Hong Kong Style Butter Cookies – 珍妮曲奇香港 inspired

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you have been well.

I promise, I am not trying to be an “inspired by” type of recipe blog, but I “blame” my curiosity towards such recipes stems from my childhood up-bringing. 😛

My family would use to go to restaurants and sit around the table of food picking it apart trying to figure out how to recreate it at home, after which we then did experiments at home. And perhaps this has just continued on into my adulthood even though I no longer live with my parents.

As such, it’s common that I would eat something that I enjoy, and the first thing that comes to mind is “I wonder how they made it” and “could I perhaps play around and try to make it too?”

But enough of my childhood…

Onto the cookies itself.

I have only had this cookie once.

I want to be very clear that it was a singular short-lived love affair between myself and a tin of cookies over a warm summer. A good friend of mine graciously carried back a box of this famed bakery’s cookies to Australia from Hong Kong and for that I will forever be grateful for this gift as it sparked my curiosity of this cookie.

Perhaps like those short idealistic summer romances in books, I have hyped it up in my mind over the years, and rose tinted glasses have now been forever coloured red when it comes to my impression of these cookies.

I have asked my mom to buy a tin of this for me back in Singapore, but whilst I am still a few weeks away from heading back, I decided to take the risk and share this recipe with all of you so you can give it a go over this Chinese New Year festive celebrations.

Dozens of trials, many taste testers and the stink of butter forever coating my clothes (totally loving it.), this is the recipe I have ended up with.

One would think that something so simple should be easy and straight forward, and for the most part it really does take only 15 mins to whip the dough up. But to get it just right takes practice and I am not even talking about the piping itself.

I will break it down in this post and hopefully be able to share with you all of my learnings, my failures and finally the recipe that I will leave you with to bake and share with your friend and family.

These cookies are inspired by those from Jenny’s Bakery in Hong Kong. From memory these are buttery morsels with a snap and a melt-in-your-mouth texture that leaves you with a lingering aroma of the classic Asian bakery butter products. It’s not too powdery from memory, not too dense and not light either, rather it was a pretty balance bite that was just satisfying to eat. A little sweet a little savoury.

Well, whatever the reality may be, I hope this recipe can help fill that buttery emptiness in your belly. 🙂 And because I (and apparently you as well based off my instagram story poll) can’t decide on whether you would rather the “extra butter” cookie recipe or the more “true to original concept” recipe, I have shared both here.

Now let’s begin with the things to note before the recipe itself.

The Tools

There are a few things you will need for this recipe, I am making this cookie dough manually by hand with a whisk and spatula, no electronics was used but you could definitely use a stand mixer or hand held mixer, the thing to note is to not over beat it nor under beat it. Beat in too much air and you lose structure when it bakes, too little and it turns out dense. I will go through it step-by-step below.

I also find a ruler to be very useful as it will help you get the initial measure measurements down with piping to ensure you are piping the dough to the right size. Alternatively you can also draw/print a circle that is 3cm wide to lay under your baking paper as a guide for piping

A weighing scale is essential. You want to get the measurements right, a little too much flour, butter or sugar will throw the recipe off. It is a small batch so a small difference in gram goes a long way. However, if you scale the recipe up by a few times, one gram or 2 won’t make a huge difference.

The piping tip is also key to the signature shape, I will touch on it a little further below as to why that is the case but the tip I am using is a 8 point star tip, mine says size 7 on it, but without any brand attached to it, it will be useless information to you.

So to give you a better gauge, I have measured it out.

The width of the star tip is approx 1.5cm and the depth of the star opening is approx. 0.7mm.

Whilst it may be key, ultimately the weigh of the dough piece piped falling within the measurements provided above is the most important thing when it comes to the final baked product. Even if it looks different because you do not have the right tip, it will still be fine so long as the measurements are right.

As for the piping bag, I recommend opting for something of a sturdier material, this will help you pipe with ease. I am using a disposable one, but don’t worry if you don’t have something super sturdy, this dough isn’t that stiff so piping shouldn’t be hard especially with the piping tips that I have for you below 🙂

Main recipe

The simpler it is, the harder it can be to get it “just right”

It’s such a simple recipe honestly, just 5 ingredients, butter, sugar, salt, flour, corn flour.

