Agnesenplätzchen

(St. Agnes Cookies)

January 21: Feast Day of St. Agnes

We often contribute cookies to college students to support the ministry of Islander’s brother, Kahuna. Each week during the academic year, his community of brothers and priests hosts a prayer and dinner social at their house to encourage the students to grow spiritually as well as mentally while at school. Since the Feast Day of St. Agnes occurs around the start of the spring semester, we baked a batch of Agnesenplätzchen for the students and staff to sample. This German jam-filled sandwich cookie is a simply satisfying snack for both study breaks and prayer gatherings.

Recipe

(Adapted from Cooking with the Saints by Ernst Schuegraf)

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 cups flour
• 1 jar apricot jam

Directions

Cream the butter with the sugar. Gradually incorporate the flour until it becomes a smooth dough. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

On a clean work surface, work in small batches and roll out the dough to ¼-inch thick. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out an even number of circles. Place on a slightly greased baking sheet. Refrigerate for half an hour. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely. Spread the jam on one side of a cookie and sandwich with another. Yield: Approximately 2 ½ dozen sandwich cookies.

Notes

• The original recipe yielded a dry, crumbly dough. So we added a few tablespoons of water at a time to make it more pliable.