Black Out Cookies

I won a Halloween give-away and received the package in the mail last week. McCormicks, the spice company, sent me a box filled with: small silpat, small rubber scraper, oven mitt, vanilla extract, box of food coloring (classic colors), black food coloring, cupcake liners, candy corn, dots, and a tootsie roll. It was a run little box - I really needed a new oven mitt!

Since it was Halloween, I decided I had to find something to make with the black food coloring.  After a lot of thought, I ended up with the "old family recipe" of Cream Wafers!  I would dye the dough black, use a pumpkin cookie cutter, and fill them with purple food coloring. It was perfect - both Halloween colors and the Husky game on Saturday was the "blackout", where the players wear black uniforms. 

I didn't have the recipe with me while I was at work, and I intended to hit the grocery store on the way home, so I tried to Google it.  My on my were there a ton of hits.  Apparently it was in the 1955 version of the Betty Crocker Cookbook! So much for being a family recipe... But I did double check the Oelkers Family Cookbook, published in 1987, to see if it was there.  Sure enough, same recipe. The old recipes that are still in use are generally pretty sure bets.  My aunt made these to hand out during the reception at my cousin's wedding and they were gone in a flash.  The newer versions have typically taken the raw egg yolk out of the frosting, which I did as well, so it was okay for my prego friends to eat.

Cream Wafers
Apparently from Betty Crocker, but also All Recipes, Taste of Home, and the Oelkers Family Cookbook.

1 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups all purpose flour
sugar for dipping
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

1.  Cream together butter and flour.  Be sure butter is soft - hard butter will make your cookies rise like biscuits.  Add cream.  Refridgerate 1 hour. 
2.  Preheat oven to 375F.
3.  Roll out 1/3 of dough until 1/8 inch thick.  Cut out shapes with cookie cutter.  Coat both sides with sugar (I like to put shapes into a bowl of sugar and shake them around).  Place on ungreased cookie sheet; pierce 4 times with tines of fork. Bake 7-9 minutes or until slightly puffed.  Transfer to cooling rack.
4.  Make filling: Mix butter and powdered sugar, add egg yolk and vanilla extract.  Add food coloring, if desired. 
5.  Transfer filling to plastic ziptop bag.  Cut off end and squeeze small blob onto half of the cookies.  Top with another cookie.