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Split Seconds Cookies are a jam- and fruit-filled treat a bit like a thumbprint cookie but far easier. They won a prize in the Pillsbury Bake-Off in 1954, and have been a treasured cookie on holiday cookie platters for decades.
Giveaway Prizes!
Prize #1: A Tropical and Exotic Fruit Gift Basket from Melissa’s Produce
One winner will enjoy a stunning assortment of fruit from Melissa’s, arranged in a woven basket with cellophane wrapping and colorful ribbon. Fruit may include (depending on seasonal availability): Asian Pear, Baby Pineapple, Blood Orange, Cherimoya, Feijoas, Kiwis, Kumquats, Lychees, Mango, Papaya, Passion Fruit, Persimmons, Pomegranate, Rambutans, Specialty Bananas, Starfruit and Tamarillos.
Prize #2: A collection of Selefina Spices
One winner will enjoy a collection of spices from Selefina Spices including: Cinnasational Spice Blend, crystalized ginger, lemon peel, Matcha food grade powder, purple sweet potato powder, and ground cardamom seeds. Selefina Spices sells an assortment of spices gathered using dedication and care with which they’ve curated their online tea collection. With decades of experience sourcing products and establishing global connections, their mission is to bring you fresher, higher-quality spices and seasonings at lower prices.
Prize #3: A selection of 3 extract pastes from Taylor and Colledge
One winner will receive a selection of extract pastes to include almond, organic vanilla bean, and lavender. In 1897, Taylor & Colledge won its first award for excellence in vanilla. Since then, the Taylor & Colledge commitment for unsurpassed quality has earned the brand a reputation as one of the world’s finest producers of vanilla.
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And then be sure to see the list of today’s recipes offerings below my recipe, and try one or more of them out for your own sweet pleasure this spring.
How to make Split Seconds Cookies
First, gather your ingredients. For this recipe, you’ll need:
- Sugar
- All purpose flour, baking powder
- Egg
- Salted butter
- Vanilla paste. I used Taylor & Colledge Organic Vanilla Bean Paste with Seeds, a superior product.
- Jam/jelly
- Fresh fruit. I used black mission figs and Neapolitan Tangerines from Melissa’s Produce
- Powdered sugar, half & half, almond extract paste for the drizzle. I used Almond Extract Paste from Taylor & Colledge, a deeply flavored extract paste.
Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, vanilla, egg, flour and baking powder into a dough. It’s a nice dough!
Portion it into 6 equal pieces.
Shape into cigars or logs about 9 inches long.
Place logs on prepared baking sheet. They will all fit because they don’t really spread.
Use fingers to make a trough.
Or use a wooden spoon handle to make the trough.
Choose which fruit you’ll use. My favorite combos ended up being tangerine segments (with orange marmalade) and fresh fig quarters (with fig jam). The fruits were from Spring Sweets Week sponsor Melissas’s Produce.
Fill the trough with marmalade and then tangerine segments.
Fill the trough with fig jam and fig quarters.
Bake and when done, drizzle on a simple mixture of powdered sugar, half and half, and almond extract paste.
Cut the cookies between fruit segments.
Let’s bake Split Seconds Cookies, shall we? You’ll probably have everything you need for the cookies in your pantry. There’s a good reason these won a prize in the Pillsbury Bake-Off, and have been popular for 7 decades!
Split Seconds Cookies are a jam- and fruit-filled treat like a thumbprint cookie but far easier. They won a prize in the 1954 Pillsbury Bake-Off, and have been a treasured cookie on holiday cookie platters for decades.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup salted butter (this is 1 1/2 sticks, or 12 tablespoons)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
- 1 egg
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- .
- Fruit Toppings
- --Jelly or preserves to match or contrasts your fruits
- --Fresh figs (use with fig jam)
- --Fresh tangerines (use with orange marmalade)
- .
- Drizzle
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons half & half (or use milk or water)
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract paste
- Tiny pinch fine sea salt or table salt
Directions
- Heat oven to 350F degrees. Line a sheet pan or baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter on medium until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg until well blended. Add flour and baking powder and mix on low until dough forms.
- Divide dough into 6 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface (such as a cutting board or countertop that you can roll something out on), shape the portions into 6 rolls 9-10 inches long. They should look like loooong cigars! Place these rolls on your prepared baking sheet.
- With your fingers or the handle of a wooden spoon, press lengthwise down the center and into the top of each roll to make an indentation about 1/4-inch deep and 1/4- to 1/2-inch wide. You're making a trough to hold your fruit toppings!
- Fill each indentation with a bit of jelly and then pieces or segments of the fruit. I used fig jam and fig quarters for a roll, orange marmalade and tangerine segments for another roll, and cherry jam and halved fresh cherries for a third roll. Press the fruit in lightly with your hands. (I also tried one of each without the jam and just the fruit, and my family preferred it WITH jam AND fruit. It's slightly less sweet without jam; I liked it that way, but for mass appeal, use jam AND fruit.)
