Shiroi Koibito ~ 白い恋人 with Royal Icing Decoration for Valentine

While I was doing a research online on how to do the famous Hokkaido souvenier "Shiroi Koibito" (Chocolat Blanc et Langue de Chat) biscuit, I learn to understand many interesting facts...

1. Based on the company website (http://www.ishiya.co.jp/language/en/shiroi_koibito/), the biscuit is actually combination of langue de chat cookie and white chocolate.

2. A langue de chat is a white cookie that’s baked until the edges brown, which I finally found out that they are actually the Lidah Kucing (Cat's tongue) cookie that I always eat during new year festive in Indonesia. (Didnt know that I have been eating French cookie all this while)

Valentine is around the corner, I was thinking to do something fun instead of plain looking cookie. Maybe I can save my pocket money and give this to my BOSS as present :) 

I would suggest to do only a few for decoration and keep the rest as it is else your sugar level will go up really fast, as we are using royal icing for the beautiful decoration. 

First, let me share with you the Shiroi Koibito recipe, however I did a round shape instead of the original square as I did not own any square mould.

Based on the hint at the company website that state:

"The dough is made by mixing equal amounts of sugar and butter that has softened at room temperature, and adding flour, egg white and vanilla. And White chocolate is sandwiched between the freshly baked langue de chat biscuits."

I Google around for the Langue de Chat recipes and finally decided with this combination:

Ingredients:

2 egg whites (should weigh around 60-65g)

60g butter (softened at room temperature around 30 min)

60g icing sugar

60g flour

1-2 tsp of vanilla essence

120g white/dark chocolate bar (you can use Meiji white chocolate)

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add half of the egg white and mix well and then add the rest of the egg white and cream until the batter is smooth. Add vanilla essence and mix well.

3. Add half of the flour and mix well and then add the rest of the flour and mix till well blend. (Please note not to overmix because it will make for tough biscuits)

4. Pipe out a thin layer of the batter into a silicone matt into the shape you desired. (I use the macaron matt and it come out a nice round shape cookie)
Tip: Do not pipe out too thick a layer as your biscuit will no come out crisp.

5. Bake in the preheated oven at 190C for 8-10min or until the edges turned golden brown. Leave them cool on the rack for at least 10 min.

6. Melt 120g white chocolate over a double boiler and once the chocolate start to melt  remove from heat and stir to melt all the chocolate completely. Let the chocolate cool and harden up a little bit.

7. Sandwich 2 biscuits with the chocolate cream. Once they are completely cool, store them in an air-tight container and consume as soon as possible or as long as you can resist.

Now, I am sharing with you the Royal Icing decoration part. 

Ingredients:
1 egg white
225g icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice 

Directions:
1. Beat egg white for a while, add half of the icing sugar and mix well and then add the rest of the icing sugar and whisk for about 5 min. 
2. Add lemon juice and continue to whisk until the ingredients form a thick, smooth paste that is bright white in color and has the consistency of toothpaste. Add more lemon juice if its too thick. 
3. If you are not using immediately, cover the surface of the icing with clingfilm to stop it drying out and refrigerate. 
Tip: You can do this one day in advance and store in the refrigerator.
4. Divide the paste into several bowls and mix each bowl with the color you desired.
You can use the wilton color gel.

5. Put each royal icing into a piping bag fitted with the smallest nozzle that you have. If you do not have the nozzle you can cut the tip of the piping bag and work with it just like me.

6. Start with doing the background, first by doing the outline and then fill up the whole area. 
Tip: If your paste is too thick to do filling, add a few drop of water into the icing and mix well then it will be easier for you to do the filling. It will be good if you separate the icing to do the lining and filling. Meaning, for each colour you should have 2 piping bag.

7. Let the background icing dry up for at least one hour before you design your cookie with some letter or dots unless you are doing flood on flood. Let your cookies dry for at least 24 hours before you package them. 

I know I am not good in explaining the royal icing decoration part, and I believe video is the best way to explain and I found this lady has done a great job and best part its for valentine design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDVMKgjCJDk&feature=c4-overview&list=UU3I0VtPUgUkhLpggtt7iIpw

And there are good tips explain by this blogger as well

http://sweetopia.net/2009/09/how-to-decorate-cookies-with-royal-icing-top-10-tips/

So lets be creative and do more design for this coming valentine day and who say valentine is only for lover, you can give these beautiful cookies to your friends and colleagues on this special day. And best part, you can try this on any cookie like my peanut butter cookie or on your favourite cookie.

Enjoy!!!!

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