Ginger Grapefruit Cream Sandwich Cookies — Recipe Fiction (2024)

Bold and spicy ginger cookies, slightly less sweet than their ginger snap cousins. With a creamy filling chock full of ruby-red grapefruit citrus summer in a cup flavor and color this is an English tea cookie that will warm your toes and sooth your soul.

Carr’s Ginger Lemon Creams were one of my favorite cookies, an impossibly addictive personal treat; there was never a partial box of those gingery citrus devils in my cupboard. And then one day, I made the mistake of reading the ingredient list and the suggested serving size. That was a sad, sad day. As if partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils weren’t bad enough the suggested serving is two pieces, which meant every time I ate a whole box I was consuming half my recommended daily calorie intake and 14 grams of trans fat. Sigh.

I still see them on the shelf at the supermarket, they wink and wave, tempting me like that handsome bad boy with the soulful eyes and criminal record. But I turn away. I will not let them break (or, in a more literal sense, clog) my heart.

A few weeks ago when I was making a batch of gingersnaps I thought ‘’wouldn’t these be amazing with lemon cream filling!’ Then the holidays happened and here we are mid-January. I finally restocked the butter supply and decided just enough time had passed since the Christmas cookie overload that this is a shareable treat. It took me awhile (to get around to the baking, the baking itself was a breeze) but these were worth the wait. Yes, crisp (or tender, it’s up to you) tea cookies filled with citrusy goodness and a nice hot cup of Earl Grey tea. Bergamot, ginger, grapefruit. My toes just got 5 degrees warmer just writing that sentence.

Ginger Grapefruit Cream Sandwich Cookies

Adapted from my gingersnap recipe.Which, in turn, was adapted from Sheila Lukin’s All Around The World cookbook.

The filling was adapted from smitten kitchen’s homemade oreo recipe.

A couple of thoughts on substitutions

I hardly ever use shortening (hello tamales, it’s been too long!) but when I do I opt for the expeller pressed varieties like Spectrum. I imagine that cream cheese would be a delicious substitute if you knew all the cookies were going to be eaten on the first day but if you want that store-bought filling texture shortening is the way to go.

If you want less spice cut back or eliminate anything but the ginger. If you like the spice but don’t happen to have cardamom in your cupboard subbing out all ginger would certainly work though I might not add 4 tsps. of ginger perhaps just a total 2 ½ or 3 tsps.

Ingredients

cookies

• 8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar, plus (optional) extra for rolling
• 2 tsps. baking soda
• 2 tsps. ground ginger
• 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. Ceylon cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 large, lightly beaten egg

filling

• 4 T softened unsalted butter (1/4 cup or half a stick)
• ¼ cup non-hydrogenated shortening
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 2 tsps. fresh ruby grapefruit zest
• 1 T ruby grapefruit juice

instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat, and mix in molasses. Let cool.
3. Sift all dry ingredients together.
4. Once the butter mixture has cooled enough so you don’t cook the egg, add the egg and mix.
5. Combine the wet and dry mixtures and stir until thoroughly combined. Cover and refrigerate until firm- thirty minutes or so.
6. While the dough is firming you can mix up the filling. In a stand mixer cream together the butter and shortening, add the zest and grapefruit juice. Combine thoroughly, scrape down the bowl if necessary and then slowly add the confectioners sugar and beat on high until the mixture is smooth and fluffy.
7. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, then roll in sugar and place 2 inches apart on un-greased baking sheet, then flatten the dough with your fingers or a fork. For a smaller crisper cookie you can roll the dough into a log, refrigerate, and then cut into ¼ inch thick discs.
8. Bake for 9-10 minutes–or until the bottoms of the cookies are just brown. The disc cookies will be darker and crisper if baked for 9-10 minutes; the larger cookies will still be soft in the center after cooling. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.
9. Once fully cooled, fill the cookies by either piping or spooning about a teaspoon of filling onto the center of the flat side of one cookie and then sandwiching together with a second cookie, pressing down to spread the filling to the edge.