Puffy Filled Cookies
These Puffy Filled Cookies are a chilled ‘fridge’ cookie dough with a recipe that can be adjusted for more than one base flavor and molded into multiple shapes after it has been chilled. This recipe uses cake flour which makes a stickier dough (before chilling) but bakes a lighter, fluffier cookie.
This is a great recipe for when you want cookies that are just a bit more than cookies. Valentine’s Day parties, birthdays, Christmas and this is a great recipe for bistro and coffee shop cookies.
This recipe is dairy based and we have included non-dairy and Vegan options as alternatives for Vegan cookies.
We will show you how to make these cookies as well as alternatives for a range of fillings for your puffy filled cookies.
A Few Things About Cake Flour
Cake flour is a favorite of ours to use and it makes the softest, fluffiest cakes and cookies. Cake Flour has between 7 – 10% gluten and has been milled to a ultra fine consistency. The lower gluten levels will make a lighter softer cake and cookie.
We often use a ready-to-use cake flour, like Swan’s Down but with all purpose flour and corn starch you can make your own cake flour substitute.
The amount of gluten in flour is directly linked to gluten formation in the recipes you bake.
Cake Flour – 7 – 9% gluten – low protein = softest cakes and cookies
All Purpose Flour – 10 – 12% gluten – medium protein = great for most any recipes
Bread Flour – 13 – 16% gluten – high protein = ideal for breads, also know as a ‘hard’ flour
A Few Tips on Working with this Cookie Dough
- Be sure the dough is well chilled. This is a sticky dough. It does not behave like toll house cookies or Holiday Spice Molasses cookies where you can mold the dough in your hand easily. You will need more cake flour when you roll these out.
- Puffy filled cookies will have a smooth cake texture when baked.
- The dough does bake together well on the edges. For filled cookies they hold fillings nicely.
- For iced cookies they stay firm and don’t get soggy.
Fillings for your Puffy Filled Cookies
Cookie fillings can be a wide range of fillings. My grandmother used a made from scratch cherry filling she often used in cherry pie but you can get creative or use any one of the following:
- Raspberry Jam or Jelly
- Grape Jam or Jelly
- Blueberry Jam or Jelly
- Strawberry Jam or Jelly
- Your favorite Jam or Jelly
- Ghiradelli Chocolate chunks (White milk, or dark chocolate)
- Nutella
- Caramel chunks
Blending Process for Puffy Filled Cookies
For this recipe we used a KitchenAid Mixer and used the wet mix and dry blending process to get a super smooth cookie with no lumps.
1. Add your wet ingredients to the mixer. (butter, sugar, egg, pinch of cardamom, vanilla, and milk)
2. Blend for 3-5 minutes or until creamy with no lumps. Keep blending if there are still lumps. (be sure to let the butter soften at room temp for 1-2 hours prior to making your cookies)
3. Once the wet ingredients are blended to a creamy, lump free texture then add the dry ingredients to the mixer (cake flour, baking powder and salt).
4. Add the ingredients a bit at a time and keep blending under thoroughly mixed. The dough will start to pull together in the bowl in a few minutes.
5. Let the dough chill for 2-3 hours. (ideal to let the dough chill overnight)
6. Once your dough is chilled, roll out your dough on a floured surface until between 1/8 and 1/4 thickness.
7. Cut into shapes. Our images here are for Valentine’s Day.
8. Spread Parchment Paper onto a sheet and lay out the bottom layer of the cookie on the sheet.
9. Add 1 teaspoon of your filling to the center of the cookie. We spread ours a bit to fill the heart shaped cookies.
10. Add the top layer and press the edges with fingers or with a folk to seal the cookie. Some of our cookies have a shape cut out of the top layer for an open cookie.
11. Bake at 325 degrees for 12-15 minutes (convection oven). If using a conventional oven, You may need to bake for an extra 5-7 minutes. You know your oven best.
12. Let your cookies cool for 30 minutes or so. The filling will stay hotter longer and can feel like lava right out of the oven. When they are cooled they will be a perfect blend of crispy on the outside and
PrintPuffy Filled Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 11-14 minutes
- Total Time: 27 minute
- Yield: 18 - 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Baking
- Method: Cookies
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
1/2 C. Butter
1 c. Sugar
1 beaten Egg
1 t. Vanilla
1/2 C. Milk
3 1/2 C. Cake Flour
3 t. Baking Powder
1/2 t. Salt
Quick Filling:
Your favorite Raspberry Jelly
Instructions
1. Add your wet ingredients to the mixer. (butter, sugar, egg, pinch of cardamom, vanilla, and milk) If mixing by hand, be sure to soften the butter ahead of time.
2. Blend for 3-5 minutes or until creamy with no lumps. Keep blending if there are still lumps. (be sure to let the butter soften at room temp for 1-2 hours prior to making your cookies)
3. Once the wet ingredients are blended to a creamy, lump free texture then add the dry ingredients to the mixer (cake flour, baking powder and salt). The batter will be very wet and will thicken as the dry ingredients are being added.
4. Add the ingredients a bit at a time and keep blending under thoroughly mixed. The dough will start to pull together in the bowl in a few minutes. The end result will be very cream and sticky dough.
5. Let the dough chill for 1-2 hours. (ideal to let the dough chill overnight)
6. Once your dough is chilled, roll out your dough on a floured surface until between 1/8 and 1/4 thickness.
7. Cut into shapes. Our images here are for Valentine’s Day. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
8. Spread Parchment Paper onto a sheet and lay out the bottom layer of the cookies to fill the sheet, leaving an inch or so between the cookies.
9. Add 1 teaspoon of your filling to the center of the cookie. We spread ours a bit to fill the heart shaped cookies.
10. Add the top layer and press the edges with fingers or with a fork to seal the cookie. Some of our cookies have a shape cut out of the top layer for an open cookie.
11. Bake at 325 degrees for 12-15 minutes (convection oven). If using a conventional oven, You may need to bake for an extra 5-7 minutes. You know your oven best.
12. Let your cookies cool for 30 minutes or so. The filling will stay hotter longer and can feel like lava right out of the oven.
Notes
For Vegan and dairy free ingredient replacements:
- Butter can be replaced with most vegan butters. Miyoko’s non-dairy butter is a favorite of ours.
- Milk – use an almond milk for replacement. Almond milk has more protein than coconut or oat milk.
Alternative Filling:
1 C. strained Pie Cherries
½ C. Cherry Juice
1 T. Butter
2/3 C. Sugar
2 T Corn Starch
1/8 t. Salt
Powdered Sugar for decorating
Keywords: cookies, filled cookies, baking, mini tarts
