Today’s post is unapologetically pretty, pink and so perfect for Valentine’s Day. Raspberry cream sandwich cookies are made with buttery, soft-baked sugar cookies flavored with real vanilla bean. Sandwiched between the cookies is fluffy raspberry buttercream, and the sweet frosting pairs perfectly with the vanilla cookies.
For an extra fancy flourish, I decorated one side of the sandwich cookies with pink and white sparkling sugar. And on the other side, I stamped a few romantic sentiments to make personalized Valentines conversation cookies. Raspberry cream sandwich cookies are like an Oreo cookie’s pretty little sister, and you’ll love making (and eating) them for any special occasion.
Looking for more cookie recipes like this? Don’t miss these chocolate coconut cream sandwich cookies, strawberry shortbread cookies, and buttercream filled Valentine Linzer cookies.
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Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- All-Purpose Flour. Provides structure and strength to the cookie dough.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the cookies, while the fine texture of the powdered sugar makes a softer cookie than granulated sugar.
- Salt. Coarse Kosher salt balances the sweetness.
- Unsalted Butter. Adds flavor, moisture, richness and fat.
- Vanilla. For the best flavor, I prefer to use a real vanilla bean. I’ve been buying Tahitian vanilla beans online, and I find them to be very affordable. The vanilla bean flecks look just gorgeous in these cookies. You can also use vanilla bean paste, or a good quality vanilla extract.
- Milk. Moistens the dough and binds it together.
Raspberry Buttercream
- Unsalted Butter. Adds richness, fat and flavor to the buttercream.
- Seedless Raspberry Jam. Gives the buttercream a tart raspberry flavor and natural pink color.
- Vanilla Extract. Use good-quality vanilla extract for the best flavor.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
- Meringue Powder. Adds stability and improves the texture.
- Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Instructions
Cookies
- Prepare the 1/2 batch of Vanilla Sugar Cookie Dough as instructed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and chill for 20 minutes before rolling out.
- Line several large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Dust a clean work surface with flour, and roll the dough out to an even thickness of about 1/8 inch thick, using more flour as needed to keep it from sticking.
- Use a 1 1/2 inch round cutter to cut as many cookies as you can, placing them 1 inch apart on the baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, re-roll the dough and continue cutting cookies. I was able to cut 54 cookies, for a total of 27 assembled sandwich cookies.
- Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator and chill for 45 minutes; the chilling helps prevent the cookies from spreading.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 8 – 8 1/2 minutes, until you no longer see any wet patches of dough.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Buttercream
- With an electric mixer, beat the softened butter, raspberry jam and vanilla extract for 1 minute until smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt on low speed, mixing to combine. Beat on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. If the buttercream is too thick, add a little milk, one teaspoon at a time. It should be thicker for filling cookies, though, than what you’d use to frost a cake.
- Fit a piping bag with a small open star tip, such as #32, and fill with buttercream.
- Turn over half of the cooled cookies. Pipe a swirl of buttercream onto the bottoms of half the cookies, then top each with another cookie to make a sandwich.
Decorating Ideas
Sparkling Sugar
To decorate my cookies, I coated one side in sparkling sugar. This gives the cookies a sweet, crunchy finish that looks so beautiful. And it’s a really easy way to decorate cookies!
Here’s what you’ll need.
- Egg White. The egg white gives the sugar something to stick to on the cookies.
- 1/4 cup Sanding Sugar. Sanding sugar is similar in texture to granulated sugar, but it comes in many colors.
- 1/4 cup Coarse Sparkling Sugar. Sparkling sugar or decorator’s sugar is very large and coarse. It also comes in a wide array of colors.
How to decorate sugar cookies with sparkling sugar.
- After cutting the cookie dough into shapes, use a pastry brush to lightly brush the tops of the unbaked cookies with egg white.
- Combine the sugar into a bowl. The reason I use a combination of sanding sugar and sparkling sugar is because the sanding sugar gives better coverage, while coarse sparkling sugar adds nice texture and crunch. For my cookies, I mixed white sanding sugar, white sparkling sugar, and a little pink sparkling sugar.
- Before the egg white dries, press the cut cookies against the sugar, so it sticks to the egg white.
- Proceed with the rest of the recipe to chill and then bake the cut cookies.
Embossed Valentines Conversation Cookies
For a fun twist on conversation heart cookies, I embossed my vanilla sugar cookies with short phrases, instead of writing on royal icing. They’re easy to do, and the impression is perfectly preserved after the cookies bake.
Here’s what you’ll need.
