These are fragrant shortcrust pastry cookies without butter, shaped like little vanilla and cocoa flowers. Great for an afternoon snack or for breakfast and they will please both adults and children. At my house they never last, they disappear quickly, but being easy and fun to prepare I make plenty and keep them in a glass cookie jar.
The amounts for the vanilla dough and the cocoa dough are the same, except for a small difference for the cocoa version where you should replace 1/2 cup (about 40 g) of the flour with 1/2 cup (about 40 g) of unsweetened cocoa powder and instead of vanilla extract you will use rum flavoring. I make many different cookies, try them all.
Also, the way we shape the little shortcrust flowers will be easy and fun to do with children. Just assemble the balls of dough by placing one in the center and then six around it to form the flower petals. Finally arrange the cookies on the baking sheet and bake them for 18 minutes. I think I’ve told you everything….shall we start making them?
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (about 500 g)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (for the cocoa version — replace 1/2 cup (about 40 g) of the flour with cocoa powder)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (about 150 g)
- 7 tbsp sunflower oil (about 3.5 fl oz (100 g))
- 3 eggs
- 1 packet instant baking powder (about 16 g (≈4 tsp))
- vials flavoring (vanilla for the vanilla version, rum for the cocoa version)
- 1 pinch fine salt
- to taste lemon zest
Preparation
To make the shortcrust pastry flower cookies without butter you will need to make two doughs, one vanilla and one cocoa.
For the cocoa dough simply subtract 1/2 cup (about 40 g) of flour from the flour amount and replace it with 1/2 cup (about 40 g) of unsweetened cocoa powder. In practice you will make: about 3 2/3 cups (460 g) all-purpose flour + 1/2 cup (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder and flavor it with 1 vial of rum extract; all other ingredients are the same for both versions.
VANILLA SHORTCRUST: Put the flour, sugar, sunflower oil, eggs, grated lemon zest, a pinch of salt, vanilla extract and the sifted packet of baking powder into a bowl. Knead and set aside.
COCOA SHORTCRUST: Put the flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar, sunflower oil, eggs, grated lemon zest, a pinch of salt, rum extract and the sifted packet of baking powder into a bowl. Knead and set aside.
After you have prepared the two doughs start making a log of dough on the work surface and cut it into many small pieces, all the same size, as you would for gnocchi. With your hands form equal-sized little balls from both the vanilla and cocoa dough.
Place a sheet of parchment paper on the baking tray and begin assembling the little shortcrust flowers.
Put 1 vanilla ball in the center and 6 cocoa balls around it to form the flower petals. Repeat the same operation for the vanilla version by placing 1 cocoa ball in the center and 6 vanilla balls around it.Preheat the oven to 356°F (180°C) for a conventional oven, or 338°F (170°C) for a fan (convection) oven and bake the cookies for 18 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven, let the cookies cool before removing them, then store them in a glass or tin jar.
