Danish Butter Cookies (Vaniljekranse)

Recently the famous Jenny Bakery from Hong Kong came to Singapore and suddenly everybody started going butter cookies crazy. I tried one of the "copycat" recipe online and found out that the famous butter cookies were actually the melt-in-your-mouth type. I don't like them. -_-

My ideal butter cookies comes in a famous blue tin. I don't even know how to pronouce the word! I only know it as Danish Butter Cookies. Choose from a few different designs in a little white cupcake case and pair it with a hot cup of coffee.. Ah.. the perfect tea time!

So I went online to search for a good recipe and settled on the one by Nordicfoodliving.com. Afterall, who better than the Danish to learn Danish Butter Cookies from right? But I did tweak it abit. (see below recipe) Furthermore it's a Christmas dish, how appropriate, given that it's almost Christmas now.

One bite and I know that this is the one! Nice crunchy texture, sweet with a wonderful rich aroma of butter. And the recipe is so simple! Great for gifts on Chinese New Year!

I made a few designs with my piping gun. After they come out of the oven, I noticed that they do spread out a little bit. So I spread a little batter onto a bear cake mould (see my carrot cake bears) and popped it into the oven to see if it works. It works and I got bear shaped cookies! So cute! Just remember to keep it a thin layer for a crispy texture.

Ingredients
175g sugar
200g unsalted butter (softened)
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour
75g almond meal

Demerara sugar (optional - for sprinkling)

1. Preheat oven at 200°C. 
2. Using a paddle attachment, mix butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. 
3. Add flour and almond meal and mix until just incorporated.
4. Pipe into desired shapes. If you want to use a piping bag, make sure you have strong hands and even stronger piping bags. Sprinkle Demerara sugar on top. (optional) 
5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes or until edges are golden brown. (turn tray halfway through to have an even baking)
6. Cool on wire rack before storing in air tight containers.

Spritz Cookies

I wanted to make some CNY cookies for my girl's teachers but I guess it would be more meaningful if she helped out too, so I chose this simple recipe. This recipe is perfect for amatuers or children as they can easily help weight, mix, even pipe out the cookies and decorate! Such a simple recipe but so delicious! The cookies have a lovely sweet and buttery vanilla flavor with a texture that is crisp, fragile, somewhat dry, and buttery. "Spritz" is German for "spritzen" meaning "to squirt", which is exactly what is done with this cookie dough. So it's perfect to test drive my new toy, the cookie press gun! Yeah!

The original recipe is from here and I followed it quite closely, except for the change in colour!

227g unsalted butter, room temperature
100g white caster sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
260g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
red food colouring

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. 
2. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. 
3. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add food colouring until desired shade is achieved. 
4. Add the flour and salt and beat until you have a well mixed dough. 
5. Using a cookie press, pump cookie dough onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. Decorate the cookies as you desire.* 
6. Bake cookies for about 11 - 14 minutes or just until the edges of the cookies are barely tinged with brown. Remove from oven and gently transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. In a covered container, these cookies will keep at room temperature for about 10 days or they can be frozen for several months.

*Chill piped cookies in the fridge while waiting for ones in the oven to be done baking. Chilling the cookie dough also helps to keep the shape better*

Valentine's Day Pumpkin Cut Out Cookies

Wanted to make some Valentine's Day cookies for Jolie to bring to school, but I wanted something more healthy, so I found this recipe online. Since I'm going to glaze the cookie with royal icing, I decided to cut the sugar by half. You can check out the original recipe here.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup roasted pumpkin puree (instructions here)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar; add pumpkin and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl combine flour, Baking Powder and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.
2. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, until firm. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. On a floured surface roll out dough to about a 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters and place cookies 1 inch apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies

For the frosting, I use royal icing using egg whites. (Recipe from Joyofbaking.com)

2 large (60 grams) egg whites
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until combined. 
2. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. 

The right consistency to cover or "flood" sugar cookies is when you lift the beater, the ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface for a few seconds before disappearing. If the icing is too thick, add a little water. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.