I think the best thing about holiday (any holiday really!) baking is the excessive number of cookies it is socially acceptable to make and consume in a short period of time. My favourite part of holiday baking process is the decorating (not the eating!) — I love filling cookies, piping details, and adding gold flakes to anything I can possibly add gold to. During the holidays I like to work with recipes that allow you to make several different types of cookies from one base recipe. For Easter this year, I’m making five different kinds of cookies from a perfect blank canvas shortbread dough. The shortbread recipe is my go-to during the holidays and I like to add seasonal mix-ins or use different cookie cutters depending on the time of year.

After I made my base shortbread dough, I divided the dough into two portions, one to remain as a vanilla dough and the second to become dough for carrot cookies. I used this set of Easter cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma Canada to stamp out my cookies and these are the cookies I made with them:

1. Marbled sugar cookies (with flower and rabbit-shaped cutters)
2. Lemon sandwich cookies (with egg-shaped cutter)
3. Sparkly butterfly cookies (with butterfly-shaped cutter)
4. Coconut sheep cookies (with sheep-shaped cutter)
5. Matcha vanilla carrot cookies (with carrot—shaped cutter)

Marbled sugar cookies: After cookie dough is rolled out, stamped with cookie cutters and baked until edges are golden. While the cookies are cooling, make a batch of royal icing. Divide royal icing into three bowls and colour two of the portions with food colouring. Drop a few drops of the coloured icing into the bowl of white icing. Using a spatula or spoon, swirl icing 1-2 times until marbled. Dip the top side of each cookie into the icing and let excess icing drip off. Decorate with gold flakes.

Lemon sandwich cookies: After cookie dough is rolled out, stamp dough with egg-shaped cookie cutters and transfer cut outs to a baking sheet. Using a small circle cookie cutter, stamp put the ‘yolk’ from half of the egg cookies. Bake cookies until edges are golden. Place cookies with ‘yolk’ cut out onto a cooling rack and dust with icing sugar. Spread a generous layer of homemade or store-bought lemon curd on cookie without cut out, then top with sugar-dusted cookie.

Sparkly butterfly cookies: After cookie dough is rolled out, stamped with cookie cutters and baked until edges are golden. While the cookies are cooling, make a batch of royal icing. Transfer royal icing to a piping bag and decorate cooled cookies with royal icing. Before icing dries, dip the cookie into coarse sanding sugar. Allow icing to set before stacking cookies.

Coconut sheep cookies: After cookie dough is rolled out, stamped with cookie cutters and baked until edges are golden. While the cookies are cooling, make a batch of royal icing. Transfer royal icing to a piping bag and pipe icing to the body and the head of the sheep cookie. Before icing is set, sprinkle toasted coconut to the cookie. Tap cookie against the baking sheet to remove excess coconut.

Matcha vanilla carrot cookie: Make cookie dough and remove ¼ portion of the dough and place in a bowl. Add a few drops of orange food colouring to the large portion of dough and mix until colour is evenly distributed. Add green food colouring or matcha powder do the smaller portion of dough and mix until evenly distributed. Roll out each portion of dough. Using the carrot cookie cutter, stamp out the root of the carrot in the orange dough and the leaves portion in the green dough. Combine the components on the baking sheet. Bake until edges are golden

After the cookies have been decorated, I’m serving my Easter cookies with homemade hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows in this Figural Chick Mug and Figural Bunny Mug.

Thank you Williams Sonoma Canada for supporting Constellation Inspiration!

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My Favourite Shortbread Recipe

During the holidays I like to work with recipes that allow you to make several different types of cookies from one base recipe. For Easter this year, I’m making five different kinds of cookies from a perfect blank canvas shortbread dough. The shortbread recipe is my go-to during the holiday sand I like to add seasonal mix-ins or use different cookie cutters depending onthe time of year.

Author Amy

Ingredients

• 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 115 g (1 cup) icing sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 260 g (2 cups and 3 tbsp) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter, icing sugar and vanilla at medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
• Add flour and salt and mix on low speed until combined.
• In between two sheets of parchment paper, roll out dough to ¼-inch in thickness. Lightly flour the cookie stamp/cutter and press.
• Transfer cut outs to prepared baking sheet, placing cookies 2 inches apart.
• Transfer the baking sheet to the freezer for 10 minutes. Freezing cut out cookies before baking will help preserve the design and shape of the cookies.
• Bake until the edges are lightly golden brown, about 12 – 14minutes.
• Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely.
• *See body of blog post on how to use this shortbread recipe to create 5 different Easter cookies

Notes

The number of cookies this recipe makes will depend on the size and shape of your cookie cutter. The cookies shown in photos above were made with 1 batch of the shortbread recipe.

