Walnut + Cream Cheese Cookie Sandwiches

It's 70 degrees and sunny in San Diego. I'm still shackled to my computer in DC working remotely, most unfortunately, but thank golly I'll be home snarfing fish tacos and wearing cut-offs before the day is through; southern California Christmas is sort of a terrifically fluorescent thing. My parents recently moved from the suburban home of my childhood to the San Diego neighborhood in which I would spend all my time were I ever to move back (so, never), and I am so excited to help them christen the place with leftover burritos and bloody marys and backyard sunbathing and general daughterly detritus.

In the meantime leading up to my sunny winter vacay, I've been doing shittons of holiday preparation and generally making enormous, annoying messes at my DC home. One such task was baking for the holiday party that I mentioned last week, and I wanted to share the second of three recipes that emerged from that frantic morning. If you're still seeking holiday baking inspiration or getting ready to fatten up yr family, look no further than these walnut cookie sandwiches. They appear a little unexciting or homely even, but these cookies are deceptively buttery and rich and basically all you need to have a pleasing holiday snack. I hope that you enjoy, and happy holidays from my kitchen to yours!

Walnut + Cream Cheese Cookie Sandwiches

Adapted from Kate Zuckerman via Lottie + Doof

I toasted the walnuts beforehand to make sure the cookies had enough nutty kick and also chilled the filling before making the sandwiches. Other than those changes, this is relatively untweaked.

Cookies

1 cup walnuts

2 1/2 cups flour, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces (two sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

Cream Cheese Filling

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1.  Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lay the walnuts out on a pan and roast for 10 - 12 minutes, until the nuts are slightly darkened and fragrant. Combine the walnuts and one tablespoon of the flour in a food processor and grind to a fine powder. In a dry bowl, whisk together the walnut powder, remaining flour and salt and set aside.

2.  Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for one minute. (I don't have a stand mixer and did this with an egg beater.) Add the sugar and beat on medium high speed until the mixture becomes fluffy and lighter in color, six to eight minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and continue to beat until it is fully incorporated and the batter looks smooth and glossy, one to two minutes.

3.  Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture all at once, and using a rubber spatula, fold together a few times. With the mixer on low, mix the dough until thoroughly combined, one to two minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and mix for another 30 seconds.

4.  Divide dough in half and using a rubber spatula, scrape the dough onto two pieces of plastic wrap. Form dough into two logs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs fully in the plastic and refrigerate for two hours or overnight.

5.  Preheat the oven to 350° F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using a sharp knife, cut as many 1/8-1/4 inch slices from each log of dough as possible and place the cookies on prepared cookie sheets. Bake the cookies until golden brown and you smell the toasted walnuts and butter, 12 - 15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool before proceeding with filling.

6.  To make the cream cheese filling, combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the filling has increased in volume, lightened in color, and formed stiff peaks, four to five minutes. I then chilled the filling for about 20 minutes in order to get it to firm up. Mound a couple teaspoons of filling on half of the cookies and sandwich with the other half. Zuckerman recommends serving within five hours of filling so cookies don't lose their crunch. You can bake the cookies and store them in an airtight container for up to four days ahead, then fill them the day you plan to serve them.

Honey Walnut Tartlets and Radio CPR Sale

I was starting to sound like the biggest, all-time sad bastard a couple of weeks ago. I had contemplated moving back to California, threatened graduate school, and tried to slam the door on DC as I holed up in my house with various failed sewing and photography projects and a couple of completely unhealthy itunes playlists. Well lo’ and behold! All I had to do was look up and suddenly there were (as I had cautiously suspected) quite a few great people doing great things in this city.

I was lucky enough to be included as part of the second annual Radio CPR used books and records sale two weekends ago, along with local artists and craftsters the Bookish Lady, Kristina Bilonik, Kikapika Design, and practically wall-to-wall records and books. My menu was short and sweet: vanilla-caramel-dipped apples, chocolate rads, ginger lemonade, and these honey walnut tartlets that are even easier to make than they are to eat. Radio CPR met some pretty good success with the sale, and I met a couple of folks who sowed some excellent seeds of optimism in my formerly sad-bastard head.

The Tanglewood table! I could include a picture of me actually selling things, but I had gratuitous cleavage in all photos, so we shall leave the abundance of sweet things to stand in for my abundance of chest.

Honey Walnut Tartlets
Adapted from SmittenKitchen via Bon Appétit

If you don't want to make six tartlets, the following proportions will also work just perfectly for one normal 9-inch tart.

1 recipe tart shell, unbaked (I actually don't love this recipe, but it's very, very easy.)
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup golden brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup honey (try to pick a mild one—apple or orange blossom are perfect.)
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon whole aniseed (I skip this and use 1/2 tsp. vanilla instead.)
1 3/4 cups walnuts, toasted, chopped (but not too finely!)
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees F. Cut pastry dough into six pieces, and roll out each one to a 6-inch circle. Transfer to a lightly-buttered 4 1/2-inch-diameter tartlet pan with removable bottom. Press crust onto bottom and up sides of pan; trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold overhang in and press, forming double-thick sides. Repeat with remaining dough disks and 5 more pans and prick them all over with a fork.

2. Freeze crusts for 30 minutes. Lightly butter six pieces of foil and press them tightly against frozen tart shells. Bake crusts for 10 minutes before taking them out, carefully removing the foil, pressing down any pastry that has bubbled up gently with the back of a spoon and baking them for an additional 7 minutes, or until lightly golden at the edges. Take them out of the oven and let them cool. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

3. Meanwhile, make the filling. Stir cream and next 5 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves; try not to let liquid splash the sides of the pot. Increase heat; boil until mixture bubbles thickly and color darkens slightly, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in walnuts then salt.

4. Place crusts on baking sheet lined with foil. Divide filling among crusts. Bake tartlets until filling bubbles thickly and crusts are golden, about 25 minutes total. (I actually had a problem with my walnuts and crusts getting close to burning last time I baked this, so I saved my foil pieces this time around, and covered the tops of the tartlets with about 10 minutes left to bake.) Cool tartlets, and remove pan sides while tartlets are still warm.