Vanilla Dreams and Swedish Dreams

I found the Vanilla Dreams recipe on the King Arthur Flour web site and the Swedish Dreams on the community page of the same site.  I've been including these in my holiday baking for several years now.  They are incredibly easy to make and I've been making them in advance this year and freezing them.  Both utilize a little known ingredient found more in Europe than here.  I buy mine from KAF and this is how they describe it:

Baker’s ammonia (ammonium carbonate) is a classic leavener, called for in your grandmother’s or great-grandmother's recipes.

• Baker's Ammonia (ammonium carbonate) makes extra-crisp cookies or crackers.
• Use in old-fashioned recipes calling for it (or for hartshorn).
• Yes, it has a very strong smell when baking; don't worry, it totally dissipates by the time the cookies are done.

The Swedish Dreams are a variation on the vanilla dreams by replacing 1 tsp. of the vanilla extract with either orange or lemon extract.  I use Fiori di Sicilia in mine and it smells like heaven in my kitchen whenever I use it in my baking.  It's another item I get from KAF and here is it's description:

Here at The Baker's Catalogue, we have to restrain ourselves from using Fiori di Sicilia in EVERYTHING! We think it's second only to vanilla, as far as flavorful multi-tasking goes.

• A Baker’s Catalogue exclusive!
• A combination of citrus and vanilla with a pleasingly floral aroma.
• Use about 1/2 teaspoon in a typical recipe for cookies, pound cake, pie, meringues, sweet bread, etc.
• Italians use Fiori di Sicilia ("flowers of Sicily") to scent their panettone and pandoro.
• For best freshness, refrigerate after opening. And caution, don't spill it on the counter, please – it stains.
• TEST KITCHEN TIP: You know that wonderful marriage of flavors you taste when you combine vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet in the same bowl? That’s what Fiori di Sicilia tastes like. We find that using it in just about anything mild and sweet–anything where competing flavors, like chocolate, don’t interfere–adds a wonderfully mysterious taste. Your friends will be guessing just what you’ve done to your sugar cookies or yellow cake or sweet bread to make them taste SO good!

I also use this in my homemade Angel Food Cake and it is devine!  Now on to the recipes!

Vanilla Dreams Cookies

  

Ingredients:

·       1 1/4 cups sugar

·       1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

·       3/4-1 tsp. salt*   

·       2-3 tsp. vanilla   

·       2 cups flour        

·       1/2 tsp. baker’s ammonia or 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

·       coarse sparkling sugar for coating

·       *If you use salted butter, reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.  Place sparkling sugar in a bowl. 

    In a mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, salt,  and vanilla extract. Add the flour and baker's ammonia, and beat until the dough comes together, scraping the bowl once; it'll seem quite dry at first, but keep beating, eventually it'll become chunky and cohesive.

    Scoop the dough by teaspoonfuls (a teaspoon cookie scoop works wonderfully well here) into the bowl of sparkling sugar. Roll the dough balls in the sugar to coat.

Put them on the prepared baking sheets, and use the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar if necessary to prevent sticking, to flatten the balls to about 1/4" thick. 

    Bake the cookies for about 20 to 25 minutes, until they're a very light golden brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

Servings:  4 doz. cookies

Swedish Dreams Cookies

  

Ingredients:

·       1 cup (7 ounces) sugar         

·       2 sticks unsalted butter

·       1 tsp. salt*

·       2 tsp. vanilla extract    

·       1 tsp. orange, lemon or Fiori di Sicilia extract, optional    

·       2 cups (8 1/2 oz.) flour

·       1/2 tsp. baker's ammonia      

·       coarse sparkling sugar, for topping

·       *If you use salted butter, reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp.

Directions:

    Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.  Place sparkling sugar in a bowl. 

    In a mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, and orange or lemon extract. Add the flour and baker's ammonia, and beat until the dough comes together, scraping the bowl once; it'll seem quite dry at first, but keep beating, eventually it'll become chunky and cohesive.

    Scoop the dough by teaspoonfuls (a teaspoon cookie scoop works wonderfully well here) into the bowl of sparkling sugar. Roll the dough balls in the sugar to coat.

    Put them on the prepared baking sheets, and use the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar if necessary to prevent sticking, to flatten the balls to about 1/4" thick. 

    Bake the cookies for about 20 to 25 minutes, until they're a very light golden brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

Servings:  4 doz. cookies

To flatten the cookies, I use the plunger from my Cuisinart food processor.  It gives the cookies a pretty swirl design.  When I do the Vanilla Dreams I use white sparkling sugar and for the Swedish Dreams, orange sparkling sugar to tell the different flavors apart.  Sparkling sugar is a larger grain of sugar than sanding sugar and doesn't melt in the baking process.  It also gives a nice crunch to your baked items.

If you are going to store or freeze them, store the two flavors apart to keep the orange flavor from being absorbed into the vanilla ones.  Enjoy!