The post Easter Cookies Five Ways (One Dough!) appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

Welcome to my unofficial Valentine’s Day baking series! I feel like I’ve been neglecting the blog lately with my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies and 10 Days of Lunar New Year series being almost exclusively shared on Instagram. We are changing that with the next few recipes which were developed with Valentine’s Day in mind, but there are good for any time of the year. We’re starting off this unofficial series with these sparkly, crispy-yet-chewy (cookie buzzword!) stuffed red velvet cookies. What are they stuffed with? You can tell your Valentine that the cookies are stuffed with love, but here on this corner of the internet love also means cream cheese. So basically, we made red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting in cookie form and damn it is good.

Before you get start going on and on about why red velvet is not the superior cake flavour, I’m here to tell you that any shortcomings of red velvet is made up for by cream cheese frosting. It is also the reason I eat carrot cake (even if the cake has raisins in it). Much like red velvet cake, these cookies are vanilla based with a hint of chocolate, just enough for you to notice that it’s there. We stuff each dough ball with a cream cheese frosting centre and roll it in red coarse sanding sugar to amp up the colour and to give them the sparkle that they deserve. These cookies are great warm, but I like them even better when they have had some time to cool down or even chilled in the fridge. Once chilled, the cream cheese centre becomes cheesecake-like, so you get two desserts in one.

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Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies

Much like red velvet cake, these cookies are vanilla based with a hint of chocolate, just enough for you to notice that it's there. We stuff each dough ball with a cream cheese frosting centre and roll it in red coarse sanding sugar to amp up the colour and to give them the sparkle that they deserve. These cookies are great warm, but once chilled, the cream cheese centre becomes cheesecake-like, so you get two desserts in one.

Servings 12 cookies

Author Amy

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Filling

• 227 g (8 oz) cream cheese room temperature
• 60 g (1/2 cup) icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

Red Velvet Cookie Dough

• 240 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 21 g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250 g (1 1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 – 1 tsp red food colouring depending on brand of food colouring
• 3/4 cup red coarse sanding sugar for rolling

Instructions

Cream Cheese Filling

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla, and salt on low speed. Gradually increasing the speed to medium, mix until filling is smooth, about 1 minute.
• Portion cream cheese mixture into 12 equal portions and place on a baking sheet. Each portion will be roughly a heaping tablespoon. Transfer baking sheet to freezer to chill while you make the cookie dough.

Red Velvet Cookie Dough

• Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, coca powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together sugar and butter on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
• Add egg, vanilla, and red food colouring. Mix until combined.
• Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until no dry streaks remain, about 1 minute.
• Using an ice cream scoop, divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Roll each portion between the palms of your hands until it is round. Repeat.
• Remove cream cheese filling from freezer.
• Using your knuckle or a teaspoon, create an indent at the centre of each cookie dough ball. Place a portion of chilled cream cheese filling and pinch the dough to seal the filling.
• Roll each dough ball in red coarse sanding sugar.
• Place dough ball on baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches between each dough ball.
• Bake until the edges of the cookies are set, about 11 – 13 minutes. When the cookies are ready to come out of the oven, give the baking sheet a tap on the oven rack to create ripples around the cookie.
• Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes. Transfer them to a cooling rack to cool complete.
• Enjoy cookies at room temperature or chilled.

The post Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

Happy almost Lunar New Year to all of you who celebrate it! Like many Chinese holidays, Lunar New Year is celebrated with a lot of food. Most of the food eaten during this time is symbolic of things you would like to have more of in the new year, whether the symbolism is conveyed through the name of the dish of the shape of the food item. On Lunar New Year’s Eve, my family gathers around the table to feast on fish (the word fish means that there will be a surplus for next year, whether it is a surplus of wealth, luck, or anything positive), oysters with fat choy (a vegetable whose name sounds like ‘fortune’), noodles (for longevity), and tang yuan (circular rice balls, whose shape represents family connection, togetherness and reunion). The next morning on New Year’s Day, my parents would start frying up new year cake (nian gao) early in the morning. The characters nian gao 年糕 translates to ‘year higher,’ meaning that those who eat the cake will have a year better than the last. Nian gao has always been the highlight for me. Traditionally it is made with glutinous rice flour, sugar, water, and flavouring of choice, though in more recent years there have been more creative version of this traditional sweet treat. I like the classic brown sugar or white sugar nian gao the best, especially when my parents dip slices of the cake in an egg batter before pan frying it. I think it is the texture of nian gao that makes me love it so much — it is pretty identical to eating mochi, but with a crisp exterior.

I shared a nian gao sugar cookie a few years back but after making it a few more times and continuing to tweak the recipe from year to year, I’ve arrived at this recipe just in time for Lunar New Year celebrations. This cookie dough is quite like a classic chocolate chip cookie dough (minus the chocolate)! and I prefer this over the previous version with a rainbow-specked sugar cookie dough because this dough creates a crisper cookie, which provides such nice contrast to the soft and tender nian gao centre. I used white sugar nian gao for these cookies but feel free to use any type of nian gao for the centre. I think brown sugar or coconut-flavoured nian gao would be just as good in these cookies. Any nian gao from you new year’s day celebrations will do!

