Magazine Mondays: Jam-Filled Mezzaluna Cookies!

Last week I mentioned in my Magazine Mondays post that the March 2008 Food & Wine issue had an excellent feature called “How to Cook Like You Own an Italian Villa”. I tried many of the recipes and loved them all. By far, however, the recipe for Jam-Filled Mezzaluna Cookies was my absolute favourite.

I try so many new recipes in a year, both from magazines and cookbooks. And I would say that in a year, there’s probably only a handful of times where I come across a recipe that becomes part of my recipe family.

And this recipe has now been officially adopted.

While they’re more than a cookie, these treats are buttery pieces of pastry heaven meant to enclose the jam of your choice.

They were incredible. I don’t know what else to say about them other than to say that when I bit into one, warm out of the oven, I just had this image of eating one of these lovely treats with a steaming espresso at the kitchen table in our little house in Italy.

It was love at first bite.

As with all Magazine Mondays, I’m always happy to share with you links to posts from other food bloggers who have squared off against their magazine piles. Here’s who made a dent:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Roasted Garlic and Sundried Tomato Bread from Canadian Living.

My Jenny of All Things Edible made Brownies from The Brownie Project.

Janie of Panini Girl made Pea and Parmeson “Wanton” Ravioli from Gourmet magazine.

Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Golden Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting.

Amy I. of Playing House made Vanilla Bean Shortbread from Cooking Light.

Andreas of Delta Kitchen made Asparagus Pizza.

Here’s a photo journal of the Jam-Filled Mezzaluna Cookies:

I had a lot of fun rolling out this very tender dough. I used a 4-inch tart ring to cut out the pastry circles.

I used some lovely cherry preserves to fill the cookies.

I very gently sealed the cookies.

I placed the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. I brushed them with egg wash and sprinkled on sugar. The recipe instructs that you sprinkle on sliced almonds but I omitted that step.

Ciao!