No a/c. Heat advisory. More water than oxygen in the air. Final exam in less than 24 hours. Now, a sane person would probably go to a cool coffee shop, buy a frappuccino, and study like crazy. What I discover again and again is that I am clearly not a sane person. Enter whole-bean vanilla bean cookies. Yep, I stopped studying for a very important exam to try a new recipe and increase the heat in the house from 88 to 93 by preheating and then baking in an oven. Good news - they're yummy and you get a new recipe!
Vanilla Bean Cookies
adapted from 101 Cookbooks
yield will depend on the cutter you use; I got about 30 squares/rectangles
1/2 cup + 2.5 oz powdered sugar
slightly less than 1/4 c cane sugar
1 soft, slightly plump (but not on steroids) vanilla bean
1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened to room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour (I used a combo, but feel confident either would work)
just under 1/4 cup almonds
Cut the vanilla bean into a few sections. Discard the very ends if they feel tough/dry. Throw the vanilla bean (seeds, pod, and all) with the sugars into a food processor. Process/pulse until the bean is broken down. Pulse in the softened butter, vanilla extract, and salt. The butter should be light and creamy, with no large vanilla bean chunks remaining. Add the nuts and pulse just to get the nuts broken up. Add the flours and process until the dough comes together (10 seconds-ish).
Place a good-sized piece of plastic wrap on your counter. Pile the dough onto the center of the plastic wrap and then cover with a second piece of the plastic wrap. Roll out the dough between the two pieces of plastic wrap until the dough is about a quarter of an inch thick. Place in the fridge and let chill for at least 30 minutes, allowing it to get very firm.
Once firm, remove the dough and either cut out cute shapes with a cuter, or be lazy like me and just slice it into fairly even squares with a pizza cutter. Place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill again.
This second chill is kind of crucial. I wasn't paying attention and realized that I was supposed to chill the dough again before baking when the cookies had approximately 2 minutes left in the oven....this resulted in a lovely uni-cookie! No worries; still worked. I just had to recut them after they came out of the oven. Anyway, learn from my mistakes; chill the dough again after cutting while the oven preheats.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while the dough chills for its second time. When the oven is ready, the dough should be too! Place in the oven and bake until nice and golden-brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool for a minute or two on the cookie sheet and then remove to cooling rack for final cool-down. I loved these. They were really easy to whip together, taste awesome, and have this great cracker-like quality to them. Hope you enjoy!
adapted from 101 Cookbooks
yield will depend on the cutter you use; I got about 30 squares/rectangles
1/2 cup + 2.5 oz powdered sugar
slightly less than 1/4 c cane sugar
1 soft, slightly plump (but not on steroids) vanilla bean
1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened to room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour (I used a combo, but feel confident either would work)
just under 1/4 cup almonds
Cut the vanilla bean into a few sections. Discard the very ends if they feel tough/dry. Throw the vanilla bean (seeds, pod, and all) with the sugars into a food processor. Process/pulse until the bean is broken down. Pulse in the softened butter, vanilla extract, and salt. The butter should be light and creamy, with no large vanilla bean chunks remaining. Add the nuts and pulse just to get the nuts broken up. Add the flours and process until the dough comes together (10 seconds-ish).
Place a good-sized piece of plastic wrap on your counter. Pile the dough onto the center of the plastic wrap and then cover with a second piece of the plastic wrap. Roll out the dough between the two pieces of plastic wrap until the dough is about a quarter of an inch thick. Place in the fridge and let chill for at least 30 minutes, allowing it to get very firm.
Once firm, remove the dough and either cut out cute shapes with a cuter, or be lazy like me and just slice it into fairly even squares with a pizza cutter. Place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill again.
This second chill is kind of crucial. I wasn't paying attention and realized that I was supposed to chill the dough again before baking when the cookies had approximately 2 minutes left in the oven....this resulted in a lovely uni-cookie! No worries; still worked. I just had to recut them after they came out of the oven. Anyway, learn from my mistakes; chill the dough again after cutting while the oven preheats.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while the dough chills for its second time. When the oven is ready, the dough should be too! Place in the oven and bake until nice and golden-brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool for a minute or two on the cookie sheet and then remove to cooling rack for final cool-down. I loved these. They were really easy to whip together, taste awesome, and have this great cracker-like quality to them. Hope you enjoy!