Clothespin cookies are a flaky pastry cookie shell filled with melt in your mouth buttercream filling laced with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. This is an all butter dough and frosting recipe. Can be made with a classic ermine frosting (flour & castor sugar buttercream) or American buttercream.
- You might also like Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
- Or these Quick Kolache Cookies
I grew up in the Mahoning Valley area otherwise known as “the cookie belt.” Okay, I just made that up, but it should be dubbed that from this moment forward.
It is very rare to find the cookie table outside the rust belt and probably foreign to most. From Pittsburgh and throughout the Northeastern Ohio area the cookie table is a sight to behold. Youngstown Ohio lays claim to the cookie table however, and it’s “almost” been proven.
The cookie table can be found at weddings, graduations, baby showers, and bridal showers. Basically, anytime you need to feed a hungry crowd who loves dessert.
Its origin is believed to date back to the Great Depression when immigrant settlers couldn’t afford wedding cakes. From Italians, to Slovak to Poles, they put the cookie belt on the map.
Some believe it was just cultural traditions the immigrants brought with them. No actual documentation exists to support either theory. I’d venture to guess it was a bit of both.
Typically, the bride’s mother and extended family baked many varieties of cookies and then presented them at the wedding reception on an elaborate table. All my sisters and I had a cookie table at our weddings.
While the reception guests wait for the bride and groom to make their entrance they can get a cocktail and snack on cookies. Best believe just a bout every old timer in the venue is going to take a napkin wrapped full of their favorites home for later.
Everything from pizzelles, pecan tarts, snowballs, thumbprint cookies, cheesecake cookies, buckeyes, peanut butter blossoms, Italian wedding cookies, chocolate chip cookies, kolache nutroll, Biscotti, haystacks, fork sandwich wafer cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies just to name a few.
Clothespin cookies were not to be excluded. They are a must have cookie table staple. The absolute ultimate wedding cookie.
Lady locks, cream horns, & lady fingers are other very popular names as well for clothespin cookies.
They may be called “lady locks” because they were traditionally a wedding cookie and the concept is the man is locking himself to a particular lady for the rest of his life. Tell me that’s not funny. I’ll wait.
How are clothespin cookies baked?
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Traditional clothespin cookies back in the day were baked on round wooden clothespins.
Michael’s sells them in their craft section. The wooden clothespins with the springs won’t work because they are square shaped. You can also use mini cannoli forms but it’s more cost effective to find the round wooden clothespins and use them.
Before you use your clothespins wipe them down and give them a coating of oil or spritz of nonstick spray of your choice. This will help prevent the pastry from sticking when you go to remove the cookie from the clothespin.
I wanted to share this clothespin cookie recipe with my other Christmas cookie recipes this year, but just didn’t have the time to get around to it.
Clothespin cookies can be made any time of year but they are most popular around Christmas and especially popular on wedding cookie tables.
While they involve a bit of time and work making them, the payoff is well worth all the effort. They’re not difficult at all to make. I personally find the process relaxing.
Yummy Clothespin Cookies: Ultimate Wedding Cookie
Notes
- This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies depending on how big or small you make them.
- A detailed instructional video has been included below for your convenience and also posted on The Kitchen Prescription YouTube Channel.
- I recommend using a high fat content butter like an Irish or European butter for your pastry dough. The less water butter holds, the more flaky layers you will achieve during the baking process.
- If using actual clothespins or wooden dowel rods make sure to wipe them off with a warm damp cloth and season with oil to prevent the pastry cookie from sticking. I use extra virgin olive oil on mine. The more they are seasoned and baked, the less you will need to apply oil.
- A family friend has shared her ermine frosting recipe with me and I prefer this one over American buttercream after testing the recipe with Ermine frosting December 2022.
- An ermine frosting is the traditional filling used to fill the pastry cookies. Ermine frosting is made with whipped butter which a cooked pudding like base of fine sugar, flour, & milk is added to the whipped butter and it whips up light and fluffy. This balances the light & flaky pastry cookie well. The ermine frosting does need to be refrigerated until ready to serve. This cookie in my onion is best served chilled if using the ermine frosting.
- You can choose a standard American buttercream recipe in the pastry which I also included in the recipe. It is more sweet than the traditional ermine frosting.
