• Brown-butter buttons with caramelised white chocolate

    Serves: 12
    Cooking Time: 2 hrs 30 mins

    Ingredients

    • 250g butter, softened
    • 60ml (¼ cup) sugar
    • 50g cornflour + extra, if needed
    • 2,5ml (½ tsp) baking powder
    • 220g cake flour
    • 2,5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
    • CARAMELISED WHITE CHOCOLATE

    • 100g good-quality white chocolate, chopped
    • 15ml (1 tbsp) vegetable oil + extra, if needed

    Instructions

    1

    Grease and line 2 standard baking sheets with baking paper.

    2

    Place 80g of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stir until melted, then cook until foamy and golden brown, 4 – 5 minutes. Remove from heat and refrigerate until set.

    3

    Place the browned butter, the remaining 170g butter and the sugar in the bowl of a free-standing mixer and cream together until light and fluffy. Add the cornflour, baking powder, cake flour and almond extract and mix to form a soft dough, adding a little more flour if necessary. Cover the dough with cling film and refrigerate, 30 minutes.

    4

    Roll the dough out to 0,5cm thickness and cut out 5cm circleswith a cookie cutter. Using a plaintip icing nozzle or wooden skewer, make two holes in the ‘buttons’ then place on the prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

    5

    Bake the buttons in the preheated oven until golden, 10 – 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Leave the oven on at 150˚C.

    6

    For the caramelised white chocolate, place the chopped chocolate on a baking sheet and drizzle with the oil. Place in the oven until a rich caramel colour is achieved, 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes. If the chocolate is lumpy, simply blend in a food processor or pass through a sieve. If it’s too thick, add a little more oil.

    7

    Sandwich the cookies together with caramelised white chocolate to serve.

    Imka Webb
    Author

    Imka Webb is a freelance digital marketing expert and the digital editor of Food & Home Entertaining magazine.  www.imkawebb.com