Langues de chat, French for “cat’s tongue,” are wafer-thin and elegant butter cookies that are surprisingly simple to make – the only special equipment you really need is a piping bag. This classic recipe is courtesy of the talented pastry chef JR Ryall at the iconic Ballymaloe House Hotel in Ireland.

In his new cookbook Ballymaloe Desserts, Chef Ryall shares more about his recipe. “I love making these thin biscuits (cookies) dangerously long – so long that they sometimes snap more easily than I would wish. I was inspired to start making langues de chat after interning in the pastry kitchen at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, many years ago. While I was there, my dear friend Sarah Johnson taught me how to make these delicate biscuits, and now there is often a tall glass of them on the dessert trolley at Ballymaloe. Langues de chat make a lovely accompaniment to fruit jellies and fools, light mousses and set creams, as well as ice creams and sorbets. They are also very nice with tea or coffee. The langues de chat I learned to make at Chez Panisse were lightly sugared on top, though when I make them I often decorate them with different toppings: chopped green pistachios are a favourite; sliced almonds or coconut flakes are also delicious and fun.”

Serve with JR Ryall’s Blackberry Sorbet.

A glass with biscuits photographed on a white surface with a light pink wall in the background

Langues de Chat

JR Ryall's take on a classic cookie recipe from the new Ballymaloe Desserts cookbook.

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Course cookies, Dessert, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine French, Irish

Servings 30 biscuits

Ingredients

¼ cup unsalted butter
⅓ cup superfine sugar
2 large (US extra-large) egg whites at room temperature
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
scant ½ cup all-purpose flour
pinch salt
3-4 tbsp demerara (turbinado) sugar for sprinkling
chopped pistachios or almonds or flaked coconut, for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Line a large flat baking sheet with baking paper. Fold the paper in half and open it out again to mark a crease down the centre; this line is helpful when piping the biscuits.
Cream the butter and the sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly add the egg whites and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Sift over the flour and salt and fold everything together until combined.
Transfer the mixture to a canvas piping (pastry) bag fitted with a 5-mm/⅕-inch-wide circular tip.
Pipe the mixture onto the lined baking sheet in long pencil-like strips: using the crease in the baking paper as a guide, start piping each biscuit 2 cm/1 inch from the crease and stop piping when you get near the edge of the paper. Leave a gap of 3 cm/1½ inches between each langue de chat.
Place the baking sheet in the oven for 1 minute, to allow the mixture to melt and flatten out. Remove from the oven and lightly sprinkle the sugar and chopped nuts, if using, on top of each langue de chat. Return the tray to the oven and bake for 5–7 minutes. The underside of each biscuit should be light golden around the edge and still slightly pale in the centre.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet. Once cool, the langues de chat will be crisp. Gently lift each langue du chat from the baking sheet and store it in an airtight container until needed.