Love Medicine Cookies

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!

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.)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375° F and lightly grease your cookie sheet.
2. Cream butter, sugar, eggs, lemon juice and zest, until light and fluffy.
3. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
4. On lightly floured, cloth covered board, roll the dough out to desired thickness. Use 1/3 at a time.
5. Cut out half heart shaped bottom, then half heart outline shape.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes.
7. Let cool completely.
8. Once cool, pipe a little of the raspberry jam on the bottom cookie, enough to help the top cookie stick.
9. Place top cookie on top.
10. Then fill the heart shaped hole with a little bit more jam. (This process make for less of a mess.)
11. You can either serve immediately or let them sit in the fridge over night. This helps the jam to thicken a little.
12. Be a hit at your next occasion to serve heart shaped cookies.
13. Variation: Dust the top cookies with powdered sugar before putting the cookies together.
14. Tip: Make enough so that you have extras, especially of the heart with the cut out middle, they are kind of fragile.

Ideas of the left over dough

• 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

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