Canary Creams

Today's new food item reveals one of the Weasley's many tricks of the trade:

"'It's all right,' he said. 'I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch--'" (Goblet of Fire, 366).

Moments later, when Neville turns into a bird, we learn that the Weasely twins have created not just "custard creams," but "canary creams." When I imagined Canary Creams, which are later qualified as being "custard creams," I imagined custard-filled chocolates. But in fact, Dinah Bucholz presents a recipe for delightful sandwich cookies in The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, with a slight twist. So today, we will prepare her recipe.

For the cookie dough, You Will Need:

2.25 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup vanilla pudding mix (1 packet, NOT instant!)

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick (8Tbs) butter, at room temperature

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature

For the filling, You Will Need:

1.25 cups confectioner's sugar

1/4 stick (2 Tbs) butter, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla

bowl of sugar, for flattening cookies

1. Set the oven racks to the upper and lower positions, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together the flour, vanilla pudding mix, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and confectioner's sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 5 minutes. 

4. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. 

5. Add the flour mixture and stir until the mixture is crumbly.

6. Add the milk and stir until the mixture forms a dough.

7. Break off small pieces, roll into balls (about 1"), and place them on the cookie sheets 1.5" apart.

8. Oil the bottom of a glass and dip it into the bowl of sugar to coat. Press the glass down on the balls of dough, dipping it in the sugar between each cookie.

9. Bake for 16 minutes, until the cookies are just beginning to brown a bit at the edges, rotating the cookie sheets and switching shelves halfway through baking. Cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

10.Beat the filling ingredients together until creamy. If the mixture is too dry, add milk 1 Tbs at a time until it becomes spreadable.

11. Sandwich the cooled cookies with about 1 tsp of the filling.

These cookies are surprisingly delicious! I was expecting regular old vanilla sandwich cookies, but adding the vanilla pudding mix in place of some of the flour makes an incredible difference! And the recipe yields dozens! I had to send most of them away to protect myself from turning into a canary... by which I mean suffering major sugar shock. I highly recommend you give these a try!