Onion Zest is an ingredient first used in Papa’s Scooperia to make seasonal cookies for OnionFest.

You will first need to peel off the outer skin of the sweet onion and cut off the roots and stem. Then, take a fine cheese grater and make 1/2 a cup of shredded onions. Expect lots of tears.

After that, take your 1/2 cup of shredded onions and dump it onto two squares of paper towels. Wrap up the ball of shredded onion and squeeze out the juice.

You’ll want to preheat your oven to 400°F. Take a small cookie tray and line it with parchment paper. Spread out the shredded onions over the parchment paper, avoiding large clumps of onions.

Bake for 6 minutes and 30 seconds.

Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

Pour the baked shredded onion into a small bowl and add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and mix with your hands.

If you want, put rubber gloves on to avoid dying your fingers. Then mix in a few drops of purple food coloring (blue+red+pink if you don’t have purple). Evenly mix the color throughout the sugared onion shreds.

Preheat your oven to 330°F. Spread your candied onion shreds over a small cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper. Cook for 4 minutes.

The onion zest should be sticking to the parchment paper. Carefully place the parchment paper and onion zest in the freezer for two hours.

Take the onion zest out from the freezer, and break it apart into small bits.

Mix with your favorite cookie dough recipe, and bake accordingly. You can mix it throughout the dough, or simply sprinkle it on top of the cookies before baking.

We placed the onion zest on top of a sugar cookie dough and added some sugar crystal sprinkles.

Enjoy this special treat with your friends and family as you celebrate the magical holiday of OnionFest!