Yet because of how simple it is, the room for error is so small. That is not to say that it will be bad if it is not baked to the specs provided, but rather it just won’t be as good as when all the ideal conditions are met.

Main recipe

The Butter

This is a butter cookie after all so there is no better way to start the notes than with talking about the butter

If there is one thing I will strongly recommend with this recipe that you do not change, it will have to be the butter. I am sorry but please please please try your best to find Golden Churn tinned butter if you can.

The key thing is the tinned butter, and whilst I know a lot of people love Wijsman butter as well, please don’t go using only Wijsman butter for the recipe. Been there, done that. Trust me when I say the butter you use will affect the flavour and texture of the cookie. It’s just not the same.

The regular version of this recipe calls for the full use of Golden Churn tinned butter.

I can’t seem to find detailed explanations on the preservation process of how Golden Churn butter is treated when canned, but for the most part, with many preservation techniques, heat is usually applied which might explain the difference in the texture and the flavor profile, but I can’t be sure about it.

What I can tell you is that using this butter in the recipe will give you that nostalgic Asian bakery butter baked goods flavour, and what I mean by that is that the GC tinned butter seems to leave a strong “butter oil” aroma. That would be the best way I can describe it to you. It isn’t a creamy milky profile typical of fresh butter but rather a butter oil flavour instead (reminds me of how butter popcorn has that “butter oil” flavour too).

GC butter also has a savoury profile to it, it is a salted butter to begin with so if you are substituting it with fresh butter, be sure to use one that is salted to a similar level per 100g. For GC it is 720mg/100grams. If you are using fresh unsalted butter, please add an extra 0.7g of salt (it is slightly less than 1/8 tsp of fine sea salt, maybe around 1/12tsp)

Another thing to note is the butter fat content, if substituting the butter, be sure to use one that is around 81-82% butter fat.

The fat in butter shortens the gluten structure within the cookie and thus affects, quite literally, how the cookie crumbles.

In my “extra butter” take on the recipe, I am using a blend of 2 canned butters – GC and Wijsman.

Why you might ask?

GC has a nice savoury profile as I mentioned but is rather one dimensional as it lacks that milky creamy flavour that I like my butter to have. And if we were to take it to another level, it lacks any cultured “cowy” aroma. Yes “cowy”. That is what I have taken to calling the cultured butter aroma as, “moo moo flavour” as I like to say. 😛

Wijsman butter (we are just gonna call it W butter for the sake of my not having to type it out each time) has that cultured extra “moo moo flavour”.

It balances out the slightly flat butter oil savoury profile of GC but also adds a little extra fat to it as it has a higher fat content.

Officially the fact sheet online says it is 82% fat for W butter but my can has a sticker on it that it is 86%. I am just going to stick with the official fact sheet, but my gut says it is higher because when I had swapped the GC butter out in my initial stages of testing with pure W butter, it really up the texture of how it “melt” in your mouth.

If you want to replace W butter in the extra butter recipe, you can add more GC butter but it will be quite overwhelming in flavour in my opinion, so the best alternative is a good quality cultured French butter.

Another addition that you would have noticed I have added to the “extra butter” version of the cookie is the use of ‘coffee mate’ creamer.

I find that a small addition of it adds to a smoother mouth feel at the end. It is optional and not a key ingredient, I do not wish for you to go out and buy a whole bottle just for a teaspoon of it, simply replace it with a little more butter, 2g of either brand of butter will be fine.

But if you have some at home, give it a go and add it to the recipe as suggested.

Extra butter version

The texture of the butter

We are now moving on from the type of butter to use and onto the state of the butter itself.

Your butter needs to be at room temp, and not a 10C room temp but rather a minimum of 22C where the butter is nice and soft. Really soft. If you are in a hot and humid climate, and your butter has been kept at room temp, it should be rather soft, but be sure it isn’t melted.

I took the temp of my butter once softened as I store them in the fridge once opened, and I usually like using it at the state when the temperature is roughly 22-23C. To warm it up quickly, I cheat and tend to chuck them into the microwave at 7-8 seconds blast mixing between each blast.

The reasoning behind it is that the texture of the butter affects how much air it is able to hold when you whip it up and as well as how easy it will be for you to pipe the dough. So be sure it is soft.

