This recipe was inspired by the combination of chocolate and dates. Both are a bit earthy, but one provides sweetness, while the other more bitterness. Combine that with a little bit of salt from the usage of soy sauce, and you have essentially a chocolate-salted caramel-esque cookie! In this case, we have a salted date jam with a chocolate spritz cookie dough. Kind of like those raspberry thumbprint cookies you would find in vending machines at your local dentist office or carwash. Or at least I would find those there, but I might be getting too old. Either way, the aesthetic of a circular butter cookie with some sort of jam in the center is nostalgic, and reminds me of a simpler time when my only concerns in life were where my parents hid my video games. Granted, eating these cookies transported me back to that anyways, so expect these things to be a fun, slightly more modern than on a nostalgic treat. These cookies are soft and tender, while the umami-sweet-salty filling is an unusual surprise, but it tastes like salted caramel all the same.

For this recipe, piping bags will be your best friend/worst enemy here since they are necessary to shape the cookies as well as fill them. I personally only ever associate a piping bag with cookies for either royal icing(which I basically never do) or for macarons(which I tend to not do often because of laziness). I found that piping the cookies was still a bit challenging in that the batter forced the piping tip out of the bag, so I would suggest putting the piping tip outside of the bag and holding that in place with your hand instead just for control over where the batter goes. For the jam itself, be sure to use pitted dates; these will cook down really quickly, so you will have plenty of time for the jam to cool before needing to pipe it into the cookies. And yes, pipe it; this guarantees consistency across all of your cookies that way!b For the cookie dough itself, it is a lighter butter cookie recipe, using egg white as a binder, and a little bit of cold brew just to bring out the chocolate flavor a touch better. This is the perfect recipe for anyone who loves a tender, butter cookie, chocolate, and/or salted caramel!

Makes 16 cookies:
For the salted date jam:
4 dates, pitted and diced
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup water

In a pot, bring everything to a simmer on low heat until the dates are fully softened into a paste. Allow the mixture to fully cool before transferring to a piping bag.

For the chocolate spritz cookie dough:
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp black cacao powder
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white
1 tbsp cold brew
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

In a bowl, cream together the butter, cacao powder, sugar, salt, and vanilla until smooth and spreadable. Mix into that the egg white and cold brew first, then fold in the flour to form a loose dough. Transfer the dough into a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe into 1-inch disks, keeping them at least 1 inch apart. Press into the center of each disk a hole using the back of a teaspoon and pipe into each just enough of the date jam to fill the centers halfway. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool before attempting to store in an airtight container.