Pierre Herme's Sable Viennois - Danish Butter Cookies?

Still reeling from the light and airy texture of  the Viennese Chocolate Sable I had made last week, I found another Sable Viennois recipe in another Pierre Herme pastry cookbook which I had just bought at Page One in Hong Kong last week. Published in Chinese  Le Livre des fours sees et melleux de Pierre Herme, cost me less than SGD 20 - a steal for the Pastry Master's recipes! That's the beauty of translated cookbook - the price drops to a fraction of the original version - and that is why I always make it a point to prowl the biggest bookshops when I am in Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan.  So if you read Chinese or Japanese, these are perfect options to add to your library of cookbooks.

This is another easy peasy recipe that can be whipped up in 30mins. Truthful in its original plain vanilla buttery goodness, there is nothing plain about the flavour of these cookies. In fact, when I first tasted these they reminded me so much of the Danish Butter Cookies we used to devour from those famous blue tins... and are still devouring.

I remember my mother's enthusiastic attempts at replicating those famous Danish Butter cookies after taking some lessons at the community centre. Her versions were prepared by rolling the dough into little balls and flattened into a medallion with a fork. They were popular within the household but was no where near the butter cookies that came in the blue tins. It lacked the lightness and crispness.
The Sable Viennois solved that problem completely and possibly too excessively as they were so crisp and light that they border on being over delicate... they crumble at the slightest knock and impact. Hence when I repeated a second batch for this post, I had deliberately inched up the amount of flour added. It got a little sturdier but is still no where near the 'robustness' of the cookies in the blue tins. I am keen to incorporate some egg yolk in the recipe for my next attempt.

Nevertheless, the taste is again wonderful. You won't be able to stop eating this, be warned... watch out for those calories!



Recipe :

95g               Unsalted Butter
1g                 Fleur de Sel
1/8 tsp          Vanilla paste (the recipe originally asked for 2-3 pinches of Vanilla powder)
40g               Powdered Sugar
15g               Egg White
115g             All purpose flour (I bumped this up to 125g for this post)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk unsalte butter with Fleur de Sel until creamy.
3. Add in powdered sugar and whisk until homogenous and creamy.
4. Add in egg white. ( The mixture may curdle a little but it will smoothen out after flour is added.
5. Add in flour and mix until well combined.
6. Scoop batter into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe circles/wreaths on a lined baking tray.
7. Bake at 180C for 10 -12 mins or until golden brown.
8. Cool down and store in air tight container.

Pierre Herme's Vienesse Chocolate Sables - Chocolate Cookies Simple & Sophisticated

I first started to read about Pierre Herme when I went  through my macaron obsession phase many years ago. That was the time when macarons were still not readily available in Singapore - before Bakerzinn and Canele Patisserie became the rave of the town. It was a time when very few would attempt to bake macarons at home and the secrets/techniques of baking macarons were more elusive. How a few short years have changed everything. Now, it seems like everyone I know can make a macaron - even my order fulfillment colleague who does not bake!

We undoubtedly have to thank Pierre Herme for the Macaron Revolution. Dubbed as 'The Picasso of Pastry' , PH leads the new trends in the pastry world. May it be unusual flavour combinations in macarons or brilliant flavour pairings such as the Rose/Lychee/Raspberry in the Ispahan, Pierre Herme never fails to awe and inspire.


I was flipping through his Chocolate Desserts (a collaboration with Dorie Greenspan) to find something to bake when this simple recipe caught my eyes. Contrary to what many think, a pastry guru's recipes need not  necessarily be difficult and tedious. The Vienesse Chocolate Sable must be the most easy cookie recipe I have come across and till now, 24 hours after I have finished baking and tasting it, I still find it hard to believe that such a simple recipe could have yielded something so sophisticated and so good!

Light as air to the core, the cookie grazes the palate like delicate lace before spreading out like sand. The texture is sensational, the rich chocolatey airiness - addictive.

You most likely would have all the ingredients in the pantry. I urge you to whip this up and experience it for yourself.


