Sakura Sabure - Cherry Blossom Shortbread Cookies

Sable shortbread cookies made with preserved cherry blossoms - Diversivore.com

Sakura Sabure - Cherry Blossom Shortbread Cookies

Delicious, airy, lightly almond-flavoured sable shortbread (or サブレー, 'sabure' in Japanese), made with homemade, cured Japanese cherry blossoms. The cookies themselves are very easy to make, while the cherry blossoms are a fairly simple multi-day project. Don't have access to an ornamental cherry tree? No worries - you can purchase preserved sakura easily too (see the notes below).

For more detailed instructions on making your own preserved cherry blossoms, visit diversivore.com/preserved-cherry-blossoms/

Course Dessert

Cuisine Asian, European, Japanese, Scottish

Keyword cherry blossom recipes, hanami cookies, shortbread variation

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Curing Time (Flowers) 6

Servings cookies

Calories 92kcal

Ingredients

Preserved Cherry Blossoms

25 g cherry blossoms (sakura) (about 2.5 cups, loosely packed)
5 g sea salt (about 1 tsp)
1/2 cup rice vinegar

Shortbread

2 tsp preserved cherry blossoms divided (see note)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter (see note on temperature)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp sakura vinegar (leftover from preserving cherry blossoms - see substitution note)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preserved Cherry Blossoms (see note below)

Pick unsprayed cherry blossoms from an ornamental cherry tree. The best flowers to use are the ones that are just starting to open, so try to time your picking with the early blossoming stages.
Very gently wash the flowers by soaking them in clean water and stirring lightly with your hands. Lay the flowers out to dry, or give them a quick and gentle spin with a salad spinner.
Gently sprinkle layers of flowers with sea salt in a small jar. Refrigerate for 3 days.
Cover the flowers with vinegar and refrigerate for an additional 3 days.
Drain and reserve vinegar. Spread the flowers out to dry. They can be air-dried, or dried in a very low oven or dehydrator (see note).

Cookies

Preheat and over to 350° F (175° C).
Crumble approximately 1.5 teaspoons of the flowers between your fingers or with a mortar and pestle (reserve the rest, and preferably the nicest looking ones for decorating the cookie tops). You can remove the thin stems if you have trouble crumbling them up, but they're perfectly edible.
Combine the flour, crushed flowers, and baking powder. Stir/sift together and set aside.
Using a hand or stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar until they're well mixed.
Add the vinegar and almond extract to the butter and sugar, and mix well.
Add the flour mixture a little at a time, and continue to mix until well-combined.
Form the dough into small circles and flatten into patties by hand or, for a more uniform appearance, by pressing them into circular cookie cutters.
Gently press a preserved cherry blossom into the center of each cookie. try to make sure that they're completely pressed into the dough and not sticking out at the edges, or they may burn.
Space the cookies out by about 5-7 cm (2-3 inches) on a cookie-sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the bottoms are a very light brown. Baking time can vary depending on your oven and the colour/material of your baking sheet, so keep a close eye on the cookies.
Set the finished cookies aside to cool on the tray. They'll be fairly soft right out of the oven, so make sure not to disturb them until they've cooled off completely.

Notes

Cherry Blossoms

This portion of the recipe is a condensed version of a more detailed one for preserved cherry blossoms.

Finding - Ornamental cherry trees are very popular in many temperate parts of the world. Make sure that you're picking flowers from a tree that a) you're confident is a cherry tree, and b) you're absolutely certain is clean and free from any pesticides or major sources of pollution.

Drying - Once you've finished brining and curing the cherry blossoms, the only step left is to dry them. They can be air-dried, though the amount of time this takes will vary depending on the temperature and relative humidity in your home. You can also use a low oven, but you want to ensure that the temperature is VERY low, as the flowers can easily become brown and overly brittle if baked at too high of a temperature. The best option is a dehydrator at a relatively low temperature. Note that very dry flowers crumble and keep the best, but flowers with a little bit of moisture left look nicer on the tops of the cookies.

Using - About 1.5 teaspoons of finished cherry blossoms will go into the cookie dough itself, with the remainder being used to decorate the tops of the cookies. Reserve nicer looking cherry blossoms to press into the surface of the cookies. It's difficult to accurately measure dried flowers, so feel free to use a bit more or less if it looks right to you. The flowers don't have a particularly powerful flavour, so you're not likely to overwhelm the taste of the cookies if you use more.

Quantity - The recipe, as given, makes about 3x more dried cherry blossoms than you need for a single batch of cookies. Extra flowers will keep for a year in a sealed container.

Storebought Sakura and Other Substitutions - Preserved cherry blossoms can be purchased from online Japanese food retailers. You may also find them in Japanese grocery stores, especially in the early spring when they're popular. Try tasting one of the flowers before using them, as they're often much saltier than my homemade version. If you find them overly salty, you can rinse them in cold water immediately before using. Other mild, dried, edible flowers can also be substituted, but avoid very strongly flavoured flowers like rose or lavender. Note that if you do use storebought cherry (or other) flowers, you'll need to use the vinegar substitute mentioned below.

Butter Temperature - the butter is easiest to work with when warm, but not too warm. I take it out of the fridge and leave it on the counter for about an hour. If your butter is at room temperature, you might want to chill it in the fridge for about an hour.

Vinegar Substitute - if you don't make your own preserved cherry blossoms, you can substitute an equal volume of rice vinegar, along with about 1/8 tsp of salt and an extra few drops of almond extract. The pink colouring doesn't really make its way into the finished cookies, so don't worry about replicating it.

Nutrition