Learn how to make the popular Hong Kong Jenny Bakery butter flower cookies at home. The recipe doesn’t require using a special golden churn salted butter and the cookies maintain their shapes. All the tips you need to know to make this successfully at home.
What is Jenny Bakery Butter Flower Cookie?
To get a hold of Jenny butter cookies, you need to position yourself in a long queue in Hong Kong or basically anywhere you see Jenny Bakery shop. This Hong Kong-based bakery shop sells the famous melt-in-mouth butter cookies since 2005 with its signature stacks of flower designs or they call it butter flower cookies. The cookies are packed in a cookie tin with a teddy bear design on them. Jenny butter cookies are also known as smart bear cookies. The cookies are also made fresh daily at the shop. The bakery now has branches in other countries too. Too bad, there isn’t one in the U.S. yet.
What makes Jenny Bakery Butter Cookies so good?
I haven’t personally tried one myself. My sister and friends in Singapore rave about how good the cookies are though. The cookies are buttery, smooth, airy, and melt-in-mouth. The texture of the cookies should be something like this: it snaps when you take that first bite and when you put it inside your mouth, it melts in the mouth.
Ingredients
If you look at the ingredients of Jenny bakery butter cookies, there are only 5 ingredients for the original flavor: Wheat flour, icing sugar, butter, cornstarch, and salt. Here are the ingredients I used:
1. Butter
There are many discussions out there on the type of butter you should use to make Jenny bakery cookies. Many insisted that you MUST use a special golden churn salted butter. Because the butter is preserved with salt, it doesn’t require refrigeration. The butter also gives the cookie a very stable structure. With this recipe, you don’t need to use golden churn salted butter, BUT you do want to use a high-quality butter that has at least 82% fat content. I find that American butter mostly has about 80% so I will aim for European butter, which typically has 82-83% fat content. I use Kerry Gold pure Irish butter for this recipe.
2. Icing sugar
Icing sugar will give cookies that melt-in-mouth texture. I recommend using store-bought icing sugar for consistency
3. Salt
I usually use fine-grain sea salt. You can omit the salt if you use salted butter
4. Cake flour
The cake flour I use has a gluten content of about 8%. I do not recommend making your own cake flour for this particular recipe (by using cornstarch and all-purpose flour). Real cake flour is made with softer wheat.
5. Cornstarch
Cornstarch also gives the cookie that melt-in-mouth texture. Please do not substitute with other starch
How to bake Jenny Bakery butter cookies at home
1. I take the butter out from the fridge and cut it into small pieces and let them sit at room temperature for about an hour (it’s winter here when I made this). The butter really needs to be soft but not melty. If you have a thermometer, the butter should measure around 71 F (22 C). You need to able to easily press the butter with your fingers and it leaves an indentation. It is very important that the butter is really soft
2. Use a hand mixer or stand mixer with a paddle attachment and beat the butter over medium speed. Scrape the side of the bowl so you get all the butter and beat again until creamy.
3. Add the icing sugar and salt and mix it around with the butter so it doesn’t fly all over the place
4. Start with the lowest speed and beat the butter and sugar again and then increase speed to medium and continue to beat until the butter turns pale and creamy. You want to maintain the temperature around room temperature 68-77 F (20-25 C). If it’s really hot where you are, you may need a bowl of ice underneath when you beat the butter, unless you are in an air-conditioned room
5. Once the butter is pale and creamy, sift in the cake flour and cornstarch (and matcha or cocoa powder if that’s the flavor you are making)
6. Use a spatula to combine. It may seem dry at first but just keep mixing until the dough consistency is creamy and paste-like. You should be able to use a spatula to easily smear the dough on the bowl. This is the consistency we want
7. I use an open-star tip (Wilton 6B). You can also drop flower (Wilton 2C) I wish I have a large nozzle to make piping a bit easier, but it’s still doable. Transfer the cookie dough to the piping bag. I suggest not filling it up too much, maybe just 1/3 or 1/2 of the dough to make piping easier.
