SOCIAL MEDIA

LENGUAS DE GATO (Cat’s Tongue Cookies)

LENGUA DE GATO PIC1 © BUSOG! SARAP! 2010

KULINARYA COOKING CLUB

 

Kulinarya’s theme for the month of December 2010 is CHRISTMAS HOMEMADE FOODIE GIFTS.

 

Lenguas de Gato (Cat’s Tongue Cookies) are a favourite Christmas cookie treats in the Philippines.  It is also a favourite “pasalubong” (foodie gift/treat) that are sold in bus terminals and roadside pasalubong stalls.  Usually presented in a clear plastic jars with yellow lid and uniformly arranged.  The Lenguas de Gato that I know in my childhood have a very fragile crispy texture with that rich buttery taste.  This recipe comes very close to what I remember it suppose to be.

I will definitely make this when Miss M’s school ask for homemade cookies as the ingredients are already in my pantry cupboard and I always have eggwhites inside the freezer.  I lost count on exactly how many Lenguas de Gato cookies I made as the rest of the TRIBE kept on eating this cookies while I was cooking batch after batch.  So simple to make and very affordable as homemade gifts…….

 

LENGUAS DE GATO (Cat’s Tongue Cookies)  adapted from Kusina ni Manang

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, soften in room temperature

1 1/3 cup white sugar

4 eggwhites, room temperature

1/2 tspn coarse table salt

1 1/2 tspn vanilla essence

1/2 tspn almond essence

1/4 tspn lemon essence

2 cup plain flour, measured then sifted

 

non stick baking paper, pencil and ruler

disposable piping bag & wilton size 12 round tip

2x cookie sheets

*used U.S Measuring Cups & Spoons

LENGUA DE GATO INGREDIENTS © BUSOG! SARAP! 2010

 

COOKING PROCEDURE:

Preheat oven at 190C.

LENGUA DE GATO STEP1-4© BUSOG! SARAP! 2010

~  Cream butter and sugar.  Add in the eggwhites a little bit at a time while your whipping the mixture.  Mix in salt and all the essences, then gradually add in the plain flour in 2x portions.  Beat the mixture until you achieve a very smooth soft dough.

LENGUA DE GATO STEP5-8© BUSOG! SARAP! 2010

~  Cut your non stick baking paper to the same size as your cookie sheet.  Using your pencil and ruler, make rows of lines that are 6cm in length and 3.5cm apart.  Create a distance of 2.5cm between each row.  Once you’ve finished pencil lining your baking paper, flip it over as you will be using the underside to pipe your Lenguas de Gato.

~  Fill up your piping bag halfway with the dough mixture and twist the top of the piping bag.  Using your left hand put a little bit of pressure on top of the piping bag and pipe rows of thin dough mixture on each of the 6cm outlines, while your right hand is guiding the piping bag.  Don’t put too much pressure as it will make your Lenguas de Gato too thick.  The piped out dough mixture should only be a bit bigger than the hole of your piping tip.  To finish each line, just do a backward flick over the end, like you’re wiping your piping tip lightly on top of the piped out dough mixture.

LENGUA DE GATO STEP9-12© BUSOG! SARAP! 2010

~  Place your cookie sheet in the middle of your oven.  Bake for 5 minutes and then rotate pan then bake for further 3-5 minutes, depending on how thick your piped dough mixture is.  Be very careful on the 2nd half of the baking time as this cookies can easily get burnt.

~  Good indication that your Lenguas de Gato is cooked perfectly is when it has golden edges around each cookies.  Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let your baking paper and tray cool down before using them again.  Place the other tray inside the oven while you prepare the following batch.  Keep on piping and baking till you have finished all your dough mixture.

LENGUA DE GATO PIC2 © BUSOG! SARAP! 2010

~  Let the Lenguas de Gato completely cooled down before storing in a cookie jar or wrapped up for homemade gifts.

Makes about 1 dozen cookie bags (about 20-25 Lenguas de Gato on each bag).

 

NOTES:

  • Practice makes perfect, took me 2x trays before I got the hang on what size of Lenguas de Gato I want.  I love the thin ones as they become more crispy than the bigger ones which were more chewier in the middle.
  • You can use a zip lock plastic bag and just cut one of the corners to pipe out your dough mixture.
  • It took me about 1 1/2 hour of piping and baking till I have finished all the dough mixture. 

20 comments :

  1. Lenguas are always a big hit. Thanks for the recipe, Althea!

    ReplyDelete
  2. reminds me of Baguio pasalubong. i could consume a jar of these haha... oh how i remember the buttery taste haha. Merry Christmas Althea!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never made these before. They look yummy. I like the way you piped them out to make then all the same size.

    ReplyDelete
  4. They look wonderful and that's a lot of cookies. I love the last photo, it's very pretty.:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Merry Christmas!! Lenguas are definitely a holiday cookie for me. One of my closest friends always hands out a jar of lenguas around Christmas time. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Enjoy the holidays!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for posting this! I made LDG for my first KCC post, with a recipe adapted from pat Limjuco Dayrit. I will try your recipe sometime soon.

    I made another LDG post on my new site to include the reusable template I made (geek).

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Annapet~ I love your reusable template! Totally cool, I think=)not too geeky at all...

    ReplyDelete
  8. My Spanish teacher gave us an assignment to bring in food from the Spanish culture and tell us a bit about where it came from. So i looked online and found these. They look simple to make and sound yummy. I got my recipe from a different website and the ingredients are slightly different. I hope they turn out good because i already went out and bought the ingredients for it. Also i have a question for you. Where do Lenguas de Gato originate from? Sorry for such a long comment. (: Your notes were very helpful though. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. @brunette16~ Good luck on your baking=) Around the world they have different version of Lenguas de Gato and different procedure too and ingredients. Personally, I haven't got any idea where it originates as the French also have a version of Cat's Tongue cookies...hope somebody can help you where it originally came from=) Happy researching!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous7.11.11

    can i cook/bake this using an oven toaster?

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Anonymous~ I haven't tried cooking/baking Lenguas de Gato in an oven toaster. Why not mix 1/4 of the recipe and try it out, try it first in medium heat and see how it goes...just watch it carefully while cooking as this fragile cookies can easily get burnt.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous5.10.12

    hi.. can i just use vanilla essence?

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Anonymous~ Yes, you can use all vanilla essence...make it 2 tspn.

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a delightful recipe! I love making lenguas and my family gets excited when they smell the baked goodies fresh out of the oven. Your recipe looks terrific. Bookmarked it so I will try it soon. Thanks for sharing, Cusinera!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Cecile19.8.13

    Hi!!!how about the oven??? how much temperature do i have to set...
    thanks..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cecile, look under cooking procedure....190C temp to preheat oven =)

      Delete
  16. carol5.12.13

    Can you give a tip on how best to keep LDG crispy. Mine is crispy but after a while I noticed it became soggy and sticky. Wondering if I should pack it in a container or plastic bag after it cools down right away to keep it fresh and crispy?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Crispiness....base on this recipe will only last for a week at most as this version is not as thin as the ones in the Philippines, so there's more moisture. Just make sure you pack the cookies when it's completely cooled as any warmth will create moisture inside your packet/container =)

      Delete
  17. Anonymous26.1.14

    I just made these, and sorry because sadly they don't taste anything like lengua de gatos. i was so excited but now I'm really disappointed.. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry to hear that....I just been back from Philippines, I know what you mean...as lengua de gato there is more thin, fragile and sweet. Will try to post more versions of this sweet biscuit in the future....I just brought back tons of Filipino cookbooks =)

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Instagram