Those who have been following me on Instagram should be aware i am baking quite a bit nowadays and the one item that's made on an almost weekly basis is the butter cookie!
Special thanks to Miss Tam Chiak who took the trouble to experiment and come out with a recipe that's said to be deadly similar to the ones from Jenny Bakery!
My recipe below is no difference from Miss Tam Chiak although i am making double the batch and would also be peppering this post with my personal experience as an amateur baker.
Ingredients
Butter (Room Temperature) - 400 grams
Icing Sugar (Sifted) - 100 grams
Top Flour - 200 grams
Plain Flour - 100 grams
Corn Flour - 100 grams
Pictorial Process
1. Preheat the Oven at 180 degree Celsius; top and bottom heat.
2. Sift the Icing Sugar; i used to question the need to sift icing sugar as it is really troublesome and the powdered sugar tends to fly all over the place.
However, sifting reduces lumps and results in a better blending with the butter later one. You wouldn't want your friend / family member to bite into a cookie that's suddenly overwhelmingly sweet.
3. Cream the Butter; Unlike Miss Tam Chiak's recipe, my choice of butter was the block type; namely either SCS, Golden Churn, Lurpak etc and i always buy the "salted" butter. To save the time that would be used to wash an extra bowl, you can cream the butter first and then sift the icing sugar into the bowl.
4. Sift all the Flour, Twice; combine all the flour, sift them to a separate bowl and then sift them once again into the bowl of creamed butter and icing sugar. Again, this action is necessary for a more homogeneous cookie mix.
5. Fold in the Flour; my recommendation; go slow or risk having the flour flying to your face! Using the hand / stand mixer would not be wise and you are better off with the good, old spatula.
6. Ensure all the Flour Have Been Incorporated; no lumps, no white spots and smooth like creamed butter, albeit of a lighter colour.
7. Choose a Piping Tip; i was at Sia Huat warehouse sale a few months ago and grabbed this box of piping box for only S$10! I am still experimenting on the tips and i guess for most people, the star-shaped tip would be preferred.
8. Place the Batter into the Piping Bag; how to use a piping bag? Quite simple; put in the tip to the sharp end of the bag and snip off the tip of the bag, ensuring that it is still smaller than the piping tip as we need the tip to stay IN the bag.
I am being overconfident here as i had squeezed in too much batter! It was a bad judgment as it became quite difficult to control the piping!
9. Time to Pipe; seeing the cookie pattern slowly taking form on the lined baking pan can be so therapeutic! Even Alex asked to have a go and you should have seen the enjoyment in his eyes.
Done with the piping! Cleaning the tip can be a challenge without the right tool and for me, i would squeeze out the remaining batter by pushing in the bag into the tip and then using a kitchen towel (with the help of my pinkie finger) to wipe the inside of the tip.
10. Bake for 15-20 Minutes; for a darker, crunchier bite, leave them longer in the oven but you have to be mindful of the colour of the cookie as a bit too long would result in a burnt disaster! As expected, the top tray would always be the one that's ready first.
My haul for the day! As mentioned earlier, i needed to make a lot more cookies and hence, had doubled the ingredients. Verdict from friends so far has been favourable!
p.s. baking is fun, cleaning up is not. :(
p.s. the above doesn't reflect the full utensils used.
Original Recipe: Click HERE.