VERVE’S TEA MATCH
LEMON VERBENA
Light and citrusy, lemon verbena brightens the jam’s fruitiness and refreshes the palate between bites.
PREPARATION TIME
45 minutes, plus cooling time COOKING TIME:
15 minutes
MAKES
About 12 cookie sandwiches INGREDIENTS:
21/2 cups (350g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (120g) almond flour
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 sticks (225 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (135g) icing sugar, plus more for dusting 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 cup (320g) red currant or raspberry jam
METHOD
Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 160°C. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, and salt.
In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2–3 minutes. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and stir until the dough forms and there are no dry patches of flour remaining.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to 6mm thick. Using a 7.5cm round cutter, preferably fluted, cut out rounds of dough and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, spaced 2.5cm apart. Reroll the scraps to cut out more rounds. Using a 2.5cm round cutter, cut out the centers of half of the dough rounds. Save the centers to bake separately or reroll to cut out a few more cookies.
Bake until the cookies are light golden brown at the edges and dry to the touch, 12–15 minutes, switching racks and rotating the baking sheets front to back halfway through.
Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks. Let the cookies cool on the pans for 1 minute, then transfer them to the racks to cool completely.
Spread a heaping teaspoon of the red currant jam over each of the whole cookies. Using a fine sieve, dust the ring-shaped cookies with sugar. Place each ring-shaped cookie over a jam-coated cookie to create sandwiches to serve.
Recipes from Crumbs – Cookies and Sweets from Around the World by Ben Mims
Published by Phaidon Press Ltd, RRP $69.95, phaidon.com