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Nian Gao Cookies (年糕曲奇餅)

These nian gao-stuffed cookies are chewy, tender, and crisp! I used white sugar nian gao for these cookies but feel free to use any type of nian gao for the centre. I think brown sugar or coconut-flavoured nian gao would be just as good in these cookies. Any nian gao from your new year's day celebrations will do!

Servings 8 large cookies

Author Amy

Ingredients

• 140 g (1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp) unsalted butter room temperature
• 126 g (1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp) brown sugar
• 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 220 g (1 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 8 pieces nian gao cut into (1-inch cubes, 1/2-inch thick)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until they are smooth, about 1 minute.
• Add the vanilla and egg to the butter mixture and mix on medium speed until they are fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in two batches to the butter mixture, and mix until the ingredients are just combined, about 1 minute.
• Divide the dough into 8 balls of dough.
• Using you thumb, create an indent at the centre of the ball of dough. Place a piece of nian gao and the centre, and lightly pinch the dough to cover up the nian gao.
• Place filled dough balls about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Top each dough ball with flaky salt
• Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the cookies are caramelized along the edges and the centres are just set. If you would like your cookies to have the crinkled edges, give the pan a few taps on the oven rack before you take them out of the oven.
• Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Cookies are best served the day they are baked. You can reheat the cookie (to soften the nian gao) the next day in the microwave for 10 – 15 second after the first day.

The post Nian Gao Cookies (年糕曲奇餅) appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

Every year around mid to late November little holiday signifiers start popping up — peppermint mochas start appearing on café menus, Christmas music start making its way into stores at the mall, and the iconic tins of peppermint bark make their annual appearance at my local Williams Sonoma store. William Sonoma’s peppermint bark is at the top of that list for me. When I walk into the Vancouver location of Williams Sonoma and see the pyramid of red and white tins, my heart sings. It is full on singing — not just a subtle little melody, but a complete orchestra. That’s when I know that the holidays are here.

I’ve always enjoyed the peppermint bark as is but never have I used it as part of my holiday baking. I don’t know why I haven’t incorporated into my holiday cookies because it seems like a natural fit. When Williams Sonoma Canada asked if I wanted to make a cookie inspired by their iconic bark, I immediately said yes (I said a polite yes in my email exchange with them but in my head, there were 10 exclamation marks following a YES in all caps). In addition to using the peppermint bark for my holiday cookies, I also used the tin as the cookie box, making it so perfect to gift to family and friends.

I also picked out a few things from their holiday shop, including these cute Williams Sonoma Peanuts Holiday Impression Cookie Cutters set (since all of you are obsessed with my last set of Peanuts cookie stamps) as well as the PEANUTS Holiday Platter.

(PS. Williams Sonoma Canada’s shipping cut-off to receive items in time for Christmas Day is December 9th at 11PM EST!)

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Peppermint Bark Thumbprint Cookies

These peppermint bark thumbprint cookies feature a soft and chewy chocolate cookie filled with a dark chocolate ganache and a piece of peppermint bark! Rolling the cookie dough ball in coarse sanding sugar before baking gives the cookies an extra crunch and holiday sparkle

Servings 24 cookies

Author Amy

Ingredients

Chocolate Cookie

• 170 g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 165 g (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) brown sugar
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 180 g (1 1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
• 50 g (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp) cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 200 g (1 cup) dark chocolate roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Garnish

• Coarse sanding sugar
• Peppermint bark

Instructions

Chocolate Cookie

• Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
• Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
• Add dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture and mix on low speed until no dry streaks remain, about 1 – 2 minutes.
• Using a tablespoon, portion out dough balls. Each dough ball should have 1.5 – 2 tablespoons of dough. Roll dough ball between the palms of your hands until smooth and place on a lined baking sheet. If the dough is too sticky at this point, refrigerate dough balls for 15 minutes.
• Roll each dough ball in coarse sanding sugar and place on lined baking sheet, leaving 2-inches between each ball.
• Using a teaspoon, press spoon into the top of each dough ball to create an indent.
• Transfer the baking sheet to freezer and let dough chill for 10 minutes.
• ake cookies for 10 – 12 minutes, until the edges are set but centres are still tender. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 20 minutes before transferring to as wire rack to cool completely.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• While the cookies are cooling, make the dark chocolate ganache filling.
• Place chopped chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl.
• Heat up cream in a small pot until it reaches a light simmer. Pour cream over the chopped chocolate. Allow the chocolate mixture to sit for 5 minutes. Add salt and whisk until the chocolate has fully melted.
• Transfer ganache to a piping bag.

Assembly

• Fill cookies with ganache and garnish with a piece of peppermint bark.

