Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've edited this post there, reformatted it so that it is much easier to read & follow my recipe. This link will take your directly to the recipe:
Link to my newest and old recipes, click:
Not only are these cookies wonderfully buttery and crispy, they keep well enough that they taste just as good a week later. If you intend to bake to give away, these icebox cookies are one of the nicest and most suitable to bake.
Of all the lineups of Christmas cooking to do, none signals the start of Christmas more to me than the baking of cookies. It is not so much the baking of the cookies but it is the act of going out to the store to buy the paraphernalia that goes with baking the cookies.
I park myself in front of the store shelves displaying spools of festive themed ribbons and look through every spool as I contemplate the theme for this year's Christmas.
My shopping partners, going giddy and bored staring at circular spools which they cannot appreciate, decide to leave me there only to return 20 minutes later and comment in disbelief, "We left her here 20 minutes ago and she has barely moved three feet!" One needs endurance to shop with me.
I have my baking supplies ready for Christmas. Three new cookie stamps, cute cupcake liners, loads of Christmas ribbons to choose from and clip top glass jars in varying sizes. Big ones for bigger families and smaller ones for those watching their waistlines!
If time is a constraint, bake the butter cookies instead. They are buttery and crisp just as a butter cookie should be.
BUTTERY BUTTER COOKIES
Prep:
|
15 minutes
|
Cook: | 12 to 14 minutes |
Inactive: | 2 hours |
Level: | Easy |
Makes: | 72 cookies (cut/stamped from the rolled log) |
Oven Temperature: | 320 F (160 C) |
Can recipe be doubled? | Yes |
Make ahead? | Cookie dough can be made and chilled up to 2 days in the chiller and frozen up to 2 weeks in the freezer. Stored in air tight jars, baked cookies tastes just as fresh a week after baking. |
Ingredients
8 oz (225 g) unsalted butter
I use butter with a butterfat content of at least 82 to 83%. European butters typically have butterfat that falls within these percentages. I am partial to the French brand, President for baking these cookies. Whichever brand of butter you choose to use, it must have at least a minimum of 82% butterfat.The higher butterfat and lower water content content means a more buttery and crisp cookie. My advice is to buy a good tasting butter to begin with. There is pretty much just flour and butter in this recipe, so the better tasting your butter, the better tasting your cookie.
5 oz (140 g) caster sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
11 oz (310 g) all-purpose/plain flour
2 Tablespoons rice flour
This is that extra something that will make the cookies that extra bit more crispy.
1/4 teaspoon salt
Omit if you are using salted butter
Method
Making the cookie dough
Add the butter to the mixer bowl and let it soften to room temperature. Set aside.
Sift the all-purpose/plain flour, rice flour and salt together. Set aside.
Add sugar to the soften butter. Attach the whisk attachment and turn on the mixer to medium high speed and whisk until pale, light and creamy.
Turn speed down to medium low and add the egg yolk. Let the mixer run for 1 minute. Turn off the mixer, add the pure vanilla extract and quickly scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Turn on the mixer and let it run at medium low for 30 seconds to incorporate everything well.
Switch to a paddle attachment if you have one, if not continue using the whisk attachment.
Turn the machine back on to low speed, gradually add in the sifted flours and salt. It should take about 1 minute. Turn off the mixer before the flours are completely mixed in. Incorporate the rest of the flours with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the mixer bowl as you go and folding the batter over itself as you do. It should not take more than 30 seconds. Do not over mix or your cookie might not be as light.
If the dough looks too sticky, add 1 Tablespoon of all-purpose/plain flour at a time. Go slow on the flour. You want to add just enough so that it isn't sticky looking. The dough in the photograph above still has a tiny bit of flour left, that is fine.
Rolling dough into logs
Lay out an arm's length of plastic wrap on your work surface. Transfer the dough on it and with a bench scrapper, shape into a rough log with a diameter of 2" (5 cm). Next, use the plastic wrap to enclose and roll the dough, shaping it into a cylindrical log. Twist the plastic ends closed and tucked under the dough log to secure.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to firm dough thoroughly or up to 2 days. If not, freeze up to 2 weeks. Read how you should refrigerate the dough and why you should not refrigerate any longer than 2 weeks by scrolling down to 'Tips'.
To get round cookies
Line the inside of a cardboard tube taken from a roll of paper kitchen towel with parchment paper. Secure one end of the tube with plastic wrap. Sit the tube upright, secured plastic end resting on your work surface.
Spoon the cookie dough into the tube. As you fill, press the cookie dough down lightly with the flat end of a rolling pin lined with plastic wrap. Once filled, cover the top with a layer of plastic wrap and refrigerate. Depending on the size of your cardboard tube, you might need either one or two cardboard tubes for this recipe.
