I’m still in King Cake mode, but this time I applied the concept to cookies, adding a little more spice to my favorite soft sugar cookies and gussying them up in Mardi Gras colors. How could anyone resist these?
I chose this cookie dough because it puffs up a bit, and I wanted the cookies to resemble little King Cakes. They’re not crunchy like Christmas cutouts, but they aren’t cake-like either. They’re somewhere in between.
Bake them, decorate them, and you’re done. Excuse me? Are you lifting an eyebrow at me? You must have hung around the blog for a while, because . . . yeah . . . I couldn’t resist ADDING A PRALINE FILLING!
The most exciting thing about this filling is its versatility. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking up all kinds of recipes I could use it in. The downside is I can’t keep pieces of it from falling in my mouth.
I’ll admit that making the praline filling, shaping it, and pressing the cookies together adds a lot more fussy time in the kitchen, so if you want to skip it I totally understand. The cookies are great without it, but the filling really does add a nice surprise, and it makes them bigger—about the size of a cake doughnut.
| King Cake Cookies | Print |
- COOKIES:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4¾ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda,
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup sour cream
- FILLING: (Optional)
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
- 3 tablespoons corn syrup
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1¼ cups finely chopped pecans (I like to use toasted pecans for more flavor)
- GLAZE:
- 1 pound powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅓ cup milk (Approximate. Adjust to preference.)
- Colored sugar - gold, green, purple
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
- Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg together into a medium bowl.
- Beginning with the dry ingredients and ending with the sour cream, add alternately - ⅓ of each at a time. Mix just until combined.
- Cover and chill for at least 2 hours (longer is fine).While dough chills (or at least 1 hour before you are ready to roll it out) make the praline mixture if you are making the filled version.
- FILLING: Lightly butter a piece of parchment (or use a silpat).
- In a medium pan over medium heat, bring brown sugar, butter, milk, corn syrup, and salt to a boil, stirring often, and cook for 2 minutes. Add pecans and cook for an additional 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
- Pour onto buttered parchment or silpat and use a buttered spatula to spread filling into a 6½-inch by 12-inch rectangle. Use the spatula to make neat edges. The mixture is very easy to shape. Allow it to cool.
- Cut into thin strips 6½-inches long and form into circles a little smaller than the cookie cutter you plan to use. (It may be easier for you to cut the strips and wait to make the circles directly on the cookies.)
- Heat oven to 375 F. Place parchment on baking sheets.
- Working with ⅓ of the cookie dough at a time and keeping the rest refrigerated, roll out on floured surface. If you are making filled cookies, keep the dough no thicker than ¼-inch. If you are making unfilled cookies, roll the dough thicker - a generous ⅓-inch.
- Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut circles as close to each other as possible. Cut the center out to create a ring, using the end of a large piping tip, a shot glass, or a bottle cap. Place all of the scraps together and set aside.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, then roll all of the scraps together at once and cut out cookies. These cookies won't be quite as light, but they will still be good!
- If you are filling the cookies, place a ring of praline on one cookie ring and cover with another. Press down gently to ease the top dough over the filling. Use your fingers to go around the cookie, pressing the two pieces of dough together on the outside and inside of the ring. The dough is very soft and will cooperate. Place at least 1-inch apart on prepared baking sheets.
- Bake one sheet of cookies at a time on the middle rack. Bake 10-11 minutes for unfilled cookies, 11-12 minutes for filled. Watch closely and don't overbake. The cookies shouldn't be brown on top, though the bottoms will be golden brown. Cool on racks.
- GLAZE: Place powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Add vanilla and drizzle in the milk until you get an icing that is fairly thin and easy to spread.
- Work with just one cookie at a time, icing and sprinkling with colored sugar. Allow cookies to dry thoroughly before storing. Keep in an airtight container.
Cut out cookie rings.
Spread praline mixture on buttered parchment to cool.
Shape thin strips of praline into circles and place on ring. Top with a second ring.
Press firmly all the way around, smoothing out the seam as you go.
I tried making designs with limited success. It worked better with the rolled out scraps since those cookies don’t puff up as much.
To make sure the colored sugar sticks, ice and sugar one cookie at a time.
Add green, purple, and gold sugar.
Messy, yes, so if you have some kidlings who like to “help”, this is their chance.These don’t have to be perfect, just colorful and tasty.
If you make the filled version you may be able to stuff a little plastic baby in through the bottom. Good luck with that!
Lorinda
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You did it again! Great idea! You must have a recipe idea fairy hovering over you, showering you with her blessings.
Awww. . . thank you. Recipe development is what happens when sleep doesn’t!