fftf: my signature cookies 🍪 part 2 + recipe

golden saffron snickerdoodles are best big and chewy

Hello and happy Friday,

This is part two in the story of my new “signature cookie.” Part One was the long & winding history of how I discovered and came to love the specific cookie I have chosen to be mine 😍. (If you missed it or want a refresh on part one, you can read that here.) Part Two is all about the impetus and process of nailing down my signature cookie recipe over the past year. I hope you enjoy! Current recipe at the end. 

These are the cookies (my most recent bake)! Aren’t they prettyyyyyy??

Since moving to Pittsburgh and having Jazzy, I’ve been more drawn to baking. Maybe it’s having a little kid, bringing back memories of the homemade baked goods my mom and grandmothers would make for me when I was growing up. Maybe it’s the fact that during my (first) pregnancy, I started eating a lot more pastries because there was a great bakery near my doctor’s office in San Francisco and I was suddenly there all the time, and the tendency for buying treats has since stuck around. Maybe it’s just that my life feels so domestically-focused now, baking seems a more natural thing to do. 

Regardless the reason, in spring of 2023, I was VERY excited when I got a request to participate in a special baking opportunity/tradition. This became the impetus for me to finally make & perfect the Saffron Snickerdoodle Cookies I came to love, discovered at the original Blue Bottle Coffee shops during my early days in San Francisco. 

One of my best childhood friends, Erin, was getting married, and she grew up in Pittsburgh, so she and her now-husband were having a Pittsburgh Cookie Table at their wedding reception. For those of you who are not from Pittsburgh, a “Cookie Table” is pretty much ubiquitous at Pittsburgh weddings (fun fact verified by my other Pittsburgh bestie who owns & runs a Pittsburgh wedding venue!). It’s a large table full of a variety of cookies - homemade by the couple’s family and friends - that are set out at the wedding reception, either as dessert, and/or usually with little boxes so you can pack some up to take home with you. 

I love this tradition - I mean, who wouldn’t love a cookie table? And I love it even more since learning about the official history of it at Erin’s wedding. Apparently this tradition started in Pittsburgh among the many immigrant groups who moved here to work in the steel mills back during Pittsburgh’s high industrial days. The young couples/families couldn’t afford wedding cakes, so their communities would show their love and support by, together, providing the wedding desserts. 

Erin & Mark’s cookie table! Can you spot mine?

So - I was invited to bake 5-6 dozen cookies for Erin’s wedding, and I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to perfect and practice my newly chosen “signature cookie.” 

I wanted to make it my own and adapt the recipe a bit, and it just so happened that another one of my best friends was also going to be at this wedding, and she can’t eat gluten, so I was motivated on the side to see if I could make a just-as-good gluten-sensitive-acceptable version for her.

I probably made these cookies at least 6 or 8 times last spring. I’ll never forget the first time I made them - a) because it was the day before my grama’s funeral, and b) because they were an utter FAILURE. They spread totally flat and were way too sweet… I didn’t realize till after making them that I had doubled the recipe but forgot to double the flour 🤣.

Over the course of my spring 2023 testing, I made many varieties of the cookie. I tried to make them “healthier” AND gluten-acceptable at the same time by using and testing various ratios of Einkorn flour instead of regular flour. Einkorn is supposedly the “original/ancient wheat variety,” before wheat was bred for industrialized farming, and supposedly some gluten-free people can eat Einkorn flour without issue. (Still not sure if this is actually true! Can any GF folks weigh in in the comments or reply and let me know?) 

I ended up baking my 5-6 dozen cookies for the wedding, and they were very good / people liked them… but to me they were NOT the cookie I remembered loving at Blue Bottle in my early San Francisco days. 

When I wrote part one of this story last June (2023), I had planned to share my version of the recipe soonish after… but then I got distracted and didn’t make the cookies again until much later on - not until January of this year. When I finally did bake them again, I decided to go back to the drawing board: forget my “healthier” versions, I made the original recipe (almost exactly) as written. 

Another thing I had changed when making the cookies for Erin’s wedding was that I had made them smaller. The original cookie was on the larger side (and the recipe recommended this), but usually wedding table cookies are small so that you can try a wide variety, which is why I had made them smaller all last spring. But one of my favorite things about the original Saffron Snickerdoodle had been that it was chewy and soft in the center, but crispy around the edges. Turns out, it is hard, if not impossible, to get that double-texture with the smaller-size cookies I had been making.

Lesson learned: sometimes it’s best not to mess with a great recipe!!

Since making the cookies again twice in 2024 - and both times they have been STELLAR - all I’ve changed from the original version is: I sometimes use coconut milk instead of regular milk (just because I had it on hand and to test/offer you a non-dairy alternative), I’ve lowered the sugar a little bit, and I changed the process a tiny bit to dirty less dishes.

