Cookie Sandwiches Guest Posted

The below post is also being featured today on Liz’s blog, Blog is the New Black.  Check out her blog for great recipes for any part of the meal.

On New Year’s Eve, my husband and I went to his brother’s apartment for a fun but low-key night.  They made us a delicious dinner and I, of course, brought dessert.  There were four of us and I made two desserts, an ice cream pie, and “cookies” composed of my favorite flavor combination, chocolate and peanut butter.  What better way to end the year?!

This was actually a very last minute dessert.  I happened to have extra peanut butter filling in my freezer and an open package of chocolate wafers in my cabinet.  You don’t even want to know how much baking chocolate I have on hand… When I thought through my inventory and the last time I used peanut butter filling, this recipe just came to me.

This recipe is really easy!  First, prepare the peanut butter filling (recipe below) and lay out twenty chocolate wafers on a baking sheet lined with wax paper

Spread about a tablespoon of peanut butter onto each wafer

Press another wafer down to form a cookie sandwich

Repeat with all twenty cookies

Place tray of cookie sandwiches into the freezer for about an hour

Can you spot the tray? Welcome to my life…

Once cookies are chilled, set up your white chocolate for dipping

Melt chocolate by microwaving it in thirty second increments and stirring in-between

Then dip the cookie to cover about halfway on each side with chocolate

Make sure you get the chocolate around the edges

Set white chocolate cookies aside

Repeat the process with semi-sweet chocolate; Store cookies in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches

Makes 20 cookie sandwiches

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Filling

1 package chocolate wafers (you only need 40 cookies)

8 ounces white chocolate chips

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Prepare Peanut Butter Filling

Lay out twenty chocolate wafers on a baking sheet lined with wax paper

Spread about a tablespoon of peanut butter onto each wafer

Press another wafer down on top of peanut butter to form a cookie sandwich; repeat with all twenty cookies

Place tray of cookie sandwiches into the freezer for about an hour

Once cookies are chilled, set up your white chocolate for dipping

Melt chocolate by microwaving it in thirty second increments and stirring in-between

Then dip half of the cookies, covering half of each with chocolate; set white chocolate cookies aside

Repeat the process with semi-sweet chocolate

Store cookies in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving

Peanut Butter Filling

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons salted natural creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Beat butter until light and creamy

Beat in peanut butter

Mix in confectioners sugar on low speed and then beat until light and fluffy

What is your favorite thing to dip in chocolate?

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Extra is Better

This recipe was a complete accident.  I was making Cookie Dough Topped Brownies and feeling over-confident in my memory of the brownie ingredients.  When I got past the step of stirring in sugar, I realized something was wrong.  The batter was much thicker than it should be.

Fortunately, I realized that my mistake was adding 50% more sugar than the recipe called for.  Rather than throw everything away at that point, I added 50% extra of every thing else.  As a result, I had an extra 9X9 pan of brownies and nothing to do with them…

Until I thought about what was in my freezer.  Did you know that buttercream stores very well in the freezer?  How about some White Chocolate Buttercream?

And then I looked again.  Did you know that mocha ganache also freezes well?  I happened to have extra from my Chocolate Chip Cookies with Mocha Ganache…

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Oh that is right, one rich chocolate brownie topped with not one, but two incredible toppings.

Thanks to a small mistake and leftovers from baking, I made Brownies with White Chocolate Buttercream and Mocha Ganache, another delicious dessert for our Thanksgiving with Friends.

Make these.  No mistakes necessary.

Brownies with White Chocolate Buttercream and Mocha Ganache

Makes 16 brownies (more if you want small pieces, brownies are very rich)

Ingredients:

Brownie (recipe from Baker’s)

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick)

1 cups sugar

1 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup all purpose flour

White Chocolate Buttercream

2 ounces baking white chocolate

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

2 1/2 tablespoons milk (any type is fine)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Mocha Ganache

5 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate

1/4 cup extra-strong brewed coffee

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

Brownies

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Melt butter and chocolate in large sauce pan over low to medium heat

Stir in sugar

Stir in eggs and vanilla

Whisk in flour until smooth

Pour into a 9×9 pan lined with foil and greased or sprayed with cooking spray

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until knife comes out clean

Buttercream

While brownies are cooling, make buttercream

Combine the white chocolate and whipping cream in a medium saucepan on low-medium heat, stirring continuously

Remove from heat and stir in milk

Refrigerate for mixture for half hour

When white chocolate mixture is cool, finish making the buttercream

Beat the butter until creamy

Beat in confectioners’ sugar until butter and sugar are light and fluffy

Now beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture until buttercream is creamy and light

Spread over cooled brownies and refrigerate until buttercream hardens slightly

Ganache

While brownies with buttercream are chilling, prepare ganache

Chop up the chocolate, coarsely, and prepare extra-strong coffee

Slice up your butter and set aside

Now set up your double boiler; bring water to a simmer in medium pot over low-medium heat

Place heat-proof bowl of chocolate over the pot

Pour the coffee over your chocolate

Continuously stir until chocolate is melted and smooth

Remove bowl from heat and whisk in the butter until creamy

Then allow ganache to cool, stirring occasionally

Ganache is ready when the mixture gets nice and thick

Spread over buttercream layer

Keep brownies stored in a cool place

 

 

What would you do with extra brownie?

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5 Years of

Turkey

Lots of desserts

Wine

More meat

Delicious side dishes

Too many desserts

Friends

Tradition

Much too many desserts

More food than one could imagine out of a NYC kitchen

More people than you’d usually fit in a 1-bedroom apartment

5 Years of Thanksgiving with Friends

Five years ago, in what started out as a “dinner club” with two other couples, Matt and I hosted our first mock Thanksgiving dinner with friends.  Four friends came to Matt’s apartment at the time for a turkey, sweet potato casserole, and some other dishes that aren’t memorable enough to stand out in my mind.  It was a fun night and such a success that in the years that followed, our intimate dinner party of six has turned into an annual event with almost twenty friends.  It gives us an opportunity to be in the kitchen together, share an evening with many of our closest friends, and show them how thankful we are for them through delicious food.

This year’s dinner was so much fun and full of many tasty traditional and non-traditional Thanksgiving dishes: Turkey, Brisket, Turkey Meatloaf, Salad, String Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce and Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

And of course, as you surely already know, lots of desserts

Cookie sandwiches: Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches with White Chocolate Buttercream, Chocolate Chip Cookies with Mocha Ganache and Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Filling

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake bars

Cookie Dough Topped Brownies

Gooey Caramel Butter Bars

Chocolate Chunk Almond Butter Bars

Brownies with White Chocolate Buttercream and Mocha Ganache

I am excited about the recipes I have to share from the dinner party over the next few weeks!  There are definitely some new desserts that I know I’ll be making again

What is your favorite Thanksgiving-related tradition?

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