Harvest Corn Cookies
One of the best things about fall is the harvest festivals. My family eagerly awaits their arrival to experience the corn mazes, chili cook-offs, hayrides, and pumpkin patches. We always return with ears of colorful corn to decorate our house. These peanut butter cookies with a honey buttercream frosting look like the real thing and are surprisingly easy to decorate.
Yield: Makes 12 cookies
Things you'll need
Ingredients- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 batch Honey Buttercream
- 1 ½ teaspoons gold food coloring
- Candy-coated peanut butter pieces (Reese’s Pieces)
Equipment
- Corncob cookie cutter
- Maple leaf cookie cutter
- Decorating tips: #10, #366
Let's get started!
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in the vanilla.
- On low speed, beat in the flour mixture until combined.
- Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- On a sheet of parchment, roll out the dough to a ¼ inch thickness. Cut out equal numbers of corncob and maple leaf cookies with the cookie cutters.
- Cut the bottoms of the maple leaf cookies with the bottom of the corncob cookie cutter.
- Place a corncob cookie into the cut area of a maple leaf cookie and press the seams together. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
- Freeze the cookies for 15 minutes.
- Bake until firm to the touch but not browned at the edges, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Let cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Time to decorate!
- Make the Honey Buttercream Frosting. Tint gold and scoop into the separate decorating bags fitted with #10 and #366 tips. Reserve the remaining frosting for refilling the decorating bags as needed.
- Outline the corncob of the cookie using the #10 tip, then fill in the center. Arrange the candies on top of the frosting to look like corn kernels.
- Using the #366 tip, pipe a cornhusk leaf design on the remaining part of the cookie. Refill the decorating bag as needed.
Written By Rosanna Pansino
