As I write this post, my valentine is off on a work trip, and I can hardly stand it. A lot of my friends think Evan and I are pretty independent because we have our own hobbies that, after years and years of being together, we don’t try to push on each other. He has his nerd things and video games and electronic music, I have cooking and being in nature and scary movies and reading. We’re pretty good about doing our own thing and being totally cool with it.But what our friends might not see is that we’re also weirdly codependent. Have you watched How I Met Your Mother (3 full times through, like we have)? Because in a lot of ways, we’re a lot like Lilly and Marshall. We know almost every tiny detail of each others day… from every single item we ate to what conversations we had at work to what articles we read throughout the day. There’s an episode of HIMYM where Lilly and Marshall tell each other every detail when they go to the bathroom… we’re not quite there (yet) buuuuuuut we’re close. Just kidding. <Glances to the side>. Is that weird? Is it too much? Anyway. I hope our little mini snowstorm in Seattle doesn’t delay his trip home, because I wish he was here. Also I seriously can’t fall asleep without him. And I don’t really mean that in a gushy way… I just read a lot of mystery books and listen to a lot of murdery true crime podcasts and finished watching The Fall the first day he was gone. So you know, I basically lie awake staring at the shadows surrounding the bedroom door for three hours before falling asleep.
Which in no way leads me here, to these Valentines Day cookies! Cream wafer cookies with grapefruit and blood orange filling, to be exact. Have you had cream wafers? I saw a photo of them around Christmas, and couldn’t get over how cute they are. The dough is super simple and almost boring: flour, butter, cream. Literally that’s it. Then you cut out the cookies, roll them in sugar, and bake them. On their own, they taste a little like pie dough, i.e.: butter and flour. But when you add the citrusy sweet frosting, something magical happens. It really brings the whole thing together. The cookies are soft but with a slightly flaky crunch type thing going on with the sugar coating, and the filling has that grapefruit tang I love, and is super pretty and naturally pink from the grapefruit marmalade (which I got at TJ’s and loooove on vanilla ice cream) and blood orange juice. Also these are tiny so you can pop one after another and not even realize you’re just consuming sticks upon sticks of butter. 
Also, I envisioned the perfect little teeny heart shaped cookies but I couldn’t find the right cutter… so I rolled some of the dough into a heart shaped log and just sliced those bad boys. They’re aight, but I definitely like the cut-out circle ones better. Oh, and yeah, I pipe frosting out of a ziplock baggie with the corner cut. So there's that. 
Cream Wafers with grapefruit blood orange filling
Cookies 2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream Granulated sugar Filling 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened 1.5 cups powdered sugar 2 tablespoons grapefruit marmalade 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed blood orange juice | Cream the butter until smooth, and add the flour and cream. Mix (with a hand/stand mixer or fork) until evenly combined. Roll dough into 3 balls, wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour. Heat oven to 375F. Put a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar in a shallow dish. Working with one dough ball at a time (keep the others in the fridge until ready to roll), on a lightly floured surface, roll to about 1/8th inch thick, and cut out using small (about the size of a quarter) cookie cutters. Dip each side of the cut-outs into the sugar to coat. Place on an un-greased (or parchment lined) baking sheet, and poke each cookie with about 6 little holes with a fork or toothpick. Bake 7-9 minutes. Cookies should be firm but not browned. Carefully transfer to wire rack and cool completely. For filling, mix together all filling ingredients (with a hand or stand mixer) until combined, light, and fluffy. Pipe filling on the inside of half the cookies, and top with the other half of the cookies to make little sandwiches. |
