Crunchy Seed Cookies

Spring, you devious bastard. First you’re gettin’ weirdly toasty and inviting ice cream sandwiches and porch-sitting, and now you’re all snowin’ on us again; a retreat indoors feels totally unnatural this time of year. So, Bobbie and I rode bikes home in the spittle-snow last Saturday after an evening spent eating dinner with best friends and then dancing artfully inside a ring of non–best friends wearing togas. Super food and slippery floors made it an evening impervious to dumb ol’ snow, but my nerves are starting to rankle anyway.

The flipside, at least, is that indoor activities translates to lots of kitchen time, and last weekend’s windy, wet jerkdom prompted an all-day baking session that led to these—possibly the most adorable cookies known to humankind. If anime could bake itself into a pastry, it might come out looking like these li’l baby butter cookies covered in seeds (on both sides!). They are also super tasty and addictive, and I whole-heartedly recommend them no matter what the weather outside your window portends, which, for me, is a snow-wet weekend filled with yard sales, karaoke, beer, crafts, and clothing swappin’. Take that, fake spring.

Crunchy Seed Cookies

Adapted from Alice Medrich, Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy

This recipe makes about 60 li'l cookies. They are really the most adorable cookies of all time. And even though I'm wary of fennel, I loved it here and will certainly use it every time. I'm planning to add poppy and sunflower seeds next time though, maybe in place of the white sesames. Customizing is love.

2 teaspoons black sesame seeds

2 teaspoons white sesame seeds

2 teaspoons flax seeds

2 teaspoons fennel seeds (I used 1 1/2)

1/4 cup coarse raw sugar

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, very soft

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons bourbon (I used brandy)

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large shallow bowl or plate, mix seeds and coarse sugar and set aside. In a different medium bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt, and mix together thoroughly with a fork.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and granulated sugar. With a large spoon or electric mixer on medium-low, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and well-blended, but not fluffy. Add the egg and bourbon/brandy and mix until smooth. Add the flour mixture, half at a time, and mix by hand until completely incorporated.

3. Roll heaping teaspoons of dough into one-inch balls. Press each ball into the seed mixture on both sides (genius!), flattening the ball to a half-inch thick round. Place the cookies two whole inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake for 14 to 16 minutes until cookies are slightly browned on the edges, rotating pans halfway through. Set the liners on racks to cool. Medrich says cookies will keep for up to two weeks in an airtight container, but we ate them all in three days.