Refrigerate as indicated above.
Lay out an arm's length of plastic wrap on your work surface. Transfer the dough on it and with a bench scrapper, shape into a rough log with a diameter of 2" (5 cm). Next, use the plastic wrap to enclose and roll the dough, shaping it into a cylindrical log. Twist the plastic ends closed and tucked under the dough log to secure.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to firm dough thoroughly or up to 2 days. If not, freeze up to 2 weeks. Read how you should refrigerate the dough and why you should not refrigerate any longer than 2 weeks by scrolling down to 'Tips'.
Line the inside of a cardboard tube taken from a roll of paper kitchen towel with parchment paper. Secure one end of the tube with plastic wrap. Sit the tube upright, secured plastic end resting on your work surface.
Spoon the cookie dough into the tube. As you fill, press the cookie dough down lightly with the flat end of a rolling pin lined with plastic wrap. Once filled, cover the top with a layer of plastic wrap and refrigerate. Depending on the size of your cardboard tube, you might need either one or two cardboard tubes for this recipe.
Refrigerate as indicated above.
Slicing the cookie dough for baking
Five to ten minutes before you are ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator.
Remove the plastic wrap/parchment paper and cut the dough log into 0.2" (0.5 cm) thick slices and place them on silpat or parchment paper lined baking trays. Leave a 0.4" to 0.8" (1 to 2 cm) gap between cookies.
If at any point you feel the dough has become too soft to cut neatly, return it to the refrigerator to firm up.
Cut cookies, must be refrigerated if they are not baked immediately. Left on the work surface, they will start to melt and this will affect the texture of the cookies.
To keep the cookies as round as possible, turn the circular log of cookie dough a little each time you cut off a slice.
Stamping the cookie dough for baking
Besides slicing the cookies off the log, you could also choose to stamp balls of dough with a cookie stamp. My terra cotta cookie stamps measure 2" (5 cm) in diameter. Slice off a 0.2" (0.5 cm) thick slice and lay it on the silpat or parchment paper lined baking tray. Push in the edges to form a squat circle.
Besides slicing the cookies off the log, you could also choose to stamp balls of dough with a cookie stamp. My terra cotta cookie stamps measure 2" (5 cm) in diameter. Slice off a 0.2" (0.5 cm) thick slice and lay it on the silpat or parchment paper lined baking tray. Push in the edges to form a squat circle.
I have found that the best way to get clear imprints on the cookies is to work with chilled dough and to loosely lay a square of plastic wrap over the squat circle of dough and then emboss the dough with the cookie stamp. Do not bother flouring or oiling the stamps as they do nothing to stop the dough from sticking to the recesses of the debossed surface. Plastic wrap is the way to go. All that flouring will ruin the taste and texture of the cookies.
Baking
Bake the cookies at 320 F (160 C) for 7 minutes, oven rack at lower middle position. Then rotate the cookie tray front side back and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden brown. The tops will probably still be mostly pale or perhaps a little golden brown along the circumference.
Remove from the oven. Let it cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Store in air tight jars.
Tips
These cookies are called icebox cookies as the dough needs to be chilled before slicing and baking. They taste best if baked no later than 2 days upon chilling and up to 2 weeks of freezing. To freeze dough, wrap securely with parchment paper, then aluminium foil and keep boxed in a lidded container.
Bear in mind that butter dough will soak in like a sponge, any surrounding scents in the refrigerator/freezer. So if you cannot guarantee an odour free refrigerator/freezer, bake the cookies as soon as you can.
The flip side is that the baked cookies keep very well without refrigeration for at least a week in an airtight container kept away from heat and direct light source so it can be made in advance without affecting its taste and texture.
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?
Coral coloured salmon cooked to that perfect soft, semi-firm doneness and bathed in a very light and citrusy coconut gravy. Add some mussels and prawns and you have a delicate yet flavourful Citrusy Seafood Curry. Basmati rice seasoned sparingly with ginger, mustard seeds and a cinnamon stick is the best accompaniment.
This is a festive dish. The colours are glorious, it's welcoming and beckons one to just dig in.
I so enjoy eating this especially when I have had one too many turkey and honey baked ham served to me over the festive season. If you choose to serve this at one of your year-end party, I am quite sure your diners will be ever so pleased that they won't have to face yet another similar year-end party menu. There's really only so much ham and turkey one can stomach.
This Citrusy Seafood Curry is a comparatively light meal and the bonus is it is simple to prepare.
Look out for the recipe.
No comments:
Post a Comment