Christmas Pie Ideas

My trip home for Christmas has been delayed by a pesky migraine, but the upshot is that this extra recovery time offers me chance to squeeze in a little post before the holiday. Things have been busy for me, with a new city and job and all, and I realize my previous post was of a similar bent, just for Thanksgiving, but I'm looking forward to digging back in to some regular posts in the new year. In the meantime, enjoy your winter holiday celebrations, whatever they may be, and hope there's some sweetness to go with it. 

Chocolate
Chocolate Orange Pie with Mascarpone Cream
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie with Nabs Crust, pictured top left
Milk Chocolate & Salted Caramel Hazelnut Tart
Peppermint Pattie Tart

Fruit & Nut
Bourbon Ginger Pecan Pie
Cranberry Pie, pictured bottom right
Fig-Pistachio Tarte Tatin
Shaker Orange Tarts

Preserves & Icebox
Almond & Grapefruit-Ginger Marmalade Crostata
Bakewell Tart with Apple Rosemary Jelly, pictured bottom left
Meyer Lemon Honey Marmalade Linzer Torte
Speculoos Icebox Pie

Cookies & Cakes
Pea & Corn Cookies
Sandy Spring Sand Tarts, pictured top right
Whiskey-Soaked Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake

Savory
Corn and Black Pepper Crackers
Ham, Gruyère & Caramelized Onion Galette with Fried Egg
Red & Golden Beet & Goat Cheese Tart
Tri-color Potato, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese & Rosemary Galette

As always, you can find many more recipes, via the Recipe Index.

Jam Cookies

This time of year can be hard in these climes, when it comes to local, seasonal baking. Storage fruits like apples and pears are reaching the end of their viability and the warm weather berries and stone fruits are still a ways off, as much as we want them to appear. Even southern citrus is at the tail-end of its reign. 

In these in-between moments, especially in spring when we’re craving the taste of fresh fruit, I like to opt for desserts made with jam. This genre of cookies, tarts, and pies offer a great opportunity to use up the stock of preserves you may have put up or accumulated over the winter, they work well with frozen berries, and if you are lucky enough to get your hands on some fresh spring fruit, you can make them into a quick jam.

The featured dessert of Purim— hamentaschen— also features the pairing of pastry and preserves, and baked goods with jam are also perfect for the weather-breaking tea party occasions early-spring offers.



I made these Jam Cookies, the dough recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan, with some fig and apricot preserves I had in my fridge, as well as a quick frozen strawberry jam I whipped up while the cookies were in the oven. They would also be great with marmalade, apple butter or jelly, or any other preserves you have in your fridge or pantry.



Jam Cookies
Sugar cookie recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 stick + 2 Tablespoons (10 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioner's Sugar
Various jams

Directions
1. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, and orange zest.

2. With a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute, until smooth. Beat in the sugar and continue to beat for 2 more minutes, until light and pale in color. Add the egg and yolk and beat for 2 minutes more, then add vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add dry mixture, just until incorporated.

3. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Once chilled, roll out on a floured surface and cut circular cookies. Cut holes in the center of half of the cookies and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake for 9-11 minutes, rotating the baking sheet half-way through. The cookies will feel firm, puffed, and just slightly golden when done. Remove pan from oven and let sit for at least 1 minute before moving to a cooling rack.

6. Once cookies are cool, spread jam on the circular cookies and top with a hole-cut cookie. Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve. Keeps in a tin or Tupperware up to 1 week.



Related recipes:
Almond and Grapefruit-Ginger Marmalade Crostata
Apple Butter
Bakewell Tart with Apple Rosemary Jelly
Joulutorttu or Finish Jam Tarts
Meyer Lemon Honey Marmalade Linzer Torte

Sandy Spring Sand Tarts

Last year I was hired by Sandy Spring Museum and Maryland Traditions, the folklife organization for the state, to conduct an initial folklife survey in Sandy Spring, Maryland, 20 miles north of Washington, D.C. A historic Quaker and African-American community, Sandy Spring was a known stop on the Underground Railroad-- it was said to be on Harriet Tubman's route-- and the town also hosted lectures by Frederic Douglass and housed Dred Scott when he was awaiting trial. Today it is an increasingly diverse community with newer immigrant populations and families who've been there for decades.

