Oh the luxury of saffron! Homemade Saffron cookies are prestige camouflaged in a form of a casual warm welcome. This year I skipped saffron buns altogether yet I did not want to miss saffron from my Christmas. I spent a long time searching for simple saffron cookies without any gimmicks. Finally I came across this retro 1990s recipe from Mother Earth Living Magazine. You can check the original recipe & its family story from the link above. And you can continue reading here if you’re interested how I went about it. This really is a recipe for saffron lovers. The recipe is plain & saffron shines without any flavor competitors.
Saffron Cookies
MAKES 30-35 cookies
• 5 g powdered saffron
• 15 g water
• 225 g butter (room temperature)
• 150 g sugar
• 1 egg
• 300 g flour
• 1/3 tsp baking powder
Instructions
1. In a small bowl, combine saffron with hot water (not boiling!). Let it cool and release its flavor for 20 minutes. Whip butter and sugar together until smooth. Add egg and saffron mixture, fold gently until creamy. Mix all dry ingredients together and shift them into the dough. Chill the dough for 1 hour.
3. Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F and prep baking trays with parchment paper. Divide the dough into equal balls. Each at a time, shape and roll the ball until smooth. Finally, flatten the ball down gently with a fork following the main compass points. Place the cookies 3 cm apart.
5. Bake the cookies for 7 – 10 minutes on the middle rack. Rotate the trays if baking multiple at the same time. Let the cookies cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
I really enjoyed this recipe! Saffron cookies pop some amazing color to the Christmas table and moreover they are a soft butter cookie addition into the cookie box. When comparing my test with the original recipe, you’ll notice that I used less saffron & adjusted down the amount of baking powder. Furthermore, I adjusted down the amount of wheat flour because the dough started to get too dense.