Basic Recipe - Conversion

[nicola's_cookies]

Hey,

I am looking for a basic cookie recipe for rolling, cutting and decorating. I found the following recipe and was hoping you guys can clear something up for me please, I have posed my questions in red...


1 cup butter, softened - What is a cup of butter, I am used to weighing butter, any idea of weight? Unsalted/Salted?
1 cup superfine sugar, or granulated sugar, processed in blender or food processor for 30 seconds - I guess this is what we in the UK call castor sugar?
½ tsp. Salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
½ tsp. Almond extract or emulsion, optional
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour. - I guess this is what we in the UK call Plain Flour (as opposed to Self Raising Flour)

Many thanks in advance

Nic
x

[polkadot]

Hey,

I am looking for a basic cookie recipe for rolling, cutting and decorating. I found the following recipe and was hoping you guys can clear something up for me please, I have posed my questions in red...


1 cup butter, softened - What is a cup of butter, I am used to weighing butter, any idea of weight? Unsalted/Salted?
1 cup superfine sugar, or granulated sugar, processed in blender or food processor for 30 seconds - I guess this is what we in the UK call castor sugar?
½ tsp. Salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
½ tsp. Almond extract or emulsion, optional
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour. - I guess this is what we in the UK call Plain Flour (as opposed to Self Raising Flour)

Many thanks in advance

Nic
x

1c of butter = 1/2 pound You could use salted or unsalted. I would probably use unsalted since there is also 1/2t salt in the recipe.

I believe granulated sugar is the same as your castor sugar. This website says that it is the same as our superfine sugar here in the States.

All purpose flour does not have any salt or baking powder in it. So yes plain flour sounds correct.

Have fun!

[nicola's_cookies]

Hi Polkadot

Many thanks for that reply, I had a feeling I was on the right lines... any idea of the rough number of cookies this will produce as it doesn't state, obviously it will differ depending on how thick and size of cutters.

Going to try it out this weekend - fingers crossed!

Thanks

Nic
x

[polkadot]

I just made some so I went and counted for you. I made approximately a double batch of what your recipe would make. I roll my dough about 1/4-inch thick. It made about 15 4-inch cookies, 25 2.5-inch cookies, and 40 1 to 1 1/2-inch mini cookies.

The cookies that I made are various Halloween shapes. The measurements are those of the widest part of the cookie. I use flour conservatively when rolling out my chilled dough and I re-roll scraps 1 - 2 times. I end up using almost all of the dough.

Your recipe is very similar to mine. Mine has just a little bit more flour. When making a batch with 1lb of butter I use 5 1/3c flour. Hopefully it will work well for you.

[Cait]

1 cup butter, softened - What is a cup of butter, I am used to weighing butter, any idea of weight? Unsalted/Salted?

113g unsalted butter

1 cup superfine sugar, or granulated sugar, processed in blender or food processor for 30 seconds - I guess this is what we in the UK call castor sugar?

It's finer than caster sugar. I use caster sugar and don't have any problems.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour. - I guess this is what we in the UK call Plain Flour (as opposed to Self Raising Flour)

Yes, it is plain flour.

You need to bear in mind that these are US measures (cups, tsp, tbsp, etc) and they do vary slightly to UK measures. It's something you should keep in mind when baking. For instance, there's 0.8 grams difference in a UK tsp of flour to a US tsp of flour.

I use this recipe, but have a set of American measures (being a Yankee myself). You may want to try: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cooking...alculator.aspx for conversions to UK measures. Do prepared to add a bit more of this or a little less of that until you perfect it for our ingredients and to your taste.

Good luck!