Piping Rosettes

One of the cookies I'm nostalgic about are the assorted Danish butter cookies that come in a blue tin. When I was little my dad used to buy them from America and bring them to us in India and we relished them, especially the piped butter cookies - they were always the first to go. When I moved to America, I was too weight-conscious to continue eating them. But now I wanted to pipe and eat something dainty, so with nostalgic inspiration, I made rosettes - tender cookies with buttery aroma and a dainty lightness.

I LOVE piping them; I'm not sure why, maybe I just want to create something, and enjoy playing with tools, but I find it very satisfying to make these. They're fun to share with friends in cute muffin cups as well, no one can resist them.

I enjoyed them best with raspberry jam, but you could use any jam you like. Good quality chocolate would also make scrumptious sandwich cookies.

Rosette cookies
Yields 14 - 18 sandwich cookies

50g (4 tbs) salted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbs milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Jam or melted chocolate for making sandwiches

Cream the butter and sugar with a spatula briefly, then mix in milk and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder and combine gingerly. Transfer to a piping bag with a star tip, or any tip you like.

Pipe out the cookies on parchment paper to the size of your choice - mine were no bigger than 3 inches and make sure there are even numbers of cookies if you are making sandwiches.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, until golden on the bottom. I bake mine on the second rack because my gas oven loves to burn bottoms. Cool briefly on a wire rack and start jamming them together or dipping in chocolate.

Store in an air-tight jar.