Brazillian Wedding Cookies
A few notes on this recipe from Martha Stewart:
I used raspberry cream cheese frosting but you can use the authentic guava paste or also dulce de leche (which sounds delicious!)
In the cookbook, it did not mention using POWDERED food coloring to color the powdered sugar, so it did not work for me. Feel free to use plain powdered sugar or hunt down the powdered food coloring mentioned above. Your choice.
The recipe also mentions baking the cookies until they are golden around the edges which I found to be far too long, resulting in a very crisp cookie. I baked them just until they looked done enough to take out. Definitely not browned at all, even on the bottoms. This resulted in a much softer, melt in your mouth cookie.
Ingredients
Cookies
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Filling
12 ounces guava paste, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon pink powdered food coloring
Directions
Step 1
Cookies:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt.
Step 2
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and superfine sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, vanilla, and lemon zest and beat until well incorporated. Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture; mix until combined. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a flat disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Step 3
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Working with one disk at a time, roll out dough 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Using a 1 3/4-inch heart-shaped cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart. Refrigerate 20 minutes.
Step 4
Bake, rotating halfway through, until edges are just golden but still pale on top, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.
Step 5
Filling:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine guava paste with 1/3 cup water. Cook until paste has melted completely and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
Step 6
Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 1/4-inch round tip. Pipe 1 tablespoon filling onto bottoms of half the cookies, then sandwich with remaining cookies. In a small bowl, mix together confectioners' sugar and food coloring until well combined. Sift over cookies. Unfilled cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days; filling can be refrigerated, covered, up to 3 days.
Raspberry Cream Cheese
8 ounces cream cheese
5 T softened butter
1 T sour cream
1/2 t vanilla
1 1/4 C powdered sugar
2 T raspberry jam
Process wet ingredients in food processor for five seconds. Add powdered sugar and process for 10 sec or until smooth.
