Sugar! Pls keep the cookies fresh.

To supermom, home baker & cookie lover...

Normally what we do to keep the cookies fresh is by keeping them tight in a container. But do you know that sugar also able to keep the cookies from stale? Sugar is hygroscopic (able to attract moisture)...and also attracting ants!

If you want to keep that home made cookies fresh, place a teaspoon of sugar at the bottom of the cookie jar. This will just do it! Note to moms: You might want to consider this tip if you have ants problems :) .


Sugar can also be to keep the cookies dough from sticking. If you are making a cut-out cookies, try to dust the counter with confectioner's sugar/powder sugar instead of flour. For your info, dusting the counter with flour will only make your dough become dry.

Anti Fatigue Mat

photo courtesy of: cookingforengineers.com

Anti fatigue mat can help those who work long hours standing. Chef, home baker & full time moms are potential user of this anti fatigue mat. So, what is exactly anti fatigue mat? ANTI FATIGUE mat is a mat that can reduce strain on your foot, knee & back due to long standing period.

It is originally designed for industrial used but now they are available for those who spend hours at the kitchen counter. I am still looking for supplier in Johor Bahru. If there is any...So that I can say goodbye to all the aching in my foot when mixing the cookies dough or when doing daily task by the kitchen counter. :)

So how the mat work? In simple words, they absorb the body weight. Instead of transferring the body mass to the hard floor. :)

Before buying the mat, you can read it here for tips.

Home bakery Do's & Don'ts

Baking homemade cookies so that they have your desired texture, appearance, and nutritional value requires more than easy cookie recipes. It takes some understanding of the baking process, tools, techniques, and ingredients.
It also helps to follow these five rules:


1. Understand the nature and characteristics of each ingredient - flour, eggs, fats & oils, sweeteners, leaveners, flavors, and even decorating materials like fondant, marzipan - Each contributes to the appearance and texture of homemade cookies in its own way.

2. Measure baking ingredients accurately by using proper tools and techniques. This is part of "mise en place" - a French term means accurate selection and measurement of ingredients.

3. Do not overmix your cookie dough. Overmixing encourages gluten development, resulting in dense and tough cookies.

4. Do not overbake. Closely monitor oven temperature and baking time.

5. Always bake your cookies with passion. :-)

As what people been saying, u cannot teach anyone the fifth steps. Enjoy your bakery!

(source: http://www.cookies-in-motion.com/)

To make working from home...WORK!

This is an article I read on this site.

Just a simple tip for those intend to work from home or start a home-biz.

I see a lot of misconceptions about working from home. Many people think that what happens is we barely make ends meet, but it’s ok because we can get up at 11:00, put in a few hours of work, then spend the day doing whatever we want.

For most people who work at home I guarantee you that they work more than 8 hours a day and it is much harder than it looks. I’ll post about this separately, but for now, here are 3 good tips to make working from home actually work for you.

Create a work routine
This may be an essential factor for success, so despite the relative freedom you have, I suggest settling into some routine or another.

The net will still be here tomorrow
A lot of people, especially bloggers think they have to be alert at all times.

Find the tools for your work
Whatever you’re doing there are tools to do it better. Learn some keyboard shortcuts, look through the program options, perhaps there’s something you can use, read documentation and so on. If you learn 2 new things every week, that’s 104 tricks per year.