The post Peppermint Bark Thumbprint Cookies appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

I’m finally resurfacing from the chaotic baking season of Mid-Autumn Festival, where I baked so many mooncakes and filmed so many mooncake-making tutorials for Instagram and Tiktok. It’s hard to find baking inspiration after a big holiday because I go 110% leading up to the holiday and I’m out of both motivation and unsalted butter shortly after the holiday passes. I’m back now and I have been recipe testing lots of pumpkin things behind the scenes as well as working on a lot of fall cookie decorating ideas that I can’t wait to share with you. I’m still contemplating whether I’m going to do a haunted gingerbread house this year (because I don’t think I can top last year’s gingerbread pumpkin stand) — semi stay tuned? For now I’m excited to share a pumpkin sugar cookie recipe that is versatile for many different types of bakes during the fall season. I’ve used it to make these iced sugar cookie ghosts and pumpkins as well as a pumpkin sandwich cookie with nutella cheesecake filling (!!) that I will be sharing soon.

This pumpkin sugar cookie recipe is great for making cut-out cookies with your favourite cookie cutter. The dough comes together really easily and you don’t need a mixer to make it. It doesn’t spread much but I do recommend chilling your cookie cutouts before baking to make sure the cookies retain their shape as much as possible.

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Pumpkin Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

This pumpkin sugar cookie recipe uses both pumpkin purée and warm pumpkin pie spices. It's great for making cut-out cookies with your favourite cookie cutter. The dough comes together really easily and you don't need a mixer to make it. It doesn't spread much but I do recommend chilling your cookie cutouts before baking to make sure the cookies retain their shape as much as possible.

Servings 15 cookies

Author Amy

Ingredients

Pumpkin Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

• 70 g (1/4 cup) pumpkin purée
• 150 g  (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 160 g (1 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves

Royal Icing

• 240 g (2 cups) icing sugar
• 4 – 5 tbsp water
• 1 1/2 tbsp meringue powder

Instructions

Pumpkin Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

• Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• Between two sheets of paper tower, pat pumpkin purée dry. Removing the excess moisture will allow the cookies to crisp up more. After patting dry the initial 70g of pumpkin will reduce down to around 50g.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together on medium speed butter and granulated sugar, about 1 minute.
• Add pumpkin purée and vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture and mix until smooth.
• In a bowl, whisk together flour, spices, and salt. Add to the mixing bowl and mix on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds
• Lay down a piece of parchment paper and transfer dough to the parchment.
• Lay a second piece of parchment over the dough and roll out dough to 1/4-inch in thickness. (Using two pieces of parchment eliminates the need to add extra flour to the dough)
• If the dough is too soft or is sticking to the parchment paper at this point, transfer the rolled out dough to firm up in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
• Using cookie cutters of choice, stamp cut outs.
• Transfer the cut outs to the lined baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to refrigerator or freezer to chill cut outs until firm — this will prevent spreading.
• Bake for 13 – 15 minutes, until edges the bottom of each cookie is a golden brown.
• Wait 10 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Royal Icing

• Combine icing sugar, meringue powder, and water in a large bowl. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together first on low speed before gradually increasing to high speed for 1 – 2 minutes. If the icing too thick, beat in more water 1 tablespoon at a time. If royal icing is too thin, continue beating it to introduce more air OR add more icing sugar.
• Colour royal icing with food colouring of choice and transfer the coloured icing to piping bags.

Assembly

• Transfer royal icing to a shallow bowl or plate.
• Dip cooled sugar cookies into the royal icing and allow any excess to drip off.
• Before the icing dries, dip the cookie into a shallow bowl of coarse sanding sugar.
• Allow icing to dry for 10 – 15 minutes and use coloured royal icing to decorate the face.

The post Pumpkin Cut-Out Sugar Cookies appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

If you’re not familiar with Taiwanese pineapple cake (鳳梨酥), which is drastically different than pineapple upside down cake or any pineapple cake outside of Asia, it’s a bite-sized pastry of a jammy pineapple filling with a tender short crust. Taiwanese pineapple cakes fall somewhere between a filled cookie and a small pie, and is not what we commonly think of as ‘cake.’ Traditionally, the outer pastry of a traditional pineapple cake is made of lard, and the filling is mostly made of pineapple mixed with winter melon, but it’s more common now to have a pure pineapple filling. They’re often baked in square molds but you might also find some shaped with more decorative molds.

I grew up eating taiwanese pineapple cake — these square-shaped pastries were often my after school snack or my mom would include two of them in my lunch box. The ones I ate came in a see-through plastic sleeve but in recent years I’ve branched out and tried other versions of Taiwanese pineapple cake. My favourite version of pineapple cake now is a pineapple mooncake! Specifically a pineapple mooncake with the traditional salted egg yolk centre. My family always buy these salted egg yolk pineapple mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival and they’re always the one I go for first (sorry lotus paste!!!). After eating them for years, I decided it’s finally time I create my version of the pineapple mooncake.

