Ingredients
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Vermont Creamery Unsalted Butter (4 sticks – 454 g), softened
2 cups
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3 ¼ cups organic cane sugar
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2 eggs, plus 2 yolks
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2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste (30g)
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4 ½ cups all-purpose flour (568 g)
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2 teaspoons baking soda
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1 teaspoon cream of tartar
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2 pinches sea salt
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2 tablespoons (before grinding) fine ground earl grey tea leaves, w/ or w/out lavender (15g)
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Flaked salt for topping
Rolling Sugar
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1 cup organic cane sugar (200 g)
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1 tablespoon (before grinding) fine ground earl grey tea leaves. Add more or less depending on how strong you want the flavor to be. (7 g)
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2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
Directions
- Prepare the rolling sugar by combining the organic cane and vanilla bean paste until the vanilla is evenly infused and dispersed. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and allow to dehydrate overnight or pop in dehydrator for 10-15 minutes. Once dried out and cool, break up the sugar with your hands until there are no clumps. Add the fine ground tea and mix to evenly distribute. Set aside.
- Prepare the dough by combining your softened butter and sugar. Cream together forabout 3 minutes, by hand or by mixer. I do this by hand always, to ensure I don’t overwhip the butter.
- Add your eggs and yolks one at a time, mixing between each. Add your vanilla beanpaste and mix to fully combine.
- Add half the amount of flour (284g), 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar andpinch of salt and mix to combine. Add the remaining half of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp tartar, pinch of salt and the powdered earl grey tea.
- Using a kitchen scale, portion out 2.8-3oz dough balls and shape them until smooth.Damp hands can help with the stickiness. Coat evenly and generously in your vanillabean tea sugar and set aside to refrigerate for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
- Preheat oven to 325° and line a baking sheet with parchment. Place dough balls evenly 3-4” apart. Bake for 8 mins 30 seconds, remove from oven and tap the baking sheet on the kitchen counter to begin the rippled effect. Place the sheet back in the oven, turning 180° to evenly bake. Every remaining 2-3 minutes, tap the baking sheet against the counter again. No need to turn the sheet when placing back in the oven. Repeat 2-3 more times, until edges are golden brown and ripples/wrinkles are formed around the circumference of the cookies. Center may look underbaked, which is okay as they will continue to bake slightly when removed from the oven. Also adds to the goal texture of a soft center, crispy edge cookie. Use a large circle cookie cutter or anything with a large circular mouth to shape your cookies into a perfect circle.
- Top generously with flaked salt, or a fun desired garnish (candied or dehydrated fruit, edible flower, etc.) and allow to cool and set before removing them from the baking sheet. Enjoy!
recipe notes:
The earl grey tea in this recipe can be swapped out w/ many different flavorings. You’ll replace the tea in both the cookie and the rolling sugar, if you so choose. You can use finely ground espresso, another tea that you love, dehydrated and powdered citrus or other fruits. Or you can omit the infusion and add jam to your fully formed sugar cookie dough! When doing this, add several teaspoons of a firm jam to your dough and simply marble it in, without fully mixing or incorporating it. This will create a streak, tie dye effect and yield pockets of caramelized jam throughout your cookies. Be careful not to add too much, which may alter the texture of your dough too much, making it too wet. Start conservative with the jam at first. When doing this, you may need to bake your cookies a few minutes longer due to the added moisture. Just keep an eye on the color of the edges during the bake. Extra dark edges are okay, they will just taste more caramelized. I encourage you to use an infused rolling sugar complementary to the jam you chose! Vanilla bean sugar is always recommended, plus another fruity flavoring. Organic cane sugar is best for this, since it is a coarser grind and will create a crispier outer texture. Reserve your extra sugar for the next bake!
