Goat butter boterkoek

If you know a little bit about Dutch cookies you should be familiar with boterkoek. Boterkoek a type of cookie that is baked in a pan and cut into wedges after baking. In that it's similar to shortbread. The big difference is that boterkoek is not crunchy or crumbly at all but chewy and dense.
I think the reason why it's so dense and chewy is because it is underbaked and doesn't contain baking soda or baking powder. The amount of butter is high but there are other cookie recipes that have that amount of butter but that are not chewy the way this cookie is. As you might have guessed it tastes very buttery. And since I'm addicted to butter I love me a wedge of boterkoek ;)
I made this one with goat butter instead of regular butter, an idea I picked up in Jonah Freud's book 'Koekje'. I didn't use his recipe though but used one from the Dutch standard cookbook Het Nieuwe Haagse Kookboek.
It wasn't the first time I used goat's diary in (sweet) baking but it was the first time I used goat butter. The texture of goat butter is different than that of cow butter. The only comparison that came to mind was the fat you'd find on gravy made with butter after it cools down and the fat becomes solid again but than not as soft....hope this makes sense to you. Maybe the difference in texture had to do with the fact that I used organic goat butter and it was produced the old fashioned way? Or maybe goat milk fat just looks and feels different from cow's.
Also goat butter is much whiter than cow butter but maybe that's a Dutch thing because here cow butter contains a natural food colouring to give the illusion that cows have been grazing fresh green grass all year round. I remember that the butter I bought in Tel Aviv was much whiter (but not as white as the goat's butter though).
The goat butter gives the cookie a slight goat-y taste, a taste I liked a lot. But even though I liked this cookie a lot, I still prefer the traditional with cow butter. I think that's just because it is such a well known and familiar taste. The chewiness of the cookie was less than the ones I had with cow butter. Maybe due to the different texture of the goat butter.

Oh, and in case you are a Dutch cookie connaisseur and you're wondering were the diamand shaped pattern is.... I did make it before baking but it disappeared during baking, I'm blaming this on the goat butter too ;)



Goat butter boterkoek (adapted from Het Nieuwe Haagse Kookboek by F.M. Stoll and W.H. de Groot)

serves 10

200 g (7 oz) flour
175 g (6 ¼ oz) goat butter
150 g (5 ¼ oz) caster sugar
½ small egg
¼ ts salt
other ½ egg for brushing

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter a 20 cm (8 in) springform or tart pan. Put everything except the ½ egg for brushing in a bowl. Cut the butter into the the rest of the ingredients. Knead briefly to get a smooth dough. Press the dough into the pan. Make a shallow diamand shaped pattern into the dough.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Half way through the baking time brush the egg on top leaving the rims unbrushed. Allow to cool in the pan.