Snappy, small, fragrant, vanilla wafer cookies made with a whole vanilla pod. The entire thing!
Ingredients
1/2 cup+ / 2.5 oz /70 g powdered sugar
scant 1/4 cup / 1 1/2 oz / 45 g granulated sugar
1 pliable vanilla bean, cut into segments, ends trimmed if tough
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
8 tablespoons / 4 oz / 115 g unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into chunks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup / 2 oz / 55g rye flour
1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g all-purpose flour
a touch of sugar/salt for topping
Directions
Place the sugars in a food processor along with the vanilla bean segments. Pulse for a couple minutes, until the bean is really broken down, then pulse in the salt. Add the butter and vanilla extract and pulse until combined, check to be sure there aren't any big vanilla bean chunks, pulse a bit more if so, the butter should be creamy and light at this point. Add the flours and pulse until the dough comes together into a ball, 5 - 10 seconds.
Because this dough is on the sticky side, place it in the middle of a large piece of parchment paper, then cover it with a second piece of parchment paper. Roll out the dough until it is 1/4-inch thick. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes or until well chilled. Heat the oven at this point to 350F / 175C while the dough is chilling.
Stamp out cookies with a cookie cutter, and arrange an inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Sprinkle each cookie with bit of sugar, and a hint of salt if you like (be carefull not to use too much salt). Repeat with the remaining dough, which you can gather and roll out from the scraps. Chill (well) again in the fridge or freezer - particularly if your dough has warmed up. This will help prevent spreading. Bake in the top and bottom-thirds of the oven for 10 - 15 min, or until golden. Remove from the oven, let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
