Imperial Cookies

Imperial cookies have got to be my all time favourite cookies in the world. Sweet and buttery heaven. They are crumbly and messy and divine. This recipe makes 14 cookies Winnipeg style. What I mean is the cookies are LARGE. If you want you can make them dainty which will result in a lot more of them. In fact, making them smaller makes them much more manageable in terms of eating. Personally I don't care if I end up covered in crumbs. I can go full out cookie monster style when eating these bad boys.

• 2 cups butter (real butter, not margarine)
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 cups flour
• 1 250 ml jar of raspberry jam (get real jam or preserves, not "spread")
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 15 marashino cherries

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Make sure butter is room temperature or soften to room temp in the microwave. In your mixer cream the butter with the sugar until it is smooth. Slowly add the flour 1 cup at a time. If you have a hand held mixer you may have to switch to mixing this by hand with a wooden spoon. Even my heavy duty mixer starts to have trouble with this dough as the flour is added.

Turn out the dough on a floured counter and roll out until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Using a 3" - 3.5" cookie cutter or glass, cut out your cookies. Re roll the dough and repeat until all of the dough has been used. Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes to allow them to set before transferring them to a rack or the counter to cool.

Once the cookies have fully cooled line them up in pairs. Using a teaspoon mix up the raspberry jam in the jar until it is soft and spreadable. Put a rounded tsp of jam on one half of each of the pairs of cookies. Using the back of the spooon spread the jam until it is almost to the edge. Top each jammed cookie with it's partner to make a cookie and jam sandwich.

In a small bowl whisk together the milk with the icing sugar. I find it's easiest to add the sugar 1/2 a cup at a time, whisking it fully before adding the next 1/2 cup. The result should be a thick white glaze. I drizzle 1 tsp of glaze on each cookie and then use the back of the spoon to help swirl it to the edge. It's easiest to to do this on your cooling rack because some glaze will run over the edge no matter how careful you are. I add one layer of glaze, allow it to harden slightly and then add a second layer of glaze.

Top with a half of a marashino cherry and try not to eat the entire batch in one sitting.

Recipes

Other

Contact - Copyright 2005 - Gin & Soda