Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

If you know me, you know that I do not like Oreos at all.  Everyone makes fun of me, but that is okay.  I am who I am.  I was looking for a recipe to make treats for others for Christmas, and I came across this recipe from Our Best Bites.  Their recipe was for a peppermint middle (I wanted it peppermint but my family did not) but I made it vanilla by adding extra vanilla instead of peppermint extract.  They were very easy to make, and were delicious!!  They were way better than the mass produced Oreos.  I hope you enjoy them like my family and friends did.  These are sort of like a whoopie pie cookie, and you can choose to make them small or big.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour, lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled (don’t scoop!)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons real butter
1 tablespoon water
1 large egg lightly beaten

Frosting Ingredients

1/2 cup real butter (1 stick)
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
milk, as needed for consistency
optional: red or green food coloring and sprinkles or crushed candycanes


Directions
To make cookies, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. heat chocolate chips, brown sugar, 5 tablespoons butter and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until melted and smooth (there will still be grains of sugar though). Transfer mixture to a large bowl and beat in egg. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Don’t overmix.

If dough is too soft to work with, let it sit at room temp for a few minutes to firm up, or place in the fridge for a few minutes. Gently roll balls, either 1 tablespoon full for large cookies, or about 1/2 inch balls for silver dollar sized cookies. Place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies until just puffed in teh middle and edges are set but centers are still soft. About 8-9 minutes for large cookies, and about 5 minutes for small ones. If using 2 cookie sheets, rotate them half way through baking. Cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

To make filling, beat all frosting ingredients together, adding peppermint extract to taste. Add milk by the teaspoonful until a spreadable, but not too soft consistency is reached. Add food coloring if desired. Place frosting in a zip-top bag and cut off a corner. Pipe onto one side of cookie and place another on top. Roll edges in sprinkles or crushed candycanes if desired.

Yield: If you use a tablespoon of dough, it will yield 1 1/2 dozen large sandwiches. If you use a quarter of a standard cookie scoop (about a rounded teaspoon) it will yield 4-5 dozen.