Baking the Baked Cover Recipe: Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies

My next upcoming assignment for Baked Sunday Mornings is Salt-n-Pepper Sandwich Cookies, one of the two cookies featured in the photo on the cover of Baked Explorations.  I quickly decided that I also wanted to try the other cookie in the cover photo, the "Malted Milk Sandwich Cookie."  Actually, baking both cookies at the same time makes a lot of sense, because the two cookies share the exact same filling.

In the past, I have kept malted milk powder on hand for the sole purpose of making homemade Chubby Hubby ice cream (the real thing from Ben & Jerry's is fudge-covered peanut butter-filled pretzels in vanilla malt ice cream, rippled with fudge and peanut butter), and I don't recall having used it in any baked goods before.  This cookie dough is made from flour, malt powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, dark brown sugar, sugar, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.  You have to chill the dough for several hours before rolling it out.  This dough was quite soft and I had to use a lot of flour for rolling and cutting, although I was able to repeatedly re-roll scraps without any problems.  I used a 2-inch diameter round cutter for my cookies, and they spread slightly in the oven for a finished size 2 and 1/4 inches across.  The recipe says that it yields 30 sandwiches, but I got a whopping 63. 

The cookie filling is supposed to be an approximation of what's inside an Oreo, and it comes pretty darn close.  Made from butter, shortening, powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla (you are also supposed to include rum, which I omitted), the filling is firm and holds its shape at room temperature.  I was also very surprised that you could fill these cookies and store them at room temperature for a few days without the cookies becoming soft or soggy.  I quite liked the contrast of the crisp cookies against the filling, although these cookies were slightly messy to eat, because taking a bite forced the filling to squish out from the sides.

I thought that these cookies were great, although the malt flavor is not very pronounced.  However, it's a perfectly good vanilla sandwich cookie. The fact that it's also a good looking cookie that keeps well for a few days is a bonus.

Stay tuned until Sunday to read about the salt-n-pepper sandwich cookies!

Recipe: "Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies" from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.

Comments

Louise said…
I'm glad you baked these as I have the book and love to bake cookies. I'm surprised the yield was off by a factor of two. I've made the Martha Stewart Chocolate Malt Sandwiches, which in my opinion are good, but not great. http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chocolate-malt-sandwiches I'll be interested to hear the opinion of Sunday's cookie.
I was also very surprised at the abundant yield, especially since the salt-n-pepper cookie recipe also produced more cookies than specified, but not nearly to the same degree! I just consider myself lucky that I didn't double the recipe! :)
Unknown said…
So good to see the other cover cookie brought to life! I was wondering about these..good to know about great they keep! They look stunning.
Bri said…
Well, you definitely have made me want to make these malted cookies too! They do look so great pictured along with the S&P cookies on the book's cover. Now that I've made the salt and peppers, it's only a matter of time before I try these. You make them look so good!
Roadtrek Girl said…
Oh they look absolutely delicious!
Louise said…
Do you have any idea why my Gavitar doesn't appear on your site? It's a photo of one of the cloth dolls I've made.
@Louise -- I don't have any idea as to why a gravatar shows up for some folks and not others... Unfortunately, this is beyond my expertise. Sorry!
Louise said…
I'm a retired computer geek so I think I need to look into the Gavitar issue myself. It's somewhat flaky and appears on most blogs, but not all. I prefer to spend my days baking, cooking, gardening, making hypertufas, sewing cloth dolls and fabric roses, and dancing salsa. Right now my website www.lehighvalleysalsa.com is screwed up due to a MeetUp change which among other things shows bad Google maps instead of photos, but hopefully that will change. I have a blogger account for weight loss, so I can start there. :-)
Anonymous said…
Yours look picture perfect! Hope you're feeling better!
Susan said…
Oh, I missed the Salt & Pepper Cookies! Your malt cookies look terrific!

I hope you get some rest this weekend!
Anonymous said…
What can I use instead of sour cream?