[Cookie 035] Gingersnap-Raspberry Sandwiches

Greetings, earthlings. How's life? Eat anything particularly delicious lately? I hope your making the most of your end of the summer and grabbing up every last stone fruit and veggie from the farmers' markets (and perhaps, your own garden?). I definitely have, and aside from just eating them straight, I've been trying to incorporate as much fresh fruits into the cookies I make as humanly possible.

Take, for example, these Gingersnap-Raspberry Sandwich cookies. I did a little tweaking to the recipe and used some homemade jam that my mom made from the grapes that we have growing on our fence in our yard. I love using 100% homemade/homegrown ingredients--when it's possible of course--but let me just say, making jam isn't easy for me. I tried to make the jam the first time around, and everything was going swell, but as soon as I turned my back on the simmering jelly to find a perfectly adorable little Mason jar, I burnt the sugar! It all caramelized and ended up turning into an inedible hard candy. Boo. My mom tried again, and succeeded at not burning the jam, but her homemade pectin didn't solidify the mixture of grapes and sugar, so she had to add some store-bought pectin. It was hard for us, but at least we got to use up our excess of baby grapes that we get every summer!

Anyways, back to the cookie. I've been meaning to make a sandwich cookie for a while, so I thought that with our newly made jam this recipe would be perfect. The cookies baked up absolutely perfectly and beautifully, holding their shape and forming perfect circles. I think the reason for this is that the recipe calls for vegetable shortening, which has less water than butter and therefore causes the dough to spread less while baking.

So the gingersnap is perfect. Spot on. Chewy, gingery, perfectly shaped and lovely all around. However, I baked them a little too large, and thus when I spread them with jam and sandwiched them together, the resultant cookie was massive. Plus, my jam was a little too wet and made the cookie sandwich so messy that you could barely eat it without making it look like you had just murdered something on your plate (anyone see that True Blood episode where they eat that souffle made out of a human heart? haha, sorry...). And don't even think of eating this without a plate, because if you do, you might as well just start an ant farm in your lap to begin with. Be careful, eaters, this is a messy business.

In the end, we ended up eating the cookies plain, without jam, a lot of the time. One recommendation I would give would be to dip them in some coffee--it's completely divine. Or, if you want to make a fancy little dessert for a dinner party or something, you could put 1 or 2 on a plate with some homemade whipped cream and some berry compote or something. Maybe some poached pears or nectarines? Oh, roasted peaches with some honey drizzled on top? Okay, I'm going to get carried away if I continue.

So yeah, these are tasty, without question. A little hard to eat, but the cookie itself is another example of how Martha can really nail the classic recipes. Now that the cookies are all gone however, I have a lot of leftover jam...any suggestions?

Gingersnap-Raspberry Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 cup raspberry jam with seeds

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees with one rack positioned in center of oven; line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, shortening, and 1 cup sugar on medium speed. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger.
3. Add maple syrup to butter mixture; beat to combine. Beat in egg until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low; slowly add the reserved flour mixture, a little at a time, until well blended.
4. Place remaining cup sugar in a bowl. Measure 2 teaspoons dough; roll into a ball. Roll dough in sugar; transfer to sheet. Repeat, spacing balls 3 inches apart. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Form and bake the remaining dough.
5. Spread about 2 teaspoons jam over half of the cookies; place a second cookie on top of jam-covered ones, making sandwiches. Serve.

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{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 2.5/5
Tastiness: 4/5 (Tastes like what you expect them to)
Attractiveness: 4/5 (Even the messiness looks great)
Is it worth it?: Yeah! You can really take the basic gingersnap recipe and do crazy stuff with it, too. Dip them in chocolate? Add fresh fruits? Ice cream sandwiches! You get the idea...

{Pairings}
Drink: Coffee! Dip it in your cup--it's so seriously good!

Song: For the Dishwasher -- Grandaddy
Activity: Washing your hands, which will be uber-sticky with jelly, trust me.