My task in Sandy Spring was to identify traditional artists and tradition bearers and interview them, to assist the Museum in better understanding the cultural activity in the community, as well as explore ideas for future programming. Two such tradition bearers I interviewed were Beth Garretson and Louise Kriger Meganson -- both Quakers and members of the Women's Mutual Improvement Association, a local social club founded in 1857.



At The Association's monthly luncheons, members are invited to share something that interested them that month-- a poem, an article,  bird calls, horticultural advice. Like any good club, though, this one seems to really revolve around food, namely cookies, and specifically, Sandy Spring Sand Tarts. The cookies that bear the town's name spurred quite a discussion in our interview, the gist of which is perhaps best relayed in the dialogue itself:

Emily: So you said you're into cookies-- are there any recipes that get passed down or continue to pop up among the group?

Louise: Absolutely! We have Sandy Spring Tarts-- they're about 20 versions. They're the best. But there are all kinds of different sorts. You know, people will make them a certain thickness or use a certain amount of flour, or you use eggs or you don't use eggs or you put an almond on top or you don't put an almond on top.

Beth: We had everyone bring their recipe for sand tarts one month and it was amazing. The difference in them.

Louise: They were tasty!

Beth: But of course I know that I have the right recipe!

Beth went on to explain that the sand tarts are not especially unusual, but have been made by Sandy Springers for Christmas cookies for generations. That's true in a broader context too. According to Food Timeline, sand tarts are likely descendants of simple sugar cookies, with "sand tarts" appearing in cookbooks in the 1880s, though absent of attribution or narrative. They're common Christmas cookies in Denmark and Sweden, and have similar ingredients to German sand tortes. Sand tarts are also popular in domestic scientist cookbooks-- there's a version in Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cookbook, from 1886.

Personally, I like them for their buttery simplicity, and,with their diamond shapes, potential for tessellation patterns (resembling quilt squares) in their presentation. They're also an ideal tea or snack cookie-- I took a tin of them cross-country skiing last weekend and they were the perfect warm-up treat with a nip of whiskey or hot chocolate.



Sandy Spring Sand Tarts
Adapted from Beth Garrettson via the Sandy Spring Women's Association Cookbook

Makes 3-4 dozen, depending on size

Ingredients
1/4 lb. raw unsalted almonds
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, reserving one egg white for finishing
4 cups all-purpose flour
Cinnamon sugar for dusting (1 cup granulated sugar + 2 Tablespoons cinnamon)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Blanch and split the almonds by pouring boiling water over almonds to cover. Let sit until the skins can be slipped off easily. Drain, then cut almonds in half and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream butter and slowly add the sugar. Add the eggs, minus one white. Mix in the flour. Dough should be firm and not at all sticky, if it is too wet, gradually add more flour.

3. Divide the dough into 4 large balls. On a clean, floured surface, roll out each part about 1/4-inch thick and cut into diamonds. Beat the egg white with a whisk until frothy and brush cookies with egg white and generously sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

4. Place cookies on cookie sheet, fairly close together as they spread just a little. Press half almond on each one and bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned and puffed. Store in metal box-- they keep for nearly a month.

Related recipes:
Almond and Grapefruit-Ginger Marmalade Crostata
Lemon-Lavender Meringue Pie Cookies 
Pea & Corn Cookies

Pea & Corn Cookies

Inspiration for these cookies come from a a few different sources. In the spring of last year I wrote a series for the Southern Foodways Alliance on southern women pastry chefs. One of the first chefs I interviewed was Christina Tosi, known for her whimsical sugary creations at Momofuku Milk Bar. I was familiar with her crack pie and cereal milk soft serve, but didn't realize she was a southern gal. She said, "to me, Southern food is all about heart, flavor, nurture, resourcefulness, history, and roots." That sentiment is embodied in her Corn Cookies, which she called the "sleeper" hit of the Milk Bar, but  that has become a personal favorite.

