To welcome the New Year with something pretty, I decided to try making my own sugar cookies pressed with edible flowers. They were actually really fun and relatively easy to make.
Before you start, make the dough ahead of time. It needs to sit in the fridge for at least an hour and can be left in there for 3 days.
Ingredients
For the cookies
2 tablespoons of goat’s milk yogurt (you can also use creme fraiche)
2 sticks of butter (I used Kerry Gold)
1 cup of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (I used Trader Joe’s pure bourbon vanilla extract)
1 egg
3 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 a teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of grated orange zest (lemon or lime should work too)
For the flowers
2 herb cases of edible flowers (I get mine from Sprouts in the herb refrigerator)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/4 cup of turbinado sugar
Instructions
Make the dough ahead of time, at least 2 hours before you want to start baking your cookies.
In a large mixing bowl, combine yogurt, butter and powdered sugar. Beat together either with a hand or stand mixer.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and orange zest.
Pour the dry ingredients into your larger bowl of wet ingredients and mix.
Once your dough is formed, roll it out onto a floured surface into two round disks about the size of your palm. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge.
~at least an hour later~
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Take the dough out and let it sit for 5 minutes, giving it a couple whacks with your rolling pin to soften it.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about 1/2 or 1/4 inch thick and use a cookie cutter to make your cookies.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Set up your work station. If you got your edible flowers from Sprouts like I did, you’ll want to remove some of the stems or cut the flowers down so they’ll be easier to press, like my video below.
Get two bowls, one to fill with a handful of turbinado sugar and the other for the beaten egg white.
Once your cookies are cooled, bring them to your work station and dip one flower into the egg white at a time, then press them into your sugar cookie. Seal it in with a thin layer of egg white using a small brush. Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top. Repeat.
Once all your cookies have been flowered, pop them back on the baking sheet and into the oven for another 8 – 10 minutes.
You can be arrange the flowers however you like. For smaller flowers I pressed the whole thing in, while for larger I scattered some of the petals throughout. Have fun with it š
*PLEASE make sure you are using edible flowers!
JULIENNE CARROTS 