Ammonia Cookies (Polish Amoniaczki)
Light, crispy, melt in the mouth and almost pastry like these ammonia cookies made with baker's ammonia as leavening agent are so delicious. Intrigued? Give them a go!
Servings 50 cookies
Calories 37kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
Cookie dough
- 250 g plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 teaspoon baker's ammonia
- 75 g butter (dairy or vegan block butter) cubed; I use salted
- 75 g thick Greek style yogurt (dairy or soya)
- 75 g caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract optional; see notes
Topping
- 1 egg white
- caster or demerara sugar generous sprinkle on each cookie
Instructions
- Start by adding plain (all-purpose) flour into a large bowl. Next, add a teaspoon of baker's ammonia and whisk it well into the flour using a small whisk or a fork.250 g plain (all-purpose) flour, 1 teaspoon baker's ammonia
- Add caster sugar and give it all another good whisk.75 g caster sugar
- Now add cubed butter, yogurt, egg yolk and vanilla extract (if using) and start incorporating these into the flour mixture until you get a nice uniform block of dough. Once finished, wrap your dough in a food wrap of your choice and pop in a fridge to rest for minimum 1 hour. This rest is essential to allow baker's ammonia do its job, don't skip it!75 g butter (dairy or vegan block butter), 75 g thick Greek style yogurt (dairy or soya), 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Once you're ready to bake and the dough had its time in the fridge, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Take the dough out of the fridge and cut in half to make it easier when rolling out. You can keep another half in the fridge until you're ready for it.
- Lightly sprinkle your kitchen counter with flour and roll out the dough to max 5mm or 3/16'' thick. Cut out desired shapes and place the cookies onto a lined baking tray. Keep re-rolling your dough until it's all used up. Then move onto the second half. ***Quick Tip*** Ammonia cookies don't spread much but you still want a little bit of space to let them puff up.
- Gently brush all ammonia cookies with some egg white and sprinkle over some caster or demerara sugar (be generous).1 egg white, caster or demerara sugar
- Bake in preheated oven for about 11-13 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. They should be light golden brown. Once out of the oven let them rest on a baking tray for a minute or two before moving onto cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, per cookie (based on 50 cookies) and it will differ depending on the ingredients used. It should be treated as a rough guideline only.
- Please note that you might get different number of cookies depending on the size of the cutter used. I used 48mm/1 ⅞'' fluted cutter.
- Ammoniac cookies should be stored in the airtight container and will last good couple of weeks if not longer.
- Unbaked cookie dough is freezer friendly.
- For information regarding ingredients and possible substitutions see 🛒 Ingredients to make Ammonia Cookies
Don't be afraid of baker's ammonia. It's such a great and underused leavening agent which give great results when used correctly.
Tasting raw cookie dough is a big no no! Not only because of the raw egg yolk but mainly because of the ammonia. Trust me, you will only make that mistake once, it really isn't pleasant. 😂
Keep your room well ventilated if the smell bothers you. The amount of ammonia used in baking really isn't harmful but can irritate those with some respiratory problems so err on the side of caution.
Use kitchen scales when weighing out your ingredients. Accuracy in baking is important and scales help with that.
Make sure not to skip an hour fridge rest for your dough. You can rest it for longer if you want but an hour would be a minimum. This time is needed to allow baker's ammonia to do its thing and develop the structure which will help its gases to dissipate as cookies are baked leaving behind that lovely airy and flaky cookie.
Don't roll out your dough too thin or too thick, keep it roughly at about 5mm for best results.
Allow ammonia cookies cool completely before eating. I find them the best after they had some time to rest or even the next day but there is no need to wait that long, just let them cool down first. 😄
Nutrition
Calories: 37kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Trans Fat: 0.05g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 11mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 43IU | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.2mg