Oreos grow up: rosemary lemon sandwich cookies

As I mentioned sometime last week, I've been a little obsessed with sandwich cookies.  It all started when I sat down to try to think of what to get my cousin for her late October birthday.  Of course, the natural answer was desserts!  This was all well and good, except for one giant hitch: Ting lives in New York City.  That's ..., well, over 2500 miles away from me.  Hm.  But, enter in the modern miracle that is 2nd day mail!  (I <3 USPS.)

So my thoughts turned to what kinds of desserts would travel best.  Ice cream was obviously--though quite unfortunately because Ting loves froyo--out.  As was cake, since I wouldn't want to send anything unfrosted and DIY unfinished.  That left breads and cookies.  I decided that while breads would be a great care-package type item, they weren't really all that festive and therefore were inappropriate for a birthday, so cookies it was.  Then, I knew it had to be some form of more robust cookies, since I didn't want the treats to end up arriving in New York as a big package of crumbs.  That would be a huge waste of postage.  And, I don't know how it hit me but suddenly... *sandwich cookies!*  They would travel perfectly, and I could make two different flavors to send for variety.  :-D

Rosemary-lemon sandwich cookies

Chocolate-vanilla "oreo" sandwich cookies

So, Ting's birthday package ended up with two kinds of "oreos": rosemary-lemon and good old nostalgic chocolate-vanilla.--both recipes that I'll be posting this week, starting with the rosemary-lemon ones today.

 

The rosemary-lemon sandwich cookies were definitely the more "grown-up" flavor out of the two, but they were a great complement to the traditional oreos.  The rosemary in the cookies isn't overpowering, and, together with the lemon, lends a subtle excellent fragrance to the overall cookie.   I thought the combination might be a little too exotic, but when I took both types with me to the office after I'd made them, the rosemary-lemon were definitely the more popular of the two (probably also thanks to that exoticism--everyone wanted to try them)!

I heard from Ting a few days after I sent the cookies telling me that they arrived completely intact and were still delicious, even after having survived a couple-thousand mile journey across the country.  :-D  Hope you had a very happy (and yummy!) birthday, Ting!

Make sure to tune in later this week for the traditional chocolate-vanilla oreo recipe.

Read on for recipe...

Hope you had a Happy Halloween! (and Pumpkin Cake)

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!  My party turned out to be a lot of fun, though I spent the rest of the weekend recovering from it (hence no Pancakes of the Week, please excuse me!).  I promise that this will be my final Halloween-related post--that is, until next year, of course, but I wanted to share with everyone the cake I make every Halloween.

Pumpkin cake

with cream cheese frosting

Every year, I ask myself why I don't make this cake more often.  It's so dense and moist that some have even remarked (in a good way) that it's like eating a solid pumpkin mousse!  I really do need to whip out this recipe more often, if not in pumpkin form then at the very least in loaf pan form.  It's perfect for cool, fall mornings.

Anyhow, we'll move back to regularly scheduled programming on Desserts for Breakfast this week (I do have a day job that I can't abandon).  Here's looking forward to the holidays!  :-D

Read on for the recipe...