Chinese Five-Spice Dragon Cookies
Three dozen cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour
½ tsp fine sea salt
2 Tbsp Chinese Five-Spice powder
12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup confectionary’s sugar
Zest of one large orange (or 3 clementines)
2 tsp vanilla paste
Glaze:
3 ½ cups confectionary’s sugar
½ cup hot water
The juice of the one orange or three clementines)
1) Place the confectioner’s sugar, orange zest and the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer and cream together on low for 5-8 minutes.
2) Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line three sheet pans with parchment paper.
3) Whisk together the flours, five-spice and the salt.
4) Add the vanilla to the creamed mixture and mix for 1 minutes. Slowly add the flour on low speed until fully incorporated – do not overmix.
5) Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
6) Roll half the dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼” thick. Cut into 2” circles (the size of your chosen cookie stamp) and place them on the baking sheets about 1” apart. Gather the scraps and roll again and cut into the circles. Then do the same with the second half of the dough.
7) Dip your cookie stamp in a small bowl of flour, tap off the excess and press onto the cookie. Slowly release the cookie from the stamp, dip the stamp again and flour and press the next cookie. Continue until all the cookies are stamped.
8) Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, one pan at a time, rotating the pans halfway through, until the edges are just beginning to brown. Remove them from the oven, let them cool 5 minutes on the pans and then move them to a wire rack to cool slightly.
9) While the cookies cool, whisk together the glaze ingredients in a medium bowl. Dip the cookies into the glaze, stamped side down, and return to the wire rack to harden the glaze.
