Kastengels / Indonesian Cheese Cookies - An Auspicious Cookie That Looks Like a Little Gold Bar!

&version;"Can you bake kastengels?" asked my friend who came from Indonesia and knows that I like baking...
Kastengel? I don't know anything about kastengel but I love to try baking them...
After several weeks of research, I have managed to bake these kastengel...

Kastengels / Indonesian Cheese Cookies

Prior baking these, I have seen a few kastengel recipes and they claim that they are all good! I want to bake something that is melt-in-the-mouth and not too difficult to handle but not too sure which is the best recipe to use.
Then I saw this recipe from my friend, Alice at her blog, I Love. I Cook. I Bake. and she told me that this recipe is really good and so I baked these...
According to my Indonesian friend, the kastengel recipes that she had tried before had made her cookies spread crazily into fat fingers after baking and so she was constantly disappointed. Based on this observation and also my observation at my Jenny-like cookies post at here, I would strongly recommend the use of canned butter (like Golden Churn or Red Feather) to bake the most melty, stable and good looking silm kastengel as I reckon that the pastry made with regular butter might cause the pastry to expand a lot during baking.

Instead of regular butter, I would strongly recommend using canned butter like Golden Churn or Red Feather or margarine to bake these cookies as the regular butter makes the pastry expand a lot during baking.

These are the cheeses that I used. It is important too to use the right cheese as the different fat and protein content can make the cookies taste very differently.

And of course... These Indonesian cookies must have Edam cheese because these pastries are supposed to be very Dutch influenced.

Here I have grated the cheeses. One (containing both edam and cheddar) is to incorporate into the cookies and another (just cheddar) is to top the cookies.

Then I did this.

Then this.

Arrange the cut pastries neatly on the prepared trays

Brush the pastries with egg wash. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top and bake!
Yay! My kastengels are all so slim looking... like little gold bars!

Salty. Cheesy. Buttery. Melty... Yummy!

Here's the recipe that is mostly adapted from I Love. I Cook. I Bake. and Natural Cooking Club

Makes about 85 cookies

150g (2/3 cup) margarine or salted butter, preferably the canned type at room temperature like Golden Churn or Red Feather
1 egg yolk
50g edam cheese, finely grated
50g cheddar cheese, finely grated
200g (1 1/2 cup) cake flour with 8-9% protein, plus extra for dusting
15g (1 1/2 tbsp) milk powder

Egg wash:

1 egg yolk, light beaten
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil 
- combine to form an egg wash

Topping:

50g grated cheddar cheese to sprinkle

Preheat oven to 300°F or 150°C. Line baking trays, each with one sheet of baking paper.

Using a wooden spoon, beat butter and egg yolk until just combined. Add both cheeses and mix until well incorporated.

Sift in flour and milk powder into the butter mixture and mix until combined. Do not over mix at this stage.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and use a floured rolling pin to roll until the dough is about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick. Use a knife to cut the rolled dough into small rectangles at about 1 x 5 cm (0.5 x 2 inches) each. Gather the unused dough and repeat the rolling and cutting steps until the dough has been used up.

Arrange the cut dough on the prepared baking tray with about 2.5 cm or 1 inches of space in between them. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.

Bake in the preheated oven at 150°C for 20 mins or until golden brown.

Allow the cookies to cool slightly for about 10 mins on the tray and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve whenever the cookies are cooled enough to eat.

Store completely cooled cookies in airtight jars or containers for about 1 week.

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