Bavarian Sugar Cookies

I know, I know, it seems a little cheesy to be making heart-shaped cookies around Valentine's Day. But I can assure you that I made these without even the slightest thought about Valentine's Day. The only thing that inspired these was the fact that they were featured in the movie Stranger Than Fiction, and ever since watching that movie a while back I've been fixated on recreating those cookies for myself. Those of you who have watched the movie will know that I'm referring to this scene: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moL_fMkjSJk). I found that scene, and the movie in general, to be extremely cute and surprisingly charming, which is rare for most romantic comedies these days. And ever since, I've wanted to try a Bavarian Sugar Cookie. The same way I was obsessed with pink lemonade thanks to The Sound of Music.

A quick Google search led to a fair amount of confusion and reading about a lot of people asking if these biscuits even existed. I can assure you that they do, but it wasn't too easy finding a recipe that looked right. Eventually I decided to test out the recipe that was posted on this forum, I mean, it was in German after all. A little tweaking and improvisation was necessary since the recipe was a little vague, but the result was the one of the most delicious biscuits I've ever made. I was calling them Crack Cookies because I would go to eat one and end up eating five.

The large amount of butter in the recipe creates a melt-in-your-mouth cookie dough that needs very little baking in a very hot oven after you roll it out to as thin as you can, and then the crisp, paper-thin layer of meringue over the tops creates a lovely contrast in textures. I love it. I also mixed a little pink dye into the icing for half the biscuits, but completely forgot how incredibly strong my powdered food colouring was, so I ended up with this crazy pink...but I kind of like it.

I'm pretty hopeful that these biscuits are very close to the ones that you see in the movie (even though I have no idea what they're meant to taste like in real life except for descriptions on the forum). Trust me, I spent a fair while squinting at the screen to make sure I got a good idea of how those cookies looked. And though I may not have had Valentine's Day in mind while I was making them, in hindsight they are kind of perfect to make for your loved one. I'm a hopeless romantic at heart, mostly due to the excessive amount of Disney movies & musicals that I watched as a child. I used to love Valentine's day, well the idea of Valentine's day, but like most people slowly grew out of it. This was probably assisted by my boyfriend's complete apathy towards the event. My brother always says that it's more special if you give your loved one flowers on any other day besides Valentine's day. Of course this only applies if you actually do get flowers at some point during the year.

Bavarian Sugar Cookies
(adapted from this recipe)
300g plain flour
250g cold unsalted butter, cubed
80g caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
pinch of salt

1 large egg white
100g pure icing sugar
Optional: food colouring

Mmm butter

Preheat oven to 225 degrees C. Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Combine the butter into the flour either by using a butter knife or your finger tips into rub the butter into the flour until it resembles a coarse meal.

Stir in the caster sugar and then add the egg yolk and salt and mix to combine. Knead mixture lightly with your hands to form a soft dough and shape into a ball. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 30 mins.

When dough is firm, remove from fridge and carefully roll out on large sheet of floured baking paper. I had to flour the top and the bottom of the dough as I rolled it to stop it sticking to the paper, it's a very delicate and light dough. Roll to about 3-4mm thick. Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes and place on a lined baking tray.

Beat egg white with an electric mixer on low speed in a medium mixing bowl and gradually add the icing sugar. Beat until the mixture is smooth, shiny and white. Add food colouring if you wish.

Using a small spoon, spread a little of the icing over the tops of each of the cookies, taking care to not let it spill over the edge of the cookies or it will burn in the hot oven. (That's right, you ice the biscuits before you bake them, not after.) The thinner you spread the icing over the cookies, the crisper it will be and the more likely it will be to crack slightly.

Bake for about 5-6 minutes, or until they are just turning golden on the edges. Keep a close eye on the biscuits while they are in the oven, the window of time between undercooked biscuits and burnt biscuits is tiny.

Carefully move to a wire rack and cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

I'm only realising now how incredibly emo this above picture is, so please excuse the emo-ness, it was just meant to demonstrate how lovely and crunchy the texture of the meringue is after you bake it! I hope that you all have a lovely Valentine's day, and to those who aren't a fan of the day, I hope you have a nice old regular Saturday and maybe you can enjoy some of these cookies, just because everyone likes cookies :)