Chocolate-Peppermint Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour, lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled (don’t scoop!)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons real butter
1 tablespoon water
1 large egg lightly beaten

Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup real butter (1 stick)
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
milk, as needed for consistency
optional: red or green food coloring and sprinkles or crushed candycanes

Preparation:
1. To make cookies, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Heat chocolate chips, brown sugar, 5 tablespoons butter and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until melted and smooth (there will still be grains of sugar though).
4. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and beat in egg. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Don’t overmix.
5. If dough is too soft to work with, let it sit at room temp for a few minutes to firm up, or place in the fridge for a few minutes.
6. Gently roll balls, either 1 tablespoon full for large cookies, or about 1/2 inch balls for silver dollar sized cookies.
7. Place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies until just puffed in the middle and edges are set but centers are still soft. About 8-9 minutes for large cookies, and about 5 minutes for small ones. If using 2 cookie sheets, rotate them half way through baking.
8. Cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
9. To make filling, beat all frosting ingredients together, adding peppermint extract to taste. Add milk by the teaspoonful until a spreadable, but not too soft consistency is reached. Add food coloring if desired.
10. Place frosting in a zip-top bag and cut off a corner. Pipe onto one side of cookie and place another on top.
11. Roll edges in sprinkles or crushed candycanes if desired.

Yield: If you use a tablespoon of dough, it will yield 1 1/2 dozen large sandwiches. If you use a quarter of a standard cookie scoop (about a rounded teaspoon) it will yield 4-5 dozen.

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