Jen Malec is a social worker by day, and an avid baker and cook by night. Her favorite cookbooks include The Craft of Baking, Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, and anything by Ina Garten. She loves testing and trying new recipes, especially dessert recipes!
While paging through The Homemade Pantry (Clarkson Potter, April 2012), these Oreo-like cookies immediately caught my eye. I happened to have all of the ingredients in the house, so I took out my mixer and started baking right away! They were so easy! As a girl who doesn’t always like to roll out dough, I was thrilled to find that the dough is shaped into a log, and you just have to slice the cookies off the log!
The chocolate cookie is very chocolate-y and not too sweet, so it pairs really well with the sweet frosting. Next time I would separate the dough into two logs rather than the one super long log, so that I could freeze half of the dough and have them ready to go for the next time I have a chocolate sandwich cookie moment.
Recipe for The Sandwich Cookie
from The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila
Makes 40 to 50 cookies
For the cookies
• 1 ½ cups (7.5 ounces) all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 14 tablespoons (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 3 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract, homemade or store-bought
For the filling
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract, homemade or store-bought
1. Make the cookies.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times until completely combined. Add the butter and pulse several times until the mixture is uniform. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the food processor running, slowly add the milk mixture to the batter, continuing to process until the batter clumps around the blade.
2. Lay a large piece of waxed paper on the counter and put the batter onto it. Gently press the soft batter into a log about 2 inches in diameter (this will be messy). Wrap the batter in waxed paper, lay it into a paper towel roll that has been cut in half lengthwise, and roll the log in the paper towel roll on the counter. Put the log (in the paper towel roll) in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, but up to 1 day.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F, and set your racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the log from the fridge, lay it on a cutting board, and take it out of the paper towel roll and waxed paper. With a sharp knife, cut the log into slices that are as thin as you can make them, catching each slice as you go and laying it on the baking sheet, leaving 1 inch between cookies. Try for 1?8-inch slices, but it’s okay if they are up to 1/4-inch.
4. Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets and switching their location halfway through baking. The cookies will puff up, then deflate, and they are done about 1 minute after they deflate. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue to bake the remainder of the cookies, reusing the parchment paper. Cool entirely before filling. Unfilled cookies can now be stored.
5. Make the filling.
If using the stand mixer, combine the butter, shortening, powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla in the stand mixer bowl and beat together using the flat beater until smooth and creamy. If mixing by hand, combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth and creamy.
6. Use a butter knife to spread about a ½ inch of filling on one cookie. Top with a second cookie. Repeat.
