Portion: Makes about 50 cookies.

• 225 g salted butter (room temperature)
• 125 g castor sugar
• 280 g self raising flour
• 85 g corn flour
• 1/2 teaspoon almond essence or vanilla essence (I used vanilla essence)
• For toppings (optional): silver almonds or maraschino cherry or glazed cherry

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
• To make the cookie dough:
• Cream the butter and sugar using a spatula in a mixing bowl - a) cut the butter into huge chunks, b) mix in the sugar. (ensure that through the process, the butter remains soft and does not turn into liquid).
• Prepare the flour mix - a) mix the self raising flour and corn flour together. b) sieve the mixture.*
• Mix the flour mix with the butter-sugar mix using the spatula.
• Using your hands, knead the mixture into a dough. (Do not knead for too long as the dough might become too soft) [To prevent this from happening, I usually place the dough in the fridge for about 20 minutes before making the cookies]
• Make the cookie balls: 1) Using a spoon, scoop the dough. 2) Place the scooped dough into your palms. 3) Roll the cookie dough into a ball. 4) Using a fork, gently press the centre of the cookie dough to produce a flat cookie dough. 5) Place the almond or cherry on top of the cookie dough.
• Place the cookie on a tray and bake for about 15 - 22 minute.
• The final product should appear whitish or off white and not brown.
• Cool and serve.

*You can purchase pre-sieved flour. From experience, the pre-sieved flour mix that I bought in Canada produces cookies that taste like the Danish cookies. However, flour that I purchased in Singapore produces cookies that taste like Chinese New Year cookies.