Recipe: Dahlia butter cookies (Kuih Semperit) (CNY)

With my two good kitchen assistants, we've been baking CNY cookies almost every weekend. Last weekend, we made both pineapple nastar rolls as well as these Dahlia cookies, sometimes also known as cherry cookies or simply butter cookies. I chose this cookie because I like the pretty dahlia flower shape. In Malay, this cookie is called kuih semperit.

Dahlia cookies, aka kuih semperit

In order to make this cookie, you have to buy a plastic piping nozzle (it will be usually be labelled kuih semperit on the packaging). To make this, simply mix all the ingredients into a smooth dough and put into the piping nozzle and pipe out these flowers. As they say, practice makes perfect and after a few tries, we piped out nicely-shaped dainty little flowers. It is then decorated with cherries to resemble a flower.  I did not use food coloring, hence my flowers are a pale yellow post-baking. 

Pipe them straight on the baking tray

These cookies taste better once it is cooled completely, and left for at least 12 hours. They are buttery, with a distinctive taste from the rose essence. Baby C also likes it cos it's pretty, and she helped me style the cookies for this post. :) Right after our photoshoot, she popped about 8 of these cookies into her mouth and said "YUMMY"!

A short video on how to pipe these dahlia cookies

Dahlia butter cookies (Kuih semperit)
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Joyce
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 22-24 mins
Makes 90


Ingredients
125g butter, softened at room temperature
70g icing sugar
170g plain flour
20g custard flour
60g cornflour
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp rose essence (or vanilla extract)
1 tsp broken cherries


1. Preheat oven to 150°C (no fan). Sift the plain flour, custard flour and cornflour in a large bowl. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and icing sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolk, and rose essence (or vanilla), and mix until combined.

3. Add in the flour (from Step 1) and mix until you get a soft dough. Turn off the machine.

4. Using the piping nozzle, pipe out the dough on to the tray. See video for instructions - pipe the dough out then twist to "cut".

5. Decorate with a piece of cherry in the centre. Press lightly.

Ready for the oven

6. Bake in preheated oven for 22-24 minutes, the cookies should not be browned when it's done. Cool in pan for 2-3 minutes, remove cookies and cool completely on wire rack. Store in airtight container.

I am submitting this post to the Bake-Along event #57: CNY cookies hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours,lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids. You can link your post at one of the hosts page.


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