Guava-Filled Butter Cookies

Preparation time: 1 hour 45 minutes, plus cooling time | Cooking time: 15 minutes |Makes: About 36 cookie sandwiches

Brazilians have a thing for sweets at weddings—specifically cookie sandwiches, where two pieces are joined into one, like a couple getting married. There are bem casados, which are snack cake rounds sandwiched with dulce de leche. There are casadinhos, which are fudge balls—one plain, one chocolate—sandwiched with guava paste or dulce de leche. And then there are these cookies, casadinhos de goiabada, which though they share the same name as the fudge balls, are quite different: Tiny, marble-size cookie sandwiches—made usually of just butter, flour, and sugar—held together with guava paste. All of these cookie names contain some riff on the word casadinho, which means “married” in Portuguese.

These cookies most resemble Italian baci di dama (recipe, page 120) in appearance, and their diminutive size is part of the appeal. You can, of course, fill them with dulce de leche, chocolate-hazelnut spread, or any other fruit jam, but the softness and florality of the classic guava paste works wonderfully to contrast with the crunchy, buttery cookies.

INGREDIENTS

• 10 tablespoons (5 oz/140 g) unsalted butter, softened

  Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World Ben Mims

• ½ cup (100 g) white US granulated (UK caster) sugar, plus more for coating

• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1 ¾ cups (245 g) all-purpose (plain) flour

• 4 oz (115 g) guava paste

• 1 tablespoon boiling water 

DIRECTIONS

Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C/Gas Mark 4). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, combine the butter, sugar, and salt and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2–3 minutes. Add the flour and stir until a dough forms and there are no dry patches of flour remaining. 

Using a 1/4-ounce ice cream scoop or a heaping teaspoon, portion the dough and roll into 1/2-inch (13 mm) balls. Arrange the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spaced 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart.

Bake until the cookies are light golden brown on the bottom and dry to the touch, 10–12 minutes, switching racks and rotating the baking sheets front to back halfway through.

Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks. Let the cookies cool on the pans for 1 minute, then transfer them to the racks to cool completely. 

Place the guava paste in a heatproof bowl and mash with a fork. Warm the paste in the microwave for 20 seconds, then stir in the boiling hot water, to loosen it. 

Flip over half of the baked cookies and top each with 1/2 teaspoon of the warm guava paste. Cover the guava paste with another cookie to create sandwiches. Roll the cookie sandwiches in more sugar before serving. 

Excerpted from Crumbs  © 2024 by Ben Mims. Photography © 2024 by Simon Bajada. Reproduced by permission of Phaidon. All rights reserved.

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