This recipe is not a unique recipe, there are many versions out there, and to be honest, this is just my take on it. But one key thing I have heard people mention with the recipes is that it tends to be rather hard to pipe, so as such I tried my best to find that balance between, piping, texture, taste and my conclusion is that the consistency of the butter is key and having a higher moisture content in the recipe will also make the dough softer.

Win-win right? Not quite as it affects the shape once baked, but let’s not jump ahead for now.

In short, keep the butter soft. 🙂 I have tried to show case that in the video for you as a reference.

Main recipe

The Sugar

Hello sweetness.

This is a cookie after all, and one must never forget that sugar is seasoning too.

There is nothing too complicated about this part of the recipe, all you need to keep in mind is that the icing/powdered sugar that you use should be a pure icing sugar (check the ingredients) and do not include anything beyond sugar. Some icing sugar have anti-caking ingredients added to it, you don’t want that.

The reason behind icing sugar is that the fine grain helps with the melt-in-the-mouth texture.

Pure icing sugar will tend to clump up due to the moisture in the air, so you will definitely need to sift your icing sugar.

If you do not have icing sugar on hand, feel free to grab some regular white sugar and blend it up until it forms a fine dust that is similar to icing sugar. It’s a quick way to make yourself icing sugar at home, but I suggest buying it if you can since you can always count on the fact that the icing sugar purchased is of a uniform grind.

Extra butter version

The Salt

The salt I have used when testing this recipe is fine pink Himalayan salt and the main reason for it is that it melds into the cookie better.

With the bigger salt granules, the experience you get when you eat it will be of biting into bits of salt leaving you with a uneven eating experience as the salt doesn’t have the opportunity to dissolve within the dough. Given the whole melt in your mouth nature of this cookie, I feel that a uniform eating experience is best and fine sea salt will help you achieve that. But if you love pops of salt in your cookie then a larger grain will be fine too.

And whilst table salt is of a relatively fine grain as well, please do not use that as it has quite a harsh salty bite on the palette.

I know, I know, isn’t the butter that we are using is a salted butter? You might be wondering why I am adding more salt to the dough if that’s the case? I find that the salt within the butter itself whilst lovely and able to bring out the butter oil aroma of the butter in its natural state, tends to dilute once you add on the fact that you have flour and sugar being thrown into the mix. So to heighten that butter oil aroma, I am adding some extra salt to the dough. Think of it as the different between having salted and unsalted butter on toast, the flavour that both carry will be different.

You’ll also noticed that I had used a micro scale when measuring the salt and did batches in increments of 0.1g so the measurements I am providing might be a little specific, but I have tried to make the recipe such that you should be able to use regular measuring spoons to measure out the salt needed.

And when in doubt, go for a scant amount of the measurements provided for the salt. Better to have a slightly less seasoned cookie than one that is overly salty. Once you find the right balance for the salt you have on hand, you can adjust in the following batches what amount works best for you.

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The Corn Starch

If you are unfamiliar with using corn starch or other forms of starches in your cookie recipes, this is a rather typical ingredient of many Asian style cookies where we want to create that melt-in-your-mouth consistency.

Do not use any other starches/flour as replacement for corn starch as the results will not be the same.

Corn starch might also be named corn flour depending on where you are, both should be the same and should be like fine white powder. You are not after freeze dried corn powder or corn flavoured powders, we are after the starch version that is used as a thickener.

What corn starch does in this recipe is to create the melt-in-your mouth consistency when you bite into it. As it has no gluten structure, we have no need to worry of over mixing the dough when you add the corn starch, but once the cake flour is added into the dough, do not over mix it as gluten will start to form.

How much melt does this cookie have?

The ratios of the starch to flour in this recipe was a big factor for me. As I mentioned I can’t clearly remember the texture and taste of the original famed bakery’s cookie and I have ended up going with a version and texture that I personally like or thought it may have been similar to the original.

The more corn flour you add the more melt-in-your-mouth it will be, and vice versa, but there is also the risk of a powdery after taste as well. If you do end up playing around with ratios, please keep that in mind. But do also keep in mind that corn flour and cake flour are not directly interchangeable. Unless you know how to adjust the items to affect just the melting texture but not the texture of the overall cookie, please stick to the recipe provided. 🙂

Main recipe

The Flour

Since we are going all in for the melt-in-your-mouth texture, we are going to use cake flour for that softer cookie consistency.

