12 Days of Christmas, Day 5

On the 5th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me….5 golden rings!

Oh c’mon, I can’t argue that you should accept cookies in lieu of golden rings. What I can give you for Day 5 is a delightful little cookie that will complement your golden rings nicely. You’re welcome.

I was first introduced to these while living in Australia and honestly until Ann asked about them, it never occurred to me to make them [facepalm]. I think, mostly, because it’s a sandwich cookie and those always seemed easier to buy rather than make. However, these were a lot easier than I ever imagined they would be.

Jammy Dodgers!

• 4 cups flour
• 1 ⅔ cup powdered sugar
• 1 ¾ cup butter
• 4 egg yolks
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup jam of your choice. In case you’re wondering, I used strawberry in the picture below and raspberry in the next batch.

Sift the flour, powered sugar, and salt into a large bowl then add in the cubed, cold butter. Either using your stand mixer or your hands, work the butter into the flour until mixture has a crumbly texture. Next add egg yolks, one at a time and mix thoroughly to form a sticky dough (note: please don’t over mix the dough, otherwise you’ll end up with tough cookies).

Once the dough is formed, place it on a piece of plastic wrap, flatten dough into a disc, and put into the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F. If the jam you’re using has seeds or large chunks, push the jam through a sieve with the back of a spoon in order to remove all the lumps and bumps, leaving you with a very smooth jam. Set aside for later.

Once the dough is chilled, roll it out to approximately ¼” thick and start cutting cookies, using a linzer cookie cutter. This cutter allows you to cut both the solid bottom cookie and the cut out top cookie with one cutter. To avert going crazy while making these, ensure there is an equal number of bottom and top pieces. If you don’t have a linzer cookie cutter, the tops are created by cutting out the cookie to match the bottom piece. And then using a smaller cookie cutter, cut out the very center of the cookie (creating the window pane look). Repeat until all the dough is used up.

Place on cookie sheet evenly spaced out, with a little room for a spreading. Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet in fridge for about 10 minutes before baking. Bake for 12-15 mins or until golden brown round the edges. Once the cookies are done, let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

When the cookies are nearly cool, put a generous dollop of jam in the middle of each solid (aka bottom) cookie, spreading the jam out evenly over the entire cookie. Dust the top (aka holed) cookies with a light sprinkling of powdered sugar. And then careful place the top cookie on top of the jam spread cookie.

Repeat for the rest of the sandwiches and allow to sit on the cooling rack until the cookie is completely cool and jam has solidified.

Fa la la la la la!

In case you missed them:

12 Cookies of Christmas, Day 1 Salty Scotches

12 Cookies of Christmas, Day 2 Holiday Mint Chocolate Kisses

12 Cookies of Christmas, Day 3 ANZAC Bikkies

12 Cookies of Christmas, Day 4 Iced Oatmeal Cookies