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PrintThese melt-in-the-mouth French vanilla cookies are rich and buttery and burst with intense vanilla flavor. They make a perfect holiday season gift and a special treat to serve with a cup of tea or coffee. What's more? No cookie dough chilling is required!
For the cookie dough:
For gilding:
*If needed, please refer to Baking Conversion Charts.
Heat oven to 355 degrees F/180 degrees C. Line cookie sheets (or a baking sheet) with parchment paper.
To extract the seeds from a vanilla bean, cut it half lengthwise. Then, run a knife across the inside of the bean as you go and scrape the seed pulp on the edge of the blade.
To make the cookie dough, mix flour with baking powder in a large bowl and sift the flour mixture using a flour sifter.
Dig a well in the dry ingredients and place granulated sugar, vanilla sugar, scraped vanilla bean seeds, and the egg in the center. Mix with a rubber spatula.
Add the softened butter cut into pieces, and mix the cookie dough quickly, using your hands. Shape dough as a ball.
Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 1/4-5/16" (0.6-0.8 cm) thick.
Dip your favorite cookie cutters (for example, a flower cookie cutter) into flour and cut out shapes. Place cookies on the parchment of the cookie sheet. Collect the scraps, re-roll the cookie dough, and continue cutting cookies until you have used up all the dough.
Combine the egg yolk with milk in a small bowl and whisk with a fork. Brush each cookie with the egg wash. Sift brown sugar and vanilla bean powder in a separate bowl and sprinkle cookies evenly.
Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Let the baked cookies cool on the sheets for at least 10 minutes; then, transfer to a wire rack.
Find it online: https://www.bakinglikeachef.com/vanilla-bean-cookies/