Jam sandwich cookies

Baking cookies is not something common here in Brazil, so the ones I had growing up were of the store-bought variety. As a kid, I was never a fan of sandwich cookies. My friends and cousins loved them, and they would even open up the cookie and eat the entire filling first. The cookies I liked were the simple, plain ones. Like digestive cookies and such. When I was 6-7 there were cookies shaped like the characters from “The Flintstones” – those were my absolute favorites.

But things change and now I like many types of cookies – pretty much all, I could say. The lovely Steph is holding a special event and she wants to know her readers’ favorite cookies. Mine are lemon cookies (surprise, surprise). :)
Go there and take part, too – there’s a prize involved!

Even though there’s no lemon in these, they are delicious, too – I made them for a friend who had a hard time a couple of weeks ago.

My only advice here is to avoid much too sweet jams – in my opinion, a tart filling would go better with these cookies.

Jam sandwich cookies
from here

Baking Mix:
3 cups (420g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ tablespoon salt

Cookies:
4 cups Baking Mix, spooned and leveled
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½ cup (120ml) whole milk
1 cup seedless jam or jelly – I used blackberry jam, seeds and all

Start by making the mix: in a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months. Whisk before using.
Makes about 4 ¼ cups – you’ll need 4 for the recipe

Now, the cookies: preheat oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse baking mix and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk; pulse until a dough forms – I used the Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.

Drop dough by heaping tablespoons* onto sheets, 3 inches (7.5cm) apart - you will fit about 9 cookies to a sheet; bake in two batches to make a total of 36 cookies. Bake until cookies begin to turn golden but center is still pale, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread flat side of half the cookies with 2 teaspoons jam each; sandwich with remaining cookies.

Makes 18
* I did not want very large cookies, so I used leveled tablespoons of dough and got 25 sandwich cookies