woensdag 27 maart 2013

Week 13: Sugar cookies


This week, we're making sugar cookies!
 

Fun fact: The American word 'cookie' comes from the Dutch 'koekje', whereas the British 'biscuit' comes from the French 'biscuit'. However, in Dutch, both 'biscuit' (pronounced the French way) and 'koekje' are used, with biscuit denoting those, uh, biscuits/cookies that have been baked twice and are therefore harder and more dry than koekjes.

This is a great, basic cookie recipe. With this recipe, you can have a batch of cookies in twenty minutes start to finish. Seriously. Although you may want to wait a minute or two for them to cool down before sticking them in your mouth. It is therefore also an excellent recipe to make with kids, particularly if you have cute cookie cutters!

If I had my way, by the way, these would be called 'vanilla cookies' rather than 'sugar cookies'.

Sugar cookies
Ingredients
75 g cold butter, diced
75 g table sugar
225 g flour
1 egg
1 vanilla bean
Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Centigrade.
With the tips of your fingers, rub the butter, sugar and flour together in a bowl until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add in the egg. Cut the vanilla bean open and scrape the insides with a knife to collect all the pulp. Add to the dough. Continue mixing the dough until it is firm. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is approximately 5 mm thick. Use cookie cutters up to 7 cm in diameter to cut out cookies, or cut rectangles of ca. 6x4 cm. Knead all the leftover bits together, roll out again and repeat until you run out of dough or you're tired of the whole thing. Place on a baking tray covered with baking parchment. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 12 minutes, or until the edges start to turn a golden brown. Remove from the oven. Leave to cool for 1 minute on the tray, then dust with confectioner's sugar. Move the cookies to a rack to cool off completely. Keep in an airtight container - or just eat the lot now. Enjoy!

Tip: Don't discard the vanilla pod after you've scraped out the marrow! Vanilla beans keep their scent and flavour for quite a while. You can use the empty pod to give flavour to, for example, rice pudding; or you can keep it in a small jar with sugar to make your own vanilla sugar.

Tip: Instead of vanilla, try some grated lemon or orange zest, or cinnamon!

6 opmerkingen:

  1. Hello Mina)

    I was starting to worry! I have got your note, I will answer :) I run after time too, especially with the preparations for Easter and the arrival of a part of my family tomorrow ♥

    Your cookies are lovely :) If I could I would ask you for some :) They would be perfect with my cup of tea for breakfast!

    Thank you for this lovely recipe :)

    I wish you Happy Easter :)

    Good day :)

    kisses ♥

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
  2. Ooh, these look nice! To add to your fun etymology facts: "cookie", as well as "koekje" are related to German "Kuchen", which means cake, and in turn our word for cookie is "Keks", which is based on the English "cake"! (This kind of 'reversal' happens alot between English and German, lol.. also, can you tell I study this stuff? ^^)

    Anyways, thanks for the recipe. I love baking, but I never seem to be able to find actual vanilla beans anywhere, so I use the ready-made "vanilla sugar" you can buy in the supermarket. I'm sure it would be much better with actual vanilla beans, so I have to go hunting!

    Happy Easter :-)

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
    Reacties
    1. That is interesting, I didn't know that!
      Vanilla beans are relatively expensive, but in my opinion they are so worth it. Artificial vanilla essence is basically 100% vanillin as opposed to the complex combination of compounds in real vanilla, so vanilla essence has a more flat taste. You see a lot of recipes nowadays that add vanilla when I think it doesn't actually add to the finished product (like in brownies), because they can used cheap(er) vanilla essence.

      Verwijderen
  3. So simple, yet so good :D I can't believe I forgot the wonders of homemade cookies, thank you chef!

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
    Reacties
    1. You're welcome! I always made cookies with the kids I was babysitting when I was a teenager, they loved it!

      Verwijderen
  4. Wat leuk dat je dit doet! Ik ga zeker eens wat dingen uitproberen haha
    Thanks for sharing!

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen