Fruity Pebble Sugar Cookies

with orange and coriander

New Year. New Cookies.

The best part of living in our tiny Minneapolis apartment was the proximity to great ice cream. It doesn’t matter that half the year is spent in below freezing temperatures, Minnesotans love their ice cream and they take it very seriously. We had three, very different, very delicious ice cream shops within walking distance of our house, so of course going to get ice cream became a regular activity.

One of the little shops, located in the same building as our apartment, was all about decadence. Miso vanilla ice cream loaded with guava, hunks of cream cheese, and Ritz crackers. Peanut butter ice cream studded with Oreo pieces topped with dulce de leche and flaky salt. All so delicious. Another little shop around the corner had more of a old-school soda fountain feel. With simple rotating seasonal flavors like raspberry or cinnamon, they did very classic ice cream very well. And last, we had a Milk Jam Creamery down the street. Maybe the most popular ice cream in Minneapolis, Milk Jam had fun, chef-inspired flavors. A little bit inventive and a little bit classic, it was the best of both worlds. My favorite ice cream flavor there was called “Cereal Killers” with an orange and coriander vanilla ice cream base studded with candied Fruity Pebbles. After the first time I had it, I jotted a little note down in my notebook and moved on. Three plus years later, we’ve got a cereal killers inspired cookie for your mid-January weekend.

about the cookie

I don’t know what it is about the citrus + coriander + Fruity Pebble combination, but it just works. With a smattering of brightly colored cereal flakes, these are like an elevated funfetti cookie.

There’s a simple sugar cookie base, with your regular cast of characters—butter, flour, sugar and brown sugar, baking soda, eggs, salt. We first “bloom” the aromatics (a handful of crushed coriander seeds and a lot of orange zest) over heat with half of the butter. The butter will cool back to room temperature and then it gets creamed along with the rest of the butter and the sugars, followed by eggs, vanilla, and the dry ingredients.

I also incorporated a little bit of malted milk powder for that deep, cereal milk flavor. You can order malted milk powder on Amazon or simply omit it if you don’t have any.

A bunch of Fruity Pebbles are folded into the dough and then more are sprinkled on top of the warm cookies when they come out of the oven.