Old-Fashioned Filled Cookies
Submitted by gina41
Old-fashioned sandwich cookies with a choice of two homemade fillings: raisin with lemon, or chopped date with orange zest and nutmeg. Three dozen per batch.
YIELD
36 servingsPREP
60 minCOOK
25 minREADY
265 minThese are the sandwich cookies you’d pull from a tin in a 1940s farmhouse kitchen. Two thin butter cookies pressed around a thick, jam-like filling. Two filling options are included, raisin or date, and both use brown sugar to keep that old-world molasses warmth.
The dough is the foundation. Half brown sugar, half granulated for layered sweetness, with a full three-hour chill in the fridge so the butter firms up and the cookies hold shape when crimped shut. Skip the chill and the filling oozes out in the oven, every single time.
The raisin filling gets a small lemon juice addition that brightens the sweetness and balances the heavy brown sugar. Cornstarch thickens it to a spreadable paste that won’t leak out the edges. The date filling skips lemon and reaches for orange zest and nutmeg instead, giving a more autumnal, spice-forward profile.
Bake time is exactly eight minutes, no fudging. The cookies should look pale yellow, not browned. Overbake and the butter dries out and the filling caramelizes harder than you want.
Pro Tips
- Roll the dough to a true ⅛ inch. Thicker cookies don’t seal properly and the filling steams out.
- Crimp the edges with a fork all the way around. A loose seal means a leaky cookie.
- Use a slightly smaller circle of dough on top than the bottom so it stretches over the filling cleanly.
- Cool on the sheet until almost cold. These break easily when warm.
Variations
- Use fig filling for a different old-fashioned fruit twist, similar to homemade fig newtons.
- Add a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough for a more spiced base.
- Drizzle the cooled cookies with a thin powdered sugar glaze for a fancier finish.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cookie dough first.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars thoroughly.
Add the eggs, milk and vanilla; beat at high speed for 2 min.
Lower the speed and add the flour mixture gradually.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
To prepare the raisin filling, grind the rasins.
You should have 1 cup of ground raisins.
In a medium saucepan combine raisins, brown sugar, water, salt and lemon juice.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 min.
Combine the 2T of water and cornstarch, use to thicken the raisin mixture.
When cool stir in the nuts.
To make the date filling combine the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes breaking the dates with a spoon.
Remove from heat, cool then add the nuts.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface until thin (⅛ in).
Cut into 2 ¾ inch rounds with a cookie cutter.
Place the rounds on a oiled cookie sheet.
Place a heaping teaspoons of filling mixture on the cookie round, top with another round, crimp the edges closed.
Bake at 350℉ (180℃) F for exactly 8 minutes.
The cookies will be pale yellow.
Allow cookies to remain on cookie sheet until almost cool.
Comments
Will try this recipe for Christmas cookies.