As I was rummaging around the cupboards I spotted my cookie press and realised it's been forever since I used it. And since Lundulph went to visit his parents for the day, I decide it would be a great time to make a batch, especially since I'd just watched this video, where the cookie dough appeared to have just the right consistency.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 ℃, no fan.
- Sift together the dry ingredients and stir to distribute evenly.
- Whisk the butter in a food processor, then add the sugar and beat until it goes pale and fluffy.
- Add one egg at a time while the mashine is still beating, allowing them to get fully incorporated.
- Slowly add the flour and mix until it just combines to a dough.
- Load up a cookie press and stamp directly onto baking sheets.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 10 - 11 minutes to keep them from colouring.
- Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool, then store in an airtight jar.
Looking quickly through my old stamped cookie recipes, the ingredients are mostly the same but in fairly different proportions. However, this dough turned out very well and worked splendidly with the cookie press. Some ended up a bit wonky, but that is entirely my fault. I wanted to stamp as many cookies as possible with one fill of the cookie press, so I filled it to the brim. This resulted in small air pockets which meant less dough came out from some of the cookie holes here and there. I ended up discarding a lot of cookies and ended up having to refill a more times than I was hoping to get away with. A better approach is to fill and leave about a centimetre or two of space left, then the pressing pad will pushes the dough down and even things out somewhat and result in nicer and more symmetrical cookies.
Also very interesting was the potato flour. According to the video, it is the special ingredient that prevents the cookies from spreading in the oven and thus keeping their definition. I will need to double-check with Dr Cutie about that, but I do know that German sponge cake recipes tend to include some potato starch to make the crumb more delicate.
I tasted the cookies as soon as they'd cooled down enough to handle and thought they weren't nice at all, but tasted a bit of flour and not sweet at all. I thought I could ice them, but I got distracted by other things and by the time Lundulph came home late in the evening, they were still just like when I baked them. So we had a couple and it turned out the flavour had improved! I'm not sure what happened and eating them now a couple of days later, I think they are still very good. So clearly they do need to rest and not be gobbled up straight away. Or our tongues adjusted. Either way, I do like this recipe.
