll the dough into a long tube, and then push both ends towards the center, in opposite direction, to form an S. To be honest, the shaping part is the most challenging for me as I am aesthetically challenged.
- Arranged the cookies on your baking tray, space the cookies 2.5 to 3.0 cm apart to allow some room for the cookies to expand. Bake at 150 degree Celcius for 10 minutes.3
Notes:
- The original recipe calls for canned Golden Churn butter as it is believed to be more flavorful than other brands of butter.
- Okay.
So the orignal recipe did not give an accurate measurement of flour
needed, so I sort of eyeball the amount of flour I used for my cookies.
However, my rule of thumb is this: add just enough flour, bit by bit,
until you reach a smooth dough which is just soft enough to form into shape. Any more flour, your cookie will be too hard.
- Different
oven may have a different baking "behavior". So, once the side of the
cookie starts to brown slightly, remove from heat and let it cool. Any
longer it sits in the oven will caused it to be overbake - Kuih S should
be pale in color and not too golden brown.
I hope you have fun trying out the Kuih S recipe, and do drop me a word or two on your Kuih S adventure. I'll come back and update with photos of my Kuih S after I've snapped a photo or two of it.
Update: here are the pictures as promised!
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| Kuih S: before sending them into the oven for a good tanning session |
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| Kuih S:And the end result, fifteen minutes later |
