Cookie Thursday: Cream-Filled Chocolate Sandwiches (recipe)

Today’s cookie is another from my new Martha Stewart’s Cookies book. The kids were excited, since the cookies look at little like Oreos in the picture, although now that they are done, I would suggest they are more like moon pies. The recipe makes about 2 dozen, which I did not think was very many, until I tried one. The sweet cream filling makes them quite rich!

In today’s cooking, we learned important skills such as even numbers, how many tablespoons of butter in a stick, and how to sift flour and cocoa together. We also learned the importance of sugaring your glass each time you flatten a cookie. Here is the recipe we followed:

Cream-Filled Chocolate Sandwiches

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder [kgg: I use Sharffen Berger Natural Cocoa Powder]
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 10 tbs unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• Vanilla Cream Filling (below)

Preheat oven to 375F. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg, mix well. Gradually add flour and mix until well combined.

Using my favorite gadget, a 1 1/4-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto cookie sheets. [kgg: on one sheet, I used my Silpat, and the cookies came out flat. On the other sheet, I used nothing, and the cookies came out puffier. I liked the puffier look] Dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and press to flatten cookies to 1/8 inch thick.

Bake 10-12 minutes, until firm. Cool completely on wire racks.

When cookies are cool, place the filling in a resealable bag and cut a small bit of one corner off. Use this to squish about 1 tablespoon of filling onto the flat side of half the cookies, and place the remaining cookies on top, squeezing gently to spread the filling to the edges. The recipe indicates these can be stored for 2 days in an airtight container. We usually don’t have cookies around that long!

Vanilla Cream Filling

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening [kgg: I used Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening, which is non-hydrogenated]
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs vanilla extract

Cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, and mix until combined.