Hong Kong Bakery Butter Cookies with Chocolate
Servings 20 cookies
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.