Week 22: Heart Sandwich Cookie

Thought I'd share this for three reasons.
1. I don't make dessert often enough.
2. Valentine's Day is coming.
3. It's another reason to use Nutella.

Everyday Food, January / February 2010, p. 124



1/2 C old-fashioned rolled oats
1 C all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/3 C whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp coarse salt
3/4 C (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 C packed light-brown sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla sugar
1/2 C chocolate-hazelnut spread (aka Nutella)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread oats on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl; stir in flour and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar on medium until fluffy. Add vanilla; beat to combine. Scrape down bowl.

Add oat mixture; beat until blended.

Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough 1/8" thick, dusting lightly with flour as needed. Cut out cookies with a 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter; place 1/2-inch apart on two parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake until cookies are golden around edges, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Repeat with remaining dough, chilling if too soft (re-roll and cut scraps).

Spread filling on flat side of half of the cookies; top with remaining cookies.

To store, cover and keep at room temperature, up to two days.

Makes 30 sandwich cookies.

My notes:
The final product was very tasty and really cute. There were some rough patches along the way, though. The recipe asks to chill the dough for two hours. This resulted in dough that was too chilled to even roll out. It was a big mess! And, I didn't end up with anywhere near 30 sandwich cookies - more like 15 cookies. It's also possible that I didn't roll the dough at 1/8" thick. The fact is, 1/8" is really thin, and the dough was already difficult to work with. The end results was thicker cookies which required more Nutella. And, more Nutella isn't really a problem for me.