cookie calendar - day 19: deviant rosemary cornmeal cookies with raspberry jelly

I am so excited to be able to include Beth in this year's Cookie Advent Calendar! Not only is Beth the Senior Test Kitchen Manager at Wilton (whose decorating tools, especially the frosting tips, I swear by!), but she is also a past winner of Food Network's Cupcake Wars!

We only recently "met" on Twitter, but she's definitely (for obvious reasons) someone I hope to learn a lot of baking tips from to help me on my way to becoming a better baker!

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guest post by Beth Somers 

My name is Beth Somers, and I make my living off of cookies, cupcakes, and cakes. As the Senior Test Kitchen Manager at the bakeware and cake decorating company, Wilton Brands, I develop new recipes for all kinds of sweet treats to inspire people to bake at home. I also travel the country doing live cooking or baking demonstrations on morning television programs. You'll often find me in the kitchen outside of work, too. If there's anything that I know to be true about cooking and baking, it's that if you're having a good time, you'll want to continue doing it. I guess I've been having a pretty good time! Last year, I won an episode of Food Network's Cupcake Wars (annihilated  actually, but trying to be modest - and failing). I host a series of baking and cake decorating classes on Craftsy, and I am an occasional writer at Walloping Teaspoon. Follow me on Twitter for  baking and foodie tweets, scattered a midst the random thoughts that bounce around in my head - @bethylou10.

This is one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes, excellent for the holidays since the pretty red jam shows through the cookie window, but also because the rosemary provides an unexpected savory element to balance the sweetness. And the crumbly, delicate texture from the cornmeal is really something special. Let me know what you think of them. I hope that they become one of your favorites, too!

deviant rosemary cornmeal cookies with raspberry jelly

Makes about 4 dozen 2 inch sandwich cookies.

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh rosemary (don’t used dried)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, or the seeds from 1 vanilla bean
2 eggs
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ + 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 jar (about 10 oz.) seedless raspberry jelly (no sugar added)

In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, minced rosemary, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until well incorporated. In a bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer 1 cup at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl well after each addition. Beat until just incorporated. Form dough into 3 discs, cover with plastic wrap, and chill 3 hours or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Working with one disc of dough at a time, roll out to 1/8 inch thickness on lightly floured parchment paper. Chill rolled out dough for 10 minutes or until firm. Cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets 1 inch apart, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool cookies completely. Repeat with remaining discs of dough.

Sandwich cooled cookies with ½ teaspoon of raspberry jelly.

*Educational Note: A while back someone asked me what the difference was between jelly, jam, and preserves, and I wasn’t really sure, so I went to the source for all things culinary. Cook’s Illustrated gives a very concise explanation:

A jelly is a clear, bright mixture made from fruit juice, sugar, and often pectin or acid. A jam is a thick mixture of fruit and sugar that is cooked until the pieces of fruit are very soft and almost formless. Preserves are almost identical to jams, but preserves may contain large chunks of fruit or whole fruit.

So, now you know.

The recipe and all photos used in this blog post belong to Beth Somers and should not be reprinted without her express permission.