This recipe is loosely inspired by Taiwanese pineapple cakes. Taiwanese pineapple cakes are small pastries filled with a sticky pineapple filling and wrapped in a tender, buttery dough. They’re adorable, delicate, and wonderfully jammy. I tried to emulate some of these flavors in cookie form, using a buttery shortbread-inspired cookie and roasting pineapple to create a jam with a deep, caramelized pineapple flavor. Ginger and toasted crushed Sichuan peppercorns add extra flavor to the cookie and a very subtle heat.
The pineapple jam is the crown jewel of this cookie. As with all of my jams on this blog, I found that roasting the pineapple concentrated its flavor and helped caramelize the fruit. To make this jam, you simply crush fresh pineapple in a food processor, mix in a bit of brown sugar and lime juice, spread it in a glass baking dish, and roast for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until you achieve a thick jammy consistency and most of the liquid has cooked out. If you take one thing away from my blog it is to please roast your fruit. It concentrates the flavor in a way that is otherworldy and has made me want to turn all of my fruits into jam.
Sandwich cookies are particularly enjoyable to make. Rolling out the dough and using a cookie cutter sends me back to the days of making sugar cookies for Christmas. Each time, I see how many cut-outs I can fit from one sheet of rolled dough, and after cutting the cookies, you’re able to mush the dough together and begin again. These cookies hold their shape well, so there’s nothing to stop you from trying shapes other than your classic circle. You can also play with the heat of your cookies–adding more ginger if you want a little kick or sprinkling ground Sichuan peppercorns on top for a little bit more of that numbing sensation.
Pineapple sandwich cookies with Sichuan peppercorns
Course: Cookies and barsDifficulty: Baking sessionThese pineapple sandwich cookies are loosely inspired by Taiwanese pineapple cakes. A roasted pineapple jam is sandwiched between buttery shortbread cookies flavored with a hint of ginger and Sichuan peppercorns for a subtle heat.
Ingredients
- For the pineapple jam
1 medium pineapple
1/3 cup brown sugar (1/2 cup if your pineapple is not sweet)
2 tsp lemon or lime juice
- For the cookie dough
2 tsp sichuan peppercorns
2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (28g) confectioners’ sugar
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Make the pineapple jam
- Preheat the oven to 325F. Cut your pineapple into cubes, removing the core and skin. Place in a food processor and pulse a couple of times until the pineapple is in small pieces or nearly pureed. You’ll want it to be close to the consistency of apple sauce so you don’t end up with large chunks in your jam.
- Pour into a glass or ceramic baking dish. Stir in the brown sugar and lime or lemon juice to combine. Bake for about one hour, stirring every 20 minutes, until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. The jam will thicken as it cools, but you’ll want to make sure it’s relatively thick when you take it out of the oven. If you leave it in for more time, check often to make sure the sugars from the pineapple don’t burn. Allow to cool completely. The jam can be poured into a clean jar or tupperware container and refrigerated until ready to use.
- Make the cookies
- Place a small pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the sichuan peppercorns to the pan, tossing occasionally, for about 30 seconds to one minute, until the peppercorns are toasted and fragrant. Grind in a spice grinder, mortar and pestle, or using the bottom of a glass. Set aside.
- Add the softened butter, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar to a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Beat together until the mixture is light and fluffy, about three minutes. Then add the egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition until well-incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, ground sichuan peppercorns, and ground ginger. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients and stir to combine, until there are no visible flour patches. Use your hands to bring the dough together. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes to chill.
- On a well-floured surface, roll the dough out until it’s about 1/8″ thick. If the dough is really sticky, you may need to add another tablespoon or two of flour and mix it into the dough and then try rolling it out again. Cut out cookies using a 3″ cookie cutter and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out the centers of half of the cookies. Press the remaining dough back together, roll out again, and repeat until you have run out of dough.
- Refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the cookies are a light golden brown on the bottom. After a few minutes, transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely.
- Assemble
- Spread a spoonful of jam onto the bottom of each cookie and place the cookies with the holes in the center on top. Press together gently. Serve.
- Filled cookies can be well-wrapped and stored at room temperature. The jam can cause the cookies to soften over time, so if not serving for a day or two, wait to fill them until the day you plan to serve them.
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