Bakery-Style Jam and Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches Made Simple at Home

Compiled by the editorial desk with reference to the author's published recipe and cookbook announcements.

For home bakers who have long admired the colorful butter cookie sandwiches in bakery display cases, a new recipe promises to bring that experience into the kitchen with minimal fuss. The recipe, featured in the upcoming cookbook Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant & Unfussy New Favorites, cuts the traditional production time down to roughly 15 minutes of active work, plus cooling and assembly.

The cookbook, five years in the making, is the second from the author behind the popular Smitten Kitchen website. It includes a wide range of dishes, from granola biscotti and sticky toffee waffles to a vegetarian mini-matzo ball soup and a grandma-style chicken noodle soup. The author notes that most main courses are vegetarian, with options like halloumi sheet pan roasts and wild mushroom shepherd's pie, alongside meat dishes such as meatballs marsala and short rib carnitas.

A standout section is the Party Cake Builder, which offers seven one-bowl cake recipes and four easy frostings that can be mixed and matched for cupcakes, sheet cakes, or layer cakes. The cookie section, however, is where the author says some of her favorite recipes reside, including the butter cookie sandwiches that replicate a bakery classic.

The inspiration for the cookie sandwiches comes from the author's high school job at a local bakery, where she worked several afternoons a week but never on the coveted Tuesday shift, known as Cookie Day. On that day, bakers would prepare long and star-shaped butter cookies, leaving piping bags filled with jams, chocolates, and trays of sprinkles for the lucky staff to finish. The author recalls covering that shift only once in two years, but the memory stuck.

While such cookies are still common in bakeries, the author notes that many are now supplied by central vendors and often rely on artificial flavoring. The homemade version, she explains, uses real butter, good vanilla, and sea salt, and the dough can be baked immediately after mixing, eliminating the need for chilling.

How the Recipe Works

The dough combines softened butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, and sea salt, with all-purpose flour mixed in just until it disappears. It is piped through a French star tip into small segments, then baked for 11 to 13 minutes until the edges are golden. After cooling, half the cookies are flipped and topped with a line of jam, then sandwiched with the remaining halves. The sandwiches are dipped in melted chocolate and rolled in sprinkles, chopped nuts, or dried coconut.

The recipe yields about 36 cookie sandwiches and can be prepared in about an hour, including cooling time. The author suggests using a sandwich bag with a snipped corner for the jam and melting chocolate only three-quarters of the way to avoid overheating. The finished cookies keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week.

The cookbook is dedicated to the readers of Smitten Kitchen, which has been active for 11 years. The author expresses gratitude for the community that has inspired her to improve as a cook and writer.