Sunday, April 19, 2009

Simple cookies

danish cookies2

I come across a couple of cookies recipes, they call for hard-boiled egg yolks only.

Interesting. Why someone rather takes the fuss to fix one single ingredient? Isn't it more quick if we use raw yolk, just like most recipes do?

It is my thinking: some food is already there and it may go waste if we don't pay attention. Some recipes like this just put it to good use, at least it is my case.

I love hard-boiled egg, but still I'd throw out some yolk (for less cholestrol in-take) if I eat more than one egg. See? I have already had the ingredient readily available, no fuss, no being waste.

The yolk after cooked carries great flavor, could it be a reason to explain why these cookies are so tasty? Somehow they remind me of the delicious danish cookies that sold in a blue tin :)

danish cookies1

Ingredients: (yield 18 cookies) The recipe originally is called Norwegian Butter Cookies, from "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook", written by Marion Cunningham,
  • 4 oz good butter, soften but not melting
  • 1 hard-boiled egg yolk
  • 1/8 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • a pinch of salt (if your butter is not salted)

How-to:

  • Pre-heat oven to 375F
  • Whisk the butter, sugar and yolk until it is light and fluffy
  • Combine with the flour (and salt if used) and the yolk cream until a soft dough is formed
  • You can use a cookies presser. For me, I just divided the dough into 18 portions, place them on a baking tray, gently press each down a bit to form a disk before create a thrumb print. Bake them for 10 - 12 minutes.
  • Remove them from the tray, and let cool completely on the rack.
  • To garnish, I add cream cheese filling, topped with organic edible flowers and mint leaves.
  • Without any garnish/topping, the cookies keep well at least 3 days if keep in a air-tight container.

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20 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Oh, what precious little cookies! Marvelous!

Cheers,

Rosa

anna said...

Those are really cute! I love the tiny flowers on top.

Ginny said...

oh cool, I've never seen this before. Really beautiful! :)

Anh said...

Wow, these look soo good. I don't eat hard-boiled egg yolk because I just dont like the taste. :P

Food For Tots said...

New to me to use hard-boiled egg yolk in making cookies. But sounds so interesting. Again you had turned something simple to look so delicate and appealing! Can't wait to try it out soon.

Sophie said...

MMMMMMM...Your cookies loook excellent!!! Yum!
Beautiful presentation too!

Lisa Turner said...

Beautiful and perfectly elegant. I don't think I've ever seen a cookie quite like this.

Kiki said...

yummy cookies, beautiful presentation and beautiful pics.
Kiki

Sha said...

How precious these cookies are ! I'd love to taste some...

Callipygia said...

I love the Danish cookies in the blue tin, who knew that a hard boiled egg would be the key to richness. Yum!

HC said...

I think the use of hard-boiled yolks are oftn used in Austrian pastries... If I remember it right, the cooked yolks give the dough a very crumbly/sandy texture

Gattina Cheung said...

Pazu, thanks for your advice. In this recipe, maybe the portion of of cooked yolk is small, the texture is not really that crumbly or sandy :) :)

Cynthia said...

Ah the little things that make a mighty difference. Thanks for this one.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

This is a totally new concept to me, Gattina. How interesting.

redmenace said...

I love those Danish cookies. I will have to try this. Thanks!

nora said...

wow !! looks really delicious

Anonymous said...

I tried this recipe and they're way too crumbly. Go to pick one up and it falls apart.

Gattina Cheung said...

hi anonyomous, since I don't know any of your background, it is only my guessing:
1. did you use a standard US measuring cup when you measured the flour?
2. was the butter a little too hard (or cold)?
3. did you beat the butter with suguar long enough... the cream mixture got to be very light and fluffy.
Looking forwards to your further feedback. Thank you!

J said...

Just confirming, is it really 4 oz. of butter (approx. 115 gr) for just 1/2 cup of flour (60 gr)?

looks like quite a lot amount of butter :p

Anonymous said...

Hi Gattina,
I tried baking these cookies and found them crumbly (like Anonymous' comment). I realized that I was using superfine flour so the next time I will use all purpose flour. The cookie tastes and smells great though. I think 1/2 cup flour is about 4 ozs.