Seed Packet Sugar Cookies

What summertime witch isn’t well acquainted with the sound of a rattling seed packet? It’s like they’re filled with magic and possibility. Want to make your own? Below is a recipe for floral-infused sugar-cookie seed packets with royal icing and, if you want to be extra about it, some chocolate sprinkle “seeds”!

For the floral-infused cookies, you’ll need:

¾ cup butter or butter-flavored shortening
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup mixed dried edible flowers
(such as rose, lavender, butterfly pea, calendula, or cornflowers)

Directions:

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer. Cream together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs in one at a time. Mix until fully incorporated. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl. Slowly add in the flour mixture and dried flowers. Again, mix until fully incorporated. Cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour, though 4 to 8 hours is ideal. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. Dust a work surface, your rolling pin, and rectangular cookie cutters (or a knife) with flour.

Roll out dough to a quarter- to half-inch thickness. Cut cookies into a roughly 2-by-4-inch rectangle, then cut out a window in the middle bottom half where the sprinkles will go. Roll out the extra dough and continue to cut cookies until you run out of dough. Place cookies an inch apart on the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Chill for an additional 30 minutes. While the cookies chill, preheat oven to 400ºF. Bake cookies until they are lightly browned, approximately 6 to 7 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies cool, you can begin on the royal icing.

For the royal icing:

4-5 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
3 tablespoons meringue powder
10-12 tablespoons filtered water For the seed packets:
Chocolate sprinkles or actual edible seeds
like sunflower or poppy seeds
Gelatin sheets

Directions:

Add the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and 10 tablespoons of water into the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat the ingredients on high speed for 45 seconds to 1 minute. Remember, the longer you whisk the icing, the thicker and stiffer it will get. The icing should disappear back into itself after 5 to 10 seconds when drizzled from the whisk. If it is too thin, add more sugar. If too thick, add more water.

Once the cookies have cooled, and with a piping bag fitted with a #1 tip, use the royal icing to make an outline around the backside cutout of the cookie. The icing will serve as glue; place a gelatin sheet onto the royal icing and allow it to dry. Flip the cookie over to the front side.

Place a sprinkling of chocolate sprinkles (or edible seeds) inside of the cookie and atop the gelatin sheet. Then add another outline of royal icing around the cutout on the front side of the cookie and place another small gelatin sheet down on top. Allow it to dry.

Then neatly outline your cookies around the outer edges and around the window with more royal icing.

Now, it’s time to color inside the lines! “Flood” the cookie surface between the outlines with remaining royal icing. You can use a toothpick to help move the icing across the surface or remove bubbles. Remember to have fun!

They’re going to be delicious no matter what!

The cookies will take a minimum of 2 hours to dry. Once the icing has dried, you can decorate with dried flowers, more icing, or edible markers or paint.

Follow Lauren May on Instagram @mustloveherbs and visit her website, mustloveherbs.com.