Lemon-Choco German Cookie

Making a slight variation to the popular German cookies - I added lemon zest and cocoa powder to the dough to create a marble pattern. The crunchy sugar coating not only brought crunchiness to the cookies, but also helped to hold the soft cookies firmly together 😁

This was almost my last-minute Chinese New Year cookies baked - only 4 days away from CNY. I only managed to bake 18 pieces. Yes, only 18 pieces 🍪 for our own craving 😉 This is my way of preventing overeating during the CNY period. As the maker of these cookies, I know best how much butter and sugar we are gobbling down our system from these delicious cookies 😱

Yield: 18 pieces 3cm round cookies

Ingredients

60g salted butter, softened
20g icing sugar
1/2 tsp lemon zest

60g potato starch
40g cake flour

1/2 tsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp fine sugar for coating

Directions

1. Mix potato starch and cake flour in a mixing bowl and keep in the fridge for about 20 to 30 minutes.

2. Cream butter till smooth, then mix in the icing sugar. Continue to mix till pale and fluffy.

3. Add in the lemon zest.

4. Sift in the the cold flour mixture from (1). Fold using a spatula.

5. Take about 120g of the dough and place in a plastic bag. Use a dough cutter to scrap and push the dough towards the end of the plastic bag.

6. While for the remaining dough, blend about 1/2 tsp of cocoa powder to it.

Place the cocoa dough into the same bag as the original dough.

Similarly, push the cocoa dough to join the first dough.

7. Keep the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes to harden the dough slightly.

8. Use a spoon to take out about 10g of the dough from the bag.

Shape the dough into a ball and roll in a small cup of fine sugar.

9. Arrange the dough balls over a lined baking tray. The dough will flatten slightly after baking, so leave about 1.5 cm gap in between the dough balls.

Use a chopstick to create a hollow well in the middle of the dough ball.

10. Bake in a preheated oven toaster at 170°C for about 15 to 20 minutes.

11. Let the cookies cool down before keeping them in an airtight container. Yum yum 😋