Recipe Test Drive: Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Cookies

I was recently frozen at the pantry door, searching for snack inspiration, when peanut butter thumbprint cookies came to mind. Sweet and simple. If you've read other Recipe Test Drive posts, then you know my M.O. for baking is 100% lazy convenience. This recipe from Kraft seemed easy and almost all the ingredients were already in my kitchen.

Tweaks:

- Halved the recipe.

- Used applesauce instead of an egg.

- There's something the recipe should highlight in ginormous red letters: The batter requires AN HOUR of chill time in the refrigerator. That's a long wait -- especially when you are a naturally impatient person who should have read the recipe more carefully from the get-go. ANYWAY. By that point, I was already wrist-deep in sticky cookie batter and getting very, very hungry. So, I just put the bowl of dough in the freezer for five minutes and hoped for the best.

End result:

I was craving puffy pillow-like cookies with a well in the middle for holding jam...

But inadvertently made thin squishy discs...

Oops.

Clearly, my cookies totally flattened out as they baked. Probably because the dough was too mushy and warm going into the oven -- it couldn't hold it's shape.

Silver lining: They tasted great! The PB flavor was pretty mellow, the texture was super soft and chewy.

Turns out, my disfigured desserts were actually perfect for making sandwich cookies. I took two, put a small glob of cherry jelly on the flat side of each, then gently sandwiched them together until the filling made its way to the edge. They might still benefit from being chilled (to firm up the jam), but I couldn't tell you for sure because I'm a monster and ate mine immediately. They were GOOD.

Bonus: The batter was amazing. When you replace the egg with applesauce, you can eat it risk-free. I think?

Next time, I might smear a little peanut butter (or almond butter!) in the middle of the sandwich, alongside the jelly. Another tasty touch could be to sprinkle crushed peanuts on the cookies before they start to bake.

What are some of your cooking-related happy accidents? :)

Image credit (top): Food & Wine

Image credit (thumbprint cookies): Little Bitty Bakes