Last year, I introduced you all to my favorite new hobby: pressing fresh flowers using my dad’s old flower press from the ’70s!! As I noted at the time, I remain positively perplexed as to why I did not get my hands on said flower press earlier. It’s MAGICAL. And it helped me make these very lovely cookies, though I did supplement (heavily!) with store-bought pressed edible flowers this time because I didn’t have nearly enough not-completely-smushed ones to go around. Turns out I used most of them on these.
Below, I’m sharing the full tutorial, plus tips on working with edible flowers. You’ve basically got four choices here:
- You can buy fresh, un-pressed edible flowers and use them as is. There isn’t really a need to use pressed flowers, after all; I just enjoy the look. If you’ve never purchased edible flowers before, you’ll want to check out a local farmer’s market or consider overnighting them from a supplier such as Gourmet Sweet Botanicals. Admittedly, this route can get expensive. Many Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s locations also sell them, but I find the quality a little sad; the flowers are usually not in great condition, lumped into one small plastic container, and they come in very small quantities—so you’re better off spending more money on better flowers. Personal opinion!
- You can buy them fresh and press them yourself at home! I’ll explain more about that below; it’s easier than it looks and is the best way to guarantee that you’re getting certified-edible flowers, since a lot of the store-bought pressed options can be vague/sketchy with regards to their certification.
- You can buy them pressed. I went this route here as a way of supplementing my self-pressed flowers. If you do buy them pressed, it’s really important to make sure you’re buying *edible* pressed flowers—as in, not the pressed flowers that are intended for scrapbooking or crafts. These (edible pressed flowers!) are a little harder to find than fresh edible flowers, and I’ve noticed there’s some sketchy advertising online that keeps things vague when it comes to the, er, edibility. I try not to eat “vaguely edible” things, but you do you. Anyway, you’ll probably be able to locate some of the real stuff at a farmer’s market or online; just take a good look at the claims/certifications before purchasing.
- You can GROW them, then press them, you overachiever, you! Just make sure you’re picking edible varieties when you get to planting; you can’t eat all flowers. I have never done this. But I think one day I should totally have an edible flower garden because…have you SEEN how many times I use these things?
Okay, without further ado…the tutorial! As always, please tag me if you end up making these! I’d love to see them.
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Edible Flower Black and White Cookies
Description
A flowery flourish to make your favorite New York City bakery staple even more enticing! Icing recipe adapted from Preppy Kitchen; base cookies via Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the cookies:
- 1 batch of Sally’s black and white cookies (don’t make the icing!), baked and cooled
For the icing:
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted to remove lumps (sift after measuring)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons water, plus more as needed
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
For the garnish:
- Edible flowers, pressed or fresh (if using fresh, see below for pressing instructions)
Instructions
- Press your flowers (if not working with store-bought blooms!): Ideally, you’ll do this at least two weeks before assembling the cookies in order to ensure that they’re really dry and flat! But I’ve had luck pressing them for just a week, and you can absolutely get by with less-than-totally-dry flowers. Use a flower press or lay the fresh blooms flat on one sheet of printer paper with a tiny bit of space between each (so that they don’t get stuck together once dry). Top with a second sheet of paper, then place several heavy books or flat objects on top (you really want some serious weight here!). Return in two weeks—your flowers should be beautifully dry and paper-thin.
- Bake the cookies according to the recipe linked above. (Don’t make the icing that accompanies the base cookie recipe.)
- While the cookies cool, prepare the icing by mixing together the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, water, corn syrup, and vanilla until smooth (I prefer to use a hand mixer for this because the icing can get very, very thick). Regardless, though the finished icing *should* be thick, you will likely need to gradually add more water, a 1/4 teaspoon at a time, to get it to a spreadable consistency.
- Transfer about half of the icing to another small bowl, then stir in the cocoa powder and a few teaspoons of water until you reach a consistency similar to that of the white icing.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely, place them flat sides up, then use an icing spatula to spread white icing over half of each. Unless you want to place flowers on the white side (in which case, you’ve got to get moving!), let the icing firm up a bit, 10-15 minutes, before continuing the frosting process, spreading chocolate icing over the other half of the cookie. Use craft tweezers to place individual flowers artfully across the chocolate half of the cookie (the idea is to place them where the icing has yet to “set”). Less is more! If your icing begins to set too quickly, you can always dab a drop of water onto the space where you’d like to place a flower; it’ll loosen up that icing and act as “glue.”
- Let the icing and florals continue to firm up for another 15 minutes before enjoying.