I’ve shared Kristina’s pineapple cake recipe on the blog before in celebration of the release of her amazing cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, and the recipe makes a more traditional pineapple cake. This recipe I’m sharing combines everything I love about the pineapple mooncake with salted egg yolk and my love of a buttery, sandy cookie. It has a classic jammy pineapple filling studded with a salted egg yolk and it’s all encased in a rich sablé-ish cookie crust. The pineapple cakes can be baked in a traditional pineapple cake square mold but I recently bought these pineapple-shaped mooncake molds (!!) which were perfect for this recipe. These pineapple cakes are can be made any time of the year but I’m making extra batches this time of year to gift them to friends for Mid-Autumn Festival.

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Salted Egg Yolk Pineapple Cakes

These salted egg yolk pineapple cakes combines everything I love about a traditional Taiwanese pineapple cake and Mid-Autumn mooncakes! These cakes have a classic jammy pineapple filling studded with a salted egg yolk and it's all encased in a rich sablé-ish cookie crust. The pineapple cakes can be baked in a traditional pineapple cake square mold but I recently bought these pineapple-shaped mooncake molds which were perfect for this recipe.

Servings 16 cakes

Author Amy

Ingredients

Pineapple Filling

• 2 cans (2 x 398ml cans) crushed pineapple drained
• 134 g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 cooked salted egg yolks halved

Sablé Crust

• 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 30 g (1/4 cup) icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 165 g (1 cup + 6 tbsps) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Egg Wash

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp water

Instructions

Pineapple Filling

• In a medium saucepan, combine the pineapple, granulated sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thick and caramelized, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer the filling to a heat-proof container or small sheet pan and allow to cool completely.

Sablé Crust

• While the pineapple filling is cooling, making the crust.
• In a bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter and icing sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add egg yolk and mix until smooth.
• Add flour and salt to the bowl and mix on low speed until combine, about 1 minute.
• Transfer the dough to a sheet of plastic wrap, pat into a 1-inch-thick disc, and tightly wrap. Refrigerate the dough until pineapple filling is cool and ready for assembly.

Assembly

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Divide the chilled pineapple filling into 16 equal pieces (use a digital scale if you have one) and roll each portion of filling into a ball.
• Take a ball of filling and using your knuckle or the back of a small spoon, create an indent in the centre. Place a halved salted egg yolk in the middle and cover it with the pineapple filling. Repeat until all the filling has been used.
• Use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 16 equal-size pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into a smooth ball. Place the dough ball on a lightly floured work surface, gently flatten with the palm of your hand, and roll out to a 3-inch round with a rolling pin.
• Place a portion of the filling onto the rolled out dough, pull up the edges, and pinch together to seal. If the dough is too sticky, flour your hands when assembly.
• Place the filled cake inside the pineapple cake mold, seam side down, and gently press down with the plunger until it evenly fills the mold. Remove the plunger and transfer the pineapple cake onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pastry and pineapple filling.
• Brush the tops of each cake with egg wash.
• Bake pineapple cakes until golden, about 20 – 25 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

The post Salted Egg Yolk Pineapple Cakes appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

Never have I wanted to try a cookie more than I wanted to try Jenny Bakery‘s butter cookies. They’ve had a cult (can it still be considered cult at this point?) for years and I was never able to successfully get my hands on some (for anything less than an astronomical price). If you are not familiar with this Hong Kong-based bakery, here’s the the quick 101:

• they make melt-in-the-mouth butter cookies that amasses endless queue lines and long waiting times
• the cookies are packed in its signature tins with monthly changing teddy bear designs and motifs to prevent knock offs
• …and apparently you can pay people to line up for these cookies for you???

I found out that you can get Jenny’s cookies locally in Vancouver at T&T Supermarket but the price has been marked up to $65 for a box and I wasn’t ready for that type of commitment yet. It was during this time of cookie despair when my friend Tammy was coming back for a visit and offered to bring a box of these cookies to me (!!!!!!!!). Tammy brought back the 4-mix box for me so I would be able to try all the different flavours. Bless Tammy.

The cookies didn’t disappoint and were truly some of the best butter cookies I’ve ever had. I feel like I need to preface all this by saying I am a crisp, melt-in-your-mouth cookie girl through and through and I will always choose a rich shortbread over a gooey chocolate chip cookie despite making the latter very often. I know it’s a very unpopular opinion. Since I can’t get these cookies often, I’ve made it my life purpose to recreate these cookies at home. There were many delicious test batches but I needed them to be more than just ‘delicious.’ I needed them to be a good plan B when my box from Tammy runs out (cookie count in the original tin is down to ONE). Through the many trials, I’ve concluded that there are two very important factors to recreating Jenny’s cookies at home:
1. The type of butter you use is VERY important. I would make the same recipe using different butters and they would all taste drastically different. This is when you want to find the best salted butter you can get your hands on. I recommended using a grass-fed butter with high fat content for these cookies.
2. You want to make sure that your recipe is stiff enough so the cookies hold its shape when baking but still pliable enough to be piped through the piping bag with a star tip. I’ll admit that Jenny’s cookies have a more defined shape than mine but I as long as I see the ripples of cookie dough, I’m happy. Chilling the cookies before baking will help them retain their shape.