8. With one hand holding the bag and your pointer finger holding the tip steady, make sure you are holding the bag upright. Hold the piping tip about 1 cm away from the pan. Start to squeeze and move upward to create the first layer and continue to move upward steadily until you get 4 layers and then press the tip down on the dough and twist to “cut off” the dough. Pipe about 2-inch apart. The cookie won’t spread too much, but will spread some and this is normal
9. The piping part is also very important. If you do not pipe straight, and the flower design doesn’t “align” the cookie dough will skew and fall to either left or right during baking. For beginners, I recommend piping a maximum of 3-4 layers only until you get better at piping really straight with the flowers aligned (I still need lots of practice myself as you can see the cookies at the back did not have aligned flower. Practice makes perfect). The more layers you pipe, the more likely the dough will fall down or skew to one side after baked if your piping is not straight
10. I highly recommend chilling the dough in the freezer (not refrigerator) for a minimum of 1 hour. This also helps to maintain the flower design much better
10 minutes before you plan to bake, preheat the oven to 320 F (180 C) for a conventional oven. For a convection oven, lower the temperature by 20 degrees. I recommend baking one tray at a time and keeping the rest in the freezer while waiting
11. Bake at the middle rack for 20-25 minutes or until just lightly golden brown. You don’t want to overbake the cookies. Rotate the pan from front to back halfway through baking so they bake evenly. The cookies will spread a bit to the side but you can still see the flower design and not all blurred out
12. The cookies will “fall down” a bit in height and shorter than the dough you piped before baking and that is expected, but the flower design should not be blurred and disappeared altogether. Let the cookies cool down on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to let them cool down completely and then store in an air-tight container at room temperature for weeks
Summary of tips for success
1. Make sure to use high-quality European butter (doesn’t have to be tinned butter)
2. The butter needs to be REALLY soft, but it’s not melty
3. Beat the butter and sugar until they are creamy, pale, and fluffy
4. Use cake flour and do not make your own cake flour by combining all-purpose flour and cornstarch. Not with this recipe if you want to achieve that melt-in-mouth and airy texture
5. You should be able to smear the dough with your spatula. The texture is creamy and paste-like. If your texture is not like that, and the dough is stiff, then add a bit of milk and mix again to get to that consistency so you can pipe it easier
6. Use a strong durable piping bag or double up on the bag to prevent it from bursting as this dough has a bit more resistant when you pipe but shouldn’t be too hard to pipe
7. Hold the piping bag straight, about 1 cm from the tray and pipe steadily and continuously. Press down on the dough with the tip when you are done and twist the tip slightly to “cut off” the dough
8. Chill the piped cookie dough in the freezer for at least 1 hour
9. Bake at low temperature and rotate the pan front to back halfway through baking
How to store homemade Jenny Bakery butter cookies
Simply let the cookies cool down completely on the cooling rack and then transfer to an air-tight container or cookie tin if you have one and they can be kept at room temperature for weeks
Did you make this recipe?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
Recipe is adapted from here with some modifications.
Homemade Hong Kong Jenny Bakery Butter Flower Cookies
Ingredients
Please measure the ingredients by weight
For original flavor:
- 125 gr European butter (with at least 82% fat) really soft
- 45 gr icing sugar
- â…› tsp salt
- 125 gr cake flour
- 45 gr cornstarch
For matcha flavor:
- 125 gr European butter (with at least 82% fat) really soft
- 45 gr icing sugar
- â…› tsp salt
- 115 gr cake flour
- 40 gr cornstarch
- 5 gr matcha powder you can add more if you like it more intense
For cocoa flavor:
- 125 gr European butter (with at least 82% fat) really soft
- 45 gr icing sugar
- â…› tsp salt omit if your butter is salted
- 115 gr cake flour
- 40 gr cornstarch
- 10 gr cocoa powder Dutch-processed recommended
For adjustment:
- ½ tsp milk (room temperature) or more, for adjustment
Instructions
Things to prepare before start making the cookie dough:
- I take the butter out from the fridge and cut it into small pieces and let them sit at room temperature for about an hour (it's winter here when I made this). The butter really needs to be soft but not melty. You need to able to easily press the butter with your fingers and it leaves an indentation. It is very important that the butter is really soft
- Make sure you have a sturdy and strong piping bag. Double up to two layers if you need to prevent the bag from bursting. The cookie dough is pipeable consistency but has a bit more resistant compared to other piped cookie dough I had worked with before
- Line baking tray with parchment paper. Even if you don't, the cookie actually won't stick to the tray after baking and can be easily removed
- Prepare about 1 Tbsp of milk (room temperature). You may or may not need this to adjust the consistency of the cookie dough
Prepare the cookie dough:
- Use a hand mixer or stand mixer with a paddle attachment and beat the butter until creamy over medium speed. Add the icing sugar and salt and mix it around with the butter so the sugar doesn't fly all over the place. Start with the lowest speed and beat the butter and sugar again and then increase speed to medium and continue to beat until the butter turns pale and creamy. You want to maintain the temperature around room temperature 68-77 F (20-25 C). If it's really hot where you are, you may need a bowl of ice underneath when you beat the butter, unless you are in an air-conditioned room
- Once the butter is pale and creamy, sift in the cake flour and cornstarch (and matcha or cocoa powder if that's the flavor you are making). Use a spatula to combine. It may seem dry at first but just keep mixing until the dough consistency is creamy and paste-like. You should be able to use a spatula to easily smear the dough on the bowl. This is the consistency we want
- Important tips: If your cookie dough looks like a ball of dough, then you need to add a bit of milk, start with 1/2 teaspoon of milk and then mix again with a spatula until you can smear the dough with your spatula. If the dough is too solid, you will have a hell of a hard time trying to pipe that dough (trust me I've been there!)