Recipe : (From Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, written by Dorie Greenpan)
Ingredients
260g           All purpose flour
30g             Dutch processed cocoa powder
250g           Butter
100g           Powder sugar, sifted
Pinch          Salt
3 tbsp         Egg white

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Whisk together, flour and cocoa powder and set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk butter until creamy. To ensure that the recipe succeeds, the butter needs to be very soft. (not a difficult thing for us in Singapore)
4. Add in powder sugar and salt to butter and continue to whisk until light and creamy.
5. Whisk in egg white until it is well combined with butter cream.
6. Add in (2) and mix until well combined.
7. Spoon dough into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe dough into W shaped cookies. (mine are still not as pretty - needs practice!)
8. Bake cookies at 180C for 10-12 mins - no more. The cookies will be delicate - transfer carefully into cookie jar after cooled.

Caramel Tiger Almond Cookies

It all started with the bottle of Dulce de Leche which Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets gave me in New York. I tweeted that I was looking for something to bake with the Caramel and that led to a tweeting marathone debating if Dulce de Leche and Caramel (cream based) are the same thing.

I have always made my Caramel by adding cream and butter to a boiling sugar syrup and when I started to see many fellow bloggers raving about the process of making Dulce de Leche with sweetened condensed milk in a can, I recall simply dismissing it as just another novel way of making caramel.

When Gertrude gave me the bottle, she had told me that she was a little amused that so many bloggers in Malaysia and Singapore are crazy about making Dulce de Leche and that I should try this original one from Argentina. I recall feeling a little confused at that point - not understanding why she had said that the original version is from Argentina. Later as I pondered, it started to make a little more sense. Dulce de Leche, is after all, the Spanish term for Milk Candy and it is completely probable that the term should have originated from a Spanish speaking/ influenced region. In fact, the first Dulce de Leche I tasted was from Mexico - made with goat's milk, it had a goaty smell which I have not learnt to appreciate.

Many years later, when I learnt to make my own cream based caramel, I started to use the terms Caramel and Dulce de Leche interchangeably.... though I have to admit that Dulce de Leche does sound so much more exotic, myseterious and... gourmet. The process of making Dulce de Leche, which involves cooking and reducing a mixture of sugar and milk until the sugar caramelises, is basic and straight forward.  Caramel cream, on the other hand calls for caramelising the sugar in water first before the milk component is added. To give it more body and smoothness, butter is often also added.  To me both methods have the same essential components. Milk, after all is more than 80% water and less than 20% milk solids while cream, is just a version of milk that is higher in butter fat content. What differs is the process and my personal preference is the second method which gives me more control over how the sugar caramelises and absolves me from having to deal with curdling boiling milk.

Back to the bottle of Dulce de Leche from Argentina. Truly sensational in its balance of sweetness and body. It conjured up images of  happy children.... and Quality Street's old-world-cellophane wrapped fudgy toffees....



I found this cookie recipe in Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie (yes, again!). A very short almond based cookie, this is another keeper. I would be most content eating the cookie by itself with tea or coffee. Sandwiching and drizzling it with the silky smooth Dulce de Leche just elevated the indulgence to an even more gratifying level.

So thank you, Gert, for the sweet gift. I am looking forward to making more delicious treats with it!


Recipe : (Adapted from Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie)

Almond Cookies
1/2 cup            Almond meal
1.5 cups          All purpose flour
1/2 cup           Corn starch
1/8 tsp            Salt
225g               Butter softened
1/4 cup           Castor sugar
1/4 cup           Powdered sugar
1/4 tsp            Almond extract

Caramel Filling
3/4 cup           Granulated sugar
3 tbsp             water
1/3 cup           Heavy cream
2 tbsp             Unsalted butter
Pinch of salt

Method :
1. Mix almond meal, corn starch, salt and flour together in a bowl.
2. In a cake mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light in texture. (about 2 mins)
3. Add in almond extract. Lower mixing speed to low and add in flour mixture.
4. Scrape the dough onto a plastic food wrap. Flatten to form a disk and refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 175C.
6. Roll out dough to 1/8" thick and cut out cookie using a 1.5 inch fluted round cookie cutter. Using a 3/4" round cookie cutter, cut out the center of half of the cookies. Refrigerate for 5-15 mins if dough becomes too soft.  ( I used a Linzer cookie cutter which makes it easier)
7. Bake cookies at 175C for 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

Assemble :
1. Spread Dulce de Leche / Caramel on to cookie and sandwich with another piece of cookie with the cut out center.
2. Placing some Dulce de Leche/ Caramel into a piping bag, cut a small hole at the tip of the bag and pipe drizzles of the caramel over the cookie.

