Better Together

Jack Johnson got it right; a lot of things are better in pairs. Shoes, for instance. Or contact lenses. Or geese, apparently. (This is yet another odd Indiana phenomenon I've discovered: goose couples all over the place come spring. I have yet to see a lone goose. It's sort of intriguingly endearing.)

Anyway, I find that this concept carries over into the baking world, too. Case in point: two cookies are, hands down, better than one. Who wouldn't agree with that? And when they're stuck together with a heaping, gooey glop of buttercream frosting...we're reaching superlative status for sure.

This whole concept is sort of nostalgic for me. When I was little, my mom used to take us ("us" being my brother and me) to the mall on occasion to get these things called "Double Doozies." Very aptly named. Basically, they were two gigantic, soft, chocolate chip cookies with a half-inch thick layer of bakery frosting in between. I don't even want to know how many calories are in one of those things, but holy cow, it's worth it.

I've recently been on a recreate-the-Double-Doozie kick. Chocolate chip with bakery frosting was a hit, according to my brother and my dad's coworkers (my frequent recipe guinea pigs), and peanut butter turned out well, too. Last night, I bought a package of Andes mints on a whim and decided to see what those would be like in a sandwich cookie form.

The result? Mmm...

I started with a Chocolate "Crispies" cookie recipe from my Taste of Home cookbook and modified it quite a bit. I wanted chocolate cookies that would be chocolaty but not overpoweringly rich, and soft but able to hold up when sandwiched. And I didn't want them crispy...or with nuts...okay, so I changed the recipe a lot. Anyway, here's how it went:

These started out like any cookie, with the butter and sugar and eggs. Then my favorite part: some melted unsweetened baking chocolate. (I love how shiny it looks in pictures!) Usually chocolate cookie recipes call for cocoa powder, so this whole melted-chocolate thing was part of the appeal of this particular recipe.

After the dry ingredients were added, it was time for the Andes mints. This was the fun part. Dump 'em on the counter...strip 'em...chop 'em...stir 'em in.

After this, I dumped the dough in a Ziploc bag and refrigerated it. (Usually I like to chill cookie dough overnight, but I was in a hurry on these and left them in the fridge for only half an hour.)


After the dough chilled, it just needed to be formed into pretty little balls, lined up on parchment-lined baking sheets, and baked.

After that I mixed up some basic bakery buttercream (the Crisco-y stuff that I don't really like but my family loves) and added some peppermint extract and green food coloring. A heaping tablespoon of frosting between two cookies, and voila!

I think Adam approved. (Mesmerizing, no?)