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–+ servings
Lady Locks

Lady Locks

A light pastry dough is wrapped around clothespins to make a cookie that is filled with a creamy center.
Servings: 60 cookies
Prep Time: 40 minutes
12 minutes x 4 batches: 48 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 28 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup Crisco
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 pound butter, or 4 sticks
  • 8 ounces of sour cream

Instructions

Filling:

  • For the filling, cook the milk and flour on low in a medium saucepan until thickened. Whisking as it cooks. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to cool completely.
  • Mix together the 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup Crisco. Beat it well with an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla and granulated sugar and beat it well. Add the cooled flour mixture and beat it for 5 minutes. Place it in an airtight plastic container and put it in the refrigerator.

Dough:

  • For the dough, put the flour and salt in a large bowl. As you would for pie crust, use a pastry cutter to cut in the four sticks of butter, one at a time. Your flour mixture will have small balls of butter that look like crumbs. Using an electric mixer, blend in the sour cream until combined. The dough will be dense.
  • Bring the dough together to form two round, thick discs. Wrap and refrigerate them overnight or at least 4 hours.
  • Remove the dough from the refrigerator and set it on the counter for 30 minutes before rolling it. Take one disc and cut it in half. Roll out the first half on a flour-dusted counter. Roll it out thin, just slightly thinner than pie crust. Use a sharp knife to cut rolled dough into 1 inch by 5 inch long strips.
    strips of cookie dough

Forming the cookies:

  • Now it's time to talk about the clothespins. I could not find round ones, so I used square ones. I know, it sounds odd, but I bought a pack of 36 clothespins for $1.77 and they worked great. Some recipes will tell you to wrap your clothespins in foil, but I simply sprayed mine generously with cooking spray.
  • Wrap the strips of dough loosely around the clothespins being careful to overlap the edges of the dough so there are no gaps or holes in the cookies.
  • Place the cookies (and clothespins) on an ungreased baking sheet about an inch apart. I was able to fit 16 to 18 cookies on each sheet. Bake the cookies in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. I took them out of the oven after 13 minutes, just BEFORE they turn light brown.
    Lady Locks or Clothespin Cookies
  • Allow them to cool for just a few minutes. Then remove the cookies for the clothespins by holding the cookie firmly, but gently and pulling the clothespin slowly from the center. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely before filling.

Filling the cookies:

  • Remove the filling from the refrigerator and allow it to warm for about 10 minutes. Spoon filling into a piping bag with a star tip or a gallon plastic bag with corner tip cut off. Hold the cookies carefully and pipe a small amount of cream filling into each cookie.
  • This recipe makes about 5 dozen cookies. Store the cookies in an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
    Lady Locks

Equipment

  • clothespins or tube cookie molds
  • baking sheet pans
  • stand mixer

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookieCalories: 130kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 1gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 63mgPotassium: 18mgFiber: 0.2gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 243IUCalcium: 9mgIron: 0.4mg