This week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, "Cinnamon Spritz Sandwich Cookies," has been on my to-bake list for years. The recipe appears in Baked Elements, but it was published in Food and Wine before the cookbook came out. When I stumbled across the recipe on the Food and Wine website, I loved the adorable photo of the little sandwich cookies with their beautiful swirls.
The cookie recipe is pretty simple. You beat softened butter and sugar until fluffy; add an egg; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, cardamon, salt). Then you put the dough into a pastry bag with a star tip, pipe out rosettes, and chill the cookies before baking. I chilled my first pan of cookies for about 30 minutes, and I was terribly disappointed that the clearly defined rosettes melted in the oven. The cookies became flat, with just the faintest imprint of a swirl on top. I tried freezing the cookies instead of chilling them, and I got the same result. I even left a couple of pans of unbaked cookies in the freezer for an entire day, and still -- my cookies were sad and flat.
I was pretty irritated that my cookies did not at all resemble the dainty swirl cookies in the photo accompanying the online version of the recipe. But I went ahead and made the meringue filling (egg white, sugar, water, corn syrup, and vanilla) and assembled the sandwiches. The meringue was very well behaved and when I used a pastry bag and star tip to pipe it out, and it held the sharp impressions from the tip.
I tried a sandwich cookie right after I assembled it, and I thought it was a little too sweet. The cookie was not cakelike, but it also wasn't crisp. On the second day, I thought the sandwich cookie was better. The cinnamon flavor in the cookie seemed to be stronger, making the cookie taste less sweet and more balanced overall. I don't think these cookies are terribly interesting without the filling -- they taste fine, but they are not good enough that I would want to eat them plain. Sandwiched around the filling, the cookies are fun -- but still, I'm not planning to make these again.
Recipe: "Cinnamon Spritz Sandwich Cookies" from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings and also here from Food and Wine.
The cookie recipe is pretty simple. You beat softened butter and sugar until fluffy; add an egg; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, cardamon, salt). Then you put the dough into a pastry bag with a star tip, pipe out rosettes, and chill the cookies before baking. I chilled my first pan of cookies for about 30 minutes, and I was terribly disappointed that the clearly defined rosettes melted in the oven. The cookies became flat, with just the faintest imprint of a swirl on top. I tried freezing the cookies instead of chilling them, and I got the same result. I even left a couple of pans of unbaked cookies in the freezer for an entire day, and still -- my cookies were sad and flat.
I tried a sandwich cookie right after I assembled it, and I thought it was a little too sweet. The cookie was not cakelike, but it also wasn't crisp. On the second day, I thought the sandwich cookie was better. The cinnamon flavor in the cookie seemed to be stronger, making the cookie taste less sweet and more balanced overall. I don't think these cookies are terribly interesting without the filling -- they taste fine, but they are not good enough that I would want to eat them plain. Sandwiched around the filling, the cookies are fun -- but still, I'm not planning to make these again.
Recipe: "Cinnamon Spritz Sandwich Cookies" from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings and also here from Food and Wine.
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