-
Makes
about 20 sandwiches
Author Notes
I’m a sucker for a good sandwich cookie—because, really, it’s an excuse to have two cookies! Plus, there’s the tasty filling inside. These little lime cookies are a great combo: a tender, sandy sablé cookie paired with a light, creamy white chocolate–cream cheese lling. Normally sablé dough can be a little tricky to work with, but I’ve tweaked the recipe to make these more like easy icebox cookies. They’re great with any citrus zest, but lime is my favorite.
Reprinted from The Fearless Baker (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017). —Erin Jeanne McDowell
Ingredients
- For the sablés:
-
113 grams
(4 ounces/8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
-
28 grams
(2 tablespoons) cream cheese, at room temperature
-
112 grams
(1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) granulated sugar
-
4 grams
(2 teaspoons) grated lime zest
-
54 grams
egg yolks (2 large yolks)
-
2 1/2 grams
(1/2 teaspoon) vanilla extract
-
241 grams
(2 cups) all-purpose flour
-
1 gram
(1/4 teaspoon) fine sea salt
- For filling and assembly:
-
198 grams
(3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) cream cheese, at room temperature
-
43 grams
(1 1/2 ounces/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
-
28 grams
(1/4 cup) confectioners' sugar
-
2 grams
(1 teaspoon) grated lime zest
-
113 grams
(4 ounces) white chocolate, chopped, melted, and slightly cooled
Directions
- For the sablés:
-
Have at hand a piece of parchment paper roughly the size of a baking sheet and a bench knife (dough scraper) or offset spatula.
-
Make the sablés: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl, using a hand mixer), cream the butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar, and lime zest on medium-low speed until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes.
-
Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing on medium speed until each one is incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla and mix well. Scrape the bowl well. Add the flour and salt and mix just until incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
-
Turn the dough out onto the parchment and form it into a rough log along one long side of the paper. Use the paper and bench knife to help form the dough into a rounded log shape—about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Unwrap the log and see how it looks—repeat the process if needed. Transfer the dough to the freezer and freeze for 20 to
30 minutes, until nicely chilled.
-
Preheat the oven to 350° F (175° C), with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
-
Use a sharp knife to cut the cookie dough into 1/4-inch/6-millimeter-thick slices. Transfer the slices to the prepared baking sheets—stagger them, leaving 1/2 inch between them (they won’t spread much).
-
Bake the cookies, rotating the sheets from front to back and top to bottom at the halfway mark, until the surface appears set and they are evenly golden brown on the bottom (they won’t color on top, so use a spatula to flip a cookie over and check), 13 to 15 minutes. Cool the cookies completely on the baking sheets.
- For filling and assembly:
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl, using a hand mixer), cream together the cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar, and lime zest on medium-low speed until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes.
-
On low speed, beat the cooled melted white chocolate into the cream cheese mixture until well combined. Transfer the mixture to a disposable pastry bag and cut a 1/4-inch opening at the tip. [Editor's note: We used an small offset spatula to spread the filling on the cookies.]
-
Turn half the sablés over. Pipe about 1 tablespoon of filling onto the center of each overturned cookie. Place the remaining cookies on top of the filled cookies to create sand- wiches, pressing down gently to help the filling flood to the edges.
I always have three kinds of hot sauce in my purse. I have a soft spot for making people their favorite dessert, especially if it's wrapped in a pastry crust. My newest cookbook, Savory Baking, came out in Fall of 2022 - is full of recipes to translate a love of baking into recipes for breakfast, dinner, and everything in between!
See what other Food52ers are saying.