Monday 27 October 2008

RECIPE: ‘SEMPERIT’ BISCUITS


I am not sure what these biscuits are called in English but in Malay, they are known as ‘SEMPERIT’. It’s a traditional biscuit and used to be very popular in Malaysia and Singapore but I believe that the introduction of more ‘exotic’ cookies has waned its popularity. I however still enjoy them as they melt in your mouth when you eat them. I guess it’s to do with the custard and corn flour.

This is my mum’s recipe and I had to ‘trial’ the measurements as they were in ‘tins’ and ‘packets’. Try figuring out what a tin of corn flour and butter weighed 20 years ago! Anyway, the cookies came out perfect, as you can see below. Here’s the recipe.


Ingredients

250g butter
200g caster sugar
300g corn flour
100g custard powder
100g plain flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Glazed cherries or sultanas – chopped, for decoration

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C (fan forced). Line baking trays with paper or grease lightly with butter. Set aside.

Beat the butter and the sugar until creamy. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Continue beating until well combined. Add in the vanilla. Beat well.

Sift and combined the flours and using a spoon, mix into the butter mixture, to form‘pressable’ dough.


Now comes the tricky part. Fill a cookies press and press out to desired shapes. Top with cherries. You MAY need to adjust your mixture here. If the dough is too hard, add tea spoon full of butter , and mix to get the desired consistency. If the dough is too soft, add a spoonful of flour until you get the desired results.

Bake for 12 to 13 mins.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow...how cute are your bickies. And I love all your tea sets and dinner wares. Are they yours?? Where did you get the tea set?

Once again, Happy Diwali.

Grace

VG said...

Thank you Grace for your comments.

Yes everthing you see on the blog are my own things. I just love crockery.

The tea set on this post is Royal Albert 'Tranquility'. I actually found it in the classifieds of our local rag. The tea set is over 40 years old and the seller told me that it was a wedding present from his first marriage and that it has never been used. I have seen similar item on www.replacements.com

Hope this helps. VG

Zue Murphy said...

Vg, happy deepavali! If I am near to you I surely want to taste this Samperit. Your cookie is so cute. I too like your plate set.

Salt N Turmeric said...

I love semperit that melts-in-the-mouth. But gotta get the cookie press before i make these sinful cookies.

Tastes of Home said...

lovely!! I love these kind of cookies. Wish we lived nearer to each other! we can have afternoon tea..hehe

Family First said...

Lovely "divali" cookies .. hehehe. Did you have a mini celebration .. me .. just dead tired after 3 days of full-time running after the lil rascal! Used to love public holidays .. but now I dread them!

VG said...

Hi Zue - Thank you for your compliments on my cookies and tea set. If you lived close by, I surely kirim you some cookies. You don't even have to ask!

Apa khabar Farina and thanks for your comment - Cookie press is a good investment even though they can be pricey. But you can use it for icing, cookies, making vermicelli, puttu mayum and murukku! Very versatile.

VG said...

Allo ToH - Afternoon tea?For sure; And dinner and shopping and gossip...you name it. Thanks for your comments.

Dear Joanna - no celebration as such but I am having a few friends around for drinks and nibblies on Saturday. I better 'hide' some of the cookies and cakes as my children have nearly finished raiding them!

I can sympathise with you re your child. I had two, two years apart. Thank god they were girls and not so boisterous. But they sure could scream!!!

Usha said...

These look so cute, pretty and yum...would love to have one right out of the picture :-)

VG said...

Hi Usha - Please help yourself!

How was your Diwali, mate? Hope you had a great one.