Vanilla Dreams - a wonderfully crunchy sugar cookie

Winchester

In the kitchen with my cookies
Thread starter
Veteran
Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
29,730
Purraise
28,024
Location
In the kitchen
I made these this morning while Rick was at church....delicious! The only drawback is that you need baker's ammonia, which is not easily accessible. I bought it from King Arthur; they say you can also buy it at pharmacies, but I tried and nobody really knew what I was talking about. They say you can sub baking powder for the baker's ammonia, if you want.

Baker's Ammonia is also known as ammonium carbonate. WARNING!!! DO NOT DO WHAT I DID! I figured it was baker's ammonia so it wouldn't be that strong. WRONG! I opened the bottle and took a whiff. Picked myself up off the kitchen floor and ran outside to get my breath back. DON'T SMELL THE AMMONIA! The smell of the ammonia does bake out of the cookie.

These cookies remind me of  a name brand cookie, maybe from Pepperidge Farm? They're good!

This recipe does not have any eggs. Don't worry; it will come together nicely.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

King Arthur's Vanilla Dreams - about 4 dozen cookies
  • 2-3 teaspoons  vanilla extract (I used 3)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baker's ammonia (or 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder)
  • 3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt (If you enjoy the "salty-sweet" combination, use the greater amount of salt. If you'd prefer the salt less prominent, use the lesser amount.)
  • 1-1/4 cups sugar
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted softened butter ( I had the butter in the microwave overnight)
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • Coarse or granulated sugar for topping, optional (I bought some pearl vanilla sugar when we were up at King Arthur last year and used that)
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Lightly grease (I use parchment) two baking sheets.

Combine the vanilla, baker's ammonia, and salt in a very small bowl. Stir to dissolve the ammonia; the salt won't fully dissolve. Combine the vanilla mixture with the butter and sugar, and beat until smooth.

Mix in the flour; the mixture will seem quite dry at first. But continue beating until the dough comes together; that may take about 5 minutes (it took me about 3 minutes).

Break off pieces of dough about the size of a gumball (about 3/4 ounce); a teaspoon cookie scoop works well here. Roll the pieces into balls and roll them into the coarse sugar. Space them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 1-1/2 inches between the balls.

Use the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar if necessary, to prevent sticking, to flatten the balls to about 1/4 to 3/8-inch thick.  If you have it, use the end of the food pusher from a food processor; many of these have a circular, ridged pattern on their end, which imprints the cookies with a nice design.

Bake the cookies until they're a very light golden brown around the edges, about 25 minutes. (I think I'd go with 22 minutes, but start checking after 15 minutes or so, depending on how crunchy you want your cookies to be)

Remove them from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

If you want to put them over the top (I did!)

Chocolate Dip: 1 cup chocolate chips and 1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil microwaved until the chocolate softens. Stir until completely melted.

1 cup crushed pecans

Use a pastry brush to paint the bottom of each cookie with chocolate.

Dip the painted cookie into the crushed nuts or just sprinkle the chocolate with the nuts.

Place cookies, chocolate-side up, on a piece of parchment or cookie sheet to set. (You can put them in the fridge to help the chocolate set up faster).
 
Last edited:
Top