Spices and tamarind are my match made in heaven. These spiced tamarind sandwich cookies are a beautiful paring of the sweet and tart flavour of the tamarind jam and the warm flavour of the cookies. It is always the flavour combination I use for my birthday cake so it had to make it into the cookie box.
Why a spiced tamarind sandwich cookie?
Spices with tamarind is a combination I have shared on this blog a few times. The first was a traditional Ghanaian drink — lamurji /pusa— which is a spiced tamarind drink. The drink is made with tamarind pulp, a fruit indigenous to West Africa, with lots of ginger, pepper and indigenous spices. The tamarind flavour is at the forefront. The dink is tart (a little lip puckering), spicy and warming.
I have also used the same combination for my birthday cake. Layers of cake with warming spices, a few that are indigenous to West Africa, stacked with a light layer of a tamarind jam and covered in a simple American buttercream frosting. Here, the warm flavours come through first, with the tamarind offering a counterbalance.
Tamarind and warm spices simply go hand in hand.
What spices are needed for the cookies?
In Ghana, we have 5 important Indigenous spices we use for many recipes — grains of paradise (efom wisa), guinea cubeb (esoro wisa), aidan fruit (prekese), grains of selim (hwentia), calabash nutmeg (hwediaba).
These spices are strong, very warm and very earthy. This cookie features three of these spices (shown above) with the addition of cloves and vanilla extract. My spice mix was leftovers of a kelewele spice mix I was testing for my cookbook. You do not need to use this same blend; it is the principles that matter. We want a spice blend that is warm and comforting. Great alternative spice blends include your favourite pumpkin pie spice mix, gingerbread spice mix, or even a chai masala.
What you will need for this recipe.
- Tamarind: You will need tamarind fruit pulp for this recipe. These can be found at any Asian or Indian grocery store or any online retailer.
- Sugar: For this recipe, we are using white granulated sugar. Castor sugar should work okay but the weight per volume will be different. I do not recommend brown or any other alternative sugar as sugar (both the type or combination of sugar) in baked goods does not only serve the role of a sweetener but is important in the texture and cooking process of the cookie.
- Butter: I use a vegan-friendly butter for my recipes. Make sure the butter is soft and at room temperature
- Apple Sauce: I use this as an egg replacer for extra moisture.
- Spice Blend: Any warm spice blend works. Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin spiced latte spice mix, chai masala, gingerbread spice mix, or just equal parts cloves, nutmeg and ginger powder.
- Vanilla Extract: This offers extra warmth to the cookie.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch reduces the spread of the cookie and makes the butter cookie nice and fluffy. For the tamarind jam, it helps it set.
- Baking Powder: this helps to puff up the cookie for a lighter, airy texture.
- Flour: This recipe is made with all-purpose flour. Cake flour can be a great alternative for a softer cookie.
- For gluten-free options, please use a 1-to-1 substitute. Some gluten-free flours might not absorb as well as gluten flours, so feel free to add less lemon juice or a few more tablespoons of gluten-free flour to get the dough into a ball.
- Salt: Salt helps to bring out flavour and balance out the sweetness.
How to make a spiced tamarind sandwich cookie
- Put together the tamarind jam.
- Cream the butter and sugar together
- Add the apple sauce
- Mix in the dry ingredients and the spices. Combine the dough into a ball.
- Roll out the cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper until 1/2 a centimetre thick
- Cut out the cookies based on your favourite shapes.
- Bake the cookies at 320°F for 12 minutes.
- Allow your fully baked cookies to cool down for 10 -15 minutes.
- Everything is ready to assemble. Place 1 – 2 teaspoon dollop of the tamarind jam on cookies without cutouts. Place cookies with cutouts on top.
Storage
Storing baked cookies. These cookies stay fresh for a few days at room temperature. After which they can become stale. To avoid this, you can place them in an airtight container and put them in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freezing raw cookie dough. You can freeze cookies at many stages of making it. Once your raw cookie dough has come together, you can roll it out and wrap it in plastic wrap before freezing. To bake, just thaw on your counter then proceed with the cooking instructions.
Freezing baked cookies. You can also bake the cookies and freeze them before sandwiching. Make sure they have fully cooled before freezing them. I do not recommend freezing the cookies with the tamarind jam in between. Freeze the cookies and the jam separately, then assemble when they are not frozen. You can thaw the cookies on the counter or heat them in the microwave for 30 seconds to speed up the process. Likewise, allow the tamarind jam to thaw on the counter or quickly microwave it. Do not over microwave it; otherwise, the texture will be off.
Check out the rest of the Christmas Cookies
- Double Chocolate Teff Cookies (instead of teff, I used millet)
- Grains of Paradise Orange Cookie
- Roasted Millet and Peanut Cookie
- Dawa Dawa Chocolate Cookie
- Spiced Tamarind Sandwich Cookie
Spiced Tamarind Sandwich Cookie
Ingredients
Tamarind Jam
- 3 tablespoons (65g) of tamarind pulp packed
- 1 cup (240ml) of hot water
- 56 g (1/3 cup) of white granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
Cookie
- 85 g (1/2 cup) of white granulated sugar
- 113 g (1/2 cup) of unsalted room temperature butter
- 1 tablespoon (20g) of unsweetened apple sauce
- 200 g (1 2/3 cup) of all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon of kelewele spice see notes for substitutions
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
Instructions
Make the Tamarind Jam
- Soak the tamarind in the hot water for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the tamarind would have softened significantly. Use a fork to break apart any large pieces then, with your hands, massage the pieces into the water.
- Strain out the seeds and any large pieces.
- Pour the tamarind juice into a small pot. Bring to a boil then add the sugar. allow the jam to cook for 15-20 minutes at medium heat while you make your cookies. Check on it periodically to ensure it is reducing and thickening.
Make the cookie
- Cream the butter and sugar together
- Add the apple sauce
- Mix in the dry ingredients(flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt and spices) along with the vanilla extract. Use your hands to make a round ball.
- Preheat your oven to 320°F.
- Roll out the cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper until 1/2 a centimetre thick.
- By now, the tamarind jam should have been reduced to a maple syrup-like texture. Mix 1 teaspoon of cornstarch in 2 tablespoons of water and pour into the tamarind mix. Allow the jam to simmer at medium-low heat for a few minutes (3-5 minutes) to thicken some more to almost a thick syrup/sauce-like texture. Take it off the stove to cool and further solidify. I usually stick the pot in the fridge to make it cool faster.
- Cut out the cookies using your favourite cookie cutter shape. Cut out the cookie's centre for the tops of the sandwiches.
- Bake the cookies at 320°F for 12 minutes.
- Allow your baked cookies to fully cool down.
Assemble the sandwich cookies
- Everything is ready to assemble. Place 1 – 2 teaspoons of the tamarind jam on the sandwich bottoms. Place cookies with cutouts on top.
- You could dust the cookies with powdered sugar, or you can mix the tamarind jam with a little bit of milk and powdered sugar to get a thick paste and then drizzle on top of the cookies.
1 Comment
Cez
December 2, 2024 at 6:24 pmLooks amazing, I love tamarind so will definitely give these a go over the holiday period!