Source: Inspired by Cafe Driade in Chapel Hill, NC February, 2003
Makes 30 servings.
Preparation time: 1 hour
Tips: Choose Apricot or Raspberry jam
Ingredients
Preparation
Sugar dough for bottom cookie:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (6 oz)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
4 ounces butter (1/2 cup= 1 stick), cubed
1/2 cup superfine sugar (4 oz)
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Macaroon dough for cookie's rim:
7 or 8 ounces Almond paste (1 roll = 7 oz or 1 can = 8 oz)
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 or 3 egg whites ( third only as needed)
Filling: (choose one per cookie)
2 cups apricot or raspberry jam ( approx), see note (1)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (optional)
1. Grease or line cookie sheets and set aside.
2. Prepare Sugar dough for cookies bottom:In a medium bowl, sift flour with the baking powder and salt. Using a mixer or a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Mix to a paste. Knead in bowl for 5 seconds or until mixture holds together. Wrap dough in plastic chill for about 1 hour or until firm enough to roll.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the Macaroon dough for cookie's rim:In mixer bowl, crumble almond paste into small pieces. Add sugar and beat at medium speed until soft and incorporated. Add egg whites one by one, reserving third egg white. If paste appears too dry, add enough of the third egg white to make paste pliable enough to go through a pastry dough and a star tip leaving well define ridges. Place macaroon dough inside a pastry bag with a star tip and set aside. Select size in proportion to the cookie bottom size. It should make a nice enough border to hold in the jam. For a very "Jammy" cookie make a tall rim.
4. Pre heat oven to 350 F degrees and place rack in the third upper part of the oven.
5. In a floured surface or on top of a Teflon sheet, roll dough to about 1/8" to 1/16" thick. To cut cookies I like to use a 2.5" fluted round cutter. You may want to select other sizes up to about 4" rounds. A 2.5" cutter will expand during baking to be a 3" cookie. Using a round cookie cutter, cut cookies and transfer to prepared cookie sheets about 1" apart.
6. Take filled pastry bag and pipe a rim of macaroon dough around each cookie. Macaroon should be pipe so that it leaves well define ridges.
7. Bake cookies in the third upper level of oven for about 15 minutes or just until cookie dough sets and rim appears slightly golden on the ridges. Macaroon should still be soft when taken out of oven. Times will vary depending on cookie size and your particular oven. You want the bottom cookie, cooked but not crisp and the macaroon with a tint of brown but still moist. A taste cookie for temperature and time is recommended. Placing the cookies high in the oven helps brown the macaroon rim while not over-baking the bottom. Remove from oven, place cookie sheets in rack to cool. If using Teflon sheets. slice the sheets into the counter to cool instead.
8. Prepare the jam filling as follows: Using a microwave, mix sugar ( if desire to increase sweetens of jam) and selected jam flavor in a medium size bowl. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes to a boiling point. Using a fine strainer, strain hot jam to remove all pulp and leaving a smooth runny glace. Cool jam just until it acquires a consistency easy to spoon.
Meanwhile take a small amount of warm APRICOT jam (see note 1), add few drops of hot water to form a brushing consistency. Gently brush the rims of cookies. This seals the macaroons and prevents it from drying to fast. Also gives the cookie a shiny look.
When jam is cooled enough, use a spoon to carefully fill the centers or each cookie. Jam sets as it cools. If jam becomes to stiff to spoon, heat in microwave oven for 30 seconds or so until runny again and proceed.
9. Leave cookies until jam is set and cookies completely cooled.
Store cookies in airtight container with layers of wax paper if stacked. Cookies will soften some while in seal containers. Due to the high moisture content of the jam you may want to check frequently to prevent molding. A not so perfect seal container such as a glass dome is preferred in this case.
NOTES : 1) To brush pastries always use hot deluded apricot jam, even in raspberry filled cookies. Raspberry jam as glaze for brushing gives cookies a ugly appearance.
Cafe Driade Cookies
