Still stuck at home and want some cookies? Make these. It’s an easy Bon Appetit recipe that calls for ingredients that are most likely already at home. Don’t have vanilla beans lying around (who does)? Just use vanilla or another type of extract instead.
I hope wherever you are that you’re more easily able to get flour and (not needed for this recipe) yeast than a couple of months ago. One hopes the supply chain for those goods improves. And what is with the ongoing shortage of toilet paper? Anyway, enjoy these cookies, and wear a goddamn mask when you go out!
What you’ll need:
- 2.25 cups all-purpose flour
- 0.75t ground cardamom
- 0.75t kosher salt
- 0.5 cup granulated sugar
- 2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise (or use about 2t of vanilla extract)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk
- 0.25 cup honey
What to do:
Whisk the flour, cardamom and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
Put the sugar into a large bowl and add whatever kind of vanilla you’re using. Rub the sugar and vanilla together with your fingers until it looks like wet sand. Add the butter and beat the mixture with an electric mixer on medium speed until the mixture is smooth. Now add the egg yolk and honey, and continue beating to combine. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in two stages. When everything is blended, knead the dough a couple of times in the bowl to incorporate any dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl.
Now divide the dough in half and shape it into two 9”-long logs. Wrap each log in parchment paper, then wrap them each tightly in plastic. Roll each log on a surface to make it as round and even as possible. Chill until about 2 hours, until firm.
When getting ready to bake the cookies, heat your oven to 350°F. Gently scatter half of the sanding sugar over a small portion of a work surface. Unwrap a dough log and roll it in sugar, applying enough pressure to help the sugar stick. It’s hard to get it evenly coated, so don’t freak out if it’s not even. Slice the dough into 0.25”– 0.5”-thick rounds, rolling the log every few slices to keep it round. Place the cookie slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing about 2″ apart, and chill.
Repeat the rolling and slicing steps with the other dough log.
Bake the cookies, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the cooking process, until the cookies are golden around the edges but still pale in the center, 13–18 minutes.
Let cool 5 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to let cool completely.
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