Sunday, June 04, 2006

Sandwich Cookies

Cookies
Sandwich Cookies? They are simply cookies that sandwich a sweet filling - in this case it's ganache. I'm quite found of contrast, so I fill the vanilla cookies with rich dark chocolate ganache and the slightly bitter cocoa cookies with the sweeter white chocolate ganache. They are a delicate treat, a couple of bites per cookie, leaving you with the perfect excuse to have another...and another...

Sandwich Cookies

250g softened butter, cut into small dice
165g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg, lightly beaten
300g plain flour, sifted
30g Dutch cocoa, sifted, optional

To make the dough:

Place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, then slowly incorporate the beaten egg. Your mixture might curdle but don't worry, it doesn't effect the final outcome.

Add the flour and mix to form a soft dough. It may look too soft but you need to keep this in the fridge, so it will harden.

If you want to make chocolate cookies, then divide the dough into two and the beat in the cocoa using the mixer into one of the halves.

Place the dough onto baking paper and mound into a flat disc, cover and store in the fridge until it hardens enough to roll out.

To make the cookies:

I like to cut the dough into halves or even quarters to make it more manageable and also limit the handling of it. It's a good idea to roll this dough out on baking or silicon paper. Roll it to about 3-4 mm's thick then using a cutter, in this case I used a square cutter, cut out shapes. Place these on a baking paper lined tray, leaving a little space around - they do spread slightly.

Gather the scraps and shape into disc again, if it feels too soft, then place it back in the fridge.

Using a small square cutter I managed to get about 40 cookies in each colour.

Place the cookies in a preheated (180°C/350°F) oven and bake until golden about 15-20 minutes. Cool slightly on the tray before moving them to a wire rack.

White Chocolate Ganache
1/4 cup cream
100g white chocolate, broken into small pieces

Heat up the cream in a small saucepan until almost boiling, then add the white chocolate. Stir over low heat until all the chocolate has melted. Pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool. You may need to put this in the fridge to help it along.

Dark Chocolate Ganache
1/4 cup cream
100g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

Follow the same procedure as for the White Chocolate Ganache. This will melt a lot easier than the white.

When the cookies have cooled and the ganache is ready it's time to put them together.

Making the sandwich:

Since it's only natural that not all cookies are indentical just go through them and match those of appropriate size - to limit possible mess, I line them up in stacks of matched cookies and simple dab the ganache on the top cookie. Once all the cookies have their fillings I just take the cookie that's underneath and lightly press it into it's matching top.

1-DSC_4743.jpg

1-DSC_4736.jpg

Perfect for Sunday afternoon with a pot of Tea.

Tagged with :

6 comments

  1. Mmmm they are beautiful!
    And so regular!
    My shortbread-type biscuits always tend to spread in the oven...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Plume! The vanilla versions stay pretty close to the size they were cut, though the cocoa ones did tend to spread out a little.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ooh they are gorgeous. they look professional. I bet they taste divine!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Gabriella - using a cookie cutter makes it easy to get a nice even shape.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The recipe was so wonderful! I used animal shaped cookie cutters and all the cookies just turned out fantastic. The chocolate was a little hard to spread though. Once it cooled, it hardened a little bit. Other than that, it was perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Nolder - the ganache is a bit tricky, you need to use it at just the right temperature and work quickly.

    ReplyDelete

© Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once | All rights reserved.
BLOG TEMPLATE HANDCRAFTED BY pipdig