Brown Sugar Sandwich Cookies

Heidi’s way of baking is exceedingly inspirational. Her use of fine ingredients and interesting techniques always make me eager to spend time in the kitchen, refine my skills, and add new elements to my knowledge repertoire.

I loved the idea of brown sugar sandwich cookies. They have the caramel of a classic chocolate chip cookie, with the unexpected nutiness of poppy seeds and the welcome addition of chocolate centers. I wanted these to be a bit more graham-esque, which I achieved by adding very small amounts of honey and molasses. The dough came together well and was not nearly as finicky as I feared. The dough itself did seem a tad salty, which other commenters on Heidi’s site noted as well. Perhaps the salt might be left out of the dough. The salt on each cookie, however, was a welcome addition. I graced the tops with raw sugar and Portuguese Salt Cream.

Of course these do take a while, but any rolled dough cookie will. I don’t have a lovely scalloped cutter like Heidi, but used a round biscuit cutter instead.

Brown Sugar Sandwich Cookies
Derived from Heidi Swanson’s Brown Sugar Cookies

1 ½ cups light flour mix (see below)
½ cup teff flour
¾ finely ground brown rice flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
6 oz butter
2/3 cup brown sugar (I used 1/3 ‘raw’ cane sugar, 1/3 traditional light brown sugar.)
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon molasses
2-3 tablespoons milk
Salt cream and raw sugar for topping
Small amount of flour/traditional brown sugar for rolling

Follow Heidi’s original instructions, obviously mixing in the xanthan gum with the dry ingredients, and add the honey and molasses along with the vanilla.

I rolled these out easily between two layers of parchment. I used a very small amount of flour/brown sugar for rolling, but as long as you refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes prior to rolling, you won’t need much.

I baked these 7-9 minutes, and as they cooled they became crisp.

*Light flour blend
I use a slight variation of Bette Hagman’s “Featherlight Flour” blend. The ratios I use are as follows:
1 cup fine ground brown rice flour
1 cup corn starch
1 cup tapioca starch
3 generous tablespoons potato flour

Chocolate filling

I diverged a bit since I only had bittersweet chocolate chips and have had issues melting them before. I used 6 oz of the chocolate and about 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream (I heated these together). This yielded a very shiny, spreadable ganache.

I was concerned that the addition of cream would make the cookies soggy, however, it didn’t. The cookies did get a bit softer, but certainly not “soggy”. On a more patient day, I may try the straight chocolate and see if the cookies absorb less moisture.