During a week full of small, annoying setbacks, it feels extra-nice when something comes together in a completely perfect, hassle-free way. 

After a long week away from home and an abbreviated weekend, last Monday arrived too soon and I just wasn’t prepared. As the week wore on, I was still a step behind, writing bills and forgetting to send them, spending ten extra minutes getting ready (not sure why), resulting in perpetual lateness, and buying groceries for meals that I had run out of time to prepare.

All the while, my suitcase sat out next to the couch, ransacked and half-packed. I was running around like a mad woman at work, preparing for yet another conference and by Wednesday I no longer considered unpacking, because, I rationalized, it would only need to be repacked for this week’s trip.

Quitting this type of slovenly behavior is something I’ve forever assigned to the “when I grow up” category.
And as my 30^th birthday approaches, one would think that I’d be getting it together. Instead my day-to-day life suffers from my own world-class disorganization, causing last minute scrambling that makes me late, forgetful, and stressed as I fumble with the small potatoes.

But when I’m in the kitchen, things are different. I’m clean and efficient, I multi-task with ease and grace. I happily hit pause to make these delectable cookies for a big weekend to-do (plenty more on that to come) and enjoyed a moment of brilliant and perfect control, resulting in crumbly, delicious, buttery shortbread accented with tart, and chewy stripes of cherry.  

These are just a bit more complicated than your average slice and bake – there are two turns in the freezer, one to freeze each of the cookie layers (otherwise, they will be sticky and too hard to work with), and then another to firm up the layers before slicing.  When I rolled out my dough I got wider parts toward the center, so I cut these slices in half before placing them on the sheet. I also trimmed the ends of some of them to make them more neat and even.  They were exactly the right sort of project for indulging my kitchen OCD and restoring order to my world in chaos, if only for a little while.

Striped Icebox Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share

For the filling:

¾ cup dried cherries

1/3 cup cherry jam

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

(Note: I omitted 1 tablespoon of sugar as I wanted tart stripes)

For the dough:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup yellow cornmeal

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Parchment paper

Make filling: Process cherries and jam in a food processor until coarsely pureed. Transfer to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Let cool completely.

Make dough: Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 4 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Transfer dough to a work surface (it helped to put a piece of parchment down on the surface first). Divide into four equal pieces. Roll one piece of dough between two sheets of parchment paper  to a 3 ½ by 9 inch rectangle about ¼ inch thick. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces. Transfer with parchment to a baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes.

Assemble cookies: Remove top piece of parchment. Spread one-third of the filling evenly over one rectangle. Top with another rectangle and remove parchment. Repeat with remaining filling and rectangles, leaving the top layer uncoated. Wrap in plastic and freeze for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim the dough to a 3 ¼  by 8 ¼ inch brick (or, if you are less concerned with perfectly uniform sizes, leave as is and trim edges or cut larger pieces in half as you go) and cut into ¼ inch slices. Space 2 ½ inches apart on baking sheets lined with silicone liners or parchment. Bake cookies, rotating halfway through, until the edges are pale golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.