chocolate-peppermint sandwich cookies

My friend made these for book club last month and I was in love at first bite.

The recipe is from “Our Best Bites” which is an awesome cooking blog.  Seriously, I need to sit down and try a whole slew of the recipes in that thing because they look good. 

But for now, I’m going to re-tell you this recipe in my own words.  But don’t give me the credit, because this girl Sara is the one who came up with the whole mouthwatering thing.  She gives lots of her own details about it here.

Ok, so you start by mixing

1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

…in a mixing bowl.
Then melt

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
5 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. water
in a saucepan:
When it is all melted, add two beaten eggs to that chocolate mixture.
(it’s ok that it’s still hot)

Then add all that chocolate into the flour mixture:
Mix until barely combined.
Make cookies to line your cookie sheet (sprayed with Pam).

This is the personal preference part.  You can use a big scoop and cut it into four parts, make them into balls and cook (like Max is doing in the above picture).Or you can use a small scoop (pictured above with the big one) and still get small cookies but a little more than bite-size. (I got these scoops at Pampered Chef and don’t know what I would ever do without them.)

I kind of like the bigger ones better but my recipe-friend-Sara-who-doesn’t-know-me likes the small bite-size ones better.  Try both and see what you think.

Bake at 350 for 5 minutes (small ones) or 6 minutes (bigger ones) or until they look soft but not gooey.
Be oh-so-careful not to over-bake.

While they are cooling, make the frosting:

1/2 c. butter (one stick.  yeah, that’s a lot of butter but oh so good)
2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 – 1 tsp. peppermint extract
milk, as needed for consistency.  Try a teaspoon at a time because you want it to be pretty stiff so it won’t smoosh out when you eat the cookies.

Get a little helper to help you with making the sandwiches.
Slab a some frosting on:
Add another cookie to make a sandwich, and roll in crushed peppermint pieces.
Voila, you have the best Christmas cookies ever.

We bagged them up like this:
Yum.