I really enjoy the classic butter flavour but if you want, you can add a teaspoon of espresso powder or matcha powder to your cookie dough!

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Hong Kong Butter Cookies

These piped butter cookies are inspired by the melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies from the famous Jenny's Bakery in Hong Kong. The key to achieving these delicious cookies is using the highest quality butter you can get your hands on! (Note: I highly recommend using a scale for measuring ingredients for this recipe! I developed this recipe using a scale.)

Servings 30 cookies

Author Amy

Ingredients

• 133 g salted butter softened
• 42 g icing sugar
• 42 g cornstarch
• 113 g cake flour
• 1 tsp espresso powder or 2 tsp matcha powder optional

Instructions

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat softened butter on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
• Add icing sugar to the bowl and gradually increase the speed of the mixture. Increase the speed to medium and continue to beat until the butter and sugar turns pale and creamy.
• Sift in cake flour and cornstarch (and any additional flavours you want, like espresso or matcha powder) and mix on low until the dough comes together, about 30 seconds – 1 minute.
• Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with an open star tip.
• Apply pressure to pipe the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. As you pipe, you want to gently twist the piping bag so you get the ripples on the side of the cookie. Leave 1 inch between each cookie; the cookies will not spread much.
• Transfer the sheet of piped cookies to the freezer while you preheat the oven to 325F. Chilling the dough will prevent the cookies from spreading in the oven.
• Bake the cookies until the bottoms are golden, about 25 – 30 minutes,.
• Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

The post Hong Kong Butter Cookies appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

My weakness? Cookie stamps. I’m not talking about normal circle cookie and heart-shaped cutters (though there’s always a time and place for those), but the ones with intricate designs and a little spring-loaded plunger that creates the most beautiful cookies. You make your dough and roll it out the same way you would when you use a cookie cutter, but instead of cutting out just the shape, the cookie stamp will cut out the shape and leave an impression of a design. I firmly believe that cookies made with cookie stamps taste better and there’s no way anyone can change my mind about that.

There are several types of cookie stamps but there are two main varieties: ones that leave a pattern or design on the cookie and ones that create a deeper impression or well in the centre of the cookie that is meant to be filled with a jam or ganache once the cookie is baked. I love both equally but today we’re making cookies with the latter. This isn’t my first set of thumbprint cookie stamps. I got the original Williams Sonoma stamp set a few years back and even used them for a recipe in my cookbook — mocha cookies filled with lavender caramel. I’ve also made my own version of the classic ‘fruit creme’ cookies that I grew up eating. Every time I use this set of cookie stamps, I get questions asking where they are from and tips and tricks for making sure the design stays when the cookie is baking. So today I’m sharing a new recipe that’s perfect for stamping along with some tips and showing off this brand-new set of Spring Floral Thumbprint Cookie Stamps I got from Williams Sonoma Canada.

I love pistachio in baked goods because of both the flavour and colour it adds to cookies and cakes. I mostly commonly add pistachios into cookies, whether it’s incorporating roughly chopped nuts into a cookie dough or using finely ground pistachios with the other dry ingredients. These pistachio shortbread thumbprints use a mixture of flour and ground pistachio flour/meal and once baked, is filled with a pistachio white chocolate ganache. You can also fill the cookies with other fillings you like — pistachio cream, jams, nut butters, lemon curd, whatever makes you happy.

Steps to making successful stamped thumbprint cookies:

1. Make sure you’re using a cookie recipe that’s meant for stamped/roll out cookies like shortbread or sugar cookies. This will ensure that the cookies will retain their shape and won’t spread in the oven.
2. Flour your cookie stamps before using. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get cookie dough out from the crevices of a cookie stamp. Flour your cookie stamps before using them to make sure your cookie cut outs come out cleanly and easily.
3. Chill cookie cut outs before baking. I ALWAYS freeze my cookie cut outs before baking to make sure they don’t spread as much in the oven. After you’ve stamped and cut out all the cookies, place them on the baking sheet and allow them to chill in the freezer for 5 – 10 minutes until firm. Once the oven has preheated and the cut outs are frozen, the cookies are ready to be baked.
4. Shape cookies if necessary. Once the cookies are golden brown and have come out of the oven, don’t hesitate to do any reshaping you think is necessary. I like to use a ¼ teaspoon and gently press on the indents of the thumbprint cookies to help make the well deeper so it can hold more filling.
5. Fill cookies after they have cooled. It is important to allow the cookies to completely cool before filling them. Filling a hot cookie will cause the filling to melt and it might seep into the cookie, making a soggy cookie. Transfer the baked cookies to a wire rack to help speed up the cooling process.