You might be asking, why not just use all corn starch then? Why even bother with the cake flour?

It’s all about balance, we still want a snap and bite to it before it melts away in our mouth.

The difference between cake, all purpose and bread flour is the protein content and that affects the gluten strands formed as well.

In short, cake flour will give you a more tender crumb hence the name.

The brand of cake flour I am using has a protein content of 8.5g/100g. Not all brands are the same and not all countries have the same range for each flour.

For example, in Melbourne, our all-purpose flour is between 9-10g/100g whereas in the US it is 11-12g/100g. That is close to our bread flour here which falls between 12-13g/100g.

Just mix and match as you see fit. But I hope this information helps you out with your future baking too 🙂

If you were to use AP flour instead of cake, you will simply end up with a cookie with more of a snap and with less tenderness.

Main recipe

Mixing the dough

Now that we are done with the ingredients themselves, let’s move onto the steps of how to make the dough and break it down.

As mentioned above, the consistency of the dough will affect the final baking texture along with the ease of piping the dough.

The temperature of the butter is one factor, but how much air you whip into it is another.

The more air you whip into it the softer it will be, too much though and it might not be a good thing either as the cookies will start to collapse too much when it bakes and will lose it’s shape and structure.

It should collapse but it should still hold it shape.

A visual indication that you could use to noticed if you have not whipped enough air into the cookie (provided all of your measurements is right) is that post bake, the edges of your piped flowers still holds a sharp edge from being pressed out of the piping tip. As you will be able to see in the images, mine has a slightly softer edge that has rounded out, and that is due to the air within the cookie dough puffing up when it baked.

So if yours looks firm and sharp around the edges, then chances are you needed to whip more air into your butter.

I have taken to counting the number of strokes when mixing the butter and have provided it as a reference for you, but by now after so many rounds I can use visual cues to know when it is whipped to the state that I like it to be.

Let’s break it down:

You first soften up the butter by giving it a mix without the sugar.

Once it is smooth, we will sift the icing sugar and salt (coffee mate for the extra butter version) in and give it a good whisk until pale. When whisking by hand, I tend to do between 150-200 vigorous strokes after a few initial strokes to incorporate the icing sugar so it doesn’t fly all over my face when I get into mixing it.

We will then add the corn starch in and mix it again, I do about 50-100 strokes at this stage. There is no risk of developing gluten so it is the last chance for you to get that dough fluffy.

You will then sift the cake flour in and gently fold it into the dough until you no longer see any dry flour.

At this stage your dough is done, but this brings you onto the next step and what might worry many…

The Piping

Fret not, there are a few tricks to making your piping life easy.

As mentioned previously, air makes your dough soft and thus easier to pipe. If you are in a cold country, you might have to concern yourself with the butter in the dough firming up thus making it harder to pipe. The easy solution to that is that when you add the dough to the piping bag, use your hands to gently warm the butter in the dough back up again.

The next thing is to note is that the longer your dough sits around on the table, the firmer it will be. For now I find that the dough is rather okay to pipe with even after I have left it lying around on the table for a bit when I did the filming. (When I said lying around for a bit I meant for 10-15 mins, I haven’t tried beyond that)

The reason being that the flour and starch will start to absorb the moisture within the dough from the butter and that will cause the dough to become firmer the longer it sits.

Ignoring that as a factor, the next bit is piping it and how to hold the piping bag for ease of piping. We will talk about the shape later but for right now I am just talking about how to ensure you have the easiest time with piping the dough.

I find that by separating the dough within my piping bag into 2 sections helps me greatly.

What I do is that I segment a small portion closer to the tip so that when I squeeze it comes out easily, and leave the rest of the excess dough on the top part. This way, it is as though I am making a tiny piping bag closer to the tip.

It’s quite a simple concept, essentially, the force from your hand has to travel less the closer it is to the tip so a light squeeze will result in more dough coming out the closer you hand is to the tip as opposed to when your hands is further away.

Another risk with the piping bags too is that if you have a piping bag that is rather thin, it might burst when dough is too firm. I have yet to experience it with this particular version of the recipe, but I am also using a pretty decent quality piping bag. If you have a thin piping bag, simply double bag it before adding your dough to the bag, this way you are making yourself a “thicker” piping bag.

