Since the moment I learned that you can buy cherry blossom powder online, I have been wanting to make sakura sugar cookies. But it took several tries to get the recipe right—I wanted to be able to taste the sakura without making the cookies a weird texture. Now, I’m happy to say, I’ve finally figured it out. And I want to share it with you now!
These cookies are delicious whether you get a special cherry blossom cookie cutter or not—sweet and light, with just the right amount of sakura. But I’ll link the cookie cutter set below, just in case (please note that links in this post are affiliate links).
The recipe for sakura sugar cookies is pretty similar to my recipe for regular sugar cookies, as you’ll see below. I had tried different mixes of flours and varying amounts of sakura powder several times but it kept coming out not quite right. And while the sakura powder does give the dough a faint pink tint, I decided to add a little pink food coloring gel as well. So, I was both surprised and happy at how perfectly this batch turned out. And the best part? No chilling necessary.
Sakura sugar cookies
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
scant 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sakura powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Optional: Pink gel food coloring
Cherry blossom cookie cutter
Preheat oven to 375F. Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (or a handheld mixer if using a regular mixing bowl), cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla, and add a drop or two of pink gel food coloring, if using. In another bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sakura powder, and salt.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture about 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Once everything is just combined and it has come together as a dough ball, sprinkle some flour out on a clean surface and roll out half the dough out to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick (you’ll want to err on the thicker side if using the cookie cutters I used, since they press the dough down a bit). Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into flower (or heart, or whatever) shapes.
Cover baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper, and bake the cookies just until set, 7-8 minutes. You don’t want the edges to get too brown. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the pan for 10 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack.
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