Thank you Williams Sonoma Canada for supporting this blog!

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Pistachio Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

These pistachio shortbread thumbprints use a mixture of flour and ground pistachio flour and once baked, is filled with a pistachio white chocolate ganache. You can also fill the cookies with other fillings you like — pistachio cream, jams, nut butters, lemon curd, whatever makes you happy.

Servings 40 cookies

Author Amy

Ingredients

• 60 g (5 tbsp) roasted unsalted pistachios
• 240 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 120 g (1 cup) powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup filling of choice (jam, nut butter, pistachio cream, etc.)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Add pistachios to food processor or blender and blitz until it becomes a fine meal. Some larger pieces are okay. Alternatively, you can chop up the nuts finely by hand.
• In a small bowl, whisk together ground pistachios, flour, and salt. Set aside.
• In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and powdered sugar on medium-high speed until smooth.
• Add the dry ingredients and mix on low and gradually increase to medium speed. Mix until no streaks of flour remain, about 1 minute.
• Cut a large piece of parchment paper. Transfer dough to parchment and take a second sheet of parchment paper the same size and roll out dough with a rolling pin. This will prevent the need to add extra flour to roll out the dough. If the dough is soft as this point, transfer it to the freezer to firm up for about 10 minutes. Roll out dough to ¼-inch in thickness.
• Using cookie stamps, stamp out cookies and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Transfer the tray of cookies to the freezer once to allow the cookies to firm up, about 5 – 10 minutes. This will prevent the cookies from spreading too much.
• Once oven has preheated, transfer the tray of cookies to the oven to bake for 12 – 14 minutes, until the edges are golden.
• Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely.
• Once cookies have cooled, fill cookies with filling of choice.

The post Pistachio Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

PEANUTS will always have a place in my heart. Perhaps it’s because I grew up watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas, so PEANUTS will also be associated with my favourite holidays and all the positive sentiments that come with it. When I found out that Williams Sonoma was releasing a PEANUTS collection for springtime, I knew I would get at least one piece of bakeware adorn with Snoopy and the crew to add to my collection. The PEANUTS Spring Silicone Cookie Stamps really caught my eye (and pulled at my heart strings) and I immediately started dreaming about all the cookies I could make with them. It was my first time using a wooden cookie stamp with interchangeable silicone discs with the designs. I was much more familiar with cookie punches but my oh my, silicone cookie stamps are a dream to work with! I lightly floured my cookie dough and nothing (and I mean NOTHING) got stuck to the cookie cutter. They’re perhaps the most fuss-free cookie stamps I’ve ever worked with. I was left with beautiful and intricate design on each of my cookies. The designs created deep imprints that didn’t lose it’s details while baking.

Because these cookie stamps are so special, I needed to create a really special cookie with them. There are cookies… then there are sandwich cookies. Each of these sandwich cookies feature two PEANUTS shortbread cookies, a cream cheese swiss meringue buttercream, and strawberry jam. Each bite tastes like you’re eating strawberry cheesecake.

I always get questions about how I’m able to get the designs on my cookies to stay and not fade during the baking process. Here are a tips I can share from baking so many stamped shortbread cookies during the holidays:

1. Choose a recipe that produces a crisp cookie (not a soft and chewy one): the best type of cookies for stamped designs are shortbread cookies and crisp sugar cookies. These recipes tend to have zero (or just very little) leavening agents or eggs, which causes the dough to rise and puff up during the baking process.
2. Don’t over-whip your butter: the butter and sugar mixture should be creamy and soft, but not too pale and fluffy (like when you’re making cake batter). When you whip the sugar and butter for too long or too vigorously, you’re creating too many little air bubbles in the dough that can cause the cookies to puff up while baking.
3. Make sure the cookie cut outs are cold: before I bake any stamped cookies, I always (ALWAYS!) freeze them until they are firm. When you freeze the cookies before putting them in the oven, they will hold their shape and design a lot better.

Thank you Williams Sonoma Canada for supporting this blog!

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Strawberry Cheesecake Sandwich Cookies

There are cookies… then there are sandwich cookies. Each of these sandwich cookies feature two PEANUTS shortbread cookies, a cream cheese swiss meringue buttercream, and strawberry jam. Each bite tastes like you’re eating strawberry cheesecake.

Author Amy

Ingredients

Shortbread Cookies

• 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 115 g (1 cup) powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 260 g (2 cups and 3 tbsp) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 60 g (~ 1 1/2) egg whites room temperature
• 70 g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
• 115 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 4 tbsp cream cheese room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup store-bought or homemade strawberry jam

Instructions

Shortbread Cookies

• Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla at medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
• Add flour and salt and mix on low speed until combined.
• In between two sheets of parchment paper, roll out dough to ¼-inch in thickness. Lightly flour the cookie stamp/cutter and press. Transfer cut outs to prepared baking sheet, placing cookies 2 inches apart.
• Transfer the baking sheet to the freezer for 10 minutes. Freezing cut out cookies before baking will help preserve the design and shape of the cookies.
• Bake until the edges are lightly golden brown, about 12 – 14 minutes.
• Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely.