Last thing to note is that when slicing the opening on your piping bag to fit the tip in, you will want to slice a hole that is as small as possible, just big enough for your piping tip to come out of the other end. All of this just helps with reducing the risk of needing to use an additional piping bag.

Main recipe

Piping the shape

Before piping, give your dough within the bag a little massage to remove any bigger air bubbles that might be within the dough. This will ensure a smooth piping experience.

As mentioned before, I do not have the right piping tip that will produce exactly the same as the bakery’s one so I have used a small technique to recreate the shape. And whilst this is mostly a visual thing, it does still add to the overall texture.

Let me explain a little

The space in the gaps of the frills on the side helps increase surface area of which heat can reach the cookie when baking which allows the heat to penetrate through to the middle. Putting that detail aside, so long as you keep within the rough approximate size, shape and weight I have provided, you will be fine.

I think there is a point where I have to draw the line as to how accurate one needs to be. I want to make this fun for you to bake and not a some test. ^^; It is a butter cookie after all so let’s keep it simple.

So back to the piping, to create the frills, I simply hold the tip around 1cm straight above the paper and whilst squeezing move the tip left and right slightly to create the frills and layers.

Each cookie that I pipe has 4 layers, but anything between 4-5 is fine. The aim is to ensure that you pipe the same amount of dough for each cookie so that they all bake evenly, they don’t really have to look exact.

Just have a mental timer in your head, if you are squeezing at the same rate each time, the amount of dough that comes out will be the same so just count to 4 and release. The left right motion can be an automated motion and you don’t have to count the layers. Sometimes I move a little more sometimes I move a little less so I might end up with 1 extra layer but the weight of the dough is still the same.

Specs of each of my raw cookie dough ball for the main recipe is as such:

• 9-10g per cookie dough
• 3cm at the base
• 1.5-1.7cm in height

To release the dough, I gently press down on it so it “locks” the dough into the baking paper and also allows me to lift the piping back up breaking away from the dough.

For the “extra butter” version of the cookie however we are piping it a little different.

Instead of moving left and right, we are moving it in small circles and we want to create a little more height to it. And instead of 4 layers we are doing 5.

This extra height (piped dough is approx 2.5cm tall) is because with the extra amount of moisture within this recipe, the spread of the dough is a lot more than the other recipe, and as such, we have to pipe it with height to allow for the spread.

What you also want to make sure of when you are piping is to try to keep it straight, this way it will bake straight. If your piped dough leans too much prior to even going into the oven, chances are it will continue to melt and lean as it bakes and topple over on it’s side. It will still taste good but look a little weird 😉

I also know that piping might be a little hard to get a hang of in the first go, so if you pipe any wonky shapes that you do not like, simply pick the dough up and chuck it back into the piping back and go again. I wouldn’t do this too many times as you start to affect the dough that comes out the other end of the piping back, but a couple of times will be fine.

I’ve also seen a technique of learning to pipe using mash potatoes in other videos, so you could give that a go too.

Extra butter version

Not everyone likes to pipe or cares about the shape

I hear you! I totally hear you on that, I’m not one for piping, especially with my shoddy pipping skills 😀

So I have shown you what it turns out to look like with a small ice cream scoop in my video.

As you can see, with a 2 tsp scoop it yields a larger cookie. I have baked them in the video at the same time as the piped ones to give you a direct reference but you might want to increase the bake time by a minute or two as it does have more mass for it to bake through.

Once again, I recommend setting aside an afternoon and doing a few small test bake batches to see which is your favourite version using various bake times.

Freezing the dough

The bright side of this recipe is that you can simply freeze the dough once piped and bake them when you want them.

But if you want to eat them instantly, you will need to freeze it for at least 30 mins. Which is the perfect amount of time to preheat the oven for the bake. 🙂

The reason we freeze the dough is because this dough has a touch additional moisture in it which means it will spread more, and freezing it helps ensure it spreads less when it goes into the oven.

Baking the Cookies

Now you would think, this has *got* to be the easy part right?

Funnily enough (or maybe not so funny), its the hardest bit for me.

