Salted egg cookies

These days, salted-anything sells. You've got all sorts of amuse-gueules: salted-egg fish skins, salted egg-chips (Singapore's Irvins Salad Egg Chips sell for US$11 come to mind (and to mouth), salted-egg crackers, and of course cookies. So I had fresh salted duck eggs in my fridge left from a friend who stayed with me for a time. Of course I could make a salted egg porridge or stir-fry them with mao qua or bitter gourd, but who does that for one person? So I searched Pinterest to find salted egg cookies and I modified it to my own tastebuds. This was the result. This one's for keeps. 

Makes roughly 45 small bite sized cookies

85g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature ( I used ½ cup crisco)

⅓ cup caster sugar (or 6 Tbs)

½ tsp salt

1 cup all purpose flour 

1 heaped Tbs cornflour 

½ tsp baking powder

3 cooked salted egg yolks, briefly mashed 

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten to glaze

black sesame seeds to sprinkle (optional) 

Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and salt for about 1-2 mins or until combined and fluffy. Do not over beat. Place flour, cornflour, baking powder and salted egg yolks in a medium coarse sieve and use a spoon to sift and press the flour-salted-yolk mixture into the butter mixture. Then, use a spoon or spatula to mix until the flour mixture is totally absorbed into the butter mixture. Gather the crumbs to form a soft pliable dough. Wrap dough in cling film and allow it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

Line baking trays with baking paper and preheat oven to 170°C

Place dough on a lightly floured surface to roll into 3 mm thickness and cut them into shapes using your desired cookie cutter. Brush the cookies with egg yolk and sprinkle sesame seeds on them and bake for 25 mins or until golden brown.