Chocolate Mint Creme Sandwich Cookies

 

It’s chocolatey and minty around here still.

Since Andes are my husbands fave candy, since he’s a choco-saurus rex, since it’s Christmas time and that means cookie time, I made chocolate sandwich cookies with minty, whipped buttercream. It just seemed appropriate.

I think these cookies would make a fine addition to any holiday cookie spread, especially for those mint+chocolate loving guys and gals. The chocolate cookies hold their shape like a champ in the oven and have a little give on the tooth–which is totally necessary since we don’t want minty buttercream squishing out the sides with each bite. Cookie to creamy filling ratios are maintained and all is well. The buttercream is light and pleasantly minty–not punch-your-face-minty. It’s made with the crazy milky-flour-paste method, which I think makes such a creamy, dreamy, whipped up buttercream that melts oh-so-nicely on the tongue. It’s good stuff and even better sandwiched between two deep, dark cookies. At room temperature this frosting is pretty soft, so if you want something a little more stable I’d go with a butter+powdered sugar+extract sort of deal. You do what you want. You’re the boss.

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

adapted from Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cookies magazine 2010

The butter for this dough is melted, which makes it super easy to pull together if you haven’t thought about softening your butter ahead of time. This dough is pretty soft, even after being chilled. I would suggest dividing the dough and working with 1/3-1/2 at a time, leaving the remaining dough in the refrigerator. 

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened, Dutch-process cocoa powder

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cup packed, brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg

buttercream for filling

Whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg–add flour mixture and stir until dough forms.

Divide the dough in half, pat into disks and wrap well. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Roll out dough between 2 pieces of parchment to 1/4-1/8 inch thick. Using desired cutters, cut out shapes and transfer to parchement or silicone lined baking sheets. Chill cut-out cookies on sheets in the freezer for 5-10 minutes, until firm to the touch. Bake 1 sheet at a time in the center of the oven for 8-10 minutes–depending on size of cookie shapes–remove from oven and allow to cool completely on the sheets on a wire rack. Repeat, re-rolling scrap dough once or twice.

Spread cooled cookies with filling. Drizzle with melted chocolate if desired. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Mint Whipped Buttercream

adapted from Baked Explorations

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks/12 ounces)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons peppermint extract

green food color gel (I used a teeny, tiny amount to get a pale green color)

Fill the sink halfway with ice and water.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar and flour. Add the milk and cream, whisk to combine and heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a low boil and has thickened.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixture and submerge the bowl halfway into the sink of ice water, and stir mixture until it cools to room temperature, making sure to not let any water into the bowl. Dry the bowl and fit it onto the stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on high until the mixture is completely cool, reduce the speed to low and and add butter, mix until incorporated thoroughly. Increase the speed to medium-high and and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.

Add the vanilla, mint extract, and food color gel (if using), and beat to combine.