Raspberry-White Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

On my normal baking-extravaganza day (i.e. Tuesday) I was way under the weather and had a day at home. Normally this would entail a much bigger baking endeavor than cookies but with the sickness I decided to take it easy. And as far as I'm concerned, cookies are taking it easy. Even though these are sandwich cookies which I suppose requires twice the work, plus a bit more for the filling, they still weren't took bad (in terms of work) and in no way did I make myself worse for the ware for making them. Actually this was the ONLY thing I did on Tuesday, which I guess is good for my health but not so good in terms of productivity, but whatever.

Raspberry Cream Sandwhich Cookie Recipe 

I really don't know why I bought the ___ book. Every recipe is on her website anyways. Word to the wise. 

I hesitate to say that I am happy/fortunate/etc. to own the Martha Stewart "Cookies" book because as I've expressed before, and I'm glad that others agree, her stuff is a bit hit and miss. Seems strange that the reigning heavy weight of all things domestic (is she still reigning? maybe only by default) would have recipes in her repetoir that really weren't all that good. Nearly half the stuff I've ever made of 'hers' turns out not just bad, but almost awful. I can't all be my fault. It still baffles me. At any rate, I always enter in to making her recipes with a fair bit of apprehension and this time I searched around a bit to see if others had tested this recipe before I even attempted it. I wasn't about to make something else on my sick day if it turned out bad. Not going to happen. Seemed like several people in the blogging world had tested and liked the recipe, so I forged ahead. 

The dough was mousse-y and granular. Mmm I love it when you can taste and feel the sugar. One of my favorite textures. Baking the cookies I noticed took a bit more skill but not much. I noticed the cookies tend to puff up a bit when baking, but when you turn the baking sheet half way through, you end up deflating them by opening and closing the oven door. This kind of annoys me and makes me think why didn't Martha's minions figure this out when coming up with the recipe? Why have such a temperamental cookie? I mean it's a cookie for ___'s sake. Anyway, they become a bit flat when all is said and done. Not a deal breaker but irritating. They cool extremely fast which is a great trait of this particular cookie I have to say. I'm far too impatient to wait around for something to cool. I do most of the time, but I don't like it. 

I had to tamper with the filling just a bit to get it to work. 'Martha' says to melt the white chocolate then take off the heat and add the cream and then add the raspberry puree to it. Well, the white chocolate never seemed to melt. I'm not sure why since white chocolate is nearly all fat. Mine just sat there in a clump and never smoothed out to a liquid. I took matters into my own hands and added the cream and whisked until it was smooth. You usually add cream over heat with a ganache or at least right after you take it off the heat. So whichever way you do it just make sure the cream and chocolate are evening mixed before you add your pureed raspberries. Once you get it all mixed together you need to refridgerate for at least 30 minutes before you fill your cookies since it takes a while to thicken. I'd recommend an hour. I used a frosting spatula to do this but thought as I was doing so, a pastry bag would work so much better. Just pipe a big dollap on to each cookie and assemble. So easy. Refrigerate again to stiffen the filling back up. Since I have a tendency to slightly underbake cookies (on purpose-I like them super tender) they were amazing with the filling. Almost like a cake. Super soft and moist. The kind of cookies that slowly pull apart in the commercials. But these are chemical free. Always a plus. 

If you're in a cookie mood, try these out. They are delicious!

Photos by Collin Monda