Langue de Chat

Langue de Chat, literally translate to Cat's Tongue because of its shape, is a classic French biscuit that is light and buttery. A short write up on Wikipedia suggests that they are part of the petits fours sec which also includes macarons, baked meringues and puff pastries. It is common to see them being served with ice creams, desserts and coffee/tea nowadays.

I came about this biscuit earlier this year as I flipped through my (current) favorite recipe book Ladurée (luxurious little book with its velvety cover and gold lined pages =X) for simple recipes that will use up the extra egg whites from another bake. Since it was Chinese New Year, I naturally picked something that will be easy for guests to eat and easy for me to prepare! It was also the first time I had my hands on piping. Boy, it was difficult; my biscuits were crooked and inconsistent. Nonetheless, the flavour was still superb and they were polished off quickly!

It wasn't until recently when my bestie sent me a photo from Vietnam showing a box of langues de chat that I suddenly thought of making these wonderful little snacks again. I'm glad that my piping skills had since improved and my langues de chat look more decent now! =P

Langue de Chat (recipe from Ladurée, makes about 50)
 125g     Butter, unsalted, soften
 100g     Confectioner's Sugar (original 160g)
 1 pkt     Vanilla Sugar or 2 tsp Sugar + 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
    2        Egg Whites
 160g     Cake Flour, sifted

(I assumed original recipe is not prepared with a stand mixer)
Preheat oven to 160ºC
1. With the paddle attachment, cream Butter till creamy. Add the Confectioner's Sugar and continue till light and fluffy. 

2. Add the Vanilla Sugar, beat till combined before adding the Egg Whites in 2 additions till fully incorporated.

3. Slowly stir in the Cake Flour with a wooden spoon till a smooth batter forms. The consistency is thick and rather stiff.

4. Fit a piping bag with a 5mm plain piping tip (or snip a 5mm opening off a piping bag) and fill it with the batter. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pipe 6cm long strips. Leave about 1" gap between each as they spread slightly when baking.

5. Bake for 10-12 mins until the edges are golden brown. Leave to cool on baking sheet till room temperature before removing them. If not eating immediately (highly recommended though!!), store in an airtight container as they soften really fast!

Optional
6. Melt some chocolate of choice (dark/milk chocolate or white chocolate with desired food colouring) over double boiler. Dip half of the biscuit into it and allow the chocolate to set completely before storage. Personally, I like these biscuits just as they are but if you are serving them to guests, this is a great option to "beautify" them. =)

I haven't had the chance to taste an authentic French langue de chat (I'm not considering 白色恋人 - Shiroi Koibito as authentic) so I don't know how they are supposed to be like. However, I did realize that they only remain crisp and crunchy for a short period. Even when storing in an airtight container, the center gets soft and chewy quite fast. I'm not sure if they are supposed to be that way although the flavours are still amazing for something so simple!

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