Hello! I hope your week is off to an excellent start! This weekend I managed to use 11 sticks of butter in just under 5 hours. It might just be a personal record. I plan on breaking it this Friday when I continue with my holiday baking on my day off. This past weekend I didn’t just bake; we also went to a Grace Potter and the Nocturnals concert, saw the boys, and managed to squeeze in a nap. The nap was very much needed. When a 4 year old tells you that you need to get more rest because you misidentified a roller truck, napping becomes a priority. Apparently my concert recovery is not the same as it used to be. The concert was awesome, even if the woman standing next to me sang every single song off-key at the top of her lungs. To her credit, it was clear that she was super excited to see the show and the fact that she knew all of the words and could sing and tweet at the same time was pretty impressive.
These cookies are impressive too, probably more impressive because they are not off-key. They are everything a vanilla cookie should be: smooth, buttery, crunchy, and vanilla-y. They melt away in your mouth. The first time I made them I brought baggies of them to several people and they were very popular. I had to keep them in the trunk of the car so I wouldn’t eat them on my way to my destination. If you haven’t solidified your Christmas cookie list yet, consider adding these (or the apricot ginger variation I’m going to share with you later this week). They’re on mine!
Notes:
To remove the seeds from the vanilla bean, use a sharp knife to slice the bean length-wise. Run the tip of a spoon along the inside of each pod half to scrape the seeds out. Make sure you only get the seeds out and don’t end up with pieces of the pod. The easiest way to divide the dough in half is to use a scale; if you don’t have a scale, just eyeball it. Use large decorating sugar to coat these cookies. You can use granulated sugar, but it won’t form the nice crunchy coating that makes these cookies so interesting. You should freeze the dough log for at least one hour. I wrap mine in parchment paper and then in a layer of plastic wrap. If needed, you can freeze the shaped dough for about two weeks. Make sure that the dough is frozen when you slice it. Rotate the cylinder every few slices so you don’t flatten one side of the cylinder.
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share
Cookie Ingredients:
2 cups (259 g) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon (2 g) salt
1 cup (2 sticks; 224 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (58 g) powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean pod
Sugar Coating Ingredients:
1 egg white
1 teaspoon cold water
Coarse decorating sugar
Yields about 4 dozen cookies
Whisk, Cream, Mix, Shape, Freeze:
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour and salt, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Use a spoon to scrape the vanilla bean seeds into the butter mixture, and beat until incorporated. Then add the vanilla extract to the butter mixture, and beat again. Add the flour mixture, and beat until just combined and no more flour streaks remain. Divide the mixture in half, and shape it into cylinders that are about 1¼-inches in diameter. To shape the cylinders, first cut two pieces of wax or parchment paper. Pat the dough into a log that is a little bit bigger than 1¼ inches in diameter. Begin to roll the dough to smooth it out into a nice, smooth cylinder. Use a bench scraper or ruler to tuck the wax or parchment paper tight against the dough as your roll it; this will help to pull the dough into a cylinder. Once evenly shaped, wrap the cylinders well, and freeze them on a level surface for at least one hour.
Coat, Slice, Bake:
Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350ºF. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats, and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the egg white and teaspoon of cold water, and beat with a fork until frothy. Remove one of the dough cylinders from the freezer, and remove the wrapping. Place the wax or parchment paper that the cylinder was wrapped in on the counter, and sprinkle some decorating sugar on it. Use a pastry brush to generously coat the cylinder with the egg white mixture. Roll the cylinder in the decorating sugar until the cylinder is heavily coated. If you miss a few spots, that is ok. Place the coated cylinder on a cutting board and use a sharp, thin knife to slice into pieces that are ¼-inch thick. If the edges are not fully coated with the sugar, wheel the edge of the slice through the sugar again until nicely coated. Place the slices on the prepared cookie sheets. Repeat with the second cylinder. Bake the cookies at 350ºF for 12-15 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from the baking sheets and cool on a wire rack. Once fully cooled, store in an airtight container between layers of wax paper.
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