Wasabi-Lime Lace Sandwich Cookies

My wife was in a weird mood one night and went online looking for bizarre ingredients in cookies. “Wasabi peas!” she thought and Googled away. Much to her surprise, up popped this recipe. What fun cookies! They have unusual ingredients. Rather than the usual creaming of butter and sugar, you actually boil the butter, sugar and corn syrup before stirring in the flour. They look interesting and the lime butter cream icing just makes them. Go for it!

Source:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wasabi-Lime-Lace-Sandwich-Cookies/

Ingredients:

½ cup wasabi peas, hammered into coarse pieces

½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped

¼ cup Rice Krispies, optional

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup butter, at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lime juice

½ teaspoon lime zest

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the wasabi peas in a plastic bag. Use a kitchen mallet or rolling pin to hammer them into coarse pieces.

Combine the peas, pecans and Rice Krispies in a bowl. Set aside.

Combine ¼ cup butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup in medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Stir in vanilla.

Stir in flour until smooth.

Stir in wasabi peas, pecans and Rice Krispies.

Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, place balls of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake 11 to 12 minutes until flat and lightly browned. Cool on sheet 10 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely.

Combine ½ cup butter, powdered sugar, lime juice and lime zest in a large bowl. Whip with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.

Spoon a generous amount of lime butter cream filling onto the bottom of one cookie. Spread the filling to the edges, then top with a second cookie and gently press them together. Repeat this process with the remaining cookies.

Notes:

The author of this recipe says that these cookies soften and taste the best when made a day in advance. I found this to be very true.

I made a quadruple batch to take to the emergency department. By the time I baked the last batch, the dough was cooling enough that they didn’t flatten well and had to be pressed down before baking in order to come out flat.

One of the places I found this recipe on the Internet, they omitted the butter from the cookies. I am glad I caught that, as they probably would have been a flop.