Cheesecake Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• Place the egg whites and sugar into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk by hand to combine. Place the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water set on medium heat. Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Heat, whisking often, until the mixture until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture hot to the touch.
• Transfer the egg white mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fixed with a whisk attachment. Whisk, on medium-high speed, for 5 – 6 minutes, or until the mixture holds stiff peaks. The bowl should no longer be hot to the touch and the meringue should be glossy and cool.
• Stop the mixer and swap the whisk attachment for the paddle attachment.
• Add in the butter, a tablespoon at a time, until it is all incorporated.
• Add in the cream cheese, vanilla, and salt. Increase the mixer speed to high and continue to beat until the buttercream is thick and silky smooth, 5 more minutes. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with an open star tip.

Assembly

• Turn over half of the cookies, they will be the bottom cookies.
• Pipe a ring of cream cheese buttercream on the bottom cookie. This will act as a barrier for the jam centers.
• Take half a heaping tablespoon of jam and fill the centre. Sandwich the top cookie and press lightly. Repeat with remaining cookies until all cookies are filled.

The post Strawberry Cheesecake Sandwich Cookies appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

If you have been here for a little while, you might be familiar with my matcha neapolitan cookies. I developed this recipe almost two years ago and so many of you still make it today. I shared this cookie recipe like I would any other recipe — hoping a few of you would make it and that it would inspire you to experiment with different flavour combinations in your own kitchen. What I didn’t expect was how it would become the most popular recipe from my blog and Instagram. I have a little album on my phone where I’ve saved all the photos of the matcha neapolitan cookies that you’ve made and shared with me.

Since that summer, I’ve tried really hard to create new cookie recipes that “top” the matcha neapolitan cookies. I created a version with matcha and hojicha for The Kitchn as part of their best cookies of 2020 package and that was a lot of fun for me. In my kitchen, I’ve experimented with other flavour combinations like mixed berry and with tropical fruits but I haven’t published any of those iterations because I don’t think they’re as good as the original. I’m happy to report back that I’m ready to share a new cookie recipe that is a nice. little cookie companion to the matcha neapolitan. I’m not saying it is better than the original. Instead, you will have a much tougher decision now when you want to bake some cookies with fun flavours. If you are a newsletter subscriber (thank you!), you would’ve received this recipe in your inbox last month. I encourage you to sign up for it so you get all the fun recipes first!

From my (hopefully monthly) newsletter:

I want to use this newsletter to share special recipes before they get shared on the blog and little sneak peeks of any upcoming bakes. It is my way to say thank you for the support and that this blog would not exist without each and every one of you. Today, I’m sharing the recipe for Marbled Ube Cookies, is a soft and chewy sugar cookie much like my Matcha Neapolitan cookies. A fragrant ube dough is marbled with a classic vanilla dough for a vibrant cookie that is unlike any other. For the ube flavour, I use a mix of ground ube (or purple yam) powder and ube extract, both can be found at Asian grocery stores or speciality kitchen stores. If you have never had ube before, it is a purple root vegetable with a nutty, vanilla-like flavour. I love it in all desserts but there’s just something about a bright purple cookie that catches my attention.

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Marbled Ube Cookies

A fragrant ube dough is marbled with a classic vanilla dough for a vibrant cookie that is unlike any other. For the ube flavour, I use a mix of ground ube (or purple yam) powder and ube extract, both can be found at Asian grocery stores or speciality kitchen stores. If you have never had ube before, it is a purple root vegetable with a nutty, vanilla-like flavour. I love it in all desserts but there's just something about a bright purple cookie that catches my attention.

Servings 10 cookies

Author Amy

Ingredients

• 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 250 g (1 1/4 cup) granulated sugar and more for rolling
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 270 g (2 1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp ube (purple yam) powder see note
• 1 tsp ube extract

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set the baking sheet aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and 11⁄4 cups (250 g) of the sugar on medium speed until they are smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until just combined and no more streaks of the flour mixture remain, about 45 seconds.
• Divide the dough into two equal portions and leave one portion in the mixer. Add ube powder and extract to the mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until combined.
• Take a heaping tablespoon of each dough and combine the dough by rolling between the palms of your hands.
• Toss the dough balls in a bowl of granulated sugar until dough ball is coated.
• Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each ball. Bake the cookies for 11 to 14 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are light golden brown. Optional: right before the cookies are ready to come out of the oven, tap the baking sheet on the oven rack a few times to create the ripple edges. Do not overbake the cookies.
• Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Notes

*If you have trouble finding ube powder (and can only find extract), you can omit the 2 tbsps of ube powder. The flavour of the ube will not be as strong, but you can add an extra 1/4 tsp of ube extract to compensate.

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