These jam sandwich cookies are deliciously soft and perfectly sweet. Made with my simple no-spread sugar cookie recipe and your favorite jam, they’re really easy to whip up and will impress your guests every time!
THE COOKIES
This is my basic non-spread sugar cookie recipe. I’ve been using this recipe for years and it seriously takes minutes to put together! I recommend rolling the cookies to about ¼ inch thick, and baking them for 8-10 minutes so that they maintain softness.
You can choose any shape you like for the cookies. I used a 3” circular cutter and a 1” heart cutter to create the cookies you see in this post!
Once the cookies have cooled, dust the top cookies with powdered sugar, then add about a tablespoon of jam to the bottom cookies and sandwich them up!
For the jam it really depends on my mood and level of effort I want to put forth. You can either use your favorite store bought jam or make your own fruit jam.
Looking for other sandwich cookie recipes? Try my:
- Alfajores–delicious little bites of crumbly buttery cookies that sandwich a creamy and rich dulce de leche.
- Chocolate Raspberry Sandwich Cookies–delicate and crumbly chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies with a silky raspberry italian meringue buttercream and a dollop of raspberry jam in the center.
- Lemon Sandwich Cookies– a perfectly lemony, crumbly, buttery cookie with a hint of cardamom spice, with a thick lathering of lemon curd.
These jam sandwich cookies would be a great idea for Valentine’s Day! The holiday is just around the corner. Check out my other Valentines recipes and designs:
- Strawberry Chocolate Cake
- Valentines Day Cake Design
- Orange Madeleines Dipped in Chocolate
- Single Serve Red Velvet Cookie
- Chocolate Raspberry Sandwich Cookies
- Valentines Marbled Sugar Cookies
Can baking be therapeutic?
I often talk about baking being a therapeutic hobby but I’d like to share more about why I feel that way as well as how it can become a relaxing hobby for you!
When I bake, it’s my creative time. I may put on my favorite nostalgic movie or tv show in the background, or a Spotify playlist titled “French café” and leave my troubles behind.
Sometimes I pour myself a glass of wine and light a candle. Then, with the mood set, the mixing of batter, kneading of dough and smoothing of icing is my only care in the world.
When I say baking is therapeutic, sometimes people respond saying “not for me it isn’t!” I completely understand why someone might feel that way. There have been plenty of times where I spend hours on something only for it to fail or something breaks that shouldn’t or I forget to clean as I go and am left with a disastrous kitchen to clean.
So I should in reality, have a caveat to my “baking as therapy” claims…
Baking is therapy when you curate the experience to be relaxing.
How do you curate that relaxing experience for yourself, you ask?
How to make baking therapeutic…
- Prepare your mind–know that it’s okay if the cake doesn’t rise, or the butter wasn’t chilled enough. Shift your mindset from seeing your failures as mistakes to seeing them as opportunities for learning.
- Prepare your space–I cannot and will not bake on top of a messy kitchen. If I were to do this I would be starting from a place of stress! Take an extra 10 minutes to clean any dishes in the sink and wipe down the counters, this small effort will pay you back greatly in brain space and clarity.
- Clean as you go! I’ll tell you the one way to make baking stressful and tiresome, is to not clean as you go! After I use each ingredient that I no longer need, I put it away.
After each major step in the process, I wipe down the counters and put dishes that are no longer needed in the sink. If there is chill time or baking time I don’t sit, I do the cleaning then. Make this shift and you’ll really notice the difference!
By the way, this last tip really helped me when I was on The Great American Baking Show–and the crew that cleaned up behind us made a point to tell me that my workspace was always so clean they didn’t have much to do!
I would reply by saying “it’s how I stay sane in this tent!”
Additional suggestions:
*Maybe try printing off the recipe instead of looking at it on your phone, tablet or laptop and use this time to unplug from technology for a few hours
**Invite friends or family over to share your creation with you. Time spent with loved ones over food is a universally special experience
And that’s how I discovered baking for my mental health. If you try any of these suggestions, let me know how it went for you! I’m really invested in spreading this message to others in hopes that baking will enhance your lives more than it already does!
Happy Jammy Baking!
Jam Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour replace with regular flour if allergic
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar for dusting
For the Jam Filling
- 1 cup your favorite store bought or homemade jam
Instructions
For the Cookies
- In a medium bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place ½ cup of unsalted butter at room temperature and 1 cup of granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the 2 cups of all purpose flour, ½ cup of almond flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and ¼ tsp of salt until combined.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl of butter and sugar mixture and then add 1 egg, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and ¼ tsp of almond extract. Mix until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Do not overmix.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and bring it together by hand until it looks like a homogenous dough.
- Place the dough onto the parchment paper you will use to bake the cookies and roll out to ¼ inch thickness.
- Use your desired cookie cutter to cut out the cookie shapes. I used a 3" cutter for the cookies and a 1" cutter for the center. You will cut out two cookies per sandwich cookie. Half of the cookies leave as is, the other half cut out a small shape in the middle for the jam to peek through. Remove the excess dough from around the shapes.
- Combine the excess dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out again to ¼ inch thickness. Cut out the remaining shapes and place on the parchment paper.
- Once all cookies have been cut out and place on the parchment paper, including the 1" centers that you cut out if you want an extra cookie snack. Place the parchment paper onto the baking sheet that you will use to bake later on.
- Refrigerate the cookies for just 30 minutes. Cookies should feel firm to the touch before placing in the oven.
- Towards the end of the 30 minutes of chill time, preheat the oven to 350℉ (roughly 180℃)
- Remove the cookies from the refrigerator and bake for 10 minutes.** Allow the cookies to cool completely.
For the Assembly
- Place all of the top cookies onto a cooling rack and place that cooling rack on top of a baking sheet or parchment paper.
- Dust 1/4 cup of powdered sugar over the top cookies using a sieve.
- Scoop 1 Tbsp of jam of choice onto the center of each of the bottom cookies and spread it out a bit.
- Place each of the dusted top cookies onto the bottom cookies and allow the jam to stick them together.
- Serve and enjoy!
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