Spring in Japan is so beautiful and magical. All the hills and parks are covered with pink and white cherry blossom trees, and many of them adorn city streets as well. To celebrate the beauty of cherry blossoms, I shared my Cherry Blossom Milk Pudding recipe last week, and this week I want to share Cherry Blossom Cookies with you.
Cherry Blossom Cookies with Salt Pickled Sakura
Many of you probably didn’t know that cherry blossoms (sakura in Japanese) are actually edible. In Japan, we preserve them with salt so they can be used in various dishes. However, it’s not as simple as just sprinkling salt over the blossoms. The whole preserving process takes place over several weeks. Tender young buds are hand-picked, washed, and dried. They are then soaked in ume plum vinegar for several days before being dried completely. Finally, they are packed in jars or packages with salt.
Buttery, Slightly Salty, Cherry Blossom Cookies
These cherry blossom cookies are butter cookies, or you may know them as shortbread cookies or sable cookies. They are unleavened cookies, which means that leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda are not used in the recipe. They consist of just butter, sugar, and flour and are often flavored with vanilla. We use salt-pickled cherry blossoms in this recipe, so it adds just enough saltiness essence to the rich, buttery cookies. You can smell and taste the cherry blossoms, which is the highlight of these cookies. The texture of the cookies is “crisp” rather than chewy or soft cookies. It is commonly necessary to chill the dough for easy handling. The chilled dough will give clean, sharp edges to the cookies and holds its shape better in the oven. Usually, for this type of cookie, you roll the dough into a cylindrical shape, chill, and then slice it into rounds (or roll out the dough, chill, and cut it out).
Ingredients Substitution
Powder Sugar vs. Granulated Sugar
I’ve made butter cookies with both sugars and they both work, so you can experiment and decide. I used powdered sugar for this recipe because I read some articles that granulated sugar in butter cookies would not dissolve completely while being baked. Given that butter cookies don’t contain liquid, the cookies would wind up with a rough texture.
Cake Flour vs. All Purpose Flour
Again, you can make butter cookies with flour. Butter cookies are meant to be somewhat crumbly because they have a high butter (fat) content. If you use all-purpose flour, they will be a little more sturdy than the ones made with cake flour (a mix of both would be best). Cake flour gives a light texture, and I think it fits better with this cherry blossom recipe. So I opted for cake flour for this recipe. In Japanese, we say this texture saku saku (サクサク).
Sparkling Sugar
White sparkling sugar can be replaced with granulated sugar. Sparkling sugar has larger grain so that it won’t melt and disappear while being baked. It adds a particular look as well as a nice crunch when you bite into it.
Recipes Using Salt-Pickled Cherry Blossoms
Use salt-pickled cherry blossoms this spring to make these delicious and pretty recipes! Happy spring!
Cherry Blossoms Madeleines Cherry Blossom Rice Balls Cherry Blossom Milk Pudding
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