Orange Molasses Sandwich Cookies - December 13, 2015

This post isn’t about me eating stuff. It’s about me making stuff. I’ve already done one post where I made a cake for a good friend’s birthday. I’m not sure I’ve done many others yet, or that I’ll do many more, but I told somebody I’d post this recipe. One of my friends was changing jobs, so I decided to make these as a congratulations and goodbye gift. I’d also spent the previous day making a couple meals for my friends who just had their second child. So I was in a making and baking mood.

The key to a good sandwich cookie is the filling. Yes you people that remove the filling from Oreos, you’re doing it wrong. I think the filling takes the longest to perfect, or at least get happy with. The cookie portion took two iterations with a minor technique change on the third, I’m really happy with them now. But the filling? It’s good, but I’m still working on it. I want it to be thicker at room temperature, I might need to resort to some sort of nougat or something.

Recipe (heavily modified from these): 

Cookie ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter
• ½ cup white sugar (fine)
• ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup molasses
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 2 cups AP flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• orange sugar for rolling (zest of 1 orange combined with 1 cup of sugar in a food processor and let to sit in an air tight container overnight, re-pulse in processor if it clumps)

Cookie instructions:

• Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger, set aside.
• Using a technique recommended in the Milk Bar cookbook, cream the butter and sugars together until fully incorporated and fluffy, starting on low and raising it to medium-high.
• Add the egg while on low speed and continue to beat on medium-high for five or so minutes.
• Drop mixing speed to medium-low and add the molasses, orange juice, and orange zest, beat until incorporated.
• On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in two parts, mix just until complete, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of bowl.
• Cover dough with a sheet of plastic and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours, overnight is better.

The next day:

• Heat oven to 375F.
• Portion dough into uniform sized balls - I think the cookie scoop I use is a #60 (2 tsp).
•  Roll in the orange sugar.
• Place evenly on a half sheet or cookie baking tray lined with parchment paper or a silpat.
• Bake for 7-8 minutes or until the surface starts showing cracks.
• Cool for 1 minute on sheet before transferring to a cooling rack
• Fully cool, store in an airtight container until ready to frost, or eat if not making sandwiches cookies.

For the filling in this iteration (I basically used a half batch of this recipe):

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp orange oil
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp orange zest

Filling instructions:

• Beat together cream cheese, butter, extract, and oil until fully incorporated.
• On low speed, incorporate the powdered sugar in 3 or 4 additions.
• After sugar is fully incorporated, stir in the orange zest until roughly uniform distribution.

Assembly Instructions:

• Match up tops and bottoms of similar shapes and sizes.
• Use a fair amount of filling per sandwich (I use a bag to pipe the filling, it makes this MUCH easier).

Enjoy!