Cream Cheese Dainties and another resolution

When I wrote down my New Year’s resolutions last week I can’t believe I forgot one! I really want to start making more family dishes. Dishes that my mom made. That my grandma made. That her mom made. 

I’m lucky enough to get to do this because, along with my great grandmother’s aprons, I have one of her old recipe notebooks in my possession. This thing is amazing. So delicate I’m afraid to turn the pages. Filled with recipes and notes in my great grandma’s looping, swirling script. Let me tell you, she knew a thing or two when it came to desserts.

 

Like these Cream Cheese Dainties. With only four (yes, four!) ingredients in the dough these delicate sandwich cookies aren’t overly sweet, more like a crumbly biscuit filled with a delicious jam. When rolling, go thinner than thicker. I didn’t and ended up with puffy sandwiches that took longer to cook.

I’m sure if I had followed Great Grandma’s directions to a T the cooking time would have been exact – as all of her other baked goods have been, but that’s another post for another time ;)

 Cream Cheese Dainties (recipe from my great grandmother, makes about 12 thick or 24 thin sandwiches)

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 3oz. package cream cheese (or 3oz. from an 8oz. package), room temperature

1 TBSP granulate sugar

1 cup flour, sifted

Cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Stir in sugar and flour until a sticky dough forms. 

Divide dough in half and chill for 30 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 375.

On a lightly floured surface roll half the dough 1/16 inches thick. Cut with a 2 inch round or fluted biscuit cutter. Place on baking sheets and top with half a teaspoon of a jam filling of your choice (I did a raspberry jam with a drop of almond extract and apricot preserves with a little bit of lemon juice, as per Great Grandma’s suggestion).

Roll out the other half of the dough to an equal thickness. Cut with the same 2 inch cutter and cut out the center using a 1 inch cutter. Place over jam filled dough.

Bake in preheated oven for 6- 8 minutes until the edges are just beginning to brown and the centers are set.

Remove from baking sheet immediately and allow to cool on rack.