- After you transfer to a piping bag and when you try to pipe and it's extremely hard to pipe the dough out because it's too stiff, get the dough out from the bag and adjust again by adding a bit more milk usually helps to make it pipe easier. You just want to add a teaspoon at a time. You don't want to add too much
Piping the dough:
- I use an open-star tip (Wilton 6B). You can also drop flower (Wilton 2C) I wish I have a large nozzle to make piping a bit easier, but it's still doable. Transfer the cookie dough to the piping bag. I suggest not filling it up too much, maybe just 1/3 or 1/2 of the dough to make piping easier
- With one hand holding the bag and your pointer finger holding the tip steady, make sure you are holding the bag upright. Squeeze and move upward to create the first layer and continue to move upward steadily until you get 4 layers and then press the tip down a bit on the cookie dough and twist to "cut off" the dough. Pipe about 2-inch apart. The cookie won't spread too much, but will spread some and this is normal
- Important tips: The piping part is also very important. If you do not pipe straight, and the flower design doesn't "align" the cookie dough will skew and fall to either left or right during baking. For beginners, I recommend piping a maximum of 3-4 layers only until you get better at piping really straight with the flowers aligned (I still need lots of practice myself). The more layers you pipe, the more likely the dough will fall down or skew to one side after baked
Chill the piped dough:
- I highly recommend chilling the dough in the freezer (not refrigerator) for a minimum of 1 hour (2 hours if possible). This also helps to maintain the flower design much better
- 10 minutes before you plan to bake, preheat the oven to 320 F (160 C) for a conventional oven. For a convection oven, lower the temperature by 20 degrees. I recommend baking one tray at a time and keeping the rest in the freezer while waiting
Baking:
- Bake at the middle rack for 20-25 minutes or until just lightly golden brown. You don't want to overbake the cookies. Rotate the pan from front to back halfway through baking so they bake evenly
- The cookies will spread a bit to the side or "fall down" a bit in height and shorter than the dough you piped before baking and that is expected, but the flower design should not be blurred and disappeared altogether.
Cooling down:
- Let the cookies cool down on the tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to let them cool down completely and then store in an air-tight container at room temperature for weeks
4 comments
It’s a great recipe to follow & bake. I tried baking your recipe & it turned out good.
When I bite into it, it crumbles n melts in my mouth. It taste great too tho I reduced the amount of sugar to about 38 gm. Is it suppose to hv a drying effect in my mouth as it crumbles? Thanks
Hi Andy, It shouldn’t feel dry though. It should melt in your mouth. If it feels dry and crumbly after baking, there’s a possibility that the oven temperature is too hot and/or cookies are baked a bit too long maybe?
Thanks for your reply. Maybe I shd reduce baking time for my next batch.
Is it possible that we reduce the amount of corn flour & increase the cake flour? By How much can we do that? What’s your recommendation?
Cos I discovered that the folds of the cookie are very delicate & they break very easy when I store them. Also, I want to reduce the melt in your mouth texture.
You can probably try to use all-purpose flour or pastry flour instead of cake flour if you want a firmer texture.