Nutella and White Tea Sugar Cookies with Hibiscus Glaze
Pink, love and chocolate for mom
These sugar cookies are soft and chewy and completely made from scratch. You will be amazed with how easy these are to make, especially with my trick to prevent cookies from spreading in the oven. Any shape will be safe with this recipe! And think of all the fillings and glazes you can make. But because Mother’s Day is literally around the corner, I’m sticking with Nutella as filling and a hibiscus glaze for a pink pretty color. You don’t see cookies so full of love everyday.
I have shared with you different versions of these cookies through social media but I haven’t actually shared this very recipe, with Nutella filling and hibiscus glaze. But it’s finally here and I couldn’t think of a better time to share it than for Mother’s Day!! Chocolate, pink and made out of love, what can be a better gift for mom?! I added some white tea leaves to the cookie dough for a literal tea cookie that we all moms deserve. Just remember to lift your pinkie when eating this cookie, ok?
I used a round cookie cutter and a smaller one to cut the center out. I also made some minis as you can see in the pictures. They are impossible to stop eating! You can use any cookie cutter you have around, and even have fun with another shape for the cutout in the center. A little heart would be so cute!
The white tea, besides the hibiscus in the glaze, added a nice floral taste to these cookies. This is what I love about this recipe, you can play around with different flavors to have a special creation every time you make them. You can add cinnamon and ginger for spiced cookies, lemon and lemon zest for citrusy cookies or just a bit of vanilla for some simple classic cookies.
And you can also get creative with other fillings like buttercream, guava paste, peanut butter, lemon curd, jelly or marmalade. And you can leave the hibiscus tea out. You can use a bit of matcha for a soft green hue or any dried food powder disolved in water to give some color. For more ideas you can check my guide on how to make a simple glaze. Let's get you baking!
How to make sugar cookies from scratch that won’t spread in the oven
For this recipe it’s important that your butter is soft just enough that it yields if you poke it but is still slightly cool.
The dough should be a bit grainy to the touch but hold together when you press it with your fingers after beating. If you feel it’s not coming together, beat a minute more.
Technically you can roll your dough at this point. I just appreciate what 5 to 10 minutes of chilling does to the dough. It becomes more homogeneous and has more structure and for me it’s easier to work with it.
The technique of rolling the dough between two parchment papers and transferring to a baking tray is ideal to keep the dough from breaking. I recommend using a straight rolling pin to ensure the surface of the cookies is completely flat.
How to prevent sugar cookies form spreading? Freezing the rolled and shaped dough is KEY to separate the cookies without hurting their shape. Freezing is also KEY in preventing the cookies from spreading when they are in the oven and loosing their shape.
Put together all the scrapes that you can because you can either make more cookies or use it later to make another batch with a different shape. They will be good to use for about a week if stored in the fridge. I leave my first scrapes outside and, as soon as the frozen scrapes become soft, I incorporate them with the warm ones and start the process all over again.
After the cookies are baked and outside the oven, it’s SUPER IMPORTANT to leave them in the tray 3 to 5 minutes for soft cookies. If you prefer extra crispy cookies leave them in the oven at least until they are almost cooled down completely. If you try to move them before, there is a big chance they will crumble in front of your very eyes with nothing much that you can do about it. It’s ALSO IMPORTANT to let them cool down completely after you transfer them to the cooling rack for the same reason. You can divide the work by baking them one day and decorating the next one.
Have fun with your fillings and decorations, almost whatever you like goes!!
Suggested Baking Times for Sugar Cookies
Thinner cookies (⅛”) + chewier consistency = 8 minutes
Thinner cookies + harder consistency = 10 minutes
Thicker cookies (¼”) + chewier consistency = 10 minutes
Thicker cookies + harder consistency = up to 12 minutes
Hope you have fun baking these cookies. Until the next recipe!
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Nutella and White Tea Sugar Cookies with Hibiscus Glaze
Ingredients
◯ Unbleached all-purpose flour – 3 cups
◯ Baking powder – 1 Tsp
◯ Fine sea salt – ½ Tsp
◯ Butter, at room temperature but not too soft – 2 sticks, (16 TBSP)
◯ Raw sugar – 1 ¼ cup
◯ Vanilla extract – 1 Tsp (for almond extract use 2 Tsp)
◯ White tea leaves, roughly chopped if you are using loose leaves - about 2 TBSP
◯ Egg – 1
Hibiscus glaze
◯ Powdered or Confectioner's Sugar - 1 to 2 cups, sifted
◯ Hibiscus tea, brewed - between 1 to 2 Tsp
◯ Water - between ¼ to ⅓ cup
Details
Yield:
about 24 large (12 sandwiches) cookies plus some little ones
Total Time:
1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, including freezing and cool down times
Active time:
10 minutes to make the dough + 5 minutes to roll it and cut it
Equipment:
stand mixer or electric hand mixer, parchment paper, cookie cutters, baking trays, cooling rack
Steps
To make the sugar cookies:
In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt with a hand whisk to break any large lumps.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment put the butter and sugar and beat in medium speed (#4 on the Kitchen Aid) until the mixture looks fluffy and pale, about 5 minutes.
Add the vanilla, white tea leaves and the egg, scraping the butter-sugar mixture down the bowl if necessary, and beat again for 2 minutes. Scrap down again if needed.
Decrease to low speed (#1 on the Kitchen Aid) and start incorporating the flour mixture, about half cup at a time (I like to use a measuring cup and add the flour through the opening of the mixer’s pouring shield.) Continue beating for 3 minutes. Stop the mixer and check your dough texture. It should be a bit grainy to the touch but should hold together when you press it with your fingers.
Press the whole dough with your hands until uniform and divide it into two balls. Transfer one of the balls to a parchment paper and press it again until the dough is smooth and has a nice round shape. Place another parchment paper on top and press it down. With a rolling pin tap the dough to flatten it down, then start rolling from the center out until it is between ⅛” to ¼” thick, depending on your thickness preference.
Peel the top parchment paper and, if there’s any dough beyond the edges of your bottom parchment paper, cut it using a pizza cutter or sharp knife. Reserve the scraps. Transfer your parchment paper to a baking tray. Using your selected cookie cutters shape the dough, leaving as little space as possible between cookies. Cut small shapes on any left out area if desired. Place baking tray in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes. You may repeat the process with the second disk. Combine its scrapes with the scrapes of the first disk. If you don't have enough space in your freezer for a second batch, just set it aside until you take out the previous tray.
In the meantime, preheat oven to 350°.
Take out your frozen tray and start peeling the excess dough around your shapes. For borders that are too thin or in the middle, just separate the shaped dough and arrange in the tray to have access to those areas. Reserve all excess of dough. Quickly arrange cookies, leaving about ½" of space between them.
Bake cookies for about 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookie and your consistency preference. Mine were baked for 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let them in the baking tray, about 3 minutes. Using a thin spatula, carefully transfer each cookie to a cooling rack. Let them cool down completely before handling to prevent breakage. After cooled you may glaze them.
To make the hibiscus glaze:
Start by pouring one teaspoon of the brewed tea on the sifted sugar and mix with a hand whisk. This much tea is enough for a subtle pink color. If you want a stronger color add a bit more of tea. When you are happy with the color add just bit of water and mix. Add more if your mix is too stiff, until you reach a thick but still pourable consistency. If it ends too runny add some extra sifted powdered sugar.
