Monday, July 23, 2012

Zucchini Nut Bread Cookie Sandwiches

I was browsing Pinterest (follow my boards here) last week, as you do, and amongst the pretty things and yumminess I saw these cookies pinned by Martha Stewart. They immediately reminded me of those Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies, which I haven't had since I was a kid and remember to have been delicious, and I knew I had to make them. Plus, they have zucchini and oats in them so they're maybe a little healthy? Maybe not.


For the cookies:

1 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup finely grated zucchini
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

The first thing I did was grate my zucchini. It only took about one and a quarter of those little ones pictured. It wasn't part of the recipe, but I put my zucchini in a colander and left it in the sink for a while just to get rid of a little of the water. I'm not sure if this made a difference because this is the first time I've made these, but it couldn't have hurt. Next, I chopped and toasted the walnuts. I put them in a dry skillet on low heat and let them toast until they became fragrant, about 2 or 3 minutes.

Add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a bowl and whisk to combine. I'm not a sifter because I think it takes too much time. A good whisking will get out any lumps. Beat the butter and sugars in a stand mixer until they're pale and fluffy, as Martha says. Then beat in the egg and vanilla. 


Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Make sure you turn your mixer back on low while doing this and add the dry ingredients a little at a time. Not doing this can result in a kitchen covered in flour dust. I speak from experience. Stop the mixer and stir in the zucchini, oats, and walnuts until they're well incorporated and the dough looks like this. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.  



When the dough has set, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Martha wants you to scoop the dough using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, which she says is about 2 tablespoons. I do not own said ice cream scoop and I found 2 tablespoons to be a little too big so I went with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and it was perfect.


Bake until the edges are golden, about 17 minutes. My oven is a little wonky and gets hotter than advertised so mine took only about 15 minutes. Online recipes are great, especially those from Martha Stewart, but don't always take them at face value. Things are often left out or written wrong or you may have an oven with issues so it's okay to change the recipe to make it work for you. I always find it really helpful to read the comments that other cooks and bakers have left too. There are usually helpful tips about the recipe there.

Once my cookies were baked and cooled I got to work on the filling. Now, these cookies would have been fine and dandy without the filling, but in this case I wanted to stay true to Martha's vision of a delicious cream cheese frosting filling.


For the filling:

1/2 stick on unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Cream cheese frosting is ridiculously easy. It's just these three ingredients beaten together until smooth and glossy. Martha's recipe calls for 1 cup of confectioner's sugar, but I like a thicker frosting so I added another half cup.


Once the frosting is done, slather one cookie with a heaping tablespoon of it and make a sandwich. I went with Martha's measurements for the frosting, but this creates about twice as much as you need so I just stuck the rest in the freezer for another baking project, a rainy day, or a stress eating episode. 


These are SO GOOD. The cinnamon really makes the cookies. They're perfectly chewy and no, you can't taste the zucchini. But it's there providing nutrients and color. I'm afraid these may have ruined me in a way because now I'm going to want to make all cookies sandwich cookies. Which isn't exactly the worst thing in the world. I suggest keeping these in the fridge since it's so warm out and they'll be a little better if the frosting is firmer. They got many thumbs up from my co-workers this morning so I know I done good. There is one left in my fridge that I'm already excited to eat after dinner tonight. You can come over to fight me for it, but I guarantee you will lose.

3 comments:

  1. Those look so good!

    xo Jennifer

    http://seekingstyleblog.wordpress.com

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  2. Delicious!
    http://lovestylemagic.blogspot.com/

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