Summer Sun Cookies

If you have read any of my recipes before than you may have picked up that I love to use natural ingredients to add color to my baking and the proliferation of freeze dried fruit powders available on the internet has only fueled my obsession. I used to buy freeze dried fruit and grind it in a spice grinder, but now you can find nearly anything already neatly ground up into powder and ready to use. It is a bit more expensive to buy a bunch of fruit powders, especially if you don’t plan to use them for multiple recipes, so as always, if that isn’t your thing, then by all means just use food coloring and get a very similar result. That said, the mango and goji powders in this recipe don’t just add color, they also add flavor and these cookies were delicious. We had special star wars oreos in the house when I made these and my kids both preferred and asked for these. You can use any sugar cookie recipe that you like, I am a celiac so I use a gluten free recipe. (My raspberry rose moons use the same recipe, just sub the mango/ goji for the raspberry and leave out the rose and chocolate) Anyway, the goji in particular added a lovely sour flavor that really added something special and I would recommend trying it. The mango didn’t add quite as much yellow as I wanted, so I added a little turmeric too. It enhanced the mango without overpowering it and gave the cookies that sunny yellow. All in all, these cookies are delicious, summery, and look more complicated than they are. Perfect for a Summer Solstice celebration, or for any summer event!

Ingredients:

• your favorite sugar cookie dough (mine is here, omit the raspberry powder)
• 1/3 cup freeze dried mango powder
• 1/4 tsp dried turmeric
• 1/3 cup freeze dried goji berry powder
• clear granulated sugar (optional)
• sun shaped cookie cutters
• round cookie cutters

Method:

Prepare your favorite sugar cookie recipe according to the author’s instructions, but don’t chill it. Instead, divide it in half. Place half back into the mixer and add the mango powder and turmeric. Stir until mixed and then pat into a flat rectangle, wrap in wax paper and chill.

Place the other half of the dough into the mixer and add the goji powder. Stir until mixed and then pat into a flat rectangle, wrap in wax paper and chill.

Once both halves have chilled for several hours, preheat your oven to the temperature specified in your recipe.

Roll both the orange and yellow dough out to around 1/8″ (or to your recipe’s stated thickness) Cut the same number of suns from each color and place them on a baking sheet.

Next use a circular cutter to cut out the center of each sun. Swap the centers so that the orange suns have yellow centers and the yellow suns have orange centers. Sprinkle the cookies lightly with clear sugar if desired. (Some recipes are designed to be iced so benefit from some additional sugar)

Chill again (as needed) and then bake according to your recipe’s instructions.