Maddalenas

I was watching the show "Chio Italia" with Mary Ann Esposito the other night( Did you know her show is the longest running cooking series in TV history?) She was baking with a young man who made Maddalenas, an Italian cookie sandwiched with raspberry jam. The cookie sounded good so I thought I'd give it a try today. I even went out and bought a star pastry tip so I could make pretty shapes!
The one thing I was a little surprised about with this cookie was that with all the butter in the recipe, it wasn't all that buttery. And the flavor was a bit bland for my taste so if I make these again, I would definitely add some lemon or almond extract.

I did have fun piping out the shapes. I experimented with a few different shapes..I like the round ones the best! You can't really fill the pastry bag more than half full because the dough was a bit thick and it didn't flow out easily. I did add a little more milk to thin it just a bit.

I filled a few with the raspberry jam but then I tried filling some with just melted chocolate, then chocolate and jam together on the same cookie. You could also fill with Nutella! Whatever you like.

The cookie is pretty much a "blank slate" so any jam or filling would work.

One more thing to remember, this cookie will not get to browned so don't overbake it. I found my first batch was too hard and dry because I kept waiting for it to get a light brown color so I baked it too long.

If you do make these, I'd love to hear back from you to know how yours turned out.

Maddalenas ( from Mary Ann Esposito's show "Chio Italia")

Makes about 24 cookies.

3 3/4 cups AP flour

1 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

Pinch of baking powder

1/2 lb. unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp.

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup milk

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Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. Place the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a mixer bowl and blend with whisk attachment ( if using hand held mixer, whisk ingredients by hand).

2. Add melted butter and mix together.

3. Add the whole eggs and egg yolks and milk and beat a minute or so.

4. Place some of the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a star fluted tip and pipe out the cookies in shapes you like spacing about 1" or 2" apart.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes, the cookies will not brown much at all.

6. When cooled, sandwich with raspberry jam and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Store in tin or airtight container.