One Egg Tea: Cat's Tongue Cookies (Langues de Chat)

Someone brought a packet of Marks and Spencer Dutch Shortcake to a potluck gathering and I fell in love with it after the first bite. It has to be absolutely THE BEST cookie I have had, ever. Crumbly and buttery, with the added richness of chocolate on one end. Selfishly, I hid it away in the cupboard so I don't have to share it with the rest of family. Alas, the packet only lasted 2 days, and with the last one, I stretched it out as long as I could, savouring each little bite with half-closed eyes, till the last crumb is gone.

Unfortunately, there's no Marks and Spencer where I live so I went on a desperate quest to look for the recipe online. This is one of the rare times when Google failed me. There seems to be absolutely no such thing as a Dutch Shortcake recipe, it looks as though this is a name M&S made up. The closest physical resemblence is the Viennese Sable. After trying the recipe twice, I was terribly disappointed. The Viennese Sable is buttery, but has none of the crispness of the M&S version.

Despite the futile search, I discovered that there are amazing things you can make with just butter, sugar and eggs. The magic is in the proportions and good quality butter. So instead of pining for the M&S cookies, I switched my affections to these

Cat's tongue cookies aka Langues de Chat, ie. the cookie crust in Shiroi Koibito cookies, = 白い恋人, which is...

Ding ding! Did I hear the bell go off in your head? That's right, these are the famous Hokkaido cookies that you beg your friends and relatives to buy for you when they go. The creamy white chocolate sandwiched by delicious, melt-in-mouth cookies. I think I've got the cookies down pat with this recipe, just need to get some good quality white chocolate to go along and it will be perfect!

Recipe translated and adapted from Ytower. I halved the recipe as it already makes so many!

Ingredients
200g sifted low-gluten / cake flour
125g butter (use good quality French butter please, I recommend Isigny)
200g sifted icing sugar
150g egg whites (about 4 eggs)
Half vanilla bean (you can substitute with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

Steps
1. Let all ingredients come to room temperature
2. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Lay a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cut open the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out with the flat edge of a knife.
2. Beat butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy
3. Add flour and beat till combined
4. Add egg whites, one at a time till you get a gooey paste, add vanilla seeds.
5. Get ready a piping bag with a 1-cm flat tip (or a disposable piping bag and cut a horizontal hole about 1 cm across). Using a spatula, spoon the batter in.
6. Pipe a line about 4 cm long on the cookie sheet. To make a straight line, try to keep the tip close to the cookie sheet and hold the piping bag straight instead of at an angle. Leave a gap of at least 5 cm between the lines. These cookies spread a lot when baking so be sure to leave a big gap, otherwise you will have one big flat cookie.

7. Bake in the oven and check after 15 minutes. The cookies are done when the edges have a brown border of about 1cm. If not done, bake further. They burn rather quickly so be sure to check often.