Carrot cake is a quintessential dessert of spring. This recipe is moist slightly sweet, and perfectly spiced. It is paired with a rich and velvety cream cheese frosting.
Asparagus is so beautiful this time of year, so I wanted to create a recipe around it. I made some basil and pumpkin seed pesto, and drizzled it on toasted bread with asparagus, avocado, and shaved Parmesan.
Because his family is a true-to-the-bone pancake family, I really wanted him to share with me the secrets to making a good pancake, thin and delicate, perfectly browned on the outside, soft on the inside. He gave me a recipe, one that he has memorized. A set of very specific instructions, the right temp, the right amount of time for frying. I followed it to a tee, and sure enough, the pancakes came out the way I had always dreamed they would.
After Thanksgiving, I decided to experiment with my pumpkin pie recipe. I wanted to try and make it into mini tart form. I choose little gingersnap tart shells, because of gingersnap cookies, and tiny food, am I right? The tart crust came out soft and caramel, almost chewy. It was a perfect combination to the pumpkin filling.
Spots, streaks, splashes, flour, and butter are just a few things obstructing my vision today, as I've been busy in my kitchen trying to perfect a dynamite sandwich cookie. With little time to breath, let alone clean my glasses, it's been nothing but cookies for days. I've been experimenting with chocolate, pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger. I've made butter cream, marshmallow puff, and cream cheese icing, madly trying to create the ultimate sandwich/cookie combo. To be considered an ultimate sandwich cookie, the ratio needs to be perfect. A perfect ratio of sweetness, chewiness, and creaminess. To accomplish this, one needs to be sweeter than the other, the cookie or the filling. I prefer a sweet cookie with a milder frosting, more cheesy than sweet. The cookie needs to be soft and chewy with a slightly crisp outer layer, to balance out the creamy softness of the filling.
After much consideration and a hefty amount of sugar, I've settled on a spiced ginger cookie with a cream cheese filling. This recipe surely takes home the cake, or I suppose the cookie in this situation. My apartment, clothes, dog, etc. have a lingering aroma of spiced ginger and molasses, and I am extremely pleased with this situation. There are sticky cream cheese finger prints everywhere, obviously something I am less happy about. I've just poured myself a cup of coffee in my new french press, and am about to enjoy a wonderful sugar sandwich. Life just doesn't get any better than this.
GINGER SANDWICH COOKIES WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING
makes 15 - 20 sandwiches
recipe adapted from
Tasha DeSerio via Fine Cooking
INGREDIENTS
2 cups + 4 tbsp cake flour
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar + 1/2 cup for rolling
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
ICING INGREDIENTS
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
5 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
In a large bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the molasses, egg, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Slowly add the flour until fully incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Place 1/2 cup of granulated sugar into a small bowl. Scoop a little less than a tbsp of dough into you hands and roll into a ball. Dip into the sugar to coat. Place onto the baking sheet and space 2 inches apart. Once you have placed all the cookies onto the baking sheet, coat the bottom of a drinking glass with butter. Dip the glass into the sugar, and tap lightly the top of the cookie.
Bake for 10 - 13 minutes (smaller cookies need less time), until the cookies have begun to harden on the outside, but still feel soft on the inside. They will appear as though they are undercooked, but they are probably just right.
Cool completely on a wire wrack.
While the cookies are cooling, beat the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy.
Once the cookies have cooled, spread some of the cream cheese icing on the flat side of a cookie. Place another cookie on top forming a sandwich. Refrigerate for up to a week.