A few things to start with…

My setup:

I’m using baking paper to line my tray, my tray has a short rim and is a light colour thick tray.

All of this plays an effect, I have touched on that in some other recipes so I won’t bother going into detail here but this is my setup.

My rack is placed in the middle of the oven and my oven is set up 150C fan forced mode.

What I do want to talk about is the bake time

If your cookies aren’t baked for long enough they will tend to have a floury after taste to them when you eat it.

To avoid that you will need to be sure the cookies are baked well, this is why they are baked for such a long time at a lower temperature.

Which may bring you to the point of – why don’t I just bake it for longer if I am concern.

Well you can, nothing says you can’t. But I do want to talk about what you lose and gain when you bake it for longer.

You know about the flour bit, but the main thing is the changes to the taste of the butter.

When the cookies take on a more golden tinge, they will have more of a toasty note and aroma, this will affect the final flavour as if you go for too long you run the risk of making them too dry and losing that buttery flavour.

On the main version of this recipe, I suggest baking it until it is light golden, it will continue to turn a little darker as it sits due to the residual heat that is carried over that is within the cookie and more importantly the heat radiating off the baking tray even after you have taken them out.

On the “extra butter” version of the recipe, I bake them a pale golden colour that is a shade lighter than the main one. This is because I do not want to lose the lovely creamy milky flavour of the W butter that is used in the recipe. As they get more golden and toasty, you’ll end up losing more of the sweeter creamier notes within the cookie.

I am sharing these notes as something to consider more than anything else. I recommend experimenting in small test bake batches to find what works best for you in your oven.

When I had reached out in my Instagram stories for photos of the bakery’s crumb and cookie, I received a few photos and am so grateful for them.

It gave me a great indication as to the technique and consistency that the dough may have had and more importantly, it showed me that even with the fact that they seem to be more mass produced these days there isn’t really any true consistency to it.

Some photos showed me that the cookies were baked to a darker golden colour whilst others look like the cookie hadn’t even seen sunlight in months with it’s pale colour post bake. And I know you might think it is a trick with the lighting, and I did think so at first, but when I saw the cross section images sent to me, those darker ones had an obvious rim around the outer edges whilst the pale ones were uniform throughout.

Which is the “right/ideal” state? I am not sure, so this took a lot of my concerns away. After all, if even they are unable to keep it consistent, then I can comfortable suggest to you to have some fun and do what works best for you and not worry too much.

But no matter how you decide to bake this cookie, do store them in an airtight container once they have cooled.

Main recipe

The Two Different Recipes

So I have been going on about there being 2 recipes.

The “main” recipe as I will call it here is one that is more a aspiration to the Hong Kong style cookie version, whereas the “extra butter” versions is as it reads, it has a little more butter to it using a blend of butters for a slightly less heavy butter oil flavour with an added hint of “moo moo” as mentioned above. 😉 It also has a slightly more tender melting crumb with a lighter texture as well, and a creamier profile as compared to the “main” recipe.

Both are good and when I had filmed the video, I couldn’t decide which I had preferred. So as such since the Instagram stories poll that I did left me with a 50/50 split as well, I decide to share both versions with you. 🙂

I hope you have fun baking these for your family and take it easy and have some fun with it.

All of this might be an information overload but I just wanted to share all that I have learnt with you to help you with your bake.

In short, regardless of how you want to do it, if you aren’t sitting around reading too much into a cookie like I do and just pop them into your mouth and have it with some coffee, you probably wouldn’t think too much about the nuisances of the cookie as only by knowing that there is a difference will you be able to notice the difference (if that makes sense). 😉

The recipe will yield a tasty cookie and will go great with a cup of coffee even if you do over bake it slightly or make them a little misshapen or a little bit larger than intended. 🙂

What I did feel however is that the cookies tastes slightly better over the next few days as compared to fresh out of the oven but it’s not a big difference so you don’t have to let it sit. I just thought to share this little note that I had on this with you.

Hong Kong Style Butter Cookies (Jenny’s Bakery Inspired)

Please note: I have halved the recipe in the video thus why the volume is so small in the video, you can do the same but that makes a very small batch and you will need to be exact with your measurements

Makes approx 45 cookies

What you’ll need

• 158g Golden Churn canned butter, softened (see notes above if you absolutely have to replace it)
• 2.4g fine sea salt (approx 1/4 tsp, use scant 1/4 tsp if in doubt)
• 60g pure icing sugar
• 60g corn starch
• 158g cake flour (8.5% protein)

Making it

Note: Before you begin, you will need a piping bag and star piping tip, see above notes for further details on this.

