Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies

So two weeks ago I had this brilliant idea to bake chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting for Rebecca’s small group. They just looked so adorable! So I did bake them, and they were adorable, only it turns out I honestly just don’t like raspberry. (Which I guess isn’t really a problem, considering they were for Rebecca and her girls, not me.) What was a problem was all the leftover raspberry frosting in my refrigerator.

How to use up that raspberry frosting? Sandwich cookies. (Amanda actually had a number of other intriguing suggestions for me when I grumbled about having to throw away so much perfectly good– well, you know– frosting. Among them: swirl it into brownies or a cheesecake.) And with any luck, the girls won’t consider that this is the same stuff on top of their cupcakes.

Of course, now that I’ve solved the left-over frosting problem, I have a new one to contend with: leftover egg whites. Any suggestions?

I modified a Martha Stewart (did you expect anyone else?) recipe for the cookie. Her pink grapefruit sandwich cookie recipe seemed like a perfect option, especially considering her cream filling is remarkably close to my raspberry frosting. My cookies, of course, have no grapefruit zest or juice in them. I replaced these with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and milk, respectively. Below is the recipe with my substitutions.

Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies
Cookie:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
scant 1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large egg yolks
2 1/4 cups minus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 milk

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add flour in two batches, alternating with the milk. Mix just until combined.

Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten into a disc about 1/2 inch thick. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.

Remove dough from refrigerator and preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough on floured surface about 1/8 in thick. Cut out with 2 inch round cookie cutter (I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup for lack of a cookie cutter. It worked reasonably well.) Bake 15-20 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. Cool completely.

Filling:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3-4 cups powdered sugar, or to taste
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

**The original recipe suggests to beat the butter and jam together first, then to add the powdered sugar until it reaches the desired consistency/taste. However, the butter and jam curdle if you do this (it’s fine once you add enough sugar). Instead I would begin by creaming the butter and some powdered sugar, add the jam, and if necessary more powdered sugar.

P.S. Please forgive my pictures! I was in a hurry to get these to Rebecca on time, as always.