Caramel

1. In a small heavy saucepan, place sugar and water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.  Increase heat to high and cook without stirring and occasionally brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush until the syrup caramelizes and turn into a golden amber colour (about 4 minutes).

2. REmove the pan from the heat and carefully add in the heavy cream. Stir the bubbling mixture until smooth. Stir in butter and salt until the butter is melted. Cool caramel down until it is thick enough to spread.

Hershey's Kisses Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

Please believe me when I tell you that this cookies are awfully delicious. Do yourself a big favour, bookmark and bake this cookie soon!  It is that good.

A cookie made with almost equal parts of peanut butter and fat and kissed by a Hershey chocolate droplet- anyone should be able to pull this off and impress.

For those who have been reading my blog, you will know that I am very selective when it comes to chocolates. I risk sounding like a snob but Hershey is not my chocolate of choice. However, there is something rather pretty and cute about the droplet shape that these kisses come in.  This is a very classic and common recipe which originated from, who else, but Hershey's. My only wish for this recipe is to substitute the milk chocolate with dark chocolate kisses. Hershey's probably produces these in dark chocolates but the supermarket I got these only stock the milk chocolate versions.



For my recipe I also halved the amount of sugar used as I somewhat suspect that coming from Hershey's it could be a little too sweet for my taste. It turned out just fine for me.

Also, if I were to do this again, I would experiment this with butter instead of shortening.

Ok. Less talk more action - Enjoy!

P.S. : If I were smart enough, I should be scheduling this for publish later but I am impatient. I couldn't wait to share.


Recipe (as seen at Hershey's )

48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup REESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar

Method :
1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Cable TV here is on a America's Next Top Model overload...for it appears, whenever I turn on the TV, they are screening some rerun from the past season. As I watch the pretty young girls pose, pout and bitch among themselves, I found an aspect of the show which strikes a chord in me.

Every week, the girls have to do a thematic photo shoot whereby the weakest performer at the shoot generally gets voted out of the competition. Some of the criticisms and comments made by the photographers sound oddly familiar...
1. they kept telling the girls to seek out the light, watch where the light is coming from and let it fall on their faces.
2. they get frustrated when the girls do not bring variation to their poses, branding them boring and listless.
3. they also get unimpressed when eventually only 1 to 2 frames are usable among the 50 odd frames each contestant is given to work with.

At times, when the judges are deliberating, I would imagine myself, holding my camera standing in front of the judging panel... listening to exactly the same comments which are all so applicable to the photos I have displayed here. Take today, for example, I must have shot some 100 frames and when I eventually sort through them in my computer, was dismayed to find most of them unusable. Lighting is always the main culprit followed by unimaginative composition that gets further restricted by the tripod mount. As a result of which, each frame only shows incremental differentiation from the previous one.


Luckily these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are more pleasing. When I saw these at Edith's blog last week, I knew I had to bookmark this for trial. I had always wanted to bake a cookie with rolled oats. I modified the recipe a little and replaced plain flour with a mixture of wholemeal and corn flour. I was hoping to get a more crunchy cookie but I guess the modification calls for more than a dash of corn flour. Nevertheless, this soft cookie is still delicious and more importantly, I am now more inspired to make more cookies soon.


Recipe  (adapted from Precious Moments)

226g       Unsalted Butter
180g       Light Brown Sugar
2             Large eggs
1tsp        Vanilla Extract
185g       Wholemeal flour
10g          Corn Flour
1 tsp        Baking Soda
1 tsp        Salt
1 tsp        Ground Cinnamon
260g        Rolled oats
140g        Raisin

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 175C
2. Cream butter and sugar till creammy and smooth
3. Add in Vanilla Extract
4. Sift flour , baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.
5. Add (4) into butter & egg mixture.
6. Stir in oats and raisins.
7. Use an ice cream scoop to portion batter onto baking sheet.
8. Bake for 15 mins or until golden brown.
9. Cool down completely on cooling rack and store in air tight container.