I plan to keep experimenting with lowering the sugar in my next few bakes to discover my low point, but I feel confident sharing the recipe as I’ve made it recently, as these are truly great cookies and not too sweet, but definitely still a treat, as a cookie should be. They are also a gorgeous golden color, and they freeze beautifully. And don’t forget - they were designed to go with coffee, and they really do complement a cup o’ joe SO, so well. 

Not a simple recipe, by any means, but worth it if you want something different. (Also I always double it because… 9 cookies (the original recipe quantity) is just too few to be worth the effort! Make more and freeze or give away & make someone’s day!

*Sorry GF people, these are full of gluten. But now that I’ve got the chewiness down, maybe I will go back to testing out other flours, including a GF all purpose flour to see how that lands. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope these delicious cookies will find their way to your mouth at some point in the years to come! (If you’re in my inner circles, they probably will 😊.)

PS. Erin & Mark, I owe you an anniversary-cookie-delivery update :). 

This is the book the cookie recipe is from. Thanks again, Kara for buying me this!

Saffron Vanilla Snickerdoodles, or, GPJ’s Signature Golden Cookie

• Adapted slightly from the original recipe by Caitlin Freeman of Miette bakery in San Francisco, found in the book: The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee

• Makes about 21 cookies; Takes about 1.5 hours active time (divided), plus 3+ hours for dough to chill (or overnight), and preliminary inactive time for butter/eggs to come to room temp

• Note: I always measure the sugars and flours here using grams and my kitchen scale. It’s so much easier than measuring cups, highly recommend!

Ingredients:

• 60 threads of saffron

• 4 tablespoons milk or coconut milk

• 4 cups (19.8oz / 560g ) all purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 cup (8oz / 226 g / 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp

• 1 cup (7.6oz / 218g) light brown sugar

• range suggested: 1/2 cup (3.5oz / 100g) - 1 cup (7oz / 200g) granulated sugar (see note!)

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 2 eggs, at room temp

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sugar note: I have tried using 1/2 cup or 100g granulated sugar as well as 3/4 cup or 150g granulated sugar and both versions taste great/still sweet enough to me! (The original recipe calls for 200g so that’s why I put this range here.)

Equipment:

• mortar and pestle, ideally (spice grinder would work; could probably get away with wooden spoon and a ceramic bowl also)

• stand mixer with paddle attachment

• 2-3 medium-large bowls

• mini + large rubber/silicone spatulas

• kitchen scale

• measuring spoons and cups

• at least 2 baking sheets + parchment

Instructions:

1. SEVERAL HOURS BEFORE STARTING - set out butter and eggs to come to room temp.

2. Count out 60 saffron threads (approximate if broken threads) and place into bowl of mortar & pestle. Use pestle to crush them into a fine powder.

3. Measure out 4Tbsp milk into a small saucepan and heat on medium for a few minutes until just bubbling. Remove from the heat and pour into the mortar bowl with the ground saffron. Use pestle to stir/mix to get all the saffron infused into the milk. Mixture should be a sunny yellow color. Allow to steep while you move onto the next step.

4. Measure 4c/560g flour and 2 tsp baking soda into a medium bowl and whisk together to combine and smooth any lumps.

5. In bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the 2sticks butter on low speed until smooth: 1-2 minutes (set timers!). Meanwhile, in another bowl - measure out the two types of sugar plus salt and mix.

6. Add bowl of sugars/salt to the butter and mix on low speed until well combined.

7. Scrape down sides of the bowl, then mix on medium speed until light and fluffy: 4-5 minutes; make sure you set timer for this!

8. If there’s enough space in your mortar bowl - add the 2 eggs and 2 tsp vanilla to the saffron milk and whisk thoroughly until well combined. (Or, combine these and whisk in separate bowl.)

9. With stand mixer running on medium speed, add the egg mixture slowly in a steady stream (or in thirds if easier). Mix until well-incorporated and smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then mix for another 30 seconds on medium. 

10. Scrape down sides of the bowl again, then add the flour mixture. Mix on low speed until just uniform in texture/all combined.

11. Now decide if you want to roll your cookie dough balls now, or later, after the dough is chilled. It’s actually easier to do it now while the dough is soft, but you can also put it off if you don’t have time now. 

12. If chilling first, use a spatula to scrape dough out into an airtight container and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight. 

13. If rolling the dough balls now, select an airtight container or use a cookie tray with parchment and another layer of parchment and tray on top! Use a kitchen scale to measure out ~60g balls or scoop out roughly 1/4cup portions. You should end up with ~20-22 cookies. Roll each dough ball gently and set on tray or in airtight container. Best to keep balls not touching if possible. Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight before baking. (Or store dough in the fridge for up to 5 days and bake on demand/as you like!)

14. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment or a baking mat. Space dough balls at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 14-18 minutes - rotating pan midway through if you can - until golden but not too dark. Ideally, the baked cookies will be tall and slightly undercooked in the center, and will buckle shortly after coming out of the oven. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing. When fully cooled, store in an airtight container for 2-5 days, or freeze for later.