I want to draw out the season a bit more before committing myself to the Summer, so I decided to try to hold on to early Spring with some cherry blossom-themed recipes and DIYs.
First up: these adorable Sakura Sugar Cookies!
For this batch, I used a 30g packet I purchased from Nihon Ichiban. You can also find them on Amazon, but the price was more than double when I checked.
Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 packet (30 g) salt-pickled cherry blossoms (sakura), about 35 flowers
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using minced flowers in the dough)
- Sugar crystal sprinkles (optional)
(Optional) Prepare Blossoms to Mix In
- If you’d like to add minced flowers to the dough, separate out about a tablespoon. Leave the prettiest ones for decorating later!
2. Soak the tablespoon of cherry blossoms in a bowl of water for 15 minutes or so to help remove extra salt.
3. After soaking, gently press out water with paper towels. They don’t need to be dry; you just don’t want them sopping wet.
4. Mince (stems and all) and set aside.
Preparing the Dough
- Cream butter and sugar.
- Add in vanilla, egg and sour cream. Mix well.
- Combine flour and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add salt if not using minced flowers.
- Slowly add flour and baking soda mixture.
- (optional) After everything else is well-mixed, add in minced flowers.
- Chill for at least an hour – I usually leave it overnight.
Baking the Cookies
- Prepare flowers by soaking in a bowl of water for 15 minutes or so to remove much of the salt.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Either roll out 1/4″-1/3″ thick and cut out cookies OR form dough into log for slicing (what I did) and slice 1/4″ – 1/3″ thick.
- Lay out on non-greased cookie sheet, leaving plenty of room for them to spread some.
- Remove flowers from water and arrange on paper towel, taking care to position petals as best you can. Press gently with another paper towel to remove some of the moisture.
- Press flowers onto tops of cookies.
- (optional) Add clear sugar sprinkles, pressing gently into dough with fingers so they stay when baked.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the first hints of brown start showing at the base. You do not brown these cookies.
I use a soft sugar cookie recipe because that’s what I prefer; you could also use this same process with a crispier cookie, like a shortbread. If you want bits of flowers in the cookies, I recommend omitting salt since they will still have lingering salt even after soaking and they baked just fine without any extra for me. This made about 2 dozen fairly large cookies.
Based on 3 Review(s)
These cookies are so pretty!
These are so pretty, I love how the stems are sticking out
I thought that the flowers would be hard to make, but this recipe is super easy! Thank you for sharing!!
These look so amazing ! must be as delicate taste as the flower … we need to figure out where you get these flowers !
You can get them on Amazon, but they’re usually marked up a lot on there – I ordered them from Nihon Ichiban, so there was a longer shipping time since they came from overseas, but the price was much better!
That looks and sounds unbelievable tasty! how did you heard about that recipe?
Thank you! The base cookie recipe is an old family one I’ve made since I was a kid at the holidays, and I was curious about how to cook with the picked cherry blossoms so I looked up some general tips so I could incorporate them in 🙂
What gorgeous and unique cookies! I have never eaten flowers before so this would be an interesting recipe for me to try.
Vegas weather is so damn hot! THis recipe on the other hand is so unique and delicious. Will be trying soon.
I love Cherry Blossom but with this recipe I would loved it even more. It looks yummy and very attractive to eat.
These sugar cookies look lovely! I have never had sugar cookies with cherry blossoms in them. I will see if I can get some and try my hand making these cookies. Thanks for sharing the recipe
These are so pretty and would look great on a delicious dessert or with a drink x
These cookies look so delicious. And, I love your idea ‘flowers on cookies’. I’m not a good cook but will give it a try.
I love the sound of these cherry blossom inspired sugar cookies and I think that the decoration is so neat. I am pretty hungry right now so this definitely has me in the mood to make some delicious cookies!
I love sugar cookies! And this is a way to make them even tastier AND more beautiful. What an adorable idea!! I can picture them for a baby or bridal shower. So cute!
Ohh I have never had flowers in cookies before but these look so yummy! So tempted to make some cookies now
I had no clue on cooking with sakura, didn’t even know they were edible!!! Cant wait to try this recipe!
These cherry blossom cooks look delightful! I mean so beautifully presented, I wish I had the patience and time to make this…heck I may change my ways and try! I hope they’e as yummy as they look.
Such pretty cookies! I would have never though to do that with the flowers. I’ll definitely have to give this a try!