I've experimented with a few variations of the cookie. This summer when I was in Kentucky, I came across this wholegrain heirloom cornmeal, produced by Salamander Springs Farm. It's from a version of Daymon Morgan's Kentucky Butcher Corn, which produces red, blue, purple, orange, and white kernels. As a result, the cornmeal is variegated, with a purplish hue, and let me tell you it bakes like a DREAM. The cornbread I made from it was the best I've ever made, light and fine (and I don't think it's just because I was using Ronni Lundy's great recipe).

I tried the cornmeal in Tosi's Corn Cookies, and it's magic. I just pulse the cornmeal in the food processor so that the texture becomes finer, and then I use it in place of the corn flour. It results in a little it of a grainier & less golden cookie than the Momofuku original, but I don't mind a bit.

So the corn cookie is one thing, but a PEA cookie, you might ask? I know, I know--it's a little weird. But hear me out. Back in October, some friends from out of town were visiting and having heard me and others (like Bon Appetit) rave about Rose's Luxury, they were itching to go. We waited in line the requisite 1.5 hours (really not that bad) on Saturday evening and sat down in the first seating. As you might expect, the entire dinner was fabulous with such an air of comfort and pleasantness and yes, a little bit o' luxury, but really did it for me was in the final blow by way of THE PEA CAKE. When we asked what it was, our server told us it was a yellow cake with peas in it (we imagined peas mixed in throughout, like chocolate in a chocolate chip cookie), but when it came out, it was bright green, served with a mint curd, pea shoots, borage, and candied pistachios. It tasted like SPRING and literally sent shivers down my spine.

Ever since then, I've been wanting to put peas in my sweet baked goods. I found a similar green pea cake recipe. But I got to thinking...would a pea cookie work? After I confirmed my hunch that green pea flour is actually "a thing." I ordered some from Bob's Red Mill, along with some freeze-dried peas, and gave it a go. The result is maybe not on a Rose's Luxury level (not much is), but these Pea Cookies are a soft and sweet, not to mention unusually fresh-tasting and brilliantly colored little tea treat. As a childhood pea-hater, I wish I'd been offered these as an option.

Pea & Corn Cookies
Adapted from Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar

(Recipe given for Pea Cookies, Corn Cookie variation in parenthesis or here)

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill green pea flour (for corn cookies use corn flour or fine ground cornmeal)
2/3 cup freeze dried pea powder (to make, pulverize freeze dried peas-- or corn for corn cookies-- like "Just Peas" from the Just Tomatoes brand, in a blender)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions
1. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standard mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, and beat for 7-8 minutes.

2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, green pea flour (or corn flour for corn cookies), pea powder (or corn powder), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

3. Using a 2 3/4oz. ice cream scoop or a 1/3 cup measure, portion out the dough on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie domes flat (I used the bottom of a ball jar for this). Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake the cookies at room temperature--they will not bake properly.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4-inches apart on a parchment or Silpat-lined sheet pan. Bake for 15 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. They should be a little brown on the edges but still bright green (or yellow) in the center-- give them an extra minute if not.

5. Cool the cookies completely on sheet pans before transferring to a plate or airtight container for storage.  At room temp, they will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer they will keep for 1 month.

Related recipes:
Lemon-Lavender Meringue Pie Cookies
Sweet Corn Custard Pie with Tomato Jam

As featured on Food52

Samoa Pie & Elizabeth Graeber at Wild Hand Workspace

Elizabeth, Morgan, and I had so much fun with last month's collaboration/excuse to hang out (which is really the best kind of collaboration) that we decided to turn it into a monthly affair. April's edition was kind of a no-brainer, as Elizabeth was already planning to have an art show at Morgan and her friend Victoria's studio, Wild Hand Workspace. I jumped on board by contributing baked goods for the opening last week.

