If you want a melt in the mouth texture, and still want a rich buttery taste, then please try this recipe from Jeannie Tay. I love it lots, and have tried it both just out of the oven and cooled down. It retains the fine texture except the butter aroma is even more distinct when cooled.

You can also make chocolate flavor ones by replacing 10g – 15g of the potato starch with the valrhona cocoa powder. Even more awesome.

The recipe is simple and the steps are few, but there are a few tips you must note.

• use a good butter (I like a mix of golden churn tin with president)
• Don’t overmix butter and sugar, beat till light and fluffy, but not till buttercream texture
• fold the flour in well, so that the butter is well binded to the flour and the shape will hold
• Rest the dough before shaping or piping.
• before baking, chill or freeze for 5-10 min will help the cookies retain their shape, although slight melting is expected.
• If you intend to pipe, be sure to get a larger piping tip and thicker piping bags. I use Wilton 1M to get the designs for the plain version and 1E for the chocolate version.

Recipe (adapted from Jeannie Tay, makes 30 -45 pieces)

• 150g salted butter
• 135g potato starch / tapioca starch (replace 15g with valrhona cocoa powder if making chocolate version)
• 90g plain flour
• 60g – 70g powder sugar
• 1/3 tsp salt

Method

Cream butter, salt and sugar till well mixed with hand whisk or stand mixer. (Don’t over mix)

Add in sifted starch and flour (and cocoa powder if using), use hand whisk to mix them gently, followed by spatula to mix into dough well. Cover and rest dough for about 1 hour.

Pipe out onto baking tray lined with baking paper. You can use a cookie syringe or piping pag. Before baking, send the tray to the fridge to chill for 10 min will also help retain the shape in the oven.

Bake at 150-160 deg C for 10 min using conventional mode (top and bottom heat, no fan), then at 160 deg C for another 20 – 25 min at fan forced mode till golden. If bottom has brown but top remains pale, bring tray to upper rack, and bake further.