Every Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashana, I bake up some delicious honey cake. Honey is used in cooking and baking around the New Year to symbolize a sweet new year. This year I’m not doing it. I will not bake any of my delicious, sweet, tender and moist honey cake. Why? Because my mom and I are the only ones who eat it and I have had enough. Instead I will introduce my family to a new treat: honey cookies. Now, these cookies are not a new invention, but my family has never had them and I’m not sure why. The recipe I found yields a moist, sweet, and chewy cookie.
After the dough is mixed, the cookies are shaped into balls and rolled in turbinado sugar. This creates a coating-like crust on the cookies. The outside is crunchy and the inside is chewy and moist. The sugar also gives these cookies a gorgeous glittery look. I have seen this sugar at coffee shops and on supermarket shelves for years but was never sure what to do with it until now.
This sugar is great in this recipe because it doesn’t melt when the cookies are baking like white sugar does. It is also less sweet than white sugar and even has hints of honey flavor.
I love how these cookies look. They are like little edible gems. They also make the whole house smell sweet while baking.
If you are wondering how my cookies come out perfectly round, here’s the secret. I use a cookie scoop. The one I used for this recipe is a 2 teaspoon size. Using a cookie scoop will ensure that your cookies bake evenly. It will also make you look like a pro!
These cookies are soft, moist, sweet and delicious. My family and friends will surely have a sweet new year! Here is the delicious dairy-free recipe; adapted from Cookie Madness.
- ⅔ cup oil
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- turbinado sugar, for rolling
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the oil, honey, and sugar until smooth.
- Add in the egg and vanilla mix until combined.
- Mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- If your dough is soft, refrigerate for 15-30 minutes until firm.
- Shape the dough into balls and roll in the turbinado sugar making sure to coat the whole cookie.
- Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 7-9 minutes until the edges are light brown in color. Happy New Year!
A friend made these with gluten free flour for me. Still very good, though came out flat and chewy (a nice change from other GF cookies which tend to be dry and crumbly). Probably needed xanthum gum. : – )
That is so interesting! I have never worked with gluten free flour before, let me know if you improve my recipe for gluten free- I would love to share!
Thank you so much for the recipe…. simple and delicious!!!
Do I flatten the cookie after I make it into a ball. or just put it down like that and it will flatten on its own?
The cookies will flatten out on their own. They should spread a bit but not too much. If they are speeding too much, you can refrigerate the dough.
I just made these cookies. They taste delicious but they really flattened out. They are extremely thin. Is there a way to prevent them from doing that and not baking as large and spread out? I chilled the dough for 20 minutes before baking and used your 2 teaspoon measure when scooping. Thank you!
I would try refrigerating even longer, maybe even overnight. I’m sorry that happened!
Is the parchment paper necessary? If I don’t have any will they come out ok on a non-stick cookie sheet? Should i spray it?
I use parchment paper to bake all my cookies because then I know the cookies won’t stick. Sometimes cooking spray can cause the cookies to spread too much because the dough starts sliding and has nothing to grip on to. I would do what you normally do when baking cookies, or try testing it out, bake one straight on the pan and another on a greased cookie sheet.
Hi. Thanks for the recipe. I made these cookies yesterday and they did flatten quite a bit (so they didn’t look like yours) but they taste absolutely incredible! Next time i’ll take your advice to RBH below and leave them to chill in the fridge overnight.
I added some butter and a little cinnamon-orange tea as the dough came out too crumbly for me, probably because I had to convert to metric.
I also added -for taste- sugared orange zest and cinnamon. They came out great!
Being a non-honeycake person, I decided to try these cookies for Rosh Hashana. They came out beautiful–just like yours 🙂 More importantly, they were a HUGE hit among my family, so delicious that I’m making another batch to serve in my sukkah ( they also froze beautifully). Thank you so much for an awesome recipe that is now part of my permanent collection
I’m so glad they were successful! I love getting feedback, especially when it’s positive!
These were great! I didn’t have parchment paper and didn’t want to drive into town to get it and they came out just fine. I put a little cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg into the sugar mixture that they were rolled in. They were delicious. I’ll be making these for Thanksgiving this year . Thank you!
