Snowflake cookies with cornflour and vanilla

Snowflake cookies made with butter, cornflour and a little spelt flour, with acacia honey and vanilla. They stay pale and melt in the mouth. A family-friendly dessert, 232 kcal per four cookies.

At a glance

• Serves 12
• Prep time: 30 min
• Cooking time: 28 min
• Total time: 58 min
• Calories: 232 kcal per serving
• Protein: 1 g
• Fat: 14 g
• Carbs: 25 g

Ingredients

• 200g butter
• 70g acacia honey
• 200g cornflour
• 100g spelt flour
• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 pinch of salt

Method

You’ll need: oven · baking tray · sieve

1. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod. Beat the soft butter with the acacia honey, vanilla seeds and salt for 3 minutes until pale and creamy.
2. Sift the cornflour and spelt flour over the top, quickly knead everything into a smooth dough and chill it for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 160 °C (140 °C fan). Shape the dough into 48 small balls and place them on two baking trays lined with baking paper.
4. Flatten each ball with a floured fork in a criss-cross pattern.
5. Bake the cookies one tray at a time at 160 °C for 12 to 14 minutes each, until they take on a little colour underneath and stay pale on top.
6. Let them cool on the tray for 10 minutes – while warm, they break easily.

Good to know

Snowflakes get their name because they stay pale and melt in your mouth. That's down to all the cornflour in the dough. Instead of icing sugar, a mild acacia honey sweetens them and hardly adds any colour.

Swaps

Cornflour → potato starch. Spelt flour → rice flour (then gluten-free). Acacia honey → maple syrup (a little darker). Vanilla pod → 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Cooking tips

Stick to the oven temperature – above 160 °C the cookies turn brown instead of pale. The butter must be soft, otherwise the dough turns crumbly.

Storage

Keeps for 3 weeks in a tin somewhere cool and dry.

Allergens

Contains gluten (spelt) and milk (butter); no egg or nuts. Because of the honey, not suitable for children under 1 year old.