Butter Cookies with Sucanat
The second Christmas cookie recipe! This time I’m making butter cookies and adapting the recipe to include Sucanat instead of granulated white sugar.
As a reminder, Sucanat is an abbreviation for “sucre de canne naturel” or natural cane sugar and is a less processed, more natural sugar in comparison to granulated white sugar/brown sugar. Due to the minimal processing involved in producing Sucanat, it retains more of its nutritional properties as well. The minimal processing does mean that the granules of Sucanat are larger and not uniform though so when adding it to recipes, including this one, you will need to grind it in a coffee or spice grinder first so that it can better incorporate in with the the rest of the ingredients.
I’ve been making these cookies since I was a kid and they are a family favorite. They are slightly crisp on the edges and soft on the inside and the taste of the butter just keeps you coming back for more. I hope you’ll try this updated version!
Makes about 2-3 dozen cookies
Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter
180 g Sucanat, ground in a coffee/spice grinder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
330 g all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and egg, scraping the sides of the mixing bowl until thoroughly combined.
In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together, then gradually beat into dough until thoroughly combined. At this point, you can either: (1) divide dough in half; shape into cylinders; and, ff desired, coat cylinder with finely chopped nuts, chocolate chips, toasted coconut, or other ingredients OR (2) form dough into a disk.
Double wrap and chill the dough until firm enough to use, at least a few hours. At this point, if you formed the dough into cylinders, you can just slice and bake the cookies. If you formed it into a disk, work in smaller pieces and roll out the dough on a floured surface until it’s about 1/4-inch think and then cut with cookie cutters and sprinkle with any additional ingredients. If the dough becomes too soft at any point, put it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes until it is workable again.
To bake, place in a preheated 350 F oven on cookie sheets. Bake until cookies are set and no more than very lightly golden on the edges about 10-12 minutes.
