Sometimes you find a recipe that goes totally awry. Such was my experience today with a recipe for vampire bite cookies, a sugar cookie stuffed with raspberry jam. Let’s just say we’ll be going back to the drawing board on those, but in the meantime, I turned what could have been a disaster into something quite tasty.
Instead of wasting my dough – because I don’t ever toss dough or batter unless has gone terribly wrong and cannot be fixed – I decided to bake the cookies, then use a dark red-tinted raspberry buttercream filling for little sandwiches. Fair warning: when taking a bite, the filling will absolutely ooze out on all sides, but that sort of adds to the Halloween-themed fun, no?
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
For the blood red buttercream
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 3 heaping tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Red gel food coloring
Preparation
In a small bowl, combine flour and salt; set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and extracts, beating well to combine.
Add flour mixture in two batches, beating well after each.
Divide dough in two portions; wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut dough into circles and place about 1 inch apart on prepared sheets.
Bake for 10-11 minutes, until edges are set. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.
To make blood red buttercream, in a mixing bowl, beat butter and raspberry jam on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Mixture will look lumpy; that’s okay. Add powdered sugar and beat until completely combined, scraping the sides of the bowl several times. Add food coloring and beat until fully combined.
Flip cookies over and top half with a generous dollop of filling (about 1/2 tablespoon or so). Top with remaining cookies to make sandwiches. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
amy bakes in the 'burgh 