Made from my favorite chocolate pie crust, these cookies are filled with an almond-scented cream cheese filling. They are wonderfully simple to make, can be frozen, made in advance and cut out any shape you want.
I spent a lot of time looking for the best chocolate pie crust and finally found it. It turns out that it makes the best sweet chocolate sandwich cookies, one of my favorites from childhood!
Like most great recipes, these are the result of leftover dough after making who knows what. I had a brunch coming up and decided to make use of it and made some cookies.
Turns out I also had cream cheese frosting, because I always do. So, leftover pie dough and leftover frosting resulted in these sandwich cookies.
Making the chocolate dough
As mentioned before, these are sandwich cookies made with my favorite chocolate dough, the one I posted a few weeks ago.
The full recipe with detailed instructions is in this chocolate pie crust post.
So go ahead and make the dough, put it in the refrigerator and you're ready to roll, pun intended.
Rolling the dough
Cold dough: it is very important that it is as cold as possible. So take it out of the refrigerator and let it soften at room t° until it can be barely rolled. At first it will seem too solid, but it will quickly start to lose temperature.
Floured surfaces: always start with a lightly flour the counter or surface. You can always add more flour later. Lightly flour the rolling pin and maybe the top of the dough. Don't overdo it until you start rolling and see how much flour the dough needs. You only want enough to not make it stick.
If the dough starts to soften too much during rolling and cutting, gather it, wrap in plastic and return to the refrigerator or freezer (much faster) for several minutes until it hardens again. Try to have it cold at all times.
Vintage Kitchen Tips
You can use any cookie cutter you want. I usually use flowers, rounds, and stars, but really, any shape is fine. Metal or plastic cutters both work fine.
- Thickness: how thick you roll the dough depends on what you want to bake. For filled cookies such as these ones I suggest no more than ½ inch. If you want single cookies like the image below, I say up to 1-inch is fine.
This crust is wonderful to work with because the shapes stay formed after baking.
Cream cheese filling
The frosting we all love is what I used to fill these sandwiches.
The truth is that I was trying to recreate a favorite cookie when I was growing up and decided to start with some leftover cream cheese frosting in the fridge after making the hummingbird cake.
A few drops of almond extract and boom! my smile came back as I bit into my childhood memories.
Other fillings can be chocolate ganache, peanut butter or dulce de leche.
- Airtight containers - I like to use metal tins. But any container with an airtight lid will work.
- Freezing - you can freeze the cut cookies before baking. I put the whole baking sheet in the freezer and bake directly.
If you store already filled cookies they will soften as the days go by because the moisture from the cream cheese seeps into the dough.
Other recipes you might like:
Fudgy Brownie Cookies
Pistachio Butter Cookies
White Chocolate Almond Cookies
Lemon Shortbread
Coconut Citrus Shortbread
Homemade Oreos
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Easy Oatmeal Walnut Cookies
Let me know if you make this recipe! I’d love to hear what you think about it.
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Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Made from my favorite chocolate pie crust, these cookies are filled with an almond-scented cream cheese filling. They are wonderfully simple to make, can be frozen, made in advance and cut out any shape you want.
Ingredients
For the Cream cheese frosting:
- 2.5oz (70g) regular cream cheese, at room t°
- 2 tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter, at room t°
- 1 cup powdered sugar (you might need more)
- ¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
Instructions
- Take the chocolate dough from the refrigerator and let soften until you can start to roll it. It has to be cold, and it will be tough at first to roll.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or butter the pan.
- Lightly flour a clean surface and roll the dough about ¼ inch thick. You want thin cookies as they will be filled.
- Cut cookies with your designated cookie cutter and place them in the baking sheets, separated an inch from each other.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until dry and slightly soft. They will harden when they cool.
- Let cool for a few minutes and carefully lift them with a spatula and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely.
- Fill one cookie with ½ to 1 teaspoon or so of cream cheese filling and press another cookie on top to make a sandwich.
- Keep in airtight containers. See Notes for how to store them.
Notes
Storing:
- Airtight containers - I like to use metal tins. But any container with an airtight lid will work.
- Freezing - you can freeze the cut cookies before baking. I put the whole baking sheet in the freezer and bake directly.
- If you store already filled cookies they will soften as the days go by because the moisture from the cream cheese seeps into the dough.
Oh my goodness these look so amazing! I have never made cookies at home but you have explained it so well that I think I can make them. Adding the Ingredients to my grocery list. Making them this weekend..