Mactcha, rose, chocolate and vanilla viennese cookies.

Mmm. I really love baking at night, it's when it's most quite and I wouldn't have to rush handing the kitchen over for my parents to use for the takeaway (I love behind a chinese takeaway shop). It's so calming but when whenever the clock strikes 4am+ I start to get freaked out that there may be ghosts are lurking around haha. Probably should fix my sleeping time and bake in the morning instead ==''. merh. 

So i've always wanted to make these biscuits, they look elegant and delicate and have the richest buttery taste with the lightest crumb. MMMmm. yummmyy. :D This post is partly inspired by the anime I mentioned previously; Yumiero Patissiere. In the anime there are 3 characters called the 'sweet princes'. 3 of them would have their own flavour that they 'own' or is the flavour that is just their 'thing'. One of the sweets prince's called Kashino's flavour would be chocolate, Andoh's would be anything that is traditionally japanese based flavoured (anko, matcha and yuzu etc.) and lastly; Hanabusa's would work best with any candy art, as well as that he has a crazy obsession with roses, so rose flavoured desserts appeared a lot too. 

I never really liked the flavour of roses in anything edible, roses just weren't for me. But the anime really changed my view towards it and I started getting intrigued by using rose in desserts, still not a favourite of mine and wouldn't be one of my first choices for anything to do with food but I certainly have come around it and have been more fond of eating rose flavoured products :). The rest of the flavours I really like, the anime got me into using matcha more too. But hell is it expensive! I like my matcha strong so I tend to use a lot in my desserts. It hurts me when I use so much T^T. my matchaaaaa ahh. 

The dried rose flakes didn't really affect the biscuits much to be honest, I just thought the biscuits would looked nicer with the bright rosey flakes marbled through :), though I think it did contribute to some of the flavour, same principle with using lemon zest I presume? 

Going clock wise- Vanilla, matcha, rose and chocolate. 

As you can see from the photos, the vanilla and rose dough was the smoothest, which meant they were both the easiest to pipe, however after baking they lost their shape and were quite flat =^=~ The matcha however was smack bang in the middle, the consistency was just right for piping (although I did need to microwave the dough to soften the dough a little for ease of piping) and the shape didn't change or anything. The chocolate one however...ohhh, what a bother this one was. the dough was so stiff my piping bag exploded because I applied too much pressure to try and ooze the dough out. The dough was stiff despite microwaving a few times .__. so I ended up just rolling the biscuits out. 

Rose flakes! Some of the flakes I crushed too finely so they kind of 'dissolved' in a way into the dough. 

The matcha cookies were much easily pipe-able, stayed in shape and all~

The matcha cookies had the strongest taste out of all the cookies, I was quite surprised because usually the taste of matcha doesn't always come through, it might've actually been too bitter for my taste too and I prefer my matcha to be relatively strong too. The taste of the rose delicate and weren't too strong. I would count the matcha and the rose cookies to be the 2 most successful flavours :D.

I was hoping the butter would be richer, but I could barely taste much, might add an egg yolk or something next time I make these vanilla cookies to make it richer in flavour. The chocolate cookies were strong too like the matcha ones, though it was more acceptable because I like my fari share of chocolate xP. 

An awfully shaky video because I couldn't be bothered to get the camera stand haha. Oh well, Just a little clip. 

Recipe: 
vanilla version: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 
• 90g plain flour
• 1tsp vanilla essence - add however much according to how strong you like the vanilla

Chocolate: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 
• 90g plain flour
• 9g cocoa powder 

^with this version, I suggest using less flour so the dough is easier to pipe with

Rose: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 90g plain flour
• 90g plain flour 
• 2 drops of rose essence 
• 2 tbsp of crushed, dried rose flakes

Matcha

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream
• 90g plain flour
• 9g matcha powder

Directions: 

1. Bring butter to room temperature. Whisk the butter with icing sugar until light and fluffy. 
2. For vanilla and rose cookies, add the essence at this stage. Whisk to combine. 
3. For the matcha and chocolate cookies, sift the powder with the flour before whisking in the flour.
4. Add the sifted flour to the creamed butter until fully combined. 
5. Pop the dough into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe out whatever shapes you desire for these cookies onto a greased baking sheet. 
6. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes at the top rack of the oven. 
7. Once cookies are done, Slide them onto a cooling rack to cool down. 
8. Store in an airtight container or whatever container you have; enjoy!

I recommend adding maybe a pinch or half a handful of flour more to the rose and vanilla cookies, the essence could have been the reason why they lost a little shape as the consistency of these were like cake batters than thin dough.