Operation Bakery Clone: Chinese Almond Cookies

I was a fan of the Top Secret Recipe books when I discovered them a few years ago. As their title suggests, the recipes are formulated to mimic restaurant dishes and commercial food products. There are recipes for everything from Big Macs to Aunt Jemima pancake syrup. 

This recipe is supposed to clone Twin Dragon Almond Cookies. I'm not familiar with that particular brand-- I just know that these crunchy little cookies are just like the ones that are often served with dessert at Chinese restaurants. They're less delicate than shortbread but have a similar crumbly, sandy quality. 

I made some substitutions (using shortening, unblanched almonds, and whole wheat flour) so the colour is darker than the bakery versions. I've made them before following the recipe exactly as written and can confirm that it does indeed make some pretty tasty clones.

Recipe after the jump!

Operation Bakery Clone: Paper Wrapped Cake

"Paper wrapped cake" is kind of a boring name for a simple, but decidedly unboring cake. The term is a literal translation of the Chinese name for this treat. I have been looking everywhere for this recipe for years with no luck. I knew it was some sort of chiffon cake, but no recipe I tried bore any resemblance to the real deal. It is mildly sweet and eggily perfumed, baked into tall cupcakes in parchment paper wraps. The sponge is made of very fine, springy bubbles, rather than the larger, "crumbier" ones produced by Western chiffon cake recipes.

I am happy to report that I finally found a recipe that produces a cake with a flavour and texture that comes very close to the original counterparts. It only requires five (main) ingredients, but for that reason, try to use the best quality butter and eggs you can find because you can really taste them in the final product.

The finished products didn't look quite like their commercial cousins because I don't have those tall baking tins. They also do sink down a bit as they cool because there are no artificial stabilizers in them. You could try baking these in ovenproof mugs to get the right height. Either way, they taste heavenly.

Paper Wrapped Cake:

60g flour (self rising, if you've got it)
15g cornstarch
90g sugar
5 eggs, separated and at room temperature
Pinch of cream of tartar
60g butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking molds with squares of parchment paper (press down in the middle and crease the wrinkles so the cups stay in the molds. They will pop up a little, but the batter will weight them down later).
2. Sift flour and cornstarch together.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with 30g sugar until fluffy and lemony coloured. Beat in melted butter. Sift in flour mixture and beat just until smooth.
4. In another bowl, whip egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar. When you can see trails from your beaters, beat in the remaining 60g sugar. Whip to firm peaks.
5. Stir in a spatula-full of egg whites into the yolk mixture. Gently fold in the rest of the whites.
6. Pour the batter into prepared molds, about 2/3 full.
7. Bake at 400F for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350F and bake for another 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 15 muffin-sized cakes (less if you use a tall mold)

Recipe adapted from ucanmake.com
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Operation Bakery Clone: Pineapple Buns

I'm a fan of Chinese bakeries. Not surprisingly, the cakes and breads they make are distinctly different from those found in Western bakeries. The cakes are almost always built on chiffon sponges and iced with whipped cream. The sponge is unlike any other that I have had elsewhere. It is very finely textured, mildly sweet, and perfumed with an aroma that can only be described as "eggy" (in a good way). The buns, with both savory and sweet fillings, are also sweet, extremely soft, and shiny golden brown. Delicious.

For me, part of the intrigue is that authentic recipes are difficult to find (especially in English). I wanted to see if I could make my own versions of some of my favourites at home. It may be impossible to duplicate some of the recipes since I won't use commercial softeners and stabilizers, but who wants to eat that stuff anyways?

After a couple of years of sporadic searching, I finally came across a recipe for pineapple buns that seemed promising. Pineapple buns are plain sweet buns topped with a cracked cookie-like crust. They don't actually have any pineapple in them; they are named for the appearance of the topping. I wasn't aware of that before and had tried a recipe that called for crushed pineapple. Needless to say, it didn't quite work out.

This recipe is a bit more complicated than the usual bread recipe. The dough is very sticky and soft and the kneading instructions called for some stress-relieving throwing "with all your might on the work surface." The dough requires three rises, and the topping is made separately like pie dough. Of course, it would take less than a quarter of the time to go and just buy some, but the work was completely worth it. They baked up just like store bought, but without any sketchy additives. The sticky, almost runny dough yielded a very light bread, and the topping cracked to cobblestone-y perfection in the oven. And I had never had a pineapple bun warm from the oven before. It was bread nirvana.

I would love to share the recipe but I cannot post it. Send an email to beetsandbites@gmail.com and I will send it to you.

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