When your butter is soft and at the right state (as shown in the video, approx 22C minimum), use a whisk to whisk it until it is smooth.

Sift in your icing sugar and salt and slowly whisk to incorporate the ingredients. Once incorporated, whisk vigorously for around 200 strokes. Alternatively you can use a electric mixer to beat it until it is pale.

Add your corn starch and incorporate it, once incorporated whisk for another 50-100 strokes or beat with an electric mixer.

Scrape the butter mixture from your whisk and swap it for a spatula.

Sift in your cake flour and fold the flour into the dough gently until you no longer see any dry flour streaks. Be sure to scrape the bowl as you mix.

Immediately transfer your dough to a prepared piping bag and pipe the dough onto a tray lined with baking paper.

To pipe the shape, hold the tip around 1cm above the tray and whist lifting the piping bag upwards and squeezing the dough out, move your hand slightly from left to right to create waves and layers. You will want to create about 4 layers of waves. When you reach the 4th layer, press down into the dough slightly to break the dough off from the piping bag and set the cookie in place. (see video for reference)

The final dough should be around 3cm wide and 1.5-1.8cm tall with a weight between 9-10g per dough.

If you are concern about ugly piping, you can simply remove any ugly piped dough from the tray and place it back into the piping bag and re-pipe it. I wouldn’t do this too many times as over working the dough will make it tougher.

Alternatively, for ease, you can use a 2tsp cookie scoop to shape your dough but do take note a 2 tsp cookie dough is slightly larger than the piped dough.

Once you have finish piping, freeze the dough for at least 30 mins, you can preheat your oven during this time.

Preheat your oven to 150C in fan forced mode with the rack in the middle of the oven.

When ready to bake, transfer the frozen cookie dough onto a baking paper lined tray spacing them around 1″ apart to allow for any spread.

Bake for 27-30 mins until light golden, rotate your tray mid way for more even bakkng. (I did 27mins in my oven), it will continue to take on colour and turn darker as it cools.

Remove from oven and let cool on the tray for 5 mins.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.

Once fully cooled, store in an air tight container.

Extra Butter Version: Hong Kong Style Butter Cookies (Jenny’s Bakery Inspired)

Makes approx 45 cookies

What you’ll need

• 108g Golden Churn canned butter, softened (see notes above if you absolutely have to replace it)
• 62g Wijsman canned butter, softened
• 3g fine sea salt (approx a touch more than 1/4 tsp, use 1/4 tsp if in doubt)
• 70g pure icing sugar
• 6g coffee mate creamer
• 64g corn starch
• 150g cake flour (8.5% protein)

Making it

Note: Before you begin, you will need a piping bag and star piping tip, see above notes for further details on this.

When your butter is soft and at the right state (as shown in the video), use a whisk to whisk it until it is smooth.

Sift in your icing sugar, coffee mate creamer and salt and slowly whisk to incorporate the ingredients Once incorporated, whisk vigorously for around 200 strokes. Alternatively you can use a electric mixer to beat it until it is pale.

Add your corn starch and incorporate it, once incorporated whisk for another 50-100 strokes or beat with an electric mixer.

Scrape the butter mixture from your whisk and swap it for a spatula.

Sift in your cake flour and fold the flour into the dough gently until you no longer see any dry flour streaks. Be sure to scrape the bowl as you mix.

Immediately transfer your dough to a prepared piping bag and pipe the dough onto a tray lined with baking paper.

To pipe the shape, hold the tip around 1cm above the tray and whist lifting the piping bag upwards and squeezing the dough out, move your hand slightly in a circular motion to create layers. You will want to create about 5 layers of rounds. When you reach the 5th layer, gently press down into the dough slightly to break the dough off from the piping bag and set the cookie in place. You do not want to flatten it so just press gently enough to break it off. (see video for reference)

The final dough should be around 3cm wide and 2.5-3cm tall with a weight between 9-10g per dough.

