Vanilla Cornmeal Wreath Cookies

I made these cookies many years ago and found them less than exciting, but thought they had promise.  The original recipe has you coating corn flakes in egg white and applying them to the surface of the cookies in a leaf pattern.  I didn't find this to be a good addition for a number of reasons.  For one, corn flakes always taste like breakfast cereal, and that's not a flavor I want in cookies.  Second, when the cookies were fresh, the corn flakes were tough and unpleasant, although they crisped up after a couple days.  Lastly, it was a process that was extremely time-consuming.  The flakes were a nice touch as far as appearance, but the cookies are a bit dry and I had decided they needed a bit of frosting, which would further make the topping unnecessary.

For 17 3½-inch cookies, here's what I used:

1⅛ cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon anise extract, optional
1 large egg, room temperature

Sift together the flour, cornmeal, and baking powder. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter with a handheld electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar, vanilla, and anise (if using) to the butter and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add the egg (one at a time if doubling the recipe) to the butter mixture and mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Stir the flour-cornmeal mixture into the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula; it will be a stiff dough. To make dough easier to handle, chill until firm. Divide the dough into 17, 1-inch balls. Make a hole in the center of each ball with the tip of a wooden spoon and work each piece of dough into a doughnut shape with a 1-inch hole and about 2 inches wide. Use scissors to snip 1/2-inch long angled cuts, about 1/2-inch apart around the outside ring of each cookie. Arrange cookies on greased cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. (Optional: freeze cookies on the sheet until firm, about 10 minutes.) Bake at 350F until just golden around the edges, about 14 to 18 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Frost and decorate.

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth and very fluffy.  Add green gel coloring and use a large star tip to decorate cookies, immediately sprinkling each with red nonpareils. Allow frosting to dry until firm.

A ridiculous number of the nonpareils fell off while I was sprinkling them on (I had frosted all the cookies and then added the sprinkles-- the frosting had already started to dry), until I finally placed each cookie in a small bowl so I could collect and salvage the deserters.

I over baked the cookies slightly, getting them a little too brown around the edges.  They were a little drier than I would have liked, but I think a minute or two less time in the oven would have fixed that.  I had to be a little stingy with the frosting and barely had enough as it was-- they could have used just a tiny bit more, both for flavor and appearance. 

Conclusion:  It still needs tweaking, mostly just on the bake time, but I was pretty happy with the results.  (I discovered chopped peanuts would be a good addition, either in the cookie or sprinkled on top of the frosting.)  The frosting not only adds moisture and sweetness to what is otherwise a somewhat dull cookie, but also provides a buttery richness to the corn flavor.  While it will never be the most exciting cookie on the plate, the subtle flavor and texture is a nice contrast to the outspoken fruits, nuts, jams, and chocolates of a traditional holiday cookie assortment.

Recipe:  Cornmeal Wreaths via Food Network