These Hong Kong Bakery Butter Cookies with Chocolate are something I grew up with. Buttery, crumbly & light! Simply the BEST!
Cookie season is here. Instead of chocolate chip cookies, I was craving for these Hong Kong Bakery Butter Cookies with Chocolate. I grew up eating these, and usually for breakfast. Yes, cookies for breakfast! Haha, the best type of breakfast!
These cookies are nothing fancy. They can be commonly found in your local neighborhood bakeries in Hong Kong. They are usually sold in 2 flavors, plain butter or butter with chocolate on top. My mom said that now some places have chocolate flavored ones too. As a chocoholic, I really like the ones with chocolate on top. These cookies are kind of like Danish butter cookies in taste, buttery. But the texture is more crumbly and delicate.
Come to think about it, although I had these cookies in Hong Kong, they are highly likely an influence of western culture back in the days. Then local bakeries try to recreate something similar with more affordable ingredients, and make them easily accessible to everyone.
For my version, it’s pretty easy to make and it doesn’t have too many ingredients. For the dry ingredients, there are cornstarch and cake flour for a lighter texture. Sift them together and add in the salt after.
Next, cream the butter. For the butter, I used Kerrygold. If you can, use better quality butter for more buttery flavor, like European butter. European butter has a higher butterfat content, so they’re richer and creamier. I have tried regular butter, and they don’t taste as good. Beat the butter in the mixer for a minute first, then add the sugar. Powdered sugar is used instead of regular sugar. Again, it’s to create a lighter texture. Last, add the flour and mix until just blended.
Now, the more tricky part is the dough consistency. Make sure the dough is just soft enough to be pipe, but still hold the shape. That requires a little testing. Put a small amount of dough into a pipping bag (fitted with a French star tip) and try to squeeze through. If the dough is too stiff and too hard to squeeze, put the dough back to the mixing bowl and loosen with a little bit of milk. Start with a little bit milk at a time. Don’t overdo it. Once the dough is ready, put back in the pipping bag.
The pipping is really just squeezing. No need to twist. Just squeeze, but try to be consistent with the pressure and make the cookies about the same size. If you notice that there are waves in my pipping, that is all based on how much pressure I used during the pipping. The cookies don’t have to look exactly the same. It’s ok not to be perfect. If you want, you can do a couple practice runs.
Before baking, make sure to chill the cookies in the fridge for about 15 minutes. That will help the cookies to hold the shape and detail. Then bake the cookies. These cookies are baked in a slightly lower temperature oven and for longer period of time when comparing to regular cookies. It’s because the cookies need to be more dried and more golden in color. Remove from oven and let them cool completely on a cooling rack.
Last, the chocolate. I melted chocolate chips in a microwave and pipe on top the cookies. You can also use chopped chocolate bar and melt in microwave. Make sure to chill the cookies in the fridge for a bit after decorating with chocolate. So the chocolate can set quickly.
I haven’t had these cookies for many decades. Biting into them brings back all kinds of memories. They are simple, buttery, and almost melt in your mouth. Have you had these before? If not, I hope you’ll give these a try.
Hong Kong Bakery Butter Cookies with Chocolate
Ingredients
- 42 grams cornstarch
- 113 grams cake flour
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 133 grams unsalted European butter, like Kerrygold (at room temperature)
- 42 grams powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
Topping:
- ⅓ cup semisweet chocolate chips or chocolate bar
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, sift together cornstarch and cake flour. Sprinkle in the salt at the end and mix. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add butter and beat on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and beat again until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the side of the bowl at least once.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the dough comes together and the flour has just disappeared. The dough should be just soft enough to be pressed through a piping bag, but still hold its shape.
- Transfer 2 – 3 tablespoons of the dough to a piping bag fitted with a French star tip (½-inch opening) (I used Ateco #865).
- Do a test pipe on a new parchment paper on a working surface. If the dough can pipe through easily without a problem. Scrape the dough on that parchment paper back to the rest of the dough in the mixing bowl. Add all the dough to the piping bag. If the dough is too stiff and feel impossible to squeeze out, transfer the dough back to the mixer and thin out with a little bit of milk. Start with ½ tablespoon. Once the dough feels more creamy, transfer back to the same piping bag.
- Hold the pastry bag straight up and pipe out 20 (1½-inch – 1¾-inch) cookies on a prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1 inch apart.
- Transfer the whole baking sheet to the fridge to chill for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325˚F (165˚C).
- Bake the cookies until the bottoms are golden brown and the tops are very light brown, about 25 – 30 minutes. Rotating the baking sheets front to back half way through. Transfer the baking sheet to counter and let the cookies rest on the sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once the cookies are cooled, place them on the original cookie sheet fitted with a new parchment paper.
- Prepare the chocolate topping. If using chocolate bar, chop the chocolate. Put chocolate chips or chopped chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl, microwave for 20 seconds. Stir with a spatula and microwave again for 20 seconds. Stir again. Repeat until the chocolate is just melted. Transfer to a piping bag. Cut ¼-inch off the tip. Carefully pipe about ½-inch diameter of chocolate on the tip of a cookie. Repeat with the rest of the cookies. Transfer the whole baking sheet to the fridge and cool for 8 minutes for the chocolate to firm up. Remove from the fridge.
Notes
- Cookie size is about 1¾-inch diameter.
- To guide where to pipe your cookies, you can use a pencil to mark on the back side of the parchment paper. Then flip over and you should see the marks and know where to pipe.
- Chocolate chips don’t melt as good, but they are so much easier to use.
- For storage, these cookies can be kept in a container with the lid slightly ajar at room temperature for up to 4 days.
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