I recommend the parchment paper for all my cookies because I’m scared of spreading and or sticking to the cookie sheet, but I’m so happy that it worked well without it! Good to know! I also heard a few people mention that they added cinnamon, I’m going to have to try you mixture myself!
Hi. The next tray is coming out of the oven. Even tho I did refrigerate for an hour the cookies spread puffed up and then flattened when they cooled. They taste great and the raw sugar gives them a slight sweet crunch. I would put 3 on each row rather than 4 w the 2 teaspoon scoop to give it more room. The batch made 42 cookies! On to the apple sugar cookies. Shana tova metuka!!
So glad you liked them! Shana Tova!
These are amazing!!! So nice and simple…I added some cinnamon to the sugar and they are delicious! Make sure to make them small…they spread whilst baking..in my first batch, a few morphed into massive cookies! 😉
Adding cinnamon sounds yummy! Glad you found the recipe to be amazing!
Not sure what I did wrong, but my dough never firmed up and it resulted in flat almost lace like cookies. I just rolled up the parchment and threw them in the trash. I am just grateful I also had my honey apple cake for dessert, or our dinner would have ended no a not so sweet note.
I’m so sorry this happened! Most people have great results, I wish I could help figure out what went wrong.
I am going to try again, probably wasn’t a good idea to try a new recipe in the middle of cooking for Rosh Hashanah! LOL
These cookies are amazing and so easy to bake. I had to make 2 batches over Rosh Hoshanah because they disappeared faster than I could bake them. They are definitely addictive!
So glad you liked them! Happy New Year!
The dough was AMAZING, I loved how it was like play-dough, but not sticky even though it was kind of wet!
Hi, what oil do you use for this? Is melted butter/olive oil OK?
I use vegetable oil. Olive oil will be too flavorful. You can try melted butter, but I haven’t so I’m not sure how your cookies will come out.
Tried these today and was very disappointed. The cookies never firmed up and had a very strong taste of baking soda. I ended up throwing the entire tray out.
I’m so sorry these didn’t work out for you! A number of things can always go wrong in baking. Not sure what happened here.
Gonna attempt it tonight with demerara sugar. Thank you! Shana tova! 😉
Hi Melissa! I was so excited when this recipe was posted in a fb cooking group. The taste was wonderful, but I had real problems with the dough. As others mentioned, it never got very firm. I left it n the fridge for a good hour or more, but the minute it was removed from the fridge, and I started to roll the dough, it became very soft, and so as soon as they were placed on the cookie sheet, they started to flatten. While they baked, they became even more flat. Why do you think so many of us had trouble with the dough, and you don’t seem to have the same problem when you make them?
Since the recipe is in cups and not by weight it’s hard to know if the measurements were measured properly. If you try it again, hold back on a few tablespoons of oil. It could be that I measure flour differently than you and you didn’t add enough to the dough.
I made one batch and theyre SO good I made another. Thanks 🙂
Yay! Enjoy!
Hi,
Are these cookies supposed to be very chewy. A little doughy. They taste delicious btw!
They are crispy on the outside from the sugar but super soft and tender inside from the honey. Enjoy!
Thanks!
exactly how mine came out!
they are absolutely amazing!
I had some of the same issues with the dough as other reviewers did. I think the main problem is the oil – even if you chill/freeze the dough, it’s not going to firm up the way a cookie made with butter will. The dough started spreading as soon as I put the balls on a cookie sheet. Even after freezing they spread a lot while baking.
I’ve never made cookies with oil before. I tasted the dough and there was a strong oil flavor (even though I just used vegetable oil). A lot of it baked out, but the flavor of these reminded me of premade Pillsbury dough, which I’m not a huge fan of. The dry ingredients also need to be sifted together first to avoid a “baking soda bite” in one cookie.
I like the idea of these and plan to try making them again with a few changes: use one cup butter instead of the oil. Sift dry ingredients together then add them to the wet. Increase honey to 2/3 c (add more flour if necessary). I think that’ll help with the dough consistency and flavor.
I’m sorry you had issues with the dough. Unfortunately when using cup measurements people can measure ingredients differently. It’s not as accurate as weighing the ingredients. You may have used slightly too much oil and slightly too little flour. But your changes seem like they would work. I wouldn’t necessarily up the honey, that may be too much liquid. You are welcome to sift the dry ingredients, I’m just lazy and never do!