Brownie & Cookie Dough Sandwich Cookies

   Last week I shared a seriously delicious gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough dip recipe....and I warned you that my treat day brain worked some magic to add to how de-lish the recipe was...oh yes, I sandwiched it between two gluten free (and flour free) brownie cookies. Yum-o X 1000!  :)  
   I decided to bake the brownie cookies a pinch longer than I normally would to make sure they would be sturdy enough to be involved in a cookie dough sandwich. They were perfect! The original post for those beauties is here.  
   In a way, these seem like they would take a lot of work, but the cookie recipe is simple, and the cookie dough dip recipe is simple too. I made both the cookies and the dough dip the day before I needed them, then assembled the next day. I actually made a double batch of both the cookies and the cookie dough dip, and made about 35 sandwich cookies.   

Flour-Free Brownie Cookies
Makes approx. 35 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature 
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 Tsp corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup cocoa powder (use the best you can find, it will give you a more rich chocolate experience! If you prefer less chocolatey, use any cocoa)
  
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  
• 1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
  

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment, & set aside. 
2. Cream together the butter and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. 
3. In a small bowl mix together the baking soda, cornstarch, salt,and cocoa 
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until combined (it can take a few minutes to work it all together). 
5. Stir in the chocolate chips (and nuts if you're using 'em).
6. Using a one-tablespoon scoop (like the small Pampered Chef scoop), or a regular tablespoon, scoop cookies out into baking sheet, 3 inches apart.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven for 9-10 minutes. You don't want to burn them (obviously!), but they can't be too soft or else they'll not co-operate as a sandwich!
8. Let cool 5 minutes or more before removing from the cookie sheet and leaving to fully cool on a wire rack

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

• 1 Cup butter
• 2/3 Cup brown sugar
• Pinch o' salt
• 1 Tsp vanilla
• 1/2 Cup marshmallow fluff

• 1 Cup icing sugar
• 1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips
  

Method: 

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter, brown sugar and salt over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the brown sugar dissolves
2. Remove from the heat, whisk in the vanilla extract, and set aside to cool to room temperature (the time the cooling takes varies on the temperature of your house, but don't stick it in the fridge or else the butter will harden and it's just all backwards work)
3. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat the fluff and powdered sugar together. You can also just mix these together with a wooden spoon or spatula. Spatula....what a funny word...
4. Slowly beat or mix in the cooled butter mixture. Increase the speed to medium and beat for about 1 minute, or just stir with all your might! :)  
5. Stir in the chocolate chips
6. Transfer the dip to a serving bowl and try not to eat all of it right away.....
7. You can cover the dip and refrigerate it, but take it out of the fridge 15 to 30 minutes before serving to let it soften back up
8. People serve this with graham crackers or little cookies, but I much prefer to eat it plain, or with something crunchy and salty like pretzels or plain chips....yes, chips!

Time Saving

   What I did to make these and make the most of my time was to start the cookie dough dip because the melted butter mixture needed to cool.
   While it was cooling I made the brownie cookies, and by the time I was done baking, the dough dip butter mixture was cooled, and I could finish making that. Taa-daa!  

Time to Assemble!

  I don't think you need instructions for this part, but just in case you do... 
   I created a little assembly line of sorts to make the sandwiches. I lined some cookie up with the tops facing up, and some with the bottoms facing up. Then I used my small (1 Tbsp) scoop to dish out the dough dip onto each cookie with it's bottom facing up, and then took it's cookie partner (the cookie with the top facing up), and squished them together. 
  That's it!

   Yummy, right? You have no idea!!! 
   They disappeared at the rehearsal I brought them to, and one person said, "I thought gluten free food was supposed to taste gross?" She thought wrong, real wrong. 
   I can prove that gluten free doesn't have to be gross, but also that it doesn't have to be even a little bit healthy! Haha...I'm just poking fun at those whose brains say: gluten free=healthy! 
   For real, these are a treat, and eat them in moderation, blah, blah, blah...
   I have rehearsal again tonight, and I'm going to whip up a batch of something to bring. I'm not sure what I'm going to bring yet, actually? Anywhooo...
   On Wednesday night the hubby and I and some friends went to see ZZTop in Peterborough, and that was actually fun (I wasn't too sure it would be). They still have their little choreographed moments, they brought out their fizzy guitars, there was a really drunk guy in the audience wearing a cowboy hat trying to dance with anything that walked by him...yikes....he finally got escorted out! It was really loud, so I felt kinda old, but we were right near the front and it was a good show! Those are the coolest 65 year old guys ever...well, except for my Dad, he's pretty cool. Although he's older than 65...never mind, I digress.
   Have a good weekend internet dwellers, and don't forget it's daylight savings this weekend, so you need to spring your clocks ahead one hour! Most people hate this loss of an hour, but for my husband who is working a 12 hour night shift, it turns it into an 11 hour night shift, which might not seem like a lot, but it is to him! :)

Bonne journée!