Spring Pansy Cookies

Although it may be Spring, you wouldn’t know it in Colorado, we keep getting snow!  In all fairness, March is our snowiest month and considering the serious drought we have been in I am grateful for the moisture.  BUT – I am so ready for flowers to bloom in my yard.

 

I decided if I couldn’t have flowers in my yard yet then I would learn how to pipe flowers onto a cookie.  Thanks to Martha Stewart (she normally frustrates me instead of teaching me anything) I learned how to pipe pansies!  I didn’t go into great detail because truly, her how-to video is very explanatory.

 

I learned how to make a Pâte Sucrée Dough in my French Pastry Class that is a great basic tart dough but an even better sugar cookie.  It’s not too sweet which makes it the perfect candidate for a cookie in which you want to top it with something sweet.  I decided to top mine with white royal icing and buttercream pansies.  I provided the Pâte Sucrée recipe here and links to the icing and frosting.

 

Spring Pansy Cookies

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Pâte Sucrée dough (see below)

Royal Icing

Light Purple, Dark Purple, and Yellow Buttercream Frosting

 

Pâte Sucrée

taken from the Cook Street French Pastry Techniques Study Manual

 

2 large eggs cold

1 t. vanilla extract

12 oz. all-purpose flour

4 oz. sugar

1/2 t. baking powder

8 oz. unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/8 t. salt

 

Combine the eggs and vanilla and set aside.  Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the butter to the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the butter is broken into small pieces.  While the mixer is running add the egg mixture in a steady stream.  Stop the mixer as soon as the dough comes together.  Knead a few times by hand until the dough comes together in a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.  Roll out the dough into about an 1/8 inch and cut with a cookie cutter.  Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for about 5 to 8 minutes or until slightly browned.  Let cool completely.

Make the royal icing and flood the tops of the cookies with the icing.  Smooth with an offset spatula.  Let icing dry for at least 30 minutes or until firm to the touch.

Make a batch of buttercream frosting and color a small amount yellow, set aside.  Divide the remaining buttercream in half and color one half light purple and the other half a slightly darker purple.

With a petal tip, the wide part of the tip down, pipe two petals of light purple and then two additional light purple petals on top of the original two petals.  With the same size tip pipe a darker purple petal around the bottom of the petals in the other direction.  Fill the middle hole with a dot of bright yellow frosting.

Let the cookies dry for about 30 minutes before storing in an airtight container.  Store in the refrigerator for several days.  These cookies can even be frozen for several weeks.

 

Posted on March 27, 2013
This entry was posted in baking, brunch, cookies, desserts, gifts and tagged buttercream frosting, cookies, martha stewart, pansy, pate sucree, royal icing, spring.