Not too sweet, these 5-ingredient shortbread chocolate sandwich cookies are perfect to fill with your favourite frosting or ganache. We like buttercream frosting with mint and rolling in crushed candy canes for a festive cookie, but orange and vanilla are equally good.
For some more festive cookies, try our hazelnut linzer cookies, spiced eggnog cookies, and pretty snowflake sugar cookies.
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Ingredients
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Cocoa: use any type of cocoa. Dutch process will make for a milder-tasting cookie.
- Filling: pictured is our vanilla frosting but with peppermint extract substituted for the vanilla. Orange zest would be fantastic, as would a chocolate ganache or cream cheese frosting.
- Make it dairy-free: use a good vegan butter to make vegan sandwich cookies, like Miyoko's.
Method
Step 1: whisk together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Step 2: in a larger bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 3: add the flour-cocoa mixture to the beaten butter, a few tablespoons at a time, and continue to mix until the dry ingredients are incorporated. The dough will look crumbly.
Step 4: place the chocolate cookie dough onto wax paper and begin shaping it into a log with your hands. Roll the log, flattening the outside edges as you go, until smooth.
Step 5: wrap the log tightly in wax paper, then place into a paper towel roll. Freeze for 15-20 minutes.
Step 6: slice into 24 cookie rounds.
Step 7: bake the cookies, then cool fully on a wire rack.
Step 8: once cooled, fill the cookies with frosting. Roll the edges in sugar, candy canes, or sprinkles, and serve.
Top Tips
- Chill in a paper towel roll: use scissors to cut along the length of an empty paper towel roll and place the wrapped cookie dough log in the empty tube before chilling. This can help prevent a flat bottom from forming as the dough rests in the freezer.
- Add some chocolate: this makes light chocolate cookies without a very strong, bitter chocolate flavour. If you want to boost the chocolate, either use a ganache filling or dip the finished cookies in melted chocolate.
- Roll in sugar: for a pretty finishing option, you could also roll the cookie dough log in sanding sugar before you freeze it.
Recipe Notes
The recipe as written yields a dozen sandwich cookies, using two chocolate cookies per sandwich. If you'd rather not make sandwiches, serve the cookies individually with a drizzle of dark chocolate or scoop of frosting for a total of two dozen cookies.
Don't worry if some of the cookies are slightly larger or smaller, or if some are too thin to use. There's enough dough to take some errors into account and you'll still end up with the right amount of cookies.
How to Store
Storage: keep the baked cookies in a sealed container for up to a week. If filled with frosting made with cream, the cookies will have to be refrigerated. The unbaked cookie dough log can be refrigerated for 4-5 days before baking, wrapped very well.
Freezing: transfer cooled cookies to an airtight container and freeze for up to two months, with or without frosting filling. Keep the cookie dough log in the freezer for up to a month and thaw in the fridge for an hour before slicing and baking as usual.
FAQ
How long can sandwich cookies sit out?
Depending on the type of frosting you use to fill the cookies, they could sit out for 2-3 days (covered). The cookies will soften a little over time as the frosting soaks into them a bit.
How do you keep sandwich cookies from getting soggy?
Make sure you don't fill the cookies until they're completely cool, and then store in a sealed container in the fridge. This should harden the butter in the frosting and prevent it from soaking into the cookies.
Can sandwich cookies be frozen?
Yes, and they can be frozen with the filling if you're using a buttercream or ganache. For the best taste, you can freeze the plain cookies, then thaw and fill with fresh frosting, rather than freezing both together.
If you make this Chocolate Sandwich Cookie recipe or any other cookie recipes on the Baked Collective, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more baking, follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Chocolate Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
- 2 Mixing bowls
- Whisk
- Wax paper
- Rolling Pin
- baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 1 cup white flour
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Vanilla frosting for sandwiching (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa. Set aside.
- In another larger bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the flour-cocoa mixture to the beaten butter, a few tablespoons at a time, and continue to mix until all of the flour is incorporated. The mixture will look quite crumbly, however, the dough is actually quite pliable.
- Line a work surface with a large piece of wax paper.
- Dump the chocolate cookie dough onto the wax paper and begin shaping it into a log with your hands. Roll the log, flattening the edges of it as you go, until it is smooth, and about 7-inches (18-cm) long.
- Move the cookie dough log down to the bottom edge of the sheet of wax paper. Roll the dough completely in the paper. Once rolled, twist the ends of the paper to secure.
- Place the wrapped cookie dough log in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325ºC (160ºC) and line a standard baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove the chilled cookie dough from the freezer and slice it into approximately 24 ¼-inch (6-mm) cookies. Some of the cookies will be thicker than others, while some will be more round. This is totally normal. The cookies will smooth and round out a bit as they bake.
- Evenly space all of the cookie dough slices on the prepared parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes.
- Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and cool the cookies completely on the sheet before filling and sandwiching with frosting. Pictured is vanilla frosting and we dipped the edges of our cookies in crushed candy canes.