Each spring, I look forward to the sight and fragrance of beautiful botanical blooms, especially cherry blossoms. We often think of cherry blossoms as something unique to Washington D.C. or Japan, but cherry blossoms can be found in many regions of the United States. Georgia has many thousands of the beautiful pink trees. They can also be found in my home state, California. Here in California we also have many other types of beautiful blossoming fruit trees.
Inspired by the beautiful pink blossoms, I baked some cherry blossom cookies. There are many varieties of the blossoming pink trees. The Yoshino variety that we love to admire is not the same as the trees that produce cherries that we typically eat, but I decided to make the cookies cherry flavor. Cherry extract is more accessible, but it’s also possible to make the cookies sakura blossom flavor if you prefer. You can purchase culinary sakura blossoms or sakura powder and flavor the cookies with it.
These perfectly pretty, pink cookies are easy to make and fun to decorate. You can sprinkle sparkling sugar on them before baking and call it a day or you can make some pink cherry icing and add sugar pearls or sprinkles. Either way, they look beautiful and taste delicious!
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Cherry Blossom Cookies
Ingredients
Cherry Blossom Cookies
- 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, softened
- 6 tablespoons (3 oz / 85g) cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup (150g) sugar
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure cherry extract or natural cherry flavoring *see note below
- â…› teaspoon pure almond extract
- 3 cups (383g) all purpose flour, sifted
- Pink gel food color **see note below
Cherry Icing
- 1 cup (120g) powdered sugar
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
- 4-5 tablespoons (59-67ml) whole milk
- ½ teaspoon pure cherry extract or natural cherry flavoring
- Pink gel food color
Optional Cookie Decorations
- White sparkling sugar
- Pink sugar pearls
- Pink nonpareils
Instructions
Cherry Blossom Cookies
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer on medium speed, just until smooth and well blended.
- Add the sugar and salt. Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg, then the extracts until incorporated.
- On low speed, mix in the flour in two additions, just until combined.
- Mix in the food coloring, a tiny bit at a time, until the desired shade is achieved.
- Divide the dough into two disks. Wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours or up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut out cookies with a 2-inch blossom cutter..***
- Place the cookies about 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with sparkling sugar if using.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes until the bottom edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
- Cool completely then ice with cherry icing, if desired. Decorate with sugar pearls or sprinkles before the icing sets.
Cherry Icing
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, salt, 3 tablespoons (45ml) of milk and the cherry extract. Add additional milk until the desired consistency is reached. Whisk together until smooth.
- Mix in pink gel food color, a tiny bit at a time, until the desired shade is achieved.