Raspberry Lemonade Sandwich Cookies
January 30th, 2011 by LisaI don’t know about you, but I am getting a little tired of winter. We easily have 2.5 feet of snow on our lawn, and it seems the stream of various manners of frozezn precipitation and shovelling has been endless. When picking out a recipe to bring to Beth’s for dessert this week then, I wanted to find one that made me think of 80 degree days, flowers and trees in bloom, and fresh fruit to get me through the next few months until we’re nearing the spring. This recipe combines two of my favorite flavors – sweet raspberries and tart lemons into a tasty little sandwich. This was my first attempt at a sandwich cookie, and I think it went quite well! I had picked up this linzer cookie cutter set during the holidays and though I never got to using it in my Christmas baking, I was dying to give it a whirl, and this was the perfect opportunity. I just love all the little fruit cut-outs – and a fruity recipe is surely needed to use it! Certainly if you do not happen to have a linzer cookie cutter, you can just use a round cookie cutter with a smaller cookie cutter to create the little window in the top of the cookie.
All in all, these were very easy to make – the dough is very easy to work with compared to some other cut-out cookies I have made. (I may in fact use this as my go-to sugar cookie recipe from now on!) I doubled the lemon zest in the original recipe to give this recipe even more summery taste – I think I could probably have gone even higher, as the lemon came through but was on the subtle side. In addition, I somehow found myself out of powdered sugar for dusting – so I opted for a chocolate drizzle, which worked quite nicely.
The cookies were a big hit on our relaxing evening with a nice spot of tea. Even though the snow continued to fall on that chilly January evening, it made me feel like summer was right around the corner.
Raspberry Lemonade Sandwich Cookies
Source: Better Homes & Gardens
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- 1/3 cup shortening
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup raspberry preserves or jam (or flavor of your choice)
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp canola or other vegetable oil
-
Directions:
Using your stand mixer, cream together the butter and shortening on high speed. Add in sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix for an additional 1-2 minutes. Add in egg, milk, vanilla and lemon zest on low speed for about 1 minute. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for an additional 1 minute or until smooth. Gradually add flour to the bowl while mixing on low speed. The mixture will form a somewhat dry dough. Divide into two portions, and form the dough into 2 discs. Wrap these in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hr in the refrigerator. When ready to bake, remove dough from the refrigerator and roll dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-1/8 inch thickness. Use your cookie cutters to cut out the cookie halves. The top halves should have a center window cut in them so the jam filling can peak through later. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes – the edges should be just faintly browned when they are fully baked. Cool completely on a wire rack.
To assemble – spread a small amount of jam onto the base of the cookie, then press the cut-out top half of the cookie onto the base.
To make the chocolate drizzle – place chocolate chips into a small bowl and add canola oil, stirring to coat the chocolate chips. Microwave on high at 10 second intervals, stirring between each, until the chocolate chips are melted and smooth. Drizzle over the assembled cookies. Enjoy!
Tags: Cookies
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