Cherry Cheesecake Sandwich Cookies
Buttery, whole wheat shortbread cookies sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs, sandwiched with cream cheese buttercream and sweet cherry preserves.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- Rolling Pin, Bench Scraper and Cookie Cutters
- Electric Mixer (Stand or Hand-Held)
Ingredients
Whole Wheat Shortbread Cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup whole wheat flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom, optional
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 tbsp cold whole milk
- 1-2 graham crackers, finely crushed or crumbled
Filling
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened for 1 hour
- ½ cup unsalted butter or vegetable shortening, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup cherry preserves
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flours, powdered sugar, salt, cardamom and cinnamon until combined.With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.Add the vanilla and milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
Roll and Cut the Cookie Dough
- On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness, just under 1/4 inch thick.Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 1-2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Using a 2 - 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you'll get about 28-30 cookies from this recipe.Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can.
- To make the embossed cookies shown in today's post, roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a smooth ball, and coat in flour. Press firmly with a floured cookie stamp, until the dough spreads past the edges of the stamp. Use a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to trim the edges.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don't spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Very lightly brush the tops of the chilled cookies with water, then sprinkle with the crushed graham crackers.
- Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11 1/2 – 12 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges. If you (very carefully) turn a cookie over with a spatula, the bottom should have light golden browning, with no appearance of raw or wet dough.Note that if your cookies are larger, or your pan is more crowded with the cookies placed close together, it could take from 15-17 minutes to bake the cookies. This is NOT a cookie that you want to under-bake, since a doughy, under-baked shortbread cookie does not have a pleasant texture. So be sure your cookies are fully baked.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.Shortbread cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care. The cookies will initially be slightly crisp around the edges, but they soften as they're stored and will remain wonderfully soft and buttery.
- Let your cookies cool completely before filling them. You can bake the cookies in advance, store in an airtight container, and freeze for 3-6 months until you're ready to frost them.
Fill the Cookies
- With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter for 1 minute until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, and beat for several minutes, until smooth and fluffy.
- Fit a piping bag with tip 1M, and fill with the frosting. Turn half the cookies over, so the bottom is facing up. Pipe a generous ring of buttercream onto the cookie, then spoon a heaping teaspoon of jam in the middle. Top with a second cookie to make a sandwich.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/