Shortbread cookies

I also baked a box full of Christmas-shaped shortbread cookies to bring to the camp. I made plain vanilla and chocolate ones. I used the recipe from the Western Star butter here. To make the chocolate shortbread, I added 2 tablespoons of cacao powder to half of the dough. The biscuits were buttery, crumbly and had a nice bite to them.

Spot the word in the centre

Strassburgers cookies (Recipe)

It is quite funny to hear people wish 'Merry Christmas' and say 'meet you next year' already. I then realised that indeed we are approaching Christmas so fast and this year will soon be over. I have started Christmas baking and I am enjoying it. 

This is my first time baking butter cookies. These ones are buttery, crisp and like all butter cookies, melt in the mouth. As seen from the below photos, I had some issues with the piping. I was meant to pipe all using the rose tip, but it was not coming through (since it was too small), so I went with a normal round tip. I think they turned out nicely in spite. The unbaked version look just like a burfi (Indian milky sweet confectionery). I loved eating burfi so much in my childhood, so sweet and creamy. 

I came up with this recipe from the cooking book 'Swedish Cookies, Tarts and Pies' by Jan Hedh. This book is filled with cookie recipes and I was left mouthwatering looking at the photos. These cookies are a good substitute to the Royal Dansk cookies in my opinion, even though the latter is Danish, not Swedish. My say is that it does not really matter if the taste and texture is there, right?

Recipe (adapted from 'Swedish Cookies, Tarts and Pies')

Ingredients (for 30 cookies):

50g icing sugar

8g vanilla sugar

150g softened butter

187.5g AP flour

Method:

1. Sift both sugars and beat with softened butter until creamy and airy.

2. Carefully fold in flour until just combined.

3. Place dough into a piping bag with a round tip (or rose tip if you have a big one)

4. Pipe onto tray lined with baking paper.

5. Bake into preheated oven at 180C for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown.