Melting moments cookies are the most popular cookies on every festive occasion. We make it for every Christmas and Chinese New Year, pack it in small boxes as a present to people and friends. There was once we even make some extra to sell.

Our melting moment consists of only five ingredients. It melts in the mouth, full of buttery flavor, very crumbly and addictive. It is not surprising that whoever has tried it can finish eating the whole box while watching their favorite TV program.

Have you decided what cookies you make for the upcoming celebration? Include melting moments in your list! This recipe will guarantee that you will get prises and compliments from friends and families, with minimum time and effort.

The best thing is you can bake it early and store well in the freezer.

Let take a look at how to make these melt-in-the-mouth cookies.

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1. Mesure all the ingredients

Measure the following ingredients before we get started:

380g of butter, cut into small cubes, 130g icing sugar, 330g cake flour, 140g cornstarch, 5g fine salt.

Butter

The flavor of the cookies depends mostly on the butter. I am using the Anchor brand butter from New Zealand, which yields an excellent result.

Never substitute the butter wholly or partially with margarine. Choose the best butter that you can get or at least one with decern quality.

Cut the butter into small cubes. It is easier to cut the butter with a sharp knife before it turns soft. Unwrap the butter and cut it on the wrapping paper into 16 small cubes. Transfer it directly into the mixer bowl to keep your working table clean and tidy.

Butter can be salted or unsalted. I prefer the unsalted butter because I can adjust the saltiness without restriction. You have to omit the salt in the recipe if you are using the salted butter.

Sugar

I use icing sugar to make my melting moments.  I will sieve the sugar first before adding it to the mixing bowl if the icing sugar clump together. You can use either a flour sifter or and wire mesh sieve.

How about castor sugar or granulated sugar? I have not made melting moments with either one, as I worried that it would affect the result. For now, I will stick to icing sugar before I am willing to take the risk of sacrificing a batch of my melting moments for testing.

Flour

There are two types of flour in the recipe the regular cake flour and cornstarch.

Cornstarch is the ingredients that make the melting moments so crumbly and light. The cookies will become more crumbly and crispy with a larger amount of cornstarch. However, the melting moments will become too dry if the amount of cornstarch is too large. The cookies will also shatter easily and difficult to handle.

The amount in this recipe is just right after years of fine-tuning.

Salt

As I mentioned above, omit salt if you are using the salted butter. If not, always use the fine salt (table salt).

There was once I wrongly use the coarser salt for cooking, and we get complaints to form our customers that they bite on salt granules.

2. Mix all the ingredients

I like to add the butter first, followed by the icing sugar, and cornstarch and salt. Lastly, add the cake flour on top.

I have a reason to add the cake flour last.

The icing sugar and cornstarch are very fine, which will fly up to the air and dirty your kitchen when you turn on the machine. This incidence can happen especially with an open-ended mixer.

Therefore, I purposely add the cake flour last which is much coarser and dense. This way, all the ingredients will combine well without flying up the air that much.

How long it takes to combine

It takes about half a minute to mix all the ingredients. The exact time depends on how soft the butter, and how small the butter cubes are.

Once the mixture clumps together, it will be no longer stick to the mixing bowl. That is when you should stop mixing.

You can use a mixer or a food processor, as long as the ingredients are well mixed. If you use a mixer, choose the flat blade to mix the dough, dough hook is not suitable as it is best only for making bread, while wire whisk attachment may not be strong enough to incorporate the butter well.

3. Prepare for baking

• Preheat the oven to 190°C, both top and bottom heat.
• Cut a large piece of baking paper to the size of your baking tray.
• Apply some oil to the paper with a bakery brush.

Shape the cookies

You can do one of the followings:

1. Use a small amount of the cookie dough to form a small ball with your hands. I made some small melting moments which is about 12g each, but you can make bigger cookies if you want.  Place the ball on an oiled baking paper, well separated from each other. Press it down with the back of the fork to form a pattern.
2. Otherwise, you can also pipe it onto the baking paper.  Choose a piping bag nozzles to create the pattern that you like.

Note: Keep the cookies dough in the refrigerator for a while if it is too soft to handle. The dough will turn soft if you leave it at room temperature during summer, or in a tropical country like me.

4. Baking

Bake at 190°C for 18 minutes for the cookies weighted 12g each. Use a kitchen timer to keep track of the baking time.  You need to increase the baking time at the same temperature for the larger melting moments.

Please take note that the temperature indicators of many ovens are not very reliable. You can use an oven thermometer to confirm the accuracy of the temperature setting. Please test out with my recommended temperature setting with a small quantity, and then adjust accordingly when you make a larger batch.

If you are unsure, set the baking time two minutes shorter than the intended total baking time. Open the door of the oven partially to have a quick peep at the cookies. This way will ensure you will not overbake the cookies.

5. Cooling and packaging

Cool the cookies on the baking tray. Be very careful because it is very fragile.

You can arrange it in a small container, with some bubble wrap as the separator. The only downside of this melting moments is that they are so fragile that and I wouldn’t advise shipping them.

Seal it up with cellophane tape. It can be kept and remain crisp for at least two weeks at room temperature. The melting moments have the advantage of freezing well. Keep it frozen if you want to make it in advance.

The Melting Moments Recipe