I’ve been working on ways to incorporate prickly pear cactus puree into more of my cooking– mostly desserts and drinks right now. I had made a prickly pear frosting for cupcakes a few years ago for Greg’s high school girls soccer team so this time I thought I would try putting the frosting on cookies. I have more experiments ahead, but here you’ll find the results of my first try and how you can replicate them.

I found the prickly pear cookie cutter on etsy and the original cookie recipe came from Land O Lakes.

The cookies have an understated flavor, however, I wanted that on purpose because I wanted the prickly pear flavor to shine.

Here is my adapted recipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup, softened

2 teaspoons (or more) prickly pear puree

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

Combine butter, sugar, molasses, egg, and vinegar in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add all remaining ingredients; beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.

Divide the dough into thirds and wrap in plastic food wrap. Refrigerator 2 hours or overnight until firm.

Heat oven to 350 F.

Roll out dough on surface lightly covered with flour and sugar, one portion at a time (keep remaining dough in the refrigerator) to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with the cookie cutter.

Place 1 inch apart onto untreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes until no indention remains when touched. Let stand 1 minute. Cool completely on wire rack.

Combine all frosting ingredients except milk in a bowl. Beat a low speed, scraping bowl often and gradually adding enough milk for desired spreading consistency. You can add more puree as desired, however, remember that the frosting might be more wet and become too thin. Decorate cookies.