For dainty little treats, try these lovely bites with a tart filling and buttery cookie. Try to keep the filling and cookies separate until ready to assemble to prevent the final products from becoming soggy.
—DEIRDRE COX KANSAS CITY, MO
PREP: 50 MIN. + CHILLING • BAKE: 15 MIN./BATCH + COOLING • MAKES: ABOUT 2 1/2 DOZEN
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons lime juice
FILLING
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, thawed
3/4 cup seedless black raspberry spreadable fruit
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
Confectioners’ sugar
1. Place flour, confectioners’ sugar, sugar and salt in a food processor; pulse until blended. Add butter; pulse until butter is the size of peas. Drizzle with lime juice and pulse just until moist crumbs form. Shape dough into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until firm enough to roll.
2. For filling, in a small saucepan, combine cranberries, spreadable fruit, sugar and lime juice. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat to medium; cook, uncovered, 10-12 minutes or until berries pop and mixture is thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Process in a food processor until blended; cool completely.
3. Preheat oven to 325°. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 1 3/4-in. scalloped round cookie cutter.
4. Using a floured 3/4-in. round cookie cutter, cut out the centers of half of the cookies. Place solid and window cookies 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
5. Spread filling on bottoms of solid cookies; top with window cookies. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
TOP TIP
Sandwich Cookies Made Simple
Sandwich cookies may seem like a lot of work, but they’re really quite simple—and the results are impressive. To save time, bake the cookies one day, and assemble them the next. You can also bring little ones into the kitchen to spread the filling over the bottoms of half of the cookies or to set the top half in place.