Inspired by Miss Moss' fashion and food pairings, I wanted to make some food items that were inspired by Elizabeth's art, whether in shape, color, form, or topic. Her tiger painting and another tiger pillow (which served as the show's poster) reminded me of the Samoa Pie I'd seen in Allison Kave's inspirational new pie cookbook First Prize Pies. A wildly creative collection of show-stopping recipes with at least one pie for every week of the year, I recommend picking up a copy and baking your way through the book. That's what I plan to do at least.

The Samoa Pie is, as you might imagine, a take on the Samoa Girl Scout Cookie or as they're called where I'm from Caramel deLites (for more on the regional name variations, read this incredible piece of investigative journalism on the subject). Like the cookie, it has a shortbread base, coated with caramel, coconut and chocolate. I love that this recipe uses coconut cream in the caramel, which adds an extra coco-nuty kick. Do make sure to refrigerate the coconut milk before you plan to make the pie--I forgot to plan ahead and had to delay my caramel making a bit.

Samoa Pie
Adapted only slightly from First Prize Pies by Allison Kave

Ingredients
For the crust:
1 1/2 cups shortbread cookie crumbs (15-20 cookies)
2-4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 can (14-oz) full fat coconut milk, refrigerated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup toasted shredded coconut

For the topping:
1/4 cup toasted shredded coconut
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or chips
1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions
For the crust:
1. Pulse the cookies in a food processor until finely ground. Pour in the butter gradually and pulse between pours until the mixture it the texture of wet sand. Firmly press the crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan. Chill the crust in the fridge or freezer while preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for about 10 minutes until golden, then remove from the oven and let cool completely.

For the filling:
1. In a heavy-bottomed medium-sized saucepan, stir together 1/2 cup water, the sugar, and corn syrup until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Cook over medium-high heat, moving the pan around occasionally, until the caramel has turned a dark amber and reached 360 degrees F on a candy thermometer (for me this took about 15 minutes). Keep a close eye at this stage and the caramel can burn very quickly.

2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and immediately start to whisk the butter into the caramel. Be very careful here as the caramel will bubble violently and release a lot of hot steam. Open the chilled can of coconut milk and spoon off the thick, white coconut cream from the top (save the remaining water for smoothies!). Whisk the coconut cream into the caramel until it is fully dissolved, then add the vanilla and salt. Stir in the toasted coconut flakes and pour the filling into the pre-baked pie shell.

3. Refrigerate the pie, uncovered, for at least 1 hour, until the surface of the pie is set. Sprinkle the toasted coconut flakes over the surface of the pie. 

For the topping:
1. Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and set aside. Heat the cream until scalded and then pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute and then whisk until glossy and no chocolate chunks remain. Using a fork or whisk (I found a whisk to work best), drizzle the ganache over the surface of the pie in a crosshatch pattern, then sprinkle the toasted coconut flakes on top. Return the pie, uncovered, to the fridge to fully set for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight. Serve the pie just chilled or at room temperature (it can begin to melt if it gets too warm). 



Along with the Samoa Pie, I also made Coconut Caramel & Chocolate Tarts (with leftover pie filling), Grapefruit Meringue Tarts, and Yossy Arefi's Mini Black and White Cookies, which you can find the recipe for on Food52. I didn't plan it this way, but Morgan noticed that they paired perfectly with Elizabeth's zebra painting, a companion piece to the tiger. Maybe someday we'll create a whole baked goods & painting safari experience!



I'm forever enamoured with Elizabeth's work but it was so stunning to see her paintings and zines and pins and totes displayed across an entire wall of the light-filled Wild Hand Workspace. Thanks to Elizabeth for all the fun and fanciful art and to Morgan and Victoria for hosting such a lovely spring evening of art and friends and snacks and (somewhat dangerously) strong homebrewed saison via Grizzly Beer. Make sure to check out Panda Head Blog & Elizabeth's tumblr for more on the show-- and also BYT who featured it on their site with beautiful photos by Rachel Cumberbatch.



