Plain Vanilla Butter Cookies
@
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
, 1:51 PM
It's hard to get sick of this mild and crumbly cookie
OCT 28, 2008
RECIPE
Serves: 50 1.5cm cookiesIngredients
Flour, 2 3/4 cups
Sugar, 1 cup
Baking powder, 1/2 tsp
Salt, 1/2 tsp
Butter, 1 cup (225g)
Egg, 1 beaten
Vanilla extract, 1.5-2 tsp
*Honey, 2 tbsp
*I don't find honey changes the taste very much, but at least for this experiment it made the texture of my cookies smoother
1. Preheat oven to 160C/325F
2. Mix the dry ingredients together
3. Cut in butter till the mixture resembles cornflour
4. Add the wet ingredients and combine
5. Shape into balls and flatten the tops on the baking tray
6. Bake for 15min or till golden brown
(modified from original recipe here)
Easy to make and easy on the stomach. I initially found them a little tasteless (and some people did say more sugar wouldn't hurt) but most people liked it and I really do like the slightly salty and buttery taste, as well as the crumbly texture. These are actually supposed to be like those Chinese almond cookies you find in Chinese bakeries but I didn't have almond extract so I tried how it would taste like with vanilla extract. The result is something somewhat reminiscent of Danish butter cookies (those are way yummier though) or shortbread.
My main problem was with the texture. On the first night I made it the batch with honey in it had a much smoother, nicer texture whereas the batch without was more ridged and cracked more easily. However, when I froze both batches overnight and continued baking the next day, the first few batches had very ridged textures as the cookie dough was still hard from the fridge and so kept its shape well. However, after I warmed the dough on top of the oven in the hope of achieving a more liquid texture I ended up with a rather gross looking lumpy-ish looking mixture where the butter/oil refused to mix back with the rest of the ingredients. It's hard to describe...the texture of these cookies were slightly smoother but still very cracked.
The picture you see is of the first few cookies from the 2nd-day batch.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
Labels: BAKING
