I don’t like wasting food, and have been even more conscious of ingredients being precious commodities since lockdown began two months ago. This recipe is one I played around with last year, and I kept meaning to write it up, but just never got round to it. As I smash through my To Cook List, expect more recipes to be posted very soon.
Now, I don’t know about you, but whenever I bake, I always seem to have surplus buttercream. Usually, I wind up freezing it off, but as my fridge is absolutely chocca, I am trying to free up freezer space. (I think I need a new fridge, but more on that in a different post.)
I had around 200g buttercream, and I didn’t want to waste it. I had heard other bakers use up their buttercream in other recipes like cakes, but because I wanted to try something smaller, I opted for a cookie recipe instead.
If you have leftover buttercream, that’s great, and you can jump straight into the recipe. If you don’t have buttercream and are intrigued by this recipe, feel free to make buttercream and go from there. I make buttercream using the 2:1 ratio of icing sugar to butter, so double the icing sugar to the amount of butter. Here, you would need around 67g butter and 134g icing sugar to yield 200g of buttercream. Beat the butter till pale and fluffy (around 2 minutes using a KitchenAid or 3 minutes using an electric whisk), add the icing sugar, and you’re good to go.
I usually flavour my buttercream with a dash of vanilla and a little orange zest to lift the flavour, but this is up to you. Here is the recipe, thank you for your patience. 😊
Ingredients
- 200g buttercream
- 300g self-raising flour
- 2 eggs
*If you are unable to get hold of self-raising flour, use plain flour and sieve into it ¼ tsp baking powder
Method
- Preheat oven 160°C fan. Grease a baking tray. Prepare a wire rack cooling tray.
- Throw all the ingredients together and beat until combined. Don’t worry if the mixture is slightly sticky, this is perfectly normal.
- Use a melon-baller or a tablespoon, and scoop into golf ball sized spheres, dropping the dough blobs onto the greased baking tray.
- Leave ample space between the cookies, as they will spread. If you think about cookies adhering to social distancing rules too, then you’ll remember to leave ample space between them. 😊 If you don’t, you’ll wind up with a few giant cookies at the end, which although won’t look so great, will taste delicious nonetheless.
- Lightly press each dough blob down and bake for around 10 minutes or until a pale golden brown.
- I like mine under-done very slightly, for a light chew. If you prefer your cookies more ‘biscuity’, then bake for a few minutes longer.
- Transfer onto a cooling rack straight away, otherwise these delicate creatures will continue cooking in the tray and get hard.
- Best eaten warm, with a ‘Don’t Disturb’ sign on your door. I’d recommend having these with a coffee. I had mine with a Nespresso Arondio coffee capsule, whose malted cereal notes went well with the chewy cookie.
I hope you enjoyed the recipe, and would love to know how you got on.