Related recipes:
Dark Chocolate & Vanilla-Bourbon Salted Caramel Pie
Floriole's Milk Chocolate & Salted Caramel Hazelnut Tart
Gluten-Free Chocolate Coconut Pie

Photos by Morgan Hungerford West

Lemon-Lavender Meringue Pie Cookies

It's mid-March and I'm looking out to icicles dripping from my roof and the sounds of the neighbor kids having a snow ball fight on their snow day. Signs of spring have been showing themselves--I've spotted crocuses about town, rhubarb is claiming its place at grocery stores and farmers' markets, and spring cookbook review copies have started to appear on my doorstep-- but they've so far been slow and sparse. 

We had so much fun working on our Design*Sponge piece that Morgan and Elizabeth and I vowed to do more collaborations. All feeling the onslaught of the cold, we wanted to do something floral and springy, that might inspire daffodils and bike rides and short sleeves, if only in our minds.



I've been keen on lavender-lemon combinations, and a recipe for Tiny Lemon Meringue Pie Cookies from April Carter's beautiful book trEATs: Delicious Food Gifts To Make At Home (more on the book soon) had recently caught my eye. Morgan added a cocktail of Hendrick's gin, grapefruit juice, and rosewater, which we dubbed The Petal Pusher, and Elizabeth contributed a bright and sunny handpainted table runner. What could beckon spring better than that trio?

For The Petal Pusher recipe, visit Morgan's Panda Head Blog here and to learn how to make your own hand painted table runner, check out the tutorial on Elizabeth's tumblr. For the cookie recipe, read on!

I adapted April Carter's recipe by making the cookies a little bigger (mostly because I didn't have a smaller cookie cutter) and adding lavender buds to the dough. April calls for using Instant Royal Icing Sugar, which I had to go to a specialty cake shop to get, but you could also just make it from scratch. I didn't make my icing stiff enough to begin with, which is why the icing is a little more globby than "meringue peaked," but it still tasted good!

Lemon-Lavender Meringue Pie Cookies
Adapted from TrEATs by April Carter

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients
For the cookies:
1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup superfine sugar
2 large egg yolks
grated zest of 2 small lemons
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons lavender buds + additional to decorate, if desired

For the "meringue" icing:
200g (7 oz.) Instant Royal Icing Sugar (also called Royal Icing Mix)
2-3 Tablespoons water
Yellow nonpareils or sprinkles to decorate, if desired

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 340 degrees F and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater attachment, mix the butter and sugar until the mixture pale and fluffy. Add the yolks and mix well to combine, then add the lemon zest.

3. In another medium-size bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir to combine. Gradually add the flower mixture to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the lavender buds until incorporated.

4. Turn the dough out on floured surface parchment paper and knead until smooth (it can be a bit crumbly, so add a little sprinkle of water if it's too dry to work with). Roll out onto the parchment until it is about 1/4 inch thick (you may have to do this in 2 rounds, depending on the size of your surface). Place another sheet of parchment on top of dough, transfer to the baking sheets, and chill in the freezer about 10 minutes.

5. Remove the dough from the freezer and cut into 2'' circles using a fluted biscuit cutter (or cookie cutter of your choice). Transfer to the lined baking sheet and chill in the freezer another 10 minutes before baking.

6. Bake cookies in the oven for 3-5 minutes until firm yet still pale. Let cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

7. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the Instant Royal Icing Sugar (or make your own royal icing from scratch) with the water to form a smooth paste for piping. Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with the 1M star icing tip. Ice a single peak on each cookie and sprinkle with non pareils and lavender buds to decorate. Allow to set hard before packaging.



Related recipes:
Dark Chocolate Lavender Tart with a Lemon Cardamom Crust
Lemon-Ginger Meringue Tartlets
Lemon Meringue Pie

Photos by Morgan Hungerford West

Oatmeal Cream Pies

My family wasn't one for junk food. Sugary cereals were outlawed, "pop" (MIDWEST!) was reserved for Saturday "Star Trek and Pizza" nights and never with caffeine, and my brother and I were charged with the chore of making a salad to accompany every dinner. But occasionally my dad would buy us Little Debbie treats to put in our lunch boxes.

