Stamped Butterfly Blue Shortbread Cookies
These unique shortbread cookies are naturally blue from butterfly pea flower powder, which subtly flavors the dough, with the complementary flavors of cardamom, orange zest, almond extract, and vanilla. For the gorgeous designs on the cookies, press the dough with a variety of your favorite cookie stamps.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- Cookie Stamps
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp butterfly pea flower powder
- ¾ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp freshly grated orange zest
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- ¼ cup cold whole milk
- granulated sugar, for decorating
Instructions
Make the Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, powdered sugar, butterfly pea flower powder, salt, cardamom, orange zest, vanilla, and almond extract, until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, letting it run until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Stamp the Cookies
- Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- For cookies that are exactly the same size and thickness, I recommend weighing the dough (in grams), dividing that number by 24, and cutting the dough into 24 equal pieces.
- Roll each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball, and dust the dough balls with flour.
- Dipping your cookie stamps in flour in between each use, press firmly and evenly down on a dough ball with a cookie stamp, until the dough spreads out just beyond the edge of the stamp. The pressed cookie should be about 1/4 inch thick.
- Remove the stamp from the pressed cookie, and use a round cookie cutter to trim the uneven edges of the cookie.
- Repeat with all the dough balls, then gather up the scraps from the trimmed edges, using those to press 1-2 more cookies.
Chill the Cookies
- Place the stamped cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 20 minutes, while you preheat the oven.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake one pan of cookies at a time, keeping the other refrigerated until needed. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 12-18 minutes. After 12 minutes, if you (very carefully) turn a cookie over with a spatula, the bottom should have no appearance of raw or wet dough. If it seems under-baked, continue to bake the cookies, up to 18 minutes total.Note that if your cookies are larger, thicker, or your pan is more crowded with the cookies placed close together, they will take longer to bake. This is NOT a cookie that you want to under-bake, since a doughy, under-baked shortbread cookie does not have a pleasant texture. So be sure your cookies are fully baked.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar for a sparkly finish.
Video
Notes
You can bake the cookies in advance, store in an airtight container, and freeze for up to 3-6 months.
These cookies would also be beautiful for the holidays, using green tea matcha powder, instead of the blue butterfly pea flower powder.
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