Making Cookie Rings (and a Test Batch of Cookies)

Dorie Greenspan has been making these amazing looking "Jammer" cookies for a while.  We've never tried making them.  This presented a perfect excuse for me to try to improve my completely awful welding skills.  Here's how I made a set of 3" and 3.5" cookie rings.  I made them at techshop.

Cut a sheet of stainless steel to 9.7" (3" * π plus enough overlap for the ring to stay together) long, then cut it the other way into 1.5" strips.  I used a hydraulic sheer.  

Shape the strips of metal into rings using a slip roller.  The roller I used is a little too big to roll a 3" circle so I ended up with C shaped rings and just finished shaping them by hand.

I set up the TIG welder, which I had used a grand total of once before (in a class last week), clamped a couple of pieces of scrap together and tested a spot weld.  Success!

For the rings I overlap the ends by about a third of an inch, clamp both edges, welded the center, remove one vise grip, weld, repeat on the other edge.  I only managed to burn a hole in one or two of them :-)

A quick cleanup job on a sander and they're ready to go.

After making these five I made another batch of nine 3.5" rings.

Using this recipe we made the dough, cut it with the rings, add a bit of homemade apricot jam, use a piece of aluminum foil as a cone to sprinkle the streusel around the edges, toss it in the oven.

These cookies are definitely good enough to be worth showing the world how inept a welder I am.