Hi Giaotornomers! Hope everyone’s been doing great.
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Have you ever heard of Langue de Chats?! They’re also known as cat’s tongue biscuits and are very, very popular in Japan. Though ironically, the snack has a European origin. It was popularized BY Japan. The most well-known would be by the brand Shiroi Koibito - which is normally available at local Japanese food fairs and certain Japanese grocers. But they only come in the standard white and milk chocolate, and it’s pretty hard to miss this iconic souvenir when you’re at airports or anywhere remotely Japanese. It comes in a blue Christmasy-looking paper packaging and aren’t cheap.
[INSERT PICTURE OF SHIROI KOIBITO]
There are also the cheaper alternatives - brands which I SHALL NOT NAME found in your regular supermarkets, though they taste so below average that I sometimes wonder how they’re still surviving on retail shelves (just a brutally honest opinion, I bear no malice or contempt whatsoever).
I fondly remember when I was in National Service, and my best friend would occasionally gift me with boujee snack stashes which my bunk mates would often look at with envy. My locker would be filled to the BRIM with exotic snacks and damn right Langue de Chats were one of them! There used to be a matcha specialty store in Takashimaya that sold these amazing things and they were truthfully the best I’ve ever had. To the extent that I no longer eat regular brands and every other alternative just doesn’t cut it for me. They weren’t cheap by the way! It was around a dollar per piece with a very nice Laduree-esque kinda box. You know how small those things are!!! I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the store but it’s sadly not there anymore (no, it’s not Tsujiri).
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Since then, I’ve taken it upon myself to replicate the recipe as close as possible. While I never actually did go that far, I think mine are good enough to trash some well-known specialty brands here (again, which shall remain unnamed huehuehue). But instead of the regular matcha or chocolate flavours, I’m going to incorporate the sweet and delicious flavours of cantaloupe into this. And good things must share, so… here it goes!
INGREDIENTS
Langue de Chat Cookies
100g Butter, softened
60g Caster Sugar
60g Egg
40ml Whipping Cream
1tsp Vanilla Extract
100g Cake Flour
20g Cantaloupe Powder
Melon Chocolate
200g White Couverture Chocolate, melted
40g Cantaloupe Powder
STEPS
Melon Chocolate Squares
Melt the white chocolate couverture over a Bain-Marie until XXC. Immediately remove from heat and mix the cantaloupe powder in with a spatula until the chocolate is smooth with no clumps. Do NOT go above that temperature as we are using the tempering method.
Temper the chocolate on a marble surface with a metal scraper and flat spatula. You’d want to bring the temperature back down to XXC before you start using it.
Once the temperature has gone down to XXC, pour the chocolate into the mould (lined with a baking sheet) and flatten with a bench scraper - removing the excess chocolate until you see uniform chocolate squares in the mould. Repeat until the chocolate has run out but save a little bit of it to ‘glue’ the biscuits for assembly.
Cool the chocolate down in the fridge for approximately 5 to 10 minutes, until they have hardened into chocolate squares which you can scrape off and pick up.
Gently remove the mould and very carefully scrape the chocolate squares into an airtight container to be kept in the fridge until ready to use.
Langue de Chat Cookies
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Line a baking tray with a silicon baking mat (you’ll need the rubbery grip), then place the Langue de Chat mould right on top. It should be firm and not shift around.
To a mixing bowl, add softened butter and caster sugar. Whisk until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and whipping cream then continue mixing until well incorporated.
Sift the cake flour and cantaloupe powder into the batter, then mix with a spatula until homogenous. Transfer the dough onto the mould and flatten with a bench scraper, then scrape the excess back into the bowl for the next batch.
Note: Certain types of fruit powders don’t do well through a sieve, particularly freeze-dried powders as the moisture in the air will ‘wet’ them over time. Dehydrated fruit powders will do fine but are a little lacklustre in flavour by comparison so you may want to add a little bit more. Some things for you to consider when picking fruit powders to use in recipes.
Once the dough is flat, uniform and the excess is scraped off from the mould, gently lift the mould off the baking sheet. You should see perfect squares.
Transfer the baking tray into the oven and bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until the sides are a little brown. Try not too bake them for too long!
The cookies will still be soft to the touch when just removed, so leave them to cool for 10 minutes before removing them and storing in an airtight container.
Note: It is imperative that you store them as soon as possible, as these cookies are thin and flat and will generally lose their ‘crisp’ very quickly if left out for too long. Time is of the essence when making these cookies!
Assembly
Sandwich a piece of melon chocolate square between two square cookies, and use a small spatula to dab a little bit of the leftover couverture chocolate to act as an adhesive for these cookies.
Gently press them together, until it looks like a very tightly sealed square macaron. Be careful as these are very fragile.
Immediately keep inside individual plastic sheets with a heat-seal or into an airtight container for later consumption. Keep them stored in the refrigerator until ready to eat!
It’s only after trying to make these for myself that I finally understood why these miniature cookies are so darn expensive. For one, it takes awhile to get the perfect shape in the mould and I would also say that 10% of your cookies might not make it after taking them out of the oven (either too charred or brittle from my past experience). They’re very intricately made, and often the flavoured ones e.g. matcha use a LOT of high-grade matcha to really bring the flavour out. And good matcha isn’t cheap at all, I must say. We’re talking about $120 per kilo of some culinary-grade ones.
[INSERT PICTURE OF DOUGH IN MOULD]
But don’t let the size of these cookies intimidate you - they’re not a complete waste to make. It’s actually very filling and they’re not exactly the sort of cookies you’d binge-eat like a tin of Garrett’s Popcorn or a bag of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. You tend to savour things like these as they melt in your mouth and in good-quality flavoured ones the matcha/fruit really does shine through. In other words you wouldn’t be able to bear gorging down these things too quickly!
Additional note: It’s preferable to keep these cookies sealed air-tight and refrigerated especially if you come from the tropics as they are very temperature-sensitive (I bought these little plastic packagings and heat-seal them to store away). However if you’d prefer to leave them out on the table for festive periods you might consider switching out the couverture chocolate for compound chocolate instead though it WILL compromise on the flavour quite a lot due to the cocoa butter content. Still delicious though!
[INSERT NEATLY PACKAGED MELON LANGUE DE CHATS]
Now I hope that I’ve saved (some of) you from breaking the bank for these decadent goodies and make your own Langue de Chats. Don’t be afraid to experiment with other flavours too… I find that it tastes good with Hojicha, Matcha, Ruby Chocolate, pretty much any freeze-dried fruit powders and even Thai Tea! Get crazy ya.
Till next time, Giaotornomers xx
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