Peeps Cookies

Peeps Cookies

I love Peeps. They are so cute but too sweet! The vanilla sugar cookies taste much better than Peeps and are made with Rodelle Vanilla Paste in addition to vanilla extract and vanilla sugar, so you get a triple threat of vanilla in each bite. I use the Wilton Peeps cookie cutters. The Royal Icing recipe is in the forthcoming post Spring Lemon Cookies.

Peeps Cookies

Vanilla Sugar Cookie Ingredients
5 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 cups Vanilla Sugar

1 teaspoon Coarse Salt

2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened

Peeps Cookies

1 tablespoon Milk or Cream (I use Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Coconut Blend)

2 Large Eggs

2 teaspoons Clear Vanilla Extract

1 tablespoon Vanilla Bean Paste (I use Rodelle Vanilla Paste)

Cutie Peeps

Directions
Whisk together flour and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and vanilla sugar in a hand held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment on low; 1-2 minutes. Do not overmix.

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix for 10 seconds.

Add eggs one at a time, mix until incorporated. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 5 seconds.

Add milk, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean paste, and mix on low until incorporated; about 20-25 seconds.

Purple and Yellow Peeps Cookies

With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture and incorporate. The dough is ready when it begins to clump around paddle attachment.

Roll dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Take half of the dough leaving unused dough covered with plastic wrap in fridge until ready to use.

Most of the ingredients for this recipe pictured here

Heat oven to 350°F.

Use two sheets of parchment paper with dough in between and roll with rolling pin until desired thickness is reached.

Take cutters and make shapes. Repeat until you use all the dough.

Place onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 15-20 minutes. The cookies hold their shape when you do this.

Vanilla cookie dough; you can see the speckles from the vanilla bean paste

Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges have slightly browned. My cookies baked in 13 minutes.

Wait 2-3 minutes before transferring cookies on cooling racks to complete cooling.

Decorate once cookies have cooled completely.

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys