Blood Orange Poppy Seed Window Cookies
- Total Time
- 1½ hours, plus chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:About 2 dozen sandwich cookies
- 2½cups/320 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1½tablespoons poppy seeds, plus more for sprinkling
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼teaspoon baking soda
- 1cup/225 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
- ⅔cup/135 grams granulated sugar
- 2large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2tablespoons buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons milk mixed with 1 teaspoon lemon juice)
- 1cup blood orange marmalade
- Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
181 calories; 8 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 14 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 64 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Combine flour, poppy seeds, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside.
- Step 2
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg yolks and vanilla, then beat on medium speed until well combined, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Step 3
Add half the flour mixture and beat on low speed, drizzling in the buttermilk. Add remaining flour mixture and beat on low speed just until combined, then increase speed and beat until dough starts to clump together. Scrape the bowl and fold dough a few times to make sure everything is well combined. Divide into two equal balls, flatten into disks, wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
- Step 4
Generously flour a silicone baking mat or sheet of parchment paper. Place one disk of dough in center and dust both sides of the dough and rolling pin with flour. Working quickly, roll dough until slightly thicker than ⅛ inch. Slide onto baking sheet (do this any time the dough feels too soft or sticky). Chill in freezer until firm, about 10 minutes. Repeat process with second disk of dough.
- Step 5
Flour two cookie cutters in the shape of your choice, one larger, measuring about 2 to 2½ inches, and one smaller, measuring about 1 to 1½ inches.
- Step 6
Using the larger cutter, cut one of the dough sheets in this shape, flouring the cutter frequently. These will be the bottoms of the cookies. Lift off excess dough, knead and chill to re-roll for more cookies, if desired. Spread them out so there is a little space in between. (If the dough is soft and too delicate, chill it in the freezer to be able to move it more easily without distorting its shape.) Chill tray of cut cookie bottoms in freezer until firm, about 10 minutes.
- Step 7
For cookie tops, repeat Step 6 with remaining dough, again using the larger cutter. Then, using the smaller cutter, cut a “window” or a center hole in the tops of each cookie. (If the dough cracks, just a wait a moment or two to let it warm up.) Chill tray of cookie tops. Count as you go to make sure you have an equal number of solid bottoms and “window” tops. (You should have about 2 dozen of each.)
- Step 8
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. (The more delicate “window” cookies will bake faster, so you will want to remove them from the oven first.) Let cool a few minutes on the baking sheets and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Step 9
Place marmalade in a small microwaveable bowl, and microwave 30 seconds to loosen, or transfer to a small saucepan and heat over medium-low until warmed, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir a few times, then strain out the solids, if desired. Let marmalade cool until thicker. (You can speed this up by popping it in the freezer for 15 minutes.)
- Step 10
Place the cookie bottoms on a parchment- or wax-lined baking sheet, flat-side down. Using an offset spatula or small spoon, spread 1 scant teaspoon marmalade on each bottom cookie, and top with a windowed cookie. Lightly dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired. (It will stick to the cookie and melt on the marmalade.) Sprinkle marmalade with a few more poppy seeds. Store in an airtight container or tin between layers of parchment or wax paper until serving. Cookies will keep at room temperature for 1 week.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Susie
Dust tops with confectioners sugar before assembly to preserve clear glassy appearance of marmalade. Confectioners sugar contains small percentage of starch, which absorbs moisture but doesn’t dissolve.
Erin
Added lemon zest to the cookie dough and used blueberry jam. Don't roll out too thin, or they become dry.
Birdpants
These required a learning curve, but turned out beautifully and were worth the effort. King Arthur gluten free flour, you’d never know the difference! Warm dough vastly easier to handle than chilled. Rolled on floured board and transferred to tray with floured silicone spatula (rolling on paper resulted in paper sliding everywhere); cut windows once on tray. Rolled thin, baked for less time at 400F. They look just like the picture (except I made stars) and taste delicious! And I got 40, not 24!
Sheryl Reich
These worked out except I was not happy with the powdered sugar, which did not dissolve into the marmalade. The suggestion to coat the window pieces with the sugar before placing them on the bottoms is a good one.
Hanna
Delicious! Dough is impossible to roll out and cracks after it's been chilled, as other reviewers mentioned. I would ignore the chilling steps in the recipe and just use your gut. As long as the cookie is cold when it goes in, you will have success. I rolled dough out when it was still soft with a dusting of flour, chilled the rolled dough, took out to cut shapes, and put in freezer for a bit before baking. Time-consuming, but an impressive cookie. Better to bake one day, assemble the next.
FlyingRoo
Sour cream no, and yogurt yes but not Greek, the normal type or, even better, use liquid yogurt, they have small bottles at the grocery store. Or use Martha's recipe" "All you need are 10 minutes and two ingredients to make this buttermilk substitute the next time you run out." https://www.marthastewart.com/1105694/how-make-buttermilk
ireneB
These taste delicious and look great but I found them a lot of work. The dough was hard to roll out and logistically it was tricky to roll out on the silicon mat, because I would only get a few cookies there at a time. I tried moving them around but it was impossible, before or after freezing. I ended up cutting the parchment paper around where I had cookies and baking multiple pieces together. Just took a long time. Don’t make my mistake: bake the windows and the bottoms separately
Julia
I’ve made these twice. The first time, I only chilled the dough for about 10 minutes before rolling it out, and it was really easy to work with. Start to finish, a two hour baking project with great results. The second time, I chilled for an hour and it turned into a nightmare of a baking project, the dough was described by BirdPants above. Keep the chilling minimal, and you’ll be good to go!
rachel
A lot of work for ultimately dry cookies. Take the dough out before it’s “golden brown”. Assemble while warm “not cooled” so that they don’t crack. Ugh the directions are for a professional that knows enough not to make small mistakes which are not an option for this recipe in terms of taste and presentation.
Michelle O
Have never made cookies more complex than chocolate chip, so this was an adventure!! It was helpful to follow the NYT youtube video for these cookies, but I'm above all SO grateful for the previous commenters! Felt like I had someone holding my hand through it all, and all the advice was so amazing! I will say, make sure you clear room in your freezer!!! I was rolling, cutting, and freezing between two trays while one tray was in the oven. 10 minutes for bottom, 8 minutes for top.
Doug
Everything birdpants said fit with my experience. In particular, slightly over an 1/8 of an inch is a bit thick and the cook time produced completely colorless cookies --and pursuing golden-brown-ness led to a very dry cookie. If you do wind up with a dry cookie, I found that letting them sit overnight in a humid environment really took some of the dustiness out of them (though much of that moisture may have been from the marmalade). Oh and definitely powder before assembly.
Hannah
I ordered from Stonewall Kitchens and had it delivered. I just added it to an order of other items that I will use as stocking stuffers.
Kate
I bought Wilton fluted biscuit cutters from Michaels.
twag
I used lemon curd instead of marmalade, but these were a huge hit at a Christmas party. Great cookies!
Maria
HELP! All these notes are NOT talking about the chocolate molasses cookie recipe I am looking at right now. Too bad, because I love to read helpful notes to see what tweaks I might need to make. Anyone out there make the Chocolate Molasses cookies, lol?
AJ
These are gorgeous! I always make them with Apricot jam instead (since I can never find blood orange), but they were a huge hit for Christmas
Archdruid
The powdered sugar problem: I always use organic because I can taste the cornstarch in regular. Conventional powdered sugar has added cornstarch, and has a chalky taste and texture. Organic cornstarch, on the other hand, uses tapioca starch as this product is cheaper than organic, non-GMO cornstarch. The taste is quite different, and always disappears in my liner cookies
Irim
These definitely require some learnig curve. I would say do not roll them out as thin as the recipe recommends as they are quite difficult to work with at that thinness level. I rolled my dough out between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and that worked PERFECTLY. A bit of effort but most certainly worth it!
Cat
I’ve never left a comment before but had to after these cookies. I put these in my Christmas cookie boxes and got a call or text from every person telling me they were the greatest cookies they’ve ever had. Make them!!
Michael Borger
Making these cookies was complicated. The end product was not worth the tedious work I put in. Mine turned out ugly and deformed compared to the pictures, but they did taste great and had a wonderful texture.
Corrie
Love this cookie so much. Delicate, delicious, beautiful. Always gets a little applause from the cookie eating crowd. Feels almost like an art project. I used apricot and raspberry preserves. Baked the center cutouts, too, and made mini sandwich cookies. Will make every year.
Ally
Delicious! I added lemon zest to the dough and used lemon curd to fill them. I don’t think the first step in the freezer is super necessary — it was much more difficult to cut out the shapes with the dough that firm. Next time, I’d only put it in the freezer right before the cookies go in the oven to help hold their shape.
AK202
The cookies are delicious and I did a variety of lemond curd, raspberry and orange marmalade since this definitely yield way more than 24 (it was 48 for me!). I followed others' suggestions to skip chilling too much. I initially chilled the dough for 15 minutes and then a few minutes after it was rolled out and then cookies cut out. Turned out really well but way too much effort!
Tom
These are really beautiful and delicious. Worth the work. Followed others' advice and dusted the tops before putting on bottoms. And like others, I got the feel of how chilled the dough needs to be to work with at various stages. Cooked and strained Stonewall Kitchen Holiday Jam. Really great Xmassy flavors and color.
Michelle O
Have never made cookies more complex than chocolate chip, so this was an adventure!! It was helpful to follow the NYT youtube video for these cookies, but I'm above all SO grateful for the previous commenters! Felt like I had someone holding my hand through it all, and all the advice was so amazing! I will say, make sure you clear room in your freezer!!! I was rolling, cutting, and freezing between two trays while one tray was in the oven. 10 minutes for bottom, 8 minutes for top.
DrDre2008
The video is helpful, indeed! Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X72tIx9HjY8
Sarah
I only had chia seeds on hand so I used those and no one knew they weren't poppy seeds. The chia seeds did not seem to take on too much moisture from the dough. Did anyone else have a problem with the tops not matching the size of the bottoms? I'm not sure if they shrunk in the oven or not.
Hannah
I agree with other reviewers that less chilling makes for a far easier process. I only chilled for 20 minutes before rolling. I also didn't roll on parchment paper because when did, it just slid all over the place. I rolled on a well floured counter and had no trouble sliding the rolled dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Cookies were tender and so yummy. The recipe seems intimidating, but in practice it was not hard to do and the results are worth it.
Hanna
Delicious! Dough is impossible to roll out and cracks after it's been chilled, as other reviewers mentioned. I would ignore the chilling steps in the recipe and just use your gut. As long as the cookie is cold when it goes in, you will have success. I rolled dough out when it was still soft with a dusting of flour, chilled the rolled dough, took out to cut shapes, and put in freezer for a bit before baking. Time-consuming, but an impressive cookie. Better to bake one day, assemble the next.
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