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.

Cheese Biscuit Sticks

There are not many baking specialty stores in Singapore where we can go for our baking supplies. Most stock very mundane and uninteresting merchandise that fails to fulfill and excite avid bakers. As a result of which, shops like Shermay's which manage to move in to fill the gap in this need, quickly become popular. However, the lack of competition also means that we often have to pay hefty prices for e.g. that bottle of Nielsen Massey Vanilla extract or the covetable Microplane grater/graters (honestly the Ferrari of all graters) . Phoon Huat and Sun Lik are 2 shops which have served avid Singapore home bakers quite faithfully for a long time. They stock some of the less fancy merchandises and ingredients but have also started to offer some more interesting quality products  e.g. Sun Lik actually stocks the basic range of Valrohna chocolates and french butter.

It was while I was browsing at Sun Lik last weekend that I came across some old fashioned kitchen tools for traditional treats. I loved the rickety Aluminum pancake press used to make Love Letters and I was strangely moved when I played with it... thinking to myself that surely I would have to get one of these before the art dies off.... I found myself  picking up little knick knacks from the shelf and asking the lady at the counter, "what is this for?" ...   This multiple joint cookie cutter was one of the gadgets I picked up for enquiry.
"Cheese Biscuits"  - she said. Then, memory came flooding back - oh yes, I remember those short cheese crackers I used to eat.  At that point, I was hooked and obsessed - I must try to make cheese biscuits with these. Ideally, I would like to make a Ritz cracker like biscuit with these cutter but I just couldn't find a recipe for Ritz Cracker - well if there is anyone out there who knows, please do share.

What I did find on Tastespotting is this equally tempting snack published by One Perfect Bite. Known as the Australian Buster, it is really a cheesy, buttery and flavourful cheese biscuit snack eaten e.g. with a salad.
I like it that you can play with it by using different types of cheese, herbs and spices. The combo is unlimited and I can attest that this will be a great crowd pleaser as a party snack.






Recipe From One Perfect Bite (Please see here for the original scrumptious snack)
8 tablespoons/ 113g  butter, cut in 1/4-inch dice
2 cups/220g  all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, loosely packed (I used 2 cups of shredded Parmesan)
6 to 7 tablespoons water
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I added some dried chives instead)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set a side.
2) Place the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Add butter. Rub butter into flour with tips of fingers until particles are very small. Still using your fingers, mix in the cheese. Stir in water and cayenne pepper with a fork. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and roll dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into 3-inch rounds and place on baking sheet. (I cut using my new cheese biscuit cutter) Collect and re-roll scraps as required. Prick each biscuit 10 times with times of a sharp fork. (As my sticks are small, I did not prick)
3) Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Let sit in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool. Yield: 16 biscuits.

Tender Shortbread

When I saw the headlines -The Last Shortbread Recipe You'll Ever Need by The Cookbook Chronicles popping up in my follow list, I knew I had to check it out. When I saw the photos, I was sold!

Shortbread has always been one of my favourite English Tea items. I had my first shortbread finger that came in one of those scottish plaid packing many many years ago. I remember getting hooked to the buttery, melt-in-the-mouth texture of this cookie. It was not a common item then, it was available, I believe only in fine supermarkets and priced more expensive than the usual biscuits and cookies. As the years go by, these became more accessible and Marks & Spencer has since been the place where I stop by when I crave for shortbread.

True to Lorna's promise, this is a super tender and crumbly recipe that simply melts in your mouth. The original recipe, published in Chicago Time Out calls out to start with butter softened to the consistency of whipped cream - rather unsual for a shortbread recipe - most of which starts out with cubed, firm butter. As a result , the dough was rather pasty (especially in the warm Singapore weather and could not be rolled.) I could have stuck it in the chiller to firm it up a little before laying it out in the pan but I did not. There was no way to cut or shape the dough prior to baking. Hence, I just followed the instructions and cut it after it was baked. Unfortunately, my shortbread didn't turn out pretty like Lorna's but it sure tasted out of this world. I can easily believe that this possibly the last shortbread recipe you will ever need. What I would do a little differently the next time, I would try to use cubed butter and see if I would have a better chance of shaping it more nicely.

