This is the tale of some delicious, but fussy cookies and how I fell out of love with Martha (at least in the case of this recipe). When Kate of The Clean Plate Club, sent round an email asking for suggestions for September's Cookie Carnival recipe, I knew immediately what my suggestion would be, because I'd been eyeing a particular recipe ever since my brother presented me with Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook last Christmas. I have a thing for sandwich cookies that harkens back to my additive (and preservative and sugar)-free childhood. Sandwich cookies like Oreos and Little Debbie's Oatmeal Creme Pies, were the stuff that dreams were made of, as far as I was concerned; especially as cookies didn't make regular appearances in our household and when they did they were made of whole wheat flour, sweetened with honey and with add-ins such as carob chips or raisins. When I saw the two-page photo spread of sandwich cookies in Martha's Baking Handbook, I was a goner; but funnily enough the flavor that really caught my eye was the Pink Grapefruit Sandwich Cookie. These days my tastes are geared more towards perfectly balanced, then a sickly sweet, and both E and I love all things citrus, so these seemed like the grown-up version of the fantasy cookie of my childhood.

Round 1:

As soon as I started hobbling around in the kitchen again, I knocked these out along side the Chocolate Chunkers, I made for TWD, two weeks back. As I re-read the recipe one last time before starting out, I realized that the printed version I'd printed from Martha.com differed ever so slightly from the cookbook's recipe. The Internet recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, whereas the book called for 1 cup. Now I've heard tale that Martha's recipes sometimes leave something to be desired, but as I hadn't had that experience, I decided to persevere in good faith. I should have double-checked both recipes against the recipe that Kate had sent round, but I didn't.  I decided that the book couldn't possibly be wrong and went with 1 cup of flour instead of 1 1/2 cups of flour. WRONG! As soon as I pulled cookie dough out my KA bowl, I knew that something had gone terribly wrong and it was surely the fault of the missing 1/2 cup of flour...DRAT! Nothing to do, but to try and salvage the lovely products I'd used and time and energy I'd put in, so off to the fridge the dough went. After an hour or so had passed by, I decided that the freezer might be more appropriate and after yet another hour or so, the dough was firm enough to roll out.  The rolling process was the most painful of all, because cold or not, the cookie dough was so soft and sticky that it took a whole lotta flour and cursing to get it rolled out. It certainly didn't help that it was a warm day, all unbaked cookies were required to rest in the fridge while their cousins tanned in my oven. Oh, and about the suggested baking time...18-20 minutes? Maybe if your oven is broken. I baked all my cookies for 15 minutes and not a second longer, and unless you've rolled them quite thick, then I wouldn't think they'd require a longer baking time. 

The Final Result, part one:

I liked the cookies, but I thought the filling was WAY TOO SWEET!!! The addition of honey, added unnecessary sweetness and the flavor of the honey overpowered the flavor of the grapefruit. It missed citrus kick I was hoping for and did the tender, citrusy biscuits no justice, at all. I was disappointed. The critics were kind, but I served them with a disclaimer.

Intermission:

Last week while watching a film, I decided it would be a great time to upload all the images that were hogging up my memory card, some of which I should really be readying for posting. I was also watching a film at the same time (Broken English with Parker Posey---loved the movie and the oh so hot Frenchman who co-starred in it), so I wasn't paying attention when Picasa asked me how I wanted to upload the images and if I wanted to delete this or that, and all of the sudden I hadn't uploaded anything and the some 44 images were no where to be found! I blame it on the Frenchman, he distracted me with those juicy lips of his. Unfortunately, the images of the not bad, but not fabulous pink grapefruit sandwich cookies were included amongst the MIA images. DOUBLE-DRAT!

Round 2:

I couldn't bare to post without pictures and since I hadn't been as impressed as I knew I could be, I decided that I had no choice but to make them again, only this time better. At E's suggestion I also decided that trying another citrus flavor, namely lemon, wouldn't be a bad idea either. I typed out a halved recipe and set about making a half recipe of pink grapefruit cookies and filling , as well as half recipe of lemon cookies and filling. This time I didn't skimp on flour and followed the correct recipe, although I have to say I still found the cookie dough quite soft and sticky. I forgot to mix the zest with a tablespoon of sugar, thus I didn't get to utilize Dorie's method of rubbing sugar and zest together to release the oils of the zest, but the cookies turned out very aromatic, so I don't think they suffered for it. I let my cookie dough rest in the freezer again and even then it was still a bit testy when it cake to rolling. I think this is a key instruction that Martha's minons left out, and I wouldn't advise making this recipe without giving the dough some freezer time.

The Final Results, part two:

The cookies are delicious and even though I over-baked a tray of the pink grapefruit cookies, they're still good. As far as the filling is concerned, I used strained grapefruit and lemon juices (I strained the juice for the cookies too), some of the fruit pulp, plus a 1/8 a teaspoon of pure lemon extract to up the citrus flavor in both fillings. While the lemon filling was pretty much perfect, I still missed the lip-puckering citrus kick in pink grapefruit filling, and I actually think that I prefer the grapefruit cookies on sans filling. Further improvements are in order, but for now it will do, on to the next cookie recipe.

This is my submission for the 8th installment of Cookie Carnival, a wonderful monthly event for cookie lovers everywhere, hosted by Kate over at The Clean Plate Club. Be sure to check out Kate’s write up on this month’s participants!

Previously by Mevrouw Cupcake for Cookie Carnival:

Blackberry Bars

Snickerdoodles

Vanilla Thins