My Cigarette Butter Cookies are very similar to the cigarette shaped cookie from the famous Japanese confectionery brand, Yoku Moku. You only need 4 ingredients to make these fancy butter cookies and a mere 6 minutes to bake!
I used two methods of making large thin circular cookies - (1) use the back of a spoon to draw a circle and (2) use a hand-made stencil. The instructions include both methods.Total Time is based on baking cookies in three batches. Prep Time includes time to roll cookies into cigarette shapes but it does not include time taken to make a stencil.
No 'MEAL IDEAS' today as you would eat Cigarette Butter Cookies at tea time or at any time you feel like it.
- 1 egg white (34g / 1.2oz, note 1)
- 34 g / 1.2oz butter melted (note 2)
- 30 g / 1oz flour sifted (note 3)
- 10 g / 0.4oz almond meal/flour sifted (note 3)
- 40 g / 1.4oz caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- ⅛ tsp vanilla bean paste or a ⅓few drops of vanilla essence (optional)
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Heat the oven to 170°C / 338°F.
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Add egg white and sugar in a bowl. Using a whisk, mix well (do not whip) so that the sugar mostly dissolves.
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Add the butter to the bowl and mix well.
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Add ⅓ of the flour to the bowl and mix. Then add the rest of the flour and almond meal to the bowl and mix well.
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Add the vanilla bean paste/essence if using to the bowl and mix well. The batter should be quite soft. If you lift the whisk up, the batter peaks but then bends straight away (note 10).
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Cut a sheet of baking paper to just fit in a large baking tray.
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On the back of the baking paper, draw 3-4 circles with a diameter of 11cm / 4¼” (note 4). The circles need to be 2-3cm / 1" apart from each other. Place the baking paper on the tray.
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Drop a bit more than 1 tablespoon of the batter in the centre of each circle on the tray.
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Using the back of a spoon, spread the batter evenly to fill each circle. Make sure that the batter in the centre of the circles is not too thin. Thickness should be about 1mm / 3⁄64“.
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Cut a plastic sheet of about 1mm thick (note 5) into a rectangle shape so that you can draw a 11cm / 4¼” diameter circle with 2-3cm / 1" margin on three slides and more margin on the 4th side. Cut out the plastic along the circle and make an off-centred circle stencil (note 6).
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Cut a sheet of baking paper to just fit in a baking tray and place it on the tray.
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Place the stencil at the corner of the tray and drop a bit more than 1 tablespoon of batter on one end of the circle.
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Using an icing spatula, push the batter to the other end of the circle, filling the entire circle with the batter. If there are are unfilled patches, collect excess batter and fill the patches using the same technique.
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Gently remove the stencil. Repeat until the tray is filled with circles but ensure that circles are 2-3cm / 1" apart from all directions.
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Place the tray in the middle shelf of the oven and bake for about 5½-6 minutes (note 7) or until the outside of the cookies becomes light brown.
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Remove the tray from the oven, peel one cookie off the baking paper. The cookie should be floppy.
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Pick up the edge of the cookie on your side and start rolling on the tray (note 8). If you are not sure of how tight the roll needs to be, place a chopstick on the cookie and roll around it.
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Continue rolling away from you until the end. Hold the roll for 5 seconds or so to secure the end.
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Roll the rest of the cookies in the same way. Transfer them to a cooling rack.
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Repeat the steps above (excluding Making Batter) until you use up the batter (note 9).
1. The quantity of the other ingredients is suited for the egg white weighing 33-36g / 1.2-1.3oz. A whole egg in shell weighing 55-60g / 1.9-2oz would have the egg white in this range.
2. The weight of butter should be the same as the egg white. If your egg white is 36g / 1.3oz, make the butter 36g / 1.3oz.
I used the microwave for 20 seconds to partially melt the butter, then mixed vigorously to melt the rest with the residual heat. You need to melt butter completely.
3. You don’t need to use almond meal. If not using, replace it with flour, i.e. 40g / 1.4oz flour in total.
4. You can vary the diameter of the circle. The size of the circle determines number of circles you can draw on each sheet of baking paper.
5. I bought a plastic folder from a discount shop to make this stencil.
6. Leaving more room on the plastic on one end makes it easier to catch the excess batter.
7. Depending on the thickness of the batter and the strength of your oven, the time to bake cookies varies. When the outside of the cookies becomes light brown, they are ready.
8. The cookie becomes hard as it cools down so it is important to roll the cookies on the tray even if the tray and the cookies are hot.
9. To speed up the process of baking a few cookies at one time, I used two baking trays. While baking one batch, I got the circles of batter ready on the 2nd tray. As soon as I took the first tray out of the oven, I put the 2nd tray in and worked on rolling the baked cookies.
When you spread the batter on the tray for the second time, you might find that the tray is too hot and the batter becomes runny. In this case, place the baking paper on the work bench, spread the batter on the paper, then transfer the paper to the tray.
10. See the photo in the post.
If your kitchen is very cold, the batter will become harder and can be difficult to spread. If it happens, fill a small amount of warm water in a bowl and place the bowl of batter on the warm water. The batter should become softer as you mix it.
11. Nutrition per cigarette cookie.
serving: 15g calories: 58kcal fat: 3.3g (5%) saturated fat: 1.8g (9%) trans fat: 0.1g polyunsaturated fat: 0.2g monounsaturated fat: 1g cholesterol: 7.3mg (2%) sodium: 28mg (1%) potassium: 17mg (0%) carbohydrates: 6.5g (2%) dietary fibre: 0.2g (1%) sugar: 4.1g protein: 0.9g vitamin a: 2% vitamin c: 0% calcium: 0.3% iron: 1%