Pink Striped Cookies

Today, I’m eating a nostalgic childhood favorite for anyone from Jamestown, NY – Pink Striped Cookies.

These cookies were invented at Ecklof Bakery, a Swedish bakery in the far western part of New York State. According to the Ecklof family legend, featured in the book “A Taste of Upstate NY,” the cookie recipe came with the cookie machine the family bought for the bakery.

The Ecklofs took that simple sugar cookie recipe and turned it into a regional favorite by handing out the Pink Striped Cookies for free to children who visited the bakery with their parents. The tradition has lasted more than 50 years!

There isn’t much available online about this famed cookie, but what I could find gave a few clues as to how the cookie is made.

Let’s get started.

The Pink Striped Icing

First, we’ll make the strawberry icing but slicing 1/2 pound of fresh strawberries and placing them into a food processor. Pulse until the strawberries are finely chopped and nearly pureed, but still retain some texture.

Transfer strawberries to a small sauce pot and cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until the strawberries have released most of their liquid and the mixture has thickened slightly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment – you can also do this by hand using a large whisk or electric beaters – combine 4 cups of confectioner’s sugar, 1 stick of softened butter, the juice of half a lemon and the strawberry mixture. Mix on low until combined and increase the speed to whip the frosting.

Add more confectioner’s sugar until the mixture is to your desired consistency. Remove to a piping bag or resealable bag and refrigerator for 1 hour while you make the cookies.

The Sugar Cookies

The cookies are a simple sugar cookie. I’m going to amp up the flavor in mine by browning the butter. This recipe can be done with softened butter without browning, but I highly recommend the brown butter method. To do this, take three sticks of butter in a medium pan and melt over medium heat. After about 10 minutes, the butter will start to bubble and as the milk solids separate.

Once the bubbling calms down, begin stirring and swirling the melted butter, while the milk solids brown. You’ll start to see the butter darken and brown. Keep a close watch because this happens quickly and you don’t want to burn the butter.

When the butter has darkened and smells nutty, immediately remove from the heat and pour it into a bowl. Allow the butter to cool for about 20 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1 ½ cups of granulated sugar and the brown butter. Cream together for 3-5 minutes.

Add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue beating for an additional minute, or until the eggs are well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of sifted flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt.

With the stand mixer running on low, slowly add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Turn the cookie dough out onto a floured work surface and roll out to ½ inch thickness. The dough might be slightly crumbly and want to separate. Use your hands to pat it together and into a rectangle. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut a grid pattern to form rectangles out of the cookie dough.

Place cookies 2 inches apart onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes until cookies are set.

Remove cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Bring It Together

Ice the cookies by piping the strawberry frosting in a single line lengthwise across the middle of the cookies.

Serve immediately.

The cookies will be unlike any sugar cookie you’ve had growing up, unless of course you’ve had the original Pink Striped Cookies. The cookies themselves are rich but not too sweet. They will have a crunchy exterior and soft interior.

But it’s the frosting that sets these cookies apart. It has a deeply sweet and strong strawberry flavor that brings the whole cookie together.

And now, you, too, can make this Western New York classic at home!

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