- Bake 20 minutes; it will be light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on sheet for 5-10 minutes, and drizzle with the glaze, to make it pretty.
- Then use a sharp spatula to press down and cut between the segments or slices of fruit. I got 9 or 10 cookies per roll; your mileage may vary depending on how many slices or segments of fruit you apply. (More is better, so I would place them more horizontally than vertically so I could get more fruit on each roll.)
- All to cool completely and store in an airtight container on the counter. These were wonderful the first day, second and third days. After that, they were GONE, so I can't attest to how long they will last on the counter.
- Makes 50-60 cookies, depending on how you cut them.
Notes
Recipe source: This is a slight adaptation of a Pillsbury Bake-Off recipe submitted by Maryann Fellows (nee Olsson) in 1954 (the 6th Bake-Off). She won a new kitchen for it, and apparently the recipe was reprinted in the Pillsbury Family Desserts cookbook pamphlet, and the Bake-Off pamphlet for that year. On the Pillsbury website, it credits the cookie to her husband Robert Fellows, but those who knew her and her family say she was well known in her community for these cookies. Apparently she was a native of Sweden who came to American in the late 1940s, and she learned this recipe from her relatives. She used raspberry jam in her original recipe, but you can use any jam, jelly or preserve, and I think it's fun to put a different jam on each log, for different flavors. I added the fresh fruit to modernize it further. Maryann Fellows died in 2003, according to her daughter, who says her mom used to make these cookies every holiday.
Pin the image below for Split Seconds Cookies to your Pinterest board to save this recipe
Today’s Spring Sweets Week recipes are:
-
- Banana Dragon Fruit Muffins from Palatable Pastime
- Berry Triple Layer Cake from In Our Spare Time
- Blood Orange Crepe Suzette from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Blood Orange Crumb Muffins from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
- Blood Orange Posset from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Holiday Fruit Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Lavender Lemon Creme Brulee from The Spiffy Cookie
- Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake from Art of Natural Living
- Lemon Mousse Filled Crepe Cups with Berries from Blogghetti
- Lemon Raspberry Crepe Cake from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
- Meyer Lemon Almond Pound Cake from Cheesecurd In Paradise
- Meyer Lemon Upside Down Cake from Hezzi-D’s Recipe Box
- Split Seconds Cookies from Shockingly Delicious YOU ARE HERE!
- Springtime Chocolate Terrarium Dessert from For the Love of Food
- Sweet Crepes with Luscious Fruits from Our Good Life
- Tangerine Upside Down Cake from Magical Ingredients
- Tangerine Vanilla Fig Preserves from That Recipe
We share recipes from #SpringSweetsWeek on Pinterest! Make sure you follow the board to see all the delicious recipes shared this week.
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DISCLOSURE: Thank you #SpringSweetsWeek sponsors: Selefina Spices, Melissa’s Produce, and Taylor and Colledge, for providing the prizes free of charge. These companies also provided the bloggers with samples and product to use for #SpringSweetsWeek recipes. All opinions are my own. The giveaway is open to residents of the United States who are 18 years of age or older. All entries for the winner will be checked and verified. By entering you give the right to use your name and likeness. The number of entries received determines the odds of winning. Three (3) winners will be selected. The prize packages will be sent directly from the giveaway sponsors. The #SpringSweetsWeek Bloggers are not responsible for the fulfillment or delivery of the prize packages. Bloggers hosting this giveaway and their immediate family members in their household cannot enter or win the giveaway. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. This promotion is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by or associated with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, X or any other social channel mentioned in the #SpringSweetsWeek posts or entry.
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At ShockD, you’ll find scrumptious, tried & true, "scary good" recipes, tips and coaching to make YOU a fabulous home cook! Don't blame me if you need a 12-step program to wean yourself away!
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
These cookies sound wonderful and I love that many different jams can be used. I am trying this pretty soon.
Radha,
It’s fun to make the 6 logs and then use a different jam in each one!
I’ve never heard of these cookies before. I love the totally customizable feature of these cookies.
Christie,
Exactly! You can tweak them to whatever jam or preserve you have on hand, and what fruit is in season if you’re using fruit!
I have some aging jam that I’d love to use in these.
Inger,
PERFECT use for it!
I love the fresh fruit on top. Perfect little cradles!
Karen,
Cradle is a perfect way to describe this cookie!
You can’t go wrong with cookies. Especially topped with fruit. Yum!
What a great spin on a classic cookie! My gram used to make them with raspberries, yours sound amazing!
Jolene,
Your grandmother made Split Seconds cookies? Yahoo!
Yum! Cookies with fruit and jam are calling my name! I’ve never heard of these cookies but I’ll take one of each!
Heather,
And you shall have them!
So easy! I love that trough idea to fill with fruit!
Cindy,
I also made them with cherries (and cherry preserves), but I thought the tangerine and fig versions were the absolute best.
I had never heard of these cookies before. Thanks so much for sharing them. I cannot wait to try them and experiment with all the wonderful flavors each season.
It would only take me a split second to devour these cookies!
Lisa,
Ha ha…I see what you did there.