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

Chocolate chip (sort of) whoppers

I made chocottones again this year (gifts to my coworkers) and after baking them for an entire afternoon I had no eggs left in my pantry. Zero. Nada.
I wanted to bake cookies but was too lazy to go to the grocery store… Luckily I found a recipe for a crisp chocolate chip cookie that did not call for eggs.

The dough is super easy to put together and I baked the cookies in a heartbeat. I didn’t want giant cookies, so I used a tablespoon to measure the dough - and still got big cookies (the size of the palm of my hand, a bit less than 3 inches).

The recipe calls for 2 cups (12 ounces) of chocolate chips, but I thought that 9 ounces were enough.

Next time you feel like baking and there are no eggs in your pantry, try these – and feel free to add more chocolate chips if you want.

Chocolate chip (sort of) whoppers
from Big Fat Cookies

2 cups (280g) unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup (220g) granulated sugar
½ cup (80g) packed dark brown sugar*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons water
250g (9 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips – I used mini chips

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, mix the melted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until smooth, about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated. The dough will look crumbly. Mix in the water. The dough will become soft and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Using an ice-cream scoop or measuring cup with a ¼ cup capacity, scoop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 3 inches (7.5cm) apart. Gently press the cookies to flatten them slightly, to about ¾ inch (1.9cm) thick (mine were a bit thinner)

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops are evenly lightly browned and have a few cracks, about 17 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool thoroughly.

The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

* the original recipe calls for ¾ cup light brown sugar and ¾ granulated sugar – since the brown sugar I had at home was dark, I changed the proportions a little bit.

Makes 15 cookies – I used 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie and got 33