I had a presentation on Friday for my Literature by Women course. It was on the novel, Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich.
To make my presentation memorable I made love medicine cookies. They reflect the author’s heritage. She is part Ojibwe Native American and German.
So the cookie recipe I used was called Zimtsterne; it is a German spice cookie. And I used a raspberry jam, which is apparently an traditional Ojibwe food.
They are shaped like a heart because the title, get it? Get it?
I had about 27 people in my class and so I had to make about 3o cookies x 2 because it was a sandwich cookie. This is my pile of cookie parts. Phew! It took me forever to make all of those!
Finished product: A pile of Love Medicine Cookies!
Love Medicine Cookies
with Zimtsterne Cookie Dough (This makes enough dough for about 10-15 cookie sandwiches, this will vary depending on the thickness. I used a double batch.)
Recipe Source: Allrecipes.com but I altered mine a bit, if you want the more traditional German spice cookie go there.
You could always use a different dough.
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (you could punch this up for a more lemony flavor)
- 2 1/3 cups flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I think I cut this in half because it is so strong)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (As I was typing this, I realized I didn’t add any salt, oops.)
- Raspberry Jam for filling. (You could also use a different jam of your juice.)
- Pre-heat the oven to 375° F and lightly grease your cookie sheet.
- Cream butter, sugar, eggs, lemon juice and zest, until light and fluffy.
- Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- On lightly floured, cloth covered board, roll the dough out to desired thickness. Use 1/3 at a time.
- Cut out half heart shaped bottom, then half heart outline shape.
- Bake 8-10 minutes.
- Let cool completely.
- Once cool, pipe a little of the raspberry jam on the bottom cookie, enough to help the top cookie stick.
- Place top cookie on top.
- Then fill the heart shaped hole with a little bit more jam. (This process make for less of a mess.)
- You can either serve immediately or let them sit in the fridge over night. This helps the jam to thicken a little.
- Be a hit at your next occasion to serve heart shaped cookies.
- Variation: Dust the top cookies with powdered sugar before putting the cookies together.
- Tip: Make enough so that you have extras, especially of the heart with the cut out middle, they are kind of fragile.
- The little heart insides would make for a cute bite sized treat for kiddos.
- Or you could burn the left overs to death and then your dogs would love you.
Have a great Saturday!
-Sarah
Aw, those are so cute! How did they go over? I bet your classmates love you, if they didn’t already before!
They were delicious! 🙂
Thanks Lori! I was so worried.