I try making Jeanette Aw's French butter cookies as shared on Instagram

While other celebs who showcase their bakes and dishes can be called circuit bakers and chefs, this is not a title that we can give to Jeanette Aw. After all, she has a certificate from the world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu, and is a certified baker. 

Hence, when she shared a video on how she makes Sable Breton, otherwise known as French butter cookies, I was intrigued. Would my skills be able to compare to her well-trained hands and could I get the results she achieved without the training that she has?

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Here's how I made my cookies, halving the ingredients used, and following her steps as closely as I could with what I had at home.

Ingredients

Makes approximately 50 small cookies 

Cookie dough

• 70g unsalted butter
• 50g sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract/essence
• 1/2 egg
• 100g all purpose flour
• A pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

Egg wash

• 1/2 egg
• 1/2 tbsp cream

Steps

1. Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy using whisk or hand mixer

2. Add vanilla extract and egg to mixture and mix well.

3. Sift in flour, salt and baking powder. Continue to mix well into a doughy texture.

4. Roll out dough between baking paper and chill the dough sheet in freezer for 20 mins.

5. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Remove dough sheet and use cookie cutter to cut out cookies. 

6. Mix egg and cream together to make egg wash. Glaze cookies with egg wash and use a toothpick/fork to create a crisscross pattern on the cookies.

7. Bake in oven for 10 to 15 mins till the cookies turn golden brown around the edges.

The verdict: Yes, even amateur bakers can get similar results

A warm, buttery scent wafts into your nose when you open the oven to get your cookies, though this might depend on the brand of butter that you choose to use. 

My brother compares them to the danish butter cookies in a blue tin that we all grew up with, but fresher and better.

While they can be kept for longer consumption, my household's verdict is that they are best sampled fresh out of the oven as its crumbles as soon as you pop them into your mouth when warm.

However, I did personally face difficulties with the dough as mine turned out looking wetter than the one in Jeanette's video.

The dough stiffened after being chilled in the freezer, but it didn't take too long to get soft again. And due to my small cookie cutters, I possibly spent close to an hour just cutting a whole lot of cookies, with trips to the freezer in between.

My number one tip: Use a bigger cookie cutter to lessen your pain. 

Despite the differences in the texture of our uncooked dough, the results look pretty similar to Jeanette's, if I dare say so myself. I'll just need a bigger cookie cutter before I attempt this again.  

Click here for AsiaOne's Circuit Breaker Survival Guide (CBSG)

kailun@asiaone.com