Friday, November 23, 2007

Wife Biscuits


When I was 14, grandma, mum and I headed to Hong Kong for a 1 week holiday. During that trip, we were surrounded by wonderful food. Noodles, desserts and most of all..pastries!

Loh Po Peng or it's literal translation which means "Wife Biscuits" are flaky pastry with a sweet filling inside. The filling is made of tong ton qua-meaning "Melon sweets" or "Melon sugar".

There are a few stories associated with this biscuit. I did a quick search on goggle and I found them.

Story 1

In ancient China, there was a poor couple. They adored and loved each other, staying in a small village. When a mysterious disease spread, the husband's father became very sick. Although they tried really hard to raise money to provide treatment for him, it wasn't enough. Sadly, the wife decided to sell herself as a slave, exchanging herself for her father-in-law's medicine.

Once the husband learned about what his wife did, he made a cake filled with winter melon and with a crispy crust. A cake for his wife. However, his cake became so popular that he was able to earn enough money to buy his wife back.

Reference-Wikepedia
Makes me wonder why he didn't sell these earlier? perhaps the money was needed more urgently...hmmm..

Story 2
A loving couple make their living out of selling pastries and cakes. The man, however, had a bad habit-he gambles. One day, he literally lost their savings and everything they own.

The wife said to him that he has to sell the only possession he has left. However, he is not to gamble anymore. Sadly, the wife was sold to repaid his debts.

Ridden by guilt, the man stopped gambling and started making this pastry to remind him of his wife-hence the name of the biscuit "wife biscuit"

Reference-Eat first think later

I was pleasantly surprised when I came across Little Corner's post on wife biscuits! Another blogger, Florence has posted a step by step guide on how to make these beauties!

I'm not going to post her recipe here because her step by step instructions came with pictures as well! So if you want to give this a go, do have a look at it. I didn't change anything at all btw-it was as good as it was.

I did make some mistakes though. For instance, my oil dough wasn't... oily enough! It was quite dry. I might want to use olive oil instead of butter to make that dough. I think that was the reason why my biscuits wasn't as flaky as they ought to be.

The filling was FANTASTIC. The best thing about these biscuits-u get to eat them as soon as they cooled a little. It was so so good. Very addictive. AR finished FIVE in one SITTING!

Yes yes, I know, I was feeling abit hardworking last month and actually spent a little more time thinking and making these challenging biscuits/pastries...It was challenging to me! It felt so good and makes me wonder why did I take up Clinical Psych and not baking? *knock head on the wall*

I did make these BEFORE we got engaged... haha.. and no! I wasn't hinting or anything.. I simply got excited when I saw Little corner's recipe and proceeded to make them that weekend.


Ps-did u notice a black book on the right hand side of the picture? That's the official APA guide on referencing. Yup! I was err...reading and kneading the dough at the same time.

PPS-anyone know of the recipe for "husband biscuits"?


Have a fantastic FRIDAY! We will be visiting more venues and talking to a few photographers this weekend so expect wedding talk on Monday! =)

13 comments:

SIG said...

Wow, good job! I have no patience after reading the detailed way Florence described it. Haha. Maybe maybe... don't know when though.. hehe

Anonymous said...

Few years back when my boy friend (now my husband) bought Lou Poh Peng back from Hong Kong....Wow we fall in love with that Lou Poh Peng! Seriously. I can't find such good Lou Poh Peng in Penang. He searched a lot of recipes from the net, asking me to try out, but till now I haven't thinking of baking my own... hahahaha...too lazy.

InspiredMumof2 said...

My sister the cookie monster love all these "piah". For now I rather eat, somebody can bake for me will do..haha (just lazy) :-)

Little Corner of Mine said...

Yay! You made it! I have yet to make it again because it took me two hours to make 12 wife biscuits, lazy is the word! Will see when the craving strikes again. lol!

Christo Gonzales said...

these look great and the stories make them seem even better...you post some of the most unique recipes I have seen.....

East Meets West Kitchen said...

Lovely loh-po-peng!

Big Boys Oven said...

Give me a dozen of loh po but not the peng...kekekekekekkeke

daphne said...

singairishgirl-yeah! quite alot of steps to read through. It wasn't hard though, just need patience! That was a rare moment on my part.. haha

celine-so sweet! i agree, it's so hard to find a good one nowadays!

inspiredmumof2-ya loh, I have my lazy days too.

jackson-ya! I remembered u and ...was it WMW who ate one and it left me... staring and drooling...

doggbloggy-haha..that's great to hear. i guess those are some chinese/asian food that are not easily found around your region?

east meets west kitchen- thank you!

bigs boys oven- wah.. 12 loh po leh..can handle ah?

Chef Jeena said...

Wife biscuits look lovely. Great postloved the stories. :)

Anonymous said...

I think I have heard of something like husband cookies/biscuits! Now I need to recall where, when and what! :O

Florence said...

Daphne,
Nice wife biscuits!
Glad that you liked them.
Keep a look out for Husband Biscuits in my blog! :)

Unknown said...

Husband Biscuits

Ingredients

* 100 grams Butter
* 120 grams Castor Sugar
* 1 Egg
* 30 grams Shredded coconut
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
* 170 grams Self raising flour
* 130 grams Sultanas
* 50 grams Corn flour
* 6 drops almond essence

Difficulty: Low
Vegetarian: Yes
No of Servings: 24
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Hits: 247
Rating: No votes
Date added: 10.May.2007
Author: Jennifer Morris
Description
HAPPY HUSBAND BISCUITS, a great little snack recipe, great for special occasions too!
Instructions
Combine butter with sugar, add egg, coconut and vanilla essence.
Mix well ,then add SR flour, sultanas and cornflour, mix well.
Add, almond essence.

Cook 6 biscuits at a time on an oven tray covered with a sheet of oven proof paper.
Cook on a biscuit tempurature for your oven.
Enjoy

metrolick said...

I have to say that my first impression of these biscuits was rare because they resembled to other thing, I mean because of the shape of them, well it doesn't matter what really matters is that I'll prepare them in order to eat them in the pharmacy where I work.

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