Berry Burst Flower Cookies

I had a picture in my mind of cute, playful, flower shaped sugar cookies. But I didn’t want those rock hard sugar cookies with a million types of sprinkles, that lacked taste but had frosting carefully piped upon them. I wanted some delicious soft whimsical summer cookies. In my quest to find a basic sugar cookie to build upon, I first went to my favorite cooking site bon appetite. I was scrolling through recipes and wasn’t finding what I wanted. It wasn’t the recipes that were the problem; it was the absence of a story that went along with the cookies. I missed feeling the excitement and love from other blogger about the creations they had made. So I stumbled across a recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction and went with it. I made a few altercations to it and ended up with a delicious, easy, and fun sugar cookie.

Cookie Ingredients:

{ ¾ cup unsalted butter, slightly softened to room temperature /

¾ cup granulated sugar / 1 large egg / 2 teaspoons vanilla extract / 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour /
 ½ cup of almond flour /  teaspoon baking powder / ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon }

Directions:

In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamed and smooth - about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 or 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and vanilla; beat on high until fully combined, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. 

Whisk the flours, baking powder, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Turn the mixer down to low and add about half of the flour mixture, beating until just barely combined. Add the rest of the flour and continue mixing until just combined. If the dough still seems too soft, you can add 1 Tablespoon more flour until it is a better consistency for rolling.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each portion out onto a piece of parchment to about 1/4″ thickness. Stack the pieces (with paper) onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Chilling is mandatory.

Once chilled, preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. The amount of batches will depend on how large/small you cut your cookies. Remove one of the dough pieces from the refrigerator and using a cookie cutter, cut in shapes. Transfer the cut cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used.

Bake for 8-11 minutes, until very lightly colored on top and around the edges. Make sure you rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Instead of going the traditional route and using icing I used lemon curd to top them, along with fresh blueberries and strawberries. Have fun coming up with designs and different flavors. MAKE IT YOUR OWN.