Nutmeg Spiced Flower Cookies

By Angela Patel

These crisp and buttery nutmeg-spiced cookies sandwiched with creamy vanilla buttercream and jam make a lovely sweet spring treat. They are super easy to make, and with Mother’s day just around the corner, make a perfect home-made gift for Mum on her special day.

Kitchen tools needed:

Cole & Mason Nutmeg Mill

Prep: 40 mins, plus cooling and chilling

Cook: 15 mins

Difficulty Easy

Makes 10 Cookies

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 50g caster sugar
• 115g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg, ground in the Cole & Mason Nutmeg Grinding Mill

For the filling

• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tsp seedless raspberry jam
• 2 tsp apricot jam

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas Mark 4. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Sift over the flour, add the nutmeg and mix to a crumbly dough. Use clean hands to gather the dough together into a ball.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth – if the dough is a little sticky sprinkle over some more flour. Shape the dough into a flat disc and wrap in cling film. Chill for 15-20 minutes until firm.
4. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thickness. Using a small flower-shaped cookie cutter (about 6cm diameter), stamp out 20 flowers, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Place spaced apart on the baking sheet. Using the wide end of a small piping nozzle stamp out a small hole from the centre of 10 of the cookies.
5. Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes until pale golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes then carefully transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
6. For the filling, beat the butter and vanilla extract together in a bowl until pale and creamy. Gradually beat in the icing sugar to make a smooth buttercream
7. Spread a little the buttercream over one whole cookie and place a small blob of raspberry or apricot jam in the centre. Top with a cookie with a hole, pressing down gently. Repeat to make 10 sandwiched cookies in total (you may have a little buttercream left over). Dust all the cookies lightly with icing sugar.

 

TIPS

• The unfilled cookies will keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Once filled eat within 2 days.
• Use any flavour jam for the ‘centre’ of each sandwich cookie or try lemon curd or chocolate hazelnut spread, if preferred.

 

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