Crispy Cream Cheese Cookie (Eggless)

This original recipe is owned by Anna Chan and hence I will not put it up here. You may goto http://www.sugar-inc-cake.com/ to register and download the recipe. The file is quite big (about 3~4MB) but it has step-by-step tutorial... it's very helpful for novice bakers like me.

What is listed here is the modified version incorporating my learnings and my personal preference for less sweetness.

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Recipe

100 gm. AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
60g castor sugar

40g salted Butter, cubed, chilled
40g vegetable shortening (e.g. crisco)

60 gm. cream cheese
Extra flour for dusting

Method:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. Add butter and cream cheese. Rub the mixture with fingers until it becomes lumpy.
3. Knead gently until the mixture becomes a soft dough.
4. Chill the dough in the fridge for about 30 mins.
5. Preheat the oven to 170C for at least 15min.
6. Roll out dough on floured surface and cut into shapes of your choice.
7. Place onto baking tray and bake for about 15 mins. or until lightly browned.
8. Cool well and store in airtight containers.

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PB (Post Baking) Note:

• The portion of the recipe is very small. I doubled the quantities (in the original recipe) and only get about 1 and a half tray of cookies.
  


• Self raising flour: It is intended to puff up the cookie in the oven and are lighter and crispier than if the using AP flour. But I found it makes the surface of the cookie very “crumpled” look. Not very pretty.
  


• Sugar: I used fine sugar instead of castor sugar. Not sure if this is the reason why the cookie spread alot. You can see the difference in the cookie cutter vs. baked cookie. BTW, I find the recipe too sweet for my family. I would use 60g (instead of 80g) next time.



• I replaced half of the butter with Crisco cos the shortening can withstand a higher temperature (than butter), which helps to cookie to hold the shape better.
  


• Cookie Sheet : I do not grease the cookie sheet (or baking tray) cos the fat in the cookie would normally suffice to do the job. But for this recipe, in trays that are not greased end up with cookie sticking to it. It is quite difficult to remove the cookie. I used the spatula but still can’t get all out in 1 piece. Silpat sheet is good cos it conducted heat very evenly and all the cookie browns very nicely on the bottom.
  
  
• The temperature 180C is too high for my oven. The edges starts to brown yet the centre is still a little chewy. Fine if you like your cookie this way. But if you prefer it to be crispy, pls reduce the temperature by 10C.

Having said that, every oven is different. You need to see what works for you. Yes, it's pretty much the trial and error.

• I find the dough extremely soft even with the chilling. I used a lot more flour for dusting. I think this is more suitable to pipe-out or simply flatten with forks.