If you are concern about ugly piping, you can simply remove any ugly piped dough from the tray and place it back into the piping bag and re-pipe it. I wouldn’t do this too many times as over working the dough will make it tougher.

Alternatively, for ease, you can use a 2tsp cookie scoop to shape your dough but do take note a 2 tsp cookie dough is slightly larger than the piped dough.

Once you have finish piping, freeze the dough for at least 30 mins, you can preheat your oven during this time.

Preheat your oven to 150C in fan forced mode with the rack in the middle of the oven.

When ready to bake, transfer the frozen cookie dough onto a baking paper lined tray spacing them around 1.5-2″ apart to allow for any spread as this cookie will spread.

Bake for 25-27 mins until pale golden, rotate your tray mid-way for even baking. (I did 25mins in my oven), it will continue to take on colour and turn darker as it cools.

Remove from oven and let cool on the tray for 5 mins.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.

Once fully cooled, store in an air tight container.

Coffee Version

• 79g golden churn butter, soft (approx 23c)
• 5g milk powder, optional
• 40g pure icing sugar, sifted
• 2g coffee granules + 4g boiling water (approx 1 1/4 tsp coffee granules)
• 35g corn starch
• 77g cake flour, sifted
• 1.2g fine salt (scant 1/8 tsp) 

Whip butter, salt and icing sugar.

Add milk powder and mix, add coffee flavouring and whisk.

Add corn starch and whisk. Fold the cake flour in.

Pipe and freeze.

Preheat oven to 140C, place tray in and bake at 120C for 30-35 mins until cook.

Matcha – Regular

• 79g golden churn canned butter, soft (approx 23c)
• 35g pure icing sugar, sifted
• 5g matcha powder
• 22g cornstarch
• 75g cake flour
• Scant 1/8 tsp of fine salt (1.2g)

You can add the matcha powder in along with the corn starch. Steps are the same as the regular Hong Kong cookies.

From frozen: 150C 25mins or alternatively for a softer texture you can try the time and temp of the coffee version above.

Matcha – Intense

• 79g golden churn canned butter, soft (approx 23c)
• 40g icing sugar, sifted
• 10g Matcha powder (ceremonial grade preferable, or good quality with very low astringency)
• 15g cornstarch
• 74g cake flour
• Scant 1/8 tsp of fine salt (1.2g)

You can add the matcha powder in along with the corn starch. Steps are the same as the regular Hong Kong cookies.

From frozen: Preheat 140C, place tray in and drop to 120C and bake for 30-35 mins or until cook.

Chocolate

• 79g golden churn canned butter, soft (approx 23c)
• 35g icing sugar, sifted
• 12g cocoa powder (dutch processed preferable)
• 20g cornstarch
• 75g cake flour
• 1/8 tsp of fine salt (1.2g)

You can add the cocoa powder with the corn starch. Steps are the same as the regular Hong Kong cookies.

From frozen: 150C 25mins or alternatively for a softer texture you can try the time and temp of the coffee version above.

Key Baking Notes

• If you can’t find the canned butter, you can use good quality European butter with a nice flavour to it. Won’t taste exactly the same but it will still be fine. The flavour of the butter matters less when it’s the flavoured version of the butter cookies.
• If you want a softer texture with less crisp, bake at a lower temperature (120C) but start off preheating to a higher temp just to set the shape and give it that initial blast of heat. That way the outside doesn’t caramelise too much and gives the cookie time to bake through. Flavour of the cookie will change slightly so adjust the timing and temps to your liking (as per explained in the IG live video).
• If your piped cookies is taller, chances are it might take longer to bake through, you can test a few pieces first to get the timings right before doing the whole batch. If you feel it needs a longer bake time to bake through, you could start at 150C for 10 mins and then drop it to 120C to bake for a further 20 mins or until it is cooked through.
• Increase sugar will cause it to caramelise faster and have more of a snap, thus the difference in temp for the coffee version.
• Personally, I like the extra butter version and if you do not want to worry about under whisking your butter and thus having a dense cookie or a floury taste, I would recommend going for that version instead. It is less “finicky”.
• It’s better to over whip your butter when in doubt than to under whip it as a lighter cookie is a better outcome than a really dense one.

Post Updated: 16/01/22

_{Recipe not for commercial purposes}