Russian Tea Cakes with Jam

These are an all year cookie-- Easy to do, fast, and travel well!  Customize them with your favorite jam, and you will have a buttery goodness treat whenever you want! Since there is no egg in them, or milk, they are party friendly!

Ingredients:

1c softened butter
1/2c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2c all-purpose flour
2/3c seedless jam or choice

Makes: 48+ cookies
Time: 30min total

These cookies store very well in an air tight container-- for up to two week!  They go great with tea, milk, champagne, and by themselves.  Can you tell they are one of my favorites ;)

Directions:

1)Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2)Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  the dough should be crumbly but firm.

3) Hand shape into small balls of dough.  Think about 1 heaping tables spoon per cookie.  When you roll the dough in your hands, it should form a ball easily that holds form.

4) Place the cookie dough balls on a baking sheet.  There is enough butter in these that the baking sheet does NOT need to be greased :)

5) Bake for 10 min.

6) Use a spoon to create a pocket in each cookie.

7) Bake another 2-5 minutes.

8) Let the cookies cool before you add the jam to the pocket you created via spoon.

9) Serve these cookies the next day... They are best having had time to "set."

Cost:

Total               $2.35
Per cookie      $0.05... That's five cents a cookie!!

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Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches: Spring is in the Air!

These cookies were created for and inspired by my sister for her Bridal Shower-- And they were  big hit!  Per her request, there are no nuts or raisins in these carrot cake sandwich cookies, but both of those ingredients could easily be added according to taste.  In-spite of have cream cheese based frosting, the cookies last a surprisingly long time in the fridge, and travel well :)  I held off on posting the recipe so that it would be just in time for Easter-- But pretty much any reason for these little, sweet, sandwiches of joy will do!

Ingredients:

Cookies:

2 1/2c all-purpose flour

3 tbs cinnamon

1tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2c unsalted butter, softened

2/3c packed light brown sugar

2/3c granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1tbs vanilla extract

2c grated carrots

Frosting/Filling:

16oz cream cheese (2 bars)

1/2c honey

Makes: 3 doz. cookie sandwiches, (so 6 doz. cookies)

Serves: a small army of hungry ladies and gents!

These cookies have also been called Inside-out cookies.  The larger and flatter you want your cookie sandwiches, the more butter to flour you should add.  As this recipe tends to spread on the baking sheet, baking the cookies slightly longer will achieve the same thing to an extent.  Small, round cookies are recommend for the best tea-side cookie size!

Directions:

1) Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 baking sheets, or as many as you have-- this is an assembly style recipe.

2) Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3) Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla before adding the graded carrots.

4) After you have mixed all of your "wet" ingdients, shift in the flour mixture.

5) Beat the cookie dough until the consitancy is smooth.

6)  Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake. remember these cookies tend to spread!

7) Bake the cookies at 375 degrees until cookies are lightly browned which should take about 17 minutes, depending on your oven.

8) Quickly transfer the cookies to cooling sheets.  (Kitchen hack: cut open brown paper bags to use as cookie cooling "sheets." Easy clean up too-- Just throw on the bag when you are done!)

Frosting/Filling:

9) Thoroughly blend cream cheese and honey in a food processor until smooth. (Or a blender if that's what you have...)

10) Chill the filling/frosting in the fridge while the cookies bake-- This will help when you spread the mix on the cookies later.  It will also help the the cookies are cooled before you assemble them.

11) Assemble the cookie sandwiches and store in an air tight container until ready to consume!

Cost:

Total $6.15           
Per cookie  $0.20