The girls and I fancied getting a cuppa after a birthday lunch yesterday. Since we were at the Esplanade, The V Tea Room (a liqueur teacake boutique) would’ve been the perfect location to do that. It still looks as grand as when it first opened, the menu still as preciously designed and printed. The only difference I suppose would be the name of the boutique and the ease at which we can be seated as a walk-in customer without the hassle of booking a table days in advance. Now known as The Cookie Musuem, a wide selection of delicate handmade cookies are now offered (seasonal or no) - from the popular Berry Lite organic cookies, to rose or lavender flavoured cookies, to cookies that cater to more international tastebuds like Shizuoka green tea cookies and Fragola e Cioccolata which is carefully made with hand-delivered Japanese strawberries. Whether you’re a Singaporean food fanatic or curious visitor, The Cookie Musuem offers some scarily adventurous local flavours such as Heh Bee Hiam (spicy shrimp), Laksa and Nasi Lemak. In this savoury range, we managed to taste some parmesan flavoured cookies and an American Breakfast that was a flavour brought back by popular demand. Despite the daringness of such flavours, these gung-ho cookies aren’t too heavy on the palate and the tea ladies are more than delighted to recommend an appropriate tea to accompany your chosen cookies.

My personal favourites were the Rose flavoured cookie (I don’t recall it’s name - just its taste which was quite phenomenal) and the Shizuoka one. Watch out too for their Salmon Quiche which is beautiful with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and a well-made pastry. Best thing about this tea room is that it offers customised cookie hampers, tea and cookie parties, cookie appreciation workshops and corporate orders. The beautiful royal-like design of the tea room also sets you at ease, making you feel very pampered and taken care of by the attentive tea ladies. Please note that other than that gorgeous pot of luxury tea, designer hot chocolate or specially crafted cup of coffee you’re sipping away, you can have a whole pushcart of cookie samples to taste-test with your friends; always with a cheerful tea lady to guide you in the flavours you may or may not like. If they’re too irresistable, you can pick a box up for friends and family at S$35, albeit a little pricey but so good it doesn’t seem too massive a sin to commit.

For interested parties, here are the details for this precious jewel of a tea room rated 6th amongst all the world’s tea rooms:

The Cookie Museum
The V Pte Ltd
Esplanade Mall
8 Raffles Avenue #01-02/04
Singapore 039802
Tel: 65 6333 1965
Email: comments@thecookiemuseum.

Inspired by this visit, my cookie bone within was starting to ache with the intense heat of the last summer months and the lack of baking in my life recently. The cookies at The Cookie Museum are handmade with as little sugar as possible, flavoured to the max with only natural ingredients and is egg-free. This reminded me of my Black Sesame Shortbread recipe which contains a small amount of powdered sugar and no egg - although beware of all that butter which comes up as the foundation of its flavour.

I thought to replicate one of my favourite cups of tea as a cookie - earl grey laced with the tiniest trace of lemon and cheekily sweetened with dried cranberries. Honestly, I had a little more trouble with the dough this time round as compared to the black sesame one. I believe this is due to the disparate climates. The end result was pretty enough (haha) and tasted fairly good. Why I say this is that I could smell the earl grey but it’s aroma wasn’t as strong as I thought it would be. I’d used a rather shrivelled up, old lemon and so the lemon’s flavour was rather weak as well. In the future, I would increase the amount of earl grey tea leaves used and possibly substitute the lemon juice for some sort of natural lemon essence of flavour whilst increasing the amount of zest used. The dried cranberries were a fantastic idea not only for aesthetic reasons (I like the red of cranberries) but reminded me very much of Bea’s White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies she used to make in junior college. Good times.

The cookies were a fantastic idea. It feels great to be back in the kitchen. After a tearjerker film that left my eyes swollen to the point that they suspiciously resembled pink radishes, savouring the cookies was a great pick-me-up and an after-bathing-the-dog relaxation method. My only complaint is the washing up. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t happy washing up (yes I’m quite the strange kitchen chick and have never had anything to say about washing up other than ‘I’ll do it, please!’).

This recipe yields 18 cookies and is actually a recipe I’ve halved due to insufficient butter. I recommend doubling the ingredients and splitting the dough into 2 before fridging for greater satisfaction and yes, greater yield.

Alright then. It’s hand cream, another cup of tea and an earl grey cookie for me now.

Lemon Earl Grey & Cranberry Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients

1 cup flour
114g salted butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 - 3 tbs dried cranberries
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/3 tsp earl grey tea leaves
caster sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 170 d Celsius and grease cookie tray.

Place all dry ingredients,except lemon zest, in a large bowl and whisk together.
In a separate bowl, beat butter till its colour lightens and creamy. Add lemon juice and zest. Next add the dry ingredients and mix it carefully in cutting motions. Bring dough together with hands, banging it altogether to form a ball.
Flatten into a disc, wrap in clingwrap and fridge for 1 hour or till firm enough to handle with hands.

Roll out flat on floured surface to about 1.5cm thickness. Cut out cookies using a cookie cutter and place on greased tray. These cookies don’t spread much but leave at least 4cm space between cookies. Sprinkle generously with caster sugar.
Bake 15 minutes then remove and let cool completely on a wire rack.