Raspberry Jam - Filled Gingersnaps
“People who love to eat are always the best people.” –
Julia Child
Well,
September is here, which means that fall is approaching. Fall is my favorite
season. It is also the time of year when I bemoan the fact that I am not the
secret love child of Martha Stewart and Giada De Laurentiis. I see myself
handing perfectly crisp paper bags to my smiling children as they run to catch
the school bus. I wave happily at them from my wraparound porch as the bus
pulls off, colorful leaves spinning around the street. I sigh wistfully, “time
has gone by so fast.” And then I settle into my favorite nook by the window,
two hands wrapped around a mug of steaming chai, and snuggle up in a chunky,
knit, cream-colored cowl neck sweater.
Now,
obviously that is a fantasy (cream isn’t even really my color) but, come fall,
my mind wanders and I suddenly become a woman out of a Folger’s Coffee ad.
Unfortunately, my morning consists of trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, and praying one
of my cats hasn’t gone to the bathroom outside of the box. Still, baking
cookies like these, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, I am easily able to
drift off into my fantasy world, where I’m gently spreading jam between crisp,
spicy gingersnaps, listening to Miles Davis, and feeling great about being the
hottest mom in the PTA…
I’m
sorry…wait…where was I? Oh, yeah, eat these cookies with your lady friends and
talk about how you think that this New Year’s Eve, your resolution will be to
drink more tea and have more “me time.”
Raspberry Jam – Filled Gingersnaps
Ingredients:
½ cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup vegetable shortening
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground ginger
½ cup pure maple syrup
1 large egg
1 cup raspberry jam (or, really, any jam that sparks your
fancy)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
- Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Place the butter, shortening and 1 cup of the sugar in a bowl.
- Use a hand mixer on medium-low speed, cream together the butter, shortening, and 1 cup of sugar until it becomes light and fluffy. It should look sort of like a frosting, but don’t eat it, because it’ll taste awful.
- In a separate, smaller bowl, gently whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger until just combined.
- Add the maple syrup to the butter mixture in the bigger bowl, and using the hand mixer, beat until just combined.
- Add the egg to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.
- Add the contents of the flour bowl to the butter mixture in small increments, beating the ingredients after every addition.
- Pour the remaining ¼ cup of sugar into a small bowl.
- Take about ½ tbsp balls of dough and roll them into the sugar. Then, lightly press them into small discs, and place them two inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Remember: size matters here (as in life, amiright? Just kidding. Sorry, mom) These discs of dough need to be similar in size so that they make even sized sandwiches when you add the jam filling.
- Bake for six minutes, rotate the baking sheet, and bake for another six minutes.
- Remove
the baking sheet from the oven, wait 2-3 minutes, and then transfer the
cookies to a cooling rack.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely, spread a thin layer of jam on the bottom side of one cookie and then sandwich it together with another cookie. Repeat until all cookies have found their mate.
 |
| Look, I even put them in a cute, little box! |
These
cookies are awesome! They’re just crunchy enough to have the signature snap of a gingersnap, but not so crunchy that they wind
up being crumbly. The raspberry jam adds a sweetness to the potent ginger, and
the sugary outside helps drive home the satisfaction of your first bite.
I
may not be packing these in my kids’ lunches any time soon…but that actually
ends up being okay, because then I can technically eat the whole pan myself…
Til next time,
D
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