Dream Lemon Raspberry sandwich cookies

The other night I woke up from a very vivid dream. I usually can only remember bits and pieces of dreams, but this was super clear and detailed. I dreamed that I ate the best lemon raspberry cookie in the world. It was a sandwich cookie, two lemon cookies with raspberry jam in between. The cookie itself was rustic and imperfect, but it was the most delicious thing ever. In my dream, I shared it with my parents, who didn't think it was anything special. But I knew they were wrong.

So I awoke with a mission: to make the cookie of my dreams! All I really needed was lemons and raspberries, since I had all the staples to make cookies. I scoured the internet for a recipe that resembled my dream cookie, but couldn't really find anything. It wasn't a cut out cookie, it was more of a drop cookie. I finally found a recipe I could adapt, from David Leibovitz's book Ready for Dessert. His is an orange poppy seed cookie with raspberry jam filling.

So I swapped the orange zest for lemon and omitted the poppy seeds. This cookie dough is super buttery. The original recipe says to roll it out, but it was too soft for that, so I just scooped it into balls and rolled them evenly. Then I pressed them flat onto cookie sheets, making mostly uniform disks.

While baking, it was hard to tell when the cookies were done, because they were so soft. I removed one and tested it to tell for sure.

After cooling, I sandwiched raspberry jam that I bought between two cookies. Not too much jam, so it wouldn't squish out. The first bite had a lot riding on it! They were delicious. Super lemony and soft, with a hint of raspberry. I could have used more jam to up the flavor.

I'm not sure they were the cookies of my dreams, but they were super tasty and delicious. I made 10 sandwiches, and my husband had eaten 5 by the end of the day. I call that a success. I think I'll continue trying to make the perfect lemon raspberry cookie, but this was a great start.