Butterfly Pea Cookies

5 from 2 votes

These butterfly pea cookies are rich and buttery with a lovely crumbly texture. They are naturally colored, very elegant and simply delicious!

Prep Time30

Cook Time10

Decorating time20

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Asian

Servings: cookies

Calories: 92.3kcal

Author: Priya Maha

Ingredients

Cookies

250 g all purpose flour
30 g cornstarch
150 g butter
100 g powdered sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
20 dried butterfly pea flowers (optional)
6 g butterfly pea flower powder (blue matcha powder)

Lemon Glaze

70 g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice (strained)
1 tablespoon warm water

Decoration

20 dried butterfly pea flowers

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Mix the cookie dough

Preheat the oven to 170℃.
Cut the dried butterfly pea flowers to separate the blue petals and the green stems. Discard the green part and add the petals into a food processor. Since the quantity of the flowers is less, add half of the powdered sugar into the food processor to create volume. Pulse the flowers and sugar until the flowers are broken into small pieces. Set aside. (Skip this step if you choose not to use the dried flowers in your cookies as the flowers are optional).
Next, place the butter into a large mixing bowl. Add the remaining powdered sugar and beat until both the ingredients are well combined. Do not overbeat.
Add the processed butterfly pea flowers and sugar mixture into the butter mixture and mix again until well combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, salt and the blue pea flowers powder and mix with a hand whisk.
Sift the mixture and add it into the creamed butter and sugar.
Mix the ingredients on low speed until the mixture turns crumbly like breadcrumbs.
Add the vanilla extract and transfer the cookie dough mixture onto a clean surface.
Press it with your hands until it comes together into a dough ball. Do not overmix (see Note 1)

Shape, cut and bake the cookies

Divide the dough into 3 or 4 sections for easy rolling. Start with the first section. Form it into a ball and press it down lightly for easy rolling.
Place the dough in between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
Place 2 dowel rods on either side of the dough. The distance between both the rods should not be more than the length of your rolling pin.
Roll the dough flat, making sure your rolling pin rolls on both the rods (see Notes 2 & 3)
Set the rods aside and peel off the parchment paper on top.
Use a round fluted cookie cutter (mine is 2 inches in diameter) to cut out as many cookies as you can from the rolled dough.
To lift the cut out cookie dough, remove the excess dough on the sides. And then slide a flat spatula underneath each cut out to lift the cookies. The other option is to lift the parchment paper and gently push the cookies up with your fingers.
Remove any excess bits of dough around the cut outs and place them on a lined baking tray. The cookies do not puff or increase in size during baking, so you can place them fairly closely to one another on the baking tray. Leave about 2 cm distance between each cookie for easy handling.
Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 170℃ for about 8 to 10 minutes. If your cookies are browning too much on the sides, reduce the baking temperature for the next batch so that your cookies retain their lovely blue color on the edges (see Note 4).
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them rest in the tray for about 3 to 4 minutes before transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely. Keep the cookies in an airtight container as soon as they cool down to room temperature to retain their crisp and crumbly texture.

Decorate the cookies

Start by preparing the flower flakes. Separate the blue petals from the green stems with scissors.
Discard the stems and chop the petals into tiny flakes. You can use a pair of scissors to cut the petals or use a knife to chop them. Set aside.
To make the lemon glaze, sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl.
Strain the lemon juice in followed by the water.
Mix well until the sugar is all well incorporated. Test the consistency of the glaze by dripping it in lines on a plate (with a spoon). If it spreads out too much, add more sugar to thicken it.
Transfer the glaze into a piping bag.
Arrange the cookies on a wire rack, with at least 1 cm space between each cookie. Snip the tip of the piping bag (make sure it is a small hole). Drizzle the glaze onto each cookie (see Note 5).
Quickly sprinkle the top of each drizzled cookie with the dried butterfly pea flower flakes. Allow the glaze to set completely before storing the cookies back in an airtight container (see Note 6).

Video

Notes

If the cookie dough is too sticky or too dry, let it rest at room temperature for about 15 to 30 minutes before rolling it.
Placing dowel rods on either side of the dough when rolling will ensure your cookie dough is of consistent thickness.
Rolling the dough in between 2 pieces of parchment paper will help avoid the dough from sticking to your rolling pin and your kitchen counter. It will also make it easier to lift the cut out cookie dough to the cookie trays for baking.
Every oven behaves differently and it is always a good idea to test the baking temperature and baking time with a smaller batch of cookies so that you can adjust the temperature and time accordingly for the remaining batches.
It is best to do the drizzle the lemon glaze onto the cookies in small batches to avoid the glaze from hardening on the cookies before you sprinkle the flower flakes onto top. Once the glaze sets, it will not be able to hold the flower flakes in place.
When stacking the cookies in a cookie jar or a container, place paper doilies parchment paper cut outs in between the cookies to prevent the glaze icing for sticking to other cookies.

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