Or should I say ‘cream filled chocolate sandwich cookie’? I stumbled across this recipe from the amazing Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction.  I made it and the  cookies were so delicious it changed how I thought about ‘convenience’ foods.

Note: the terms biscuit and cookie are used interchangeably in this blog post.

This recipe started me on my quest to re-discover food that has been stolen from us by big food companies pushing ‘convenience’.  These cookies are what the inventor of the Oreo imagined.  Then the cost accountants said ‘cheaper ingredients please’ and the marketing team said ‘must last for 18 months in the package’ and the logistics team said ‘oh and should survive a 3 story drop without crumbling’.

Nobody actually NEEDS cookies. We WANT cookies.  If you’re going to indulge in a cookie (biscuit), make it one of these cream filled chocolate beauties.

I’ve made a couple of process improvements and tweaked the recipe ever so slightly for non-American bakers.  My version of the recipe makes three dozen (36) filled sandwich cookies, 75 to 80 individual biscuits.  It’s about double the original recipe. but believe me you won’t have any trouble with ‘disposal’ of these cookies.

They are a great way to win friends and influence people.  And the 3 dozen includes ‘wastage’ like when the Davinator sneaks into the baking kitchen and steals some dough or a fresh baked cookie.  For a big man, he can be stealthy.

My instructions below include three innovations that help me get consistent results with the recipe: melting the butter for the dough, weighing the dough for each biscuit and piping the filling onto the biscuits.

Some genius at Cooks Illustrated came up with the idea of melting butter to combine it with sugar.  I tried it first in my brioche and I’ve never looked back.  Just about any recipe that combines butter and sugar (not icing sugar) works well with melted and cooled butter rather than ‘room temperature’ butter.   Cooks Illustrated is the only online cooking resource I pay for, by the way.  Love it.    Occasionally frustrating because they sell cookbooks and gadgets you can’t get in the UK.  

Weighing the biscuit dough seems fiddly but it means that you have uniform pieces when it comes to assembly of the sandwiches.  In other words – they all match.  I pipe the cream on because it’s neater (once you get the hang of filling and working with the bag),  and you can weigh the filling as you put it on.

Piping the filling is quicker than spooning it on – it means you eat less of the filling. If you bake as much as I do – it makes a difference.

There seem to be a lot of steps in the recipe but don’t worry.  It’s to break the recipe down for the less confident bakers.

Bake away people!

Recipe

Chocolate sandwich cookies

• 320 grams plain white flour (not self raising, I don’t get on with it)
•  85 grams unsweetened natural cocoa powder – I use Callebaut and get mine from Amazon
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 225 grams unsalted butter melted then cooled (see below)
• 300 grams fine white caster sugar
• 100 grams brown sugar (I find that light or dark doesn’t matter)
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cream Filling

• 120 grams unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 95 grams vegetable shortening (Trex or Crisco), room temperature
• 420 grams icing  sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Making the chocolate biscuits

1. Melt the butter in a plastic bowl or other microwave safe container. I do 30 second pulses and it takes 2 or at the most 3.   Let the butter cool for about 10 minutes.  You can get the rest of ingredients ready while it’s cooling.
2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Whisk to combine.
3. Combine the sugars in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Put the paddle attachment on.  Pour in the melted cooled butter and beat at a low speed.  It might take a minute or two but is much quicker than creaming even true room temperature butter.   Beat in the eggs and the vanilla until well combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients.  Beat slowly.  Stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Beat for another minute.  Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a shower cap and refrigerate for an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).  Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.
6. Take the dough out of the refrigerator.. It should be firm and easy to handle. Divide it into four roughly equal portions.  Get your scale ready – put a piece of parchment on it, zero it.
7. Roll one of your portions into a log about 3 cms (an inch and a bit)  in diameter.  Cut off about a 2 to 3 cm piece and weigh it.  You want each biscuit to be about 15 grams.   Divide the dough into 15 gram portions.  Roll each 15 gram piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet.  You will get good at ‘feeling’ when they are right weight and your speed will pick up.
8. Fill 2 baking sheets, leaving enough room between each biscuit because they will spread.  Crush each ball so that they become disc shaped.
9. Put the baking sheets in the oven and cook for 7 -8 minutes.  You can do a test biscuit on it’s own (also fun to eat) to see how your oven is baking.   I don’t rotate the baking sheets or move them up or down the oven racks because I don’t think it makes a difference for a cooking time that short.  If you find it does, then I would do one baking sheet at a time.
10. When the biscuits are cooked, remove them from the oven, cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then move to a rack or a clean tea towel.  I use an offset spatula and move one biscuit at a time – resisting the impulse to use my fingers or do two at a time.  It’s quick enough. Cool the biscuits well before adding the cream filling.

Making the ‘cream’ filling

1. Beat together the butter and the vegetable shortening using the paddle attachment in your mixer.  This is NOT the time to try the melting butter trick.  You’ve just got to wait for the butter to soften.  Add the icing sugar and the vanilla.  I throw a damp towel over the mixer rather than rely on the Kitchen Aid splash guard (that is the most useless piece of kit ever, actually makes more mess than it prevents).  Beat until smooth.
   

   No actual ‘cream’ and should be a bit stiff.

   Now it’s time to get out the piping bag and do your assembly.

Two great gadgets come together now: disposable piping bags and the piping bag filler.  It’s a plastic cone shaped thingy (see below) and helps you fill the pointy end of piping bag.  I buy the piping bags in a big roll and use them for buttercream,  mashed potatoes, filling cookies and putting dough into things like donut pans.

Assembly

1. Fill your piping bag. DO NOT CUT OFF THE END – YET.  You don’t need a metal nozzle. Gather up the top and twist it about 10 times.  Then swing it over your head like a bolo or a lasso.  This forces the filling to the pointy end.  NOW cut off the end of the piping bag. Repeat: DO NOT CUT THE END OFF BEFORE THE LASSO STEP.  Learn from those of us who may have redecorated the kitchen with buttercream icing.

Lay out your biscuits in pairs and match any that may have been 14 or 16 grams.  I put the filling on the ‘smooth’ side and then put the smooth sides together.  The smooth side would have been the bottom when baked.

Put a biscuit on the scale and zero it (smooth side up).  Apply about 15 grams of cream filling to the biscuit and then smoosh another (matching) cookie on top of it.

 

Fill away, smoosh the pieces together and enjoy.  These keep in a sealed Tupperware container for at least a week.   I’ve never had these cookies go stale – they get eaten too fast.

Happy baking!