- Snap-Together Mini Letter Embossers. These embossers are so easy and versatile to use. I’ve used them to emboss cookie dough, pie dough and fondant.
How to stamp words on cookies.
- Place the cut, unbaked cookies on your cookie sheets.
- Arrange the letter embossers into short words that will fit across the width of the cookies.
- Dip the letter embossers in flour and tap off the excess.
- Press the embossers firmly into your cookie dough, deep enough to leave an impression, but not so hard that you cut through the dough.
- Proceed with the rest of the recipe to chill and then bake the cut cookies.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I keep sugar cookies from spreading?
- Use cold butter. Many sugar cookie recipes use room temperature butter for making the dough, which then requires a long chill time for the dough. I use cold butter, which I cut in quickly and easily with a food processor, so the dough only needs a short time to chill and rest before you roll the dough and cut your cookies.
- Keep the dough cool. Keeping your dough cool, and handling it as little as possible is key to no spread sugar cookies. After rolling the dough and cutting your cookies, you’ll also be chilling the cut cookies prior to baking, to ensure they don’t lose their shape in the oven.
- Bake the cookies on parchment paper. You should never use non-stick baking spray or a baking sheet greased with butter when baking your sugar cookies. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (a Silpat baking mat will do, too, although I prefer parchment paper), and your sugar cookies will not spread.
How thick should I roll sugar cookie dough?
- When I make sandwich cookies, I roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch thick, since two cookies will be sandwiched together with buttercream filling. Note that the cookies are quite delicate when they’re this thin.
What size cookie cutter should I use to cut the sugar cookies?
- I used a 1 1/2 inch round cookie cutter, but you could go as big as 2 inches.
How many sandwich cookies does this recipe make?
- Using a 1 1/2 inch cutter, I was able to cut 54 vanilla sugar cookies, for a total of 27 filled raspberry cream sandwiches.
Can I make the cookies ahead of time?
- Everything in this recipe can be prepped in advance. You can make and freeze the dough for 3-6 months, until needed.
- You can bake the cookies and freeze those, either filled or unfilled, in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
What if I can’t find seedless raspberry jam for the buttercream?
- Seedless raspberry jam can sometimes be difficult to find. My local grocery stores always seem to be out of stock. So what I do is I buy the raspberry jam that’s full of seeds, and press it through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds. It’s that simple!
What piping tip did you use to pipe the raspberry buttercream?
- I used tip #32.
How should I store these cookies?
- Store the assembled cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for 3-6 months.
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Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies
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Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- Rolling Pin
- 1 1/2 inch Round Cookie Cutter
- Piping Bag + Coupler + #32 Tip
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- ½ batch Vanilla Sugar Cookie Dough, see notes for recipe link
Raspberry Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ¼ cup seedless raspberry jam
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp meringue powder
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Decorations
- 1 egg white
- ¼ cup white and/or pink sanding sugar
- ¼ cup white and/or pink coarse sparkling sugar
Instructions
Cookies
- Prepare the 1/2 batch of Vanilla Sugar Cookie Dough as instructed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and chill for 20 minutes before rolling out.
- Line several large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Dust a clean work surface with flour, and roll the dough out to an even thickness of about 1/8 inch thick, using more flour as needed to keep it from sticking.
- Use a 1 1/2 inch round cutter to cut as many cookies as you can, placing them 1 inch apart on the baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, re-roll the dough and continue cutting cookies.I was able to cut 54 cookies, for a total of 27 assembled sandwich cookies.
- If you're stamping the cookies with short phrases, snap together your alphabet embossers, dust in flour, and stamp the cookies firmly enough to leave a clear impression, but not so deep that you cut through the cookie.
- If coating the cookies in sanding sugar and/or sparkling sugar, lightly brush the tops of the cookies with egg white, then dip in the the sugar.
- Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator and chill for 45 minutes; the chilling helps prevent the cookies from spreading.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 8 – 8 1/2 minutes, until you no longer see any wet patches of dough.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Buttercream
- With an electric mixer, beat the softened butter, raspberry jam and vanilla extract for 1 minute until smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt on low speed, mixing to combine. Beat on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. If the buttercream is too thick, add a little milk, one teaspoon at a time. It should be thicker for filling cookies, though, than what you'd use to frost a cake.
- Fit a piping bag with a small open star tip, such as #32, and fill with buttercream.
- Turn over half of the cooled cookies. Pipe a swirl of buttercream onto the bottoms of half the cookies, then top each with another cookie to make a sandwich.
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