88 – Cookies and Cream Sandwiches

Finally, my first real food blogging perk! Only 10 months worth of cooking, photo-taking and writing to get to this stage, but the time has officially come! I mean, of course the whole “building a supportive community of fellow bloggers” is a great “perk” as well, and something I feel very grateful to now have established – but what I’m talking about is getting awesome, totally free stuff. Now I don’t know about you, but I love stuff –  when it’s free, even more so!

So what I’m I talking about? Well, through Food Bloggers of Canada, I’ve been invited to a book signing for Rosie Daykin’s “Butter Celebrates“. It’s the follow up to Rosie’s first book, which is named after her Kerrisdale-area bakery, “Butter Baked Goods“. The book signing, described to me as a “soiree” for a small group of lucky food bloggers, is actually a special meet and greet complete with some tasty treats and a complimentary signed copy of the book for yours truly.

After getting the e-mail saying that I’d been selected to attend (it was a random draw by invitation, so I lucked out), I knew I had to acquaint myself with everything Rosie Daykins. So, this past weekend my wife and I checked out her bakery and tried a few of her tasty treats. Though the décor isn’t what I’d choose for a bakery (it was exquisitely decorated with pastels and flowered wallpaper, whereas I would have gone for a grungy British pub feel), I can appreciate that others of a more feminine persuasion may find it extremely beautiful and quite fitting for a boutique bakery. I mean, it was absolutely gorgeous – it’s just that it’s the sort of place that serves high tea, and well, that’s not quite my cup of tea.

After trying out the bakery, we headed over to Chapters to pick up her original cookbook as a gift for my mom’s birthday. Unfortunately, that cookbook is already slightly “used”, as my sister and I adapted a recipe from it for these Cookies and Cream Sandwiches. With my wife busy at a trampoline park on Sunday (yeah, apparently that’s a thing), my younger sister and I decided to work together on this most recent cooking/baking endeavor. Working in her kitchen with her awesome pantry, we had (nearly) everything we needed to knock it out of the park with these cookies. I had to do a quick store run for cocoa (who put  a near empty tin back in the pantry and doesn’t add it to the week’s grocery list?), but aside from that, everything was on hand.

In the end, they turned out quite awesome. Now I’m very excited to get my own Rosie Daykin cookbook, signed and all, and hopefully boost my confidence in the realm of baking. In the meantime, though, here’s a great cookie recipe to help satisfy any and all sweet tooths out there.

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Cookies and Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 1/2 cups butter, divided, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar, plus extra for topping
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. dark rum
• 2 vanilla pods
• 2 cups icing sugar

Directions:

• Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed, cream together the granulated sugar and 1 1/2 cups worth of the butter. Stop once the mixture is light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture between each addition. Then, scrape the beans from one of the vanilla pods and add that to the mixture as well. Beat again to combine.
• In a medium-sized bowl, sift together the first five dry ingredients (everything aside from the icing sugar), making sure to combine them well. Add these dry ingredients to the mixer, a little at a time, beating the mixture between each addition.
• Finally, add the rum and mix on low-medium until everything is combined well.
• Cover two cookie trays with parchment paper. Using a medium-sized ice cream scoop, portion out 12-13 scoops of cookie batter per cookie tray, ensuring sufficient space is left between each cookie.
• Take a glass with a flat, wide bottom, and coat the bottom of it with a small amount of leftover dough. Place a small amount of granulated sugar into a bowl, and dip the bottom of the glass in the sugar. Then, use the bottom of the glass to gently press down on each cookie, re-dipping the glass in the sugar between pressing down each cookie.
• Bake in an oven pre-heated to 350°F (rack in the middle of the oven), for about 15-16 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to set, and the middle of the cookies are still nice and soft. Place on a wire rack to cool.
• While the cookies are cooling, make the buttercream. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the remaining 1 cup of butter and the icing sugar over medium speed. Scrape in the beans from the second vanilla pod and beat again, on high, until the filling is light and fluffy.
• When the cookies have cooled completely, pair them up based on relative size. Flip one from each pair over and dollop approximately 2 tbsp. of the buttercream onto each of these. Carefully push each pair of cookies together, just enough so that the buttercream spreads out to the edges of these newly-formed cookie sandwiches.

Makes a 12-13 sandwich cookies

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