The very first "sweet teeth" post--Margarita cookies

I don't know why it took me so long to post this first blog after that rather "loud" announcement about my plan. But anyways, here I am. The very first "SWEET TEETH" post.

Today, I want to share with you a really simple recipe which is considered to be quite foolproof yet very unique in texture (superior crumbly) and delicious. It has a featured cracked edges. And this is also a good recipe to use up left over egg yolks.
Margarita cookies!

















I archived this recipe for a super long time when I was in China. It's supposed to be perfect for newbies baker. While I am a...er...intermediate baker probably...LOL, it's hard to believe that I still didn't make this yet until today. But when I tried to look up in English websites for more references, I found it was another cookie variety. Anyway, this is maybe Chinese version Margarita cookies but they are absolutely delicious!

Enough buzzing, let's start!

Ingredients:
All purpose flour 100g
Corn starch 100g
Butter 65g
Corn oil 30g
Confectioner sugar/icing sugar 50g
Pinch of salt (about 1/8 tsp)
2 cooked egg yolk 
Vanilla extract/powder/paste 1/2 tsp

Steps:
Depending on how long it takes your oven to be heated, you can preheat it at ~375F/180C before start or preheat it later. This is a pretty sturdy dough and it's fine to leave it for a while in the fridge.

1. Use microwave to cook the egg yolks about 10-20s at high setting if you didn't have hard boiled egg yolks. Mesh them through a sieve.
2. Cream the butter with the confectioner sugar and salt together until pale in color and lightened in texture. Some people say it's a feather-like stage.
3. Add the meshed egg yolk and blend well
4. Add the corn oil and blend well
5. Sieve the AP flour and corn starch, add the vanilla extract/powder/paste and blend well. The dough would exactly smells like gourmet vanilla ice-cream right now. So attempting! 
6. You may find the dough is really crumbly at this point. That's fine as long as you can somewhat form them into small ball-like dough.
7. Divide them into preferred size ball, put on a baking sheet/baking tray lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil and carefully press each of them with your thumb until you are happy with the "crack" formed at the edges. If they fall apart, just gently pile them together. They will stay together as they were baked.
8. Put the tray into a preheated oven for about 20min or until you see a lightly golden colored around the edges.

Cool completely and they are ready to serve!

















Why this recipe works?
1. The combination of butter and corn oil (vegetable oil) makes it really crispy and crumbly while whole butter recipe usually make it a little denser.
2. The corn starch decreased the gluten content a lot which also makes this cookie just melt in your mouth as you bite them.
3. The cooked yolks add another layer of crumbliness to this cookie.
4. The original recipe didn't call for vanilla while I thought it would be nice to have it since this is basically a "dry custard" cookies considering the ingredients. I guess this is also why it smells so much like vanilla ice-cream.

I hope you enjoy this easy yet delicious recipe and give it a try! This will make you reconsider the definition of "crumbly" and "crispy" for a cookie.