My Baking Adventures

Yay! The cookies are coming! I had the good fortune to come across the Cookie Carnival blog site, and I made it in time to join in for the April recipe.

The rules are quite simple - Kate selects a recipe, all the members make it and post it, and then we get to eat it. (Ok, I’ll confess, I ate one before I actually posted it).

This months recipe was Vanilla Bean Thins, from Gourmet Magazine. This particular recipe was tricky to work with. It’s a sugar cookie type dough, made very quickly in the food processor. In fact, I was surprised at the mixing method - it reminded me of a tart crust dough. I am thinking of using this recipe next time I make a tart!

I had a bit of trouble rolling the dough - again, because it was very crumbly. I had to work it a bit to get it to come together. I also could not seem to roll it as thin as the recipe directs - less than 1/8″. No way!! I ended up making them thicker - 1/4″. I cut out my diamond shapes and into the oven they went. Since they were thicker, they took longer to cook than the stated 10-15 minutes.

Well, I am happy to tell you that these are fantastic!! They are much lighter in texture than a standard sugar cookie and the flavor is really pleasant - not too sweet, with plenty of vanilla flavor from the vanilla bean. Definitely a keeper!

Vanilla Bean Thins - Gourmet Magazine

Ingredients

1 fresh vanilla bean, split lengthwise

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg yolk

Preparation

Make vanilla sugar:

Scrape vanilla seeds from pod with tip of a knife into confectioners sugar. Halve pods crosswise and bury in sugar. Cover tightly and let stand at least 24 hours and up to 1 month.

Make cookies:

Discard pods and transfer vanilla sugar to a food processor. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse just until mixture is in pea-size lumps. Add yolk and pulse just until a dough forms. Gather dough into 2 balls, then flatten into 2 (5-inch) disks and chill, each disk wrapped well in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Roll out 1 disk (keep the other chilled) to less than 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Cut out shapes with floured cookie cutter and chill scraps. Arrange cookies 1/2 inch apart on a buttered large baking sheet. Make more cookies with remaining dough, rerolling scraps (but only once).

Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.