Strawberry Sandwich Cookies

Martha Stewart's Cookies is my latest cookbook obsession. I bought it last week at TJ Maxx (yes, I did get the max for the minimum), and have been obsessing over most of the recipes ever since. Each recipe has a picture, which I love. They are not just pictures either; they're pictures from Martha Stewart's talented staff, so they look amazing. I hope to one day take pictures as good as theirs.

I wanted to make macaroons for the 4^th of July, but it wasn't in the cards. Instead, I made Martha's cookie dough recipe for her raspberry cream sandwiches. The dough is full of vanilla flavor. The recipe calls for a whole vanilla bean and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. I was afraid the vanilla would overpower my jam, so I used half a vanilla bean and only 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. I also added a heaping ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper to bring out the pepper in the jam. The dough was delicious and I had high hopes for the finished baked cookie.

While baking, the dough spread more than I thought it would. I ended up cutting the baked cookies with a cutter to get the shape I wanted. The flavor of the dough was good, but very sweet. Once I added the strawberry jam they were sugar bombs, and I was running for my toothbrush after eating one. I wouldn't combine this cookie dough and jam together again. The dough is delicious on its own though, and I bet it would be great with some bittersweet chocolate. I have lots of left over dough to play with, so I think I might try to use it as a flat tart base later in the week. If I do I'll be sure to post my results.