Nutty Bars, Zebra Cakes, Star Crunch, and the Oatmeal Cream (or as they spell it "Creme") Pie. Less flashy than its other relations, the oatmeal cream pie was somehow more nostalgic, even then. Perhaps because it seemed like something you could actually make at home, pulled from a classic simple red, white, and blue box, without the galaxy background or wacky fonts. 

Indeed, Oatmeal Creme Pies were the first recipe the Little Debbie company launched in 1960. The concept was new-- a "family pack" of treats, individually wrapped so they could be stuffed in pockets or thrown in lunch bags. The entire carton sold for 49 cents. This was novel, but the pie itself was familiar. Little Debbie didn't of course invent the oatmeal cream pie (though you might be able to credit them with the Star Crunch). It was already a common recipe, with Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish roots-- essentially a whoopie pie with oatmeal cakes (see here).

I set out to make these for the nostalgia, as well as just a general desire to make something a little different for this space-- a pie, but not. I used pastry chef Stella Parks' recipe, which she claimed to be creepily accurate to the Little Debbie version. She was right--shockingly similar (though better). Hers calls for marshmallow cream, which is probably most accurate to Little Debbie; though on their website it's listed as simply "creme filling" it does contain egg whites. Not being much of a mallow fan, I opted for a simple buttercream, adapted here from Sally's Baking Addiction. 

I considered buying a box of Little Debbie's, just for comparison, but after tasting, I'm less inclined. My nostalgia pang was satiated, and replaced by a hunger for the homemade when all I want's just one more oatmeal pie.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Cookies from Stella Parks of BraveTart, buttercream from Sally's Baking Addiction

Makes about 2 dozen

Ingredients
For oatmeal cookies:
8 oz. all-purpose flour
4 oz. rolled oats
1/2 oz. cocoa powder
2 oz. dried apple rings
3 oz. unsalted butter
2 1/4 oz. safflower oil
7 oz. sugar
1 1/2 oz. molasses
3 oz. corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. mace
1 large egg
1 oz. whole milk

For buttercream:
6 oz. unsalted butter
12 oz. confectioner's sugar
3 Tblsp. heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of kosher salt

Directions
For oatmeal cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, oats, cocoa, and apple rings. Process for 2 minutes until incorporated and no oat or apple pieces remain. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream butter with oil, sugar, molasses, corn syrup, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices until well incorporated, approximately 2 minutes. Add egg and beat one minute more.

4. Reducing speed to low, add all of the dry ingredients, then drizzle in the milk. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula, then mix 30 seconds more until combined.

5. Scoop dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet using a small (2 tsp.) cookie scoop. Level off each scoop with the side of the bowl so that the cookie size remains relatively consistent. Leave 1-2 inches between dough scoops, as the cookies will spread considerably in the oven.

6. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until cookies are puffed, set around the edges, but still quite soft. They will crisp once cooled, so make sure they are not overdone, particularly if you want to simulate a Little Debbie oatmeal cream pie! Let cool completely while you prepare the buttercream.

For buttercream:
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream butter. Add the confectioner's sugar and mix on medium speed for about 1-2 minutes. Pour in heavy cream and vanilla extract, and beat on high 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Add pinch of salt to taste, and mix to incorporate, about 1-2 minutes more.

2. To assemble the cookies, use the 2 tsp. cookie scoop to scoop buttercream onto the bottom of an oatmeal cookie. Sandwich with another cookie and press to disperse the buttercream. Cookies are best eaten within 2 days (if they last that long).

I made these for a little Nothing-in-the-House Baking Co. pop-up at the Daniel Bachman show at Red Onion Records two Sundays past. They were a top seller, perfect for nibbling while enjoying some driving fingerstyle guitar. Thanks to Josh and Alissa for hosting me (and keeping me plied with tea!), and to Daniel for playing and for being an ever-positive presence.

Related recipe: "Indiana" Amish Oatmeal Pie