We had a bake sale at work last week to raise money for the food bank.  I made  two kinds of cookies for it: thimble cookies and refrigerator cookies. I had originally planned to make Empire Cookies and thimble cookies, but I forgot about the need to chill the dough, so substituted the refrigerator cookies, as I had already made the dough for those. Tonight, I had time before supper, so rolled, cut and baked these. After supper, I assembled them.
I first encountered these (Empire Cookies) when we moved to the West Coast, in a bakery in Sidney. That was in the days before the Internet, so if you wanted a recipe, you had to hunt through a LOT of cookbooks, or try to figure it out on your own.
In this case, I couldn’t find a recipe, so went by taste. Raspberry jam in the middle was obvious, as was almond icing on top. The cookies themselves reminded me of sugar cookies, so that is what I used (and still use). It’s funny…when I look them up on the Internet these days, most descriptions say it is a shortbread cookie, but none of the recipes I have seen use actual shortbread…they usually use some variation on the sugar cookie.
Sugar Cookies
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients, then mix into the butter/sugar mixture. Mix well, then chill for a couple of hours. Roll 1/8 inch thick and cut into rounds. Bake on greased baking sheet at 375F for 8-10 minutes.
When cool, spread one cookie with jam and press another cookie on top. Spread with almond icing. Can top with a halved candied cherry, or blanched almond.
These are very nice with a cup of tea.
I’d love to know what you think.