- 12/18/23 Update: Flavorings and extras for frosting. This year I split my ermine frosting into 2 bowls after it was whipped up. Don’t leave out the vanilla bean paste, even if you are adding another flavor. The vanilla balances out the flavor of the cooked flour mixture. Ā I added 1/4 teaspoon LorAnn’s Lemon oil to one and mini chocolate chips to the other bowl. I am happy to report they were both delicious. Add the LorAnn flavorings a few drops at a time. If using oils they are stronger than the regular flavorings.
Ingredients
- PASTRY DOUGH
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup salted butter
- 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoon whole milk (Can you water if prefer)
- 2 egg yolks room temperature
- BUTTERCREAM FILLING
- 1/2 Cup room temperature salted butter
- 1 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream
- ERMINE FROSTING:
- 12 Tablespoons salted butter room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
- 4 Tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 cup extra fine sugar (castor sugar)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 Tablespoons of confectioner’s sugar (optional)
- ********Optional Split the frosting into 2 bowls after completed and add 1/4 teaspoon LorAnn’s Lemon oil to one bowl and mini chocolate chips to the other bowl.
Instructions
- Pastry DOUGH
- Mix flour and sugar together in a medium sized bowl
- Cut in 4 Tablespoons of cold butter (reserving the rest of the butter for later but let come to room temperature.)
- Mixture should be crumbly like sand.
- Whisk milk and egg yolks together and add to flour mixture.
- Turn out on counter & bring mixture into a shaggy ball.
- Knead until smooth
- Shape into disc. Cover in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for one hour.
- Remove and roll out dough on well floured surface.
- Roll into rectangle about 1/4″ thick.
- Spread 4 tablespoons softened butter onto dough.
- Fold in half.
- Fold in half again.
- Fold in half again
- Fold one last time if you can
- Cover & return to refrigerator for 1 hour.
- When you roll the dough out the next time you want it facing the way it is in the last photo. Folds should be facing you then roll away.
- Repeat above steps of rolling, spreading butter, and folding process 2 mores times. Covering and refrigerating for an hour between folds.
- After final fold cover and return to refrigerator 1 hour or overnight.
- For reference the dough will look like this on the inside. Lots of layers.
- Preheat oven to 350Ā° F
- While oven is preheating make the buttercream filling.
- Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer cream the butter until light and fluffy.
- Add 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar and whip until well incorporated.
- Add remaining 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, vanilla and heavy whipping cream and whip until light and fluffy and and buttercream has a consistency that will hold up when you pipe it.
- A trick to get the buttercream white is to add just a touch of violet food coloring gel to take away the yellow tones of the butter.
- ERMINE FROSTING INSTRUCTIONS:
- In a medium sauce pot add, flour, fine sugar and whisk together.
- Add milk and whisk until all lumps have dissolved.
- Over low medium heat continuously whisk mixture until it begins to boil. Cook and additional 1-2 minutes constantly whisking until it is the consistency of thick pudding.
- Remove from heat and whisk another minute to cool temperature down a bit.
- Pour mixture onto a plate and immediately cover with plastic wrap making sure it touches the mixture so it doesn’t form a skin. Let it come to room temperature.
- In a stand mixer attache the whisk attachment. If using a hand mixer, whip the room temperature butter on medium speed about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla.
- Add room temperature pudding mixture a little at a time and continue to whip the mixture.
- When all of pudding mixture has been added scrape down the sides and add 3 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar (optional) & whip one last time to make sure everything has incorporated. I add the powdered sugar to stiffen up the filling a bit so it will hold it’s texture in the cookie.
- It should be light and fluffy.
- Put buttercream or ermine frosting in a piping bag with a star tip and set aside.
- On a well floured surface roll the dough out to a large rectangle to approximately 1/8″ thickness.
- Trim off any uneven edges and cut into 1/2″ strips with a pizza cutter or sharp knife.
- Then cut the strips in half if you want smaller cookies etc.
- Take one of the strips and wrap it around the clothespin making sure to overlap and to hold the top piece in place.
- Place the clothespin on a cookie sheet making sure the bottom piece is under the clothespin so it doesn’t come undone while baking.
- Bake at 350Ā° F on center rack until pastry is just starting to lightly brown. Remove the cookie from the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack.
- When the pastry has completely cooled gently slide pastry off the clothespin. A video is posted above for reference.
- Fill center with buttercream filling.
- Dust with a light sprinkle of confectioner’s sugar.
- Refrigerate cookies until ready to eat.
- Can freeze cookies for 3-4 weeks for best results and freshness.
