I’m sending along the cookie recipe, as requested, for sharing. Thank
you for awarding my contribution the Grand Prize and thanks for the gift
certificate to Secret Garden! Now I can get a great book to read next
time I sit down with cookies and milk 🙂
The recipe comes from the 2010 special issue “Holiday Cookies,”
published by America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve amended
it to incorporate what I did as I muddled through it….
Raspberry-Almond Cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups slivered almonds
1 cup (or more) granulated sugar
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam
Procedure:
1. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Heat oven to 350. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Process 1 cup flour and almonds in food processor until finely ground, about a minute.
3. Add half a cup of sugar, the other cup of flour, and process til combined.
4. Add butter and vanilla; pulse until dough forms.
5. Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness on lightly floured surface.
6. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter (or a similarly sized simple
shape, such as a five-pointed star), cut out cookies. Place 2″ apart on
prepared baking sheets.
7. Bake til edges are light brown, about
15 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Cool 5
minutes and then transfer to wire rack.
8. Put the remaining half cup of sugar (or more–I found it easier
to use a whole cup for this step) into a bowl. Quickly, before the
cookies cool off too much, spread 1 tsp jam on the bottoms of half the
cookies and press them together with the other cookies to form
sandwiches. Then gently roll them in the sugar to coat them. If you do
this while they’re warm, the sugar will stick to them very well.
9. You can gather and re-roll leftover dough scraps along the way, though you may need
to chill it again if it gets too warm to handle and roll out properly.
10. Cool cookies completely on wire rack.