Recipe ( replicated from Chicago Time Out)

510 g (about 39 tbsp, or 4¾ sticks) unsalted butter, softened to the consistency of whipped cream

1 tsp sea salt
140 g (about ¾ cup) granulated sugar, plus about ½ cup more for tops of cookies
510 g (about 4½ cups) all-purpose flour
150 g (about 1 cup, plus 1 tbsp) cornstarch

Method
1. Preheat oven to 175C. Generously butter a 15-by-10-inch sheet pan.
2. Combine the butter, salt and sugar in an electric mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat until the butter is very creamy, has lightened in color and increased in volume (four to six minutes). Stop the mixer.
3. Sift together the flour and cornstarch and add to the butter mixture. Mix just until a dough forms, about 30 seconds. (If any dry ingredients are still visible, mix by hand until just incorporated.)
4. Press the dough evenly into the sheet pan with your fingertips (it should fill the pan but not rise above the rim). Bake until medium golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool the cookies on a cooling rack until just warm to the touch. Sprinkle the top with a generous and even layer of granulated sugar. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for one hour.
5. When cookies are thoroughly chilled, cut into small rectangles. Let cookies return to room temperature before serving

Citrusy Almond Cookies - Chinese New Year Treat

 

 

 

 
It is exactly a week away from Chinese New Year. The air is bustling with anticipation.The market place, is packed with housewives trying to stock up meat, seafood etc. As I walked past the fishmonger stall, eyeing at the offer of fresh shrimps, scallops and shark's fins, I thought of my mother. I imagine that she would probably have already bought kilos of shrimps last week, wrapped them up in newspaper before chucking them in the freezer. Every year, we would argue with her, reasoning hopelessly that there is really no need to jam pack the fridge with food for :
 
1. Markets are so commercialised now,they will resume business on the 2nd or 3rd day after Chinese New Year. In any case, the main supermarkets are all staying opened. In the past, shops and stalls would really stay closed for almost a week.
 
2. As life becomes affluent, Chinese New Year is no longer the rare occassion where we feast. If anything else, we are overfed already,  the focus should be placed on quality not quantity.
 
3. We are very certain than half of those food frozen in the freezer will be forgotten and end up in the rubbish chute.
 
Sigh. I think most of us would have the same issues with our mothers but at times, as I look at my own fridge and freezer, I fear, real heart-gripping fear, that I may be just as guilty of the faults I have been picking in my own mother.
 
As a result of which, instead of going out to buy more ingredients for e.g. that particular interesting pineapple tart recipe or that peanut cookie, I have decided to make do with what I already have in my fridge. Ramaging through my freezer, I have uncovered some 6 blocks of  French butter, 3 tubs of fruit purees and a few small tubs of lemon peel. Hence, instead of the usual traditional CNY treats, I decided to make a Lemony  variation of the Almond cookie using an Almod Snow Ball cookie recipe from yet again Keiko Ishida's Okashi.
 
Made with the lemon peel and a pure lemon oil (also sitting in my fridge) the end result is a tangy and rather refreshing cookie - a rather nice balance, I feel to the butter rich cookie.
 
I have packed these into plastic containers and am glad that they look presentable enough to be given away as treats....
 
Recipe (adapted from Keiko Ishida's Okashi) :
 
Ingredients :
Pastry Flour           150g
Unsalted Butter      120g
Icing Sugar             50g
Salt                        a pinch
Vanilla Extract        1/2 tsp
Lemon oil              1/2 tsp
Ground almonds    40g
Corn flour             10g
Candied lemon peel  25g (minced)
 
Method :
1. Using a cake mixer fitted with paddle mixer, cream butter with icing sugar, salt, vanilla extract and lemon oil.
2. Add sifted flour,corn flour and ground almond to the creamed butter and blend well at slow speed.
3. Add candied lemon peel.
4. Chill batter in chiller for 20mins and preheat oven to 160C.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out batter into balls.
6. Bake for 20mins at 160C. Remove from oven and cool down.
7. For those who enjoy a sweeter finish, these can be roll coated with powder sugar.