I was thrilled to find your recipe for clothespin cookies! I grew up right around the corner from you (Warren, OH) and we’ve done a cookie table for Christmas since I can remember. My brother did these cookies but passed away, so I decided to take them on over the past couple of years. I’ve botched them more often than not, but this year, using your recipe, they’re perfect. I use his ermine frosting recipe for the filling. He cooked it to the point of forming a dough, making it thick enough to hold up after adding the butter.
Hi Missy. I actually lived in Niles for many years and worked at St. Joe’s Hospital as a labor and delivery nurse. I still have family in Niles. I’m sorry to hear about your brother but happy you found a recipe that holds him close to your heart.
This year was my first time making the ermine frosting because the family friend who always made and brought them to our family get together’s gave me her recipe which I was so grateful for. I had been making them with my buttercream recipe and although good, they just didn’t taste like hers. So this year I was thrilled to make them with the ermine frosting.
Next time I make them, I’m going to try making the flour, milk and sugar mixture thicker like your brother did it. Since it was my first time, I wasn’t sure if I was over cooking it or not and didn’t want the milk to scorch.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment and the walk down memory lane. These cookies really do bring back so many good holiday memories with family and friends. They truly are my favorite cookie of all time!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I’m so interested in making these cookies however my printer is not working at the moment could you please email me the recipe I would so appreciate it.
So happy to find your recipe and surprised when I saw you are from the Mahoning Valley. I grew up in Lowellville.
Canāt wait to follow your recipe. Thank you!
Hi Neighbor! I hope you enjoy the recipe and thanks for sharing your comment. It seems like it is a regional cookie wouldn’t you agree?
I also grew up in the area. I am from a huge Italian family & when I was a kid, I was determined to make these cookies! Now, only me & another aunt makes them. I’m going to teach my brilliant great niece (she’s my only hope!) to continue the tradition.
I’ve been making these for over 40 years but I’ve never been thrilled to use ‘crisco’, which is what to old recipe used (for dough only).
I make pastry for other recipes so I figured I should do the butter recipe here too.
My filling calls for flour & milk, cooked, chill. Add in 1/2 to 1lb butter, 1 jar marshmallow cream, pwd sugar (I also use meringue pwd to stiffen) & 2-3 c powder sugar.
It’s not sickeningly sweet. They’re delicious.
However, I’m going to try your recipe to see if it’s easier!
This recipe was impossible to find years ago!
Thank you so much. Maria Teresa
Hi Maria Teresa. Thanks for reading and sharing your experience with Clothespin cookies. I make these just about every year for the holidays and it’s definitely that time again.
Hi, I just came across your recipe. I love how many variations there are of these. My favorite also.
I can tell you that the Wedding cookie table came from Italy.
I’ve researched this so I wouldn’t say it if it was true.
Merry Christmas!!
Hi Vickie. Thanks for reading and sharing your comment.It makes sense to me that the cookie table came from Italy. The Mahoning and Trumbull counties had a large population of Italian immigrant families. Many of the cookies that adorn the tables are Italian pastries, so yes I think I would agree with that. Cookie Tables are the best!
My husband wanted some clothes pin cookies so i found this recipe to try because of the detailed instructions.. most of the cookies shrunk and unwrapped on the forms. I think I did something wrong along the way as my dough was stiff, hard to roll out starting with the 2nd butter treatment and would shrink back up. New to working with pastry, do you know why this might be? The pictures and explanations helped but there is no substitute I guess for practice LOL. This was so much work to mess it up, so we are eating the broken cookies and filling as a dip – taste is great though Haha.
I’m so sorry this happened. Sometimes you just have to let the dough sit for 5-10 minutes when it snaps back on you. That usually means the dough has a lot of activated gluten. Pastry can take patience and experience for sure.
Were you using a good quality butter? A butter like Kerrygold or Plugra butter is great for working with pastry because it has less water content. I specifically used the Irish butter from Aldi and King Arthur All purpose flour. Fresh eggs are recommended also. It could also depend on your climate or flour ratio or oven temp. Even how much of the egg and milk ratio used. So many variables. All those factors can make a difference. And yes, practice and experience also help as well. Don’t give up it is something you love to make. We all have mishaps in baking so don’t be so hard on yourself. I’m glad you tried my recipe and I’m at least happy you thought the taste is there.
Happy New Year and thank you for sharing your experience.
Sherri
The original recipes called for Crisco but I stopped using it years ago for personal reasons. Some people swear by it. Others use a frozen puff pastry.