anchovies cookies

Well, what can I say? This post is dedicated to my good friend, GP. She very thoughtfully offered to obtain a recipe for anchovies cookies from one of her acquaintances for me to try. However, when I received the recipe, I read it and realised that the recipe would yield chewy cookies. As my family and I prefer crunchy cookies, I decided to shelve the recipe that she gave me for the moment.

Having said this, my mind has been on anchovies cookies for the past week ever since GP told me about them. I have never eaten anchovies cookies before and the idea of baking them enthralled me. My curiosity was further piqued when Da told me that one of his colleagues bought some "laksa cookies". Laksa-flavoured cookies? Gosh...

It so happened that we have some balance fried anchovies which we bought from our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong about two weeks ago. I decided to do some trial and error on 18 July 2009 and bake some crunchy anchovies cookies.

The outcome? When Da sampled one of the cookies before it had thoroughly cooled down, he gave me the "thumbs up" and told me that the cookies had a balance of sweet and savoury. Excited, I ate one of the cookies as well. It was delicious.

Hi XQ, I know that you like to try out cookies recipes. Do give this recipe a try and let me have your feedback.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125g butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup fried anchovies (pounded)
1 tbsp (about 6g) crispy seasoned seaweed (cut into small pieces)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Sift the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ground cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time and mix well.

4. Add the pounded anchovies and seaweed and mix until well blended.

5. Fold in the flour mixture using a wooden spatula.

6. Using two teaspoons, drop 1 teaspoonful of the batter onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

8. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing them in an air-tight container.

TIP

I use a pestle and mortar to pound the fried anchovies. You can use an electric chopper but using a pestle and mortar enables you to control how finely pounded you want the anchovies to be. I would recommend that you do not pound the anchovies until they become powder. Leave some small crunchy bits for that extra "oomph" when you bite into the cookies.