Mini Americaner

When I grew up I loved going to the bakery and get myself a chocolate Americaner. Here in America they are known as half and half cookies. They taste different then what I grew up with.

I couldn't find the recipe I used a few years ago, that is asking for Ammonium carbonate. I didn't have much time to look around either, so I opted to use: Mini Americaner.
The translation:

100g soft butter at room temperature
100g sugar
1 pack vanilla sugar
1 knife tip of salt
2 eggs
250g all purpose flower
45g corn starch
1 pack of baking powder ( or 1 tsp )
1-2 tbsp milk.
1 tsp of baking powder

Mix the vanilla sugar with the white sugar and salt in a bowl. In a different bowl mix the corn starch with the flower.
In a stand mixer add the butter 1 egg and half of the sugar and mix on medium. After 3 minutes start to add 4 tbsp of flower (1 at the time) and mix for another 3-4 minutes. Clean the beater every now and then, so what gets stuck on the beater falls back into the dough.
Stop the mixer, add the other egg and the remaining sugar. Mix on medium for 2 minutes. Add a few more  tbsp of flower (1 at a time) and mix. After another 3-4 minutes, add the milk.
Add more flower 1 tbsp one at the time until you have about 5 tbsp left. Mix the baking powder into the remaining flower.
The dough was really stiff , so I added another 3 tsp of milk to it. It helped. (see notes)
Preheat the oven to 375F
Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. It said 'mini'  so I use an ice cream scoop to portion them.
Bake for 20 minutes. I ended up giving it another 7 minutes. The color was just to pale.
 

Now for the glaze:
Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
powder sugar
Mix both of them until this gets a thick paste.
 
When the Americaner come out of the oven, turn them over and try to make them stand. Cover them with the lemon/powder sugar  glaze. Note, the glaze becomes liquid when it hits the hot cookie, so make sure the flat surface is rather even on a plate. (the reason, why I hand glazed them and them tried to align them to stay rather even)
You can decorate them or not. This time I opted for some decorative sprinkles as well as some chocolate chips.
 

The darker ones are from the lower baking sheet.
 
Notes:
  • This recipe needs even more liquid then what I added on top what is asked for. The surface should be smooth.  
  •  There is a big difference in taste between using baking powder or Ammonium Carbonate. I prefer the original taste.
 - Mahlzeit-








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