I recently took a brief poll of friends to figure out what food or drinks came to mind when they heard the word “derby.” Turns out, not surprisingly, alcohol is at the forefront.
Enter the mint julep of cookies — i.e. these mint chocolate sandwich cookies with bourbon-vanilla cream! The cream alone is worth being the star of the show, but eating spoonfuls of booze-laced filling is frowned upon, or so I hear…
See you at the finish line, with a large glass of milk, obvi.
These chocolate sandwich cookies use a few semi-special ingredients, but all of them are easy to find at the grocery store. For the chocolate mint cookies, you’ll need unsalted butter, sugar, egg, vanilla extract, peppermint extract, pastry flour, Dutch process cocoa powder, baking soda, and kosher salt.
For the bourbon-vanilla cream, you’ll need more unsalted butter, cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, bourbon, and vanilla extract.
The chocolate mint cookie dough comes together like any regular cookie recipe. Simply combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and mix until the dough forms a ball. Flatten the dough into a disc, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.
Once chilled, roll out the dough and cut out the cookies (a biscuit cutter or cookie stamp would work). Bake the chocolate mint cookie for roughly 20 minutes, then let them cool completely before sandwiching with the bourbon-vanilla cream.
To make the cream filling, simply beat the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add a few tablespoons of cream to each chocolate sandwich cookie, then enjoy!
Can I omit the bourbon?
If desired, you can omit the bourbon from the vanilla cream. Keep in mind that this recipe only uses a tablespoon of bourbon though, so it’s not an overpowering flavor.
Do I have to use pastry flour?
You can absolutely make the chocolate mint cookies with all-purpose flour, but I like the superfine texture of pastry flour for these sandwich cookies.
Whatever you do, do NOT add more peppermint extract than the recipe calls for. It’s incredibly powerful and your cookie can very easily go from being delightfully minty to toothpaste-y.
Also note that the butter and cream cheese should both be softened before making the bourbon-vanilla cream. You need them to be soft so the cookie sandwich filling turns out super silky and creamy.
And yes, you really do have to wait until the chocolate mint cookies have cooled completely before assembling them. If you try to spread cool frosting onto the warm cookies, you’ll wind up with a huge mess on your hands.
If you make these Mint Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, please let us know by leaving a review and rating below!
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Ingredients
- ¾ cup 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 extra large egg room temperature
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 1 ½ cups plus 2 Tbsp pastry flour
- ½ cup unsweetened dutch cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
For the bourbon-vanilla cream filling
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 3 cups confectioner’s sugar sifted
- 1 Tbsp bourbon
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar, about 3 minutes. Add egg, mint extract, and vanilla extract, then beat another minute.
- Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and continue beating until the dough comes together and forms a ball. Flatten the dough into a large disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat. Roll dough out between two layers of plastic wrap to roughly ¼” thick. Any thinner and the cookies will burn!
- Using a biscuit cutter or a cookie stamp, cut out small, equal-sized rounds of dough and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Re-roll out the remaining dough, repeating the process, until you’ve used up all of the cookie dough.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the bourbon-vanilla cream filling
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until thoroughly combined. Reduce the speed to low then slowly add in sifted confectioner’s sugar. Slowly increase speed and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the bourbon and vanilla, then mix to combine and set aside.
- When cookies are cool, place about 2 Tbsp of filling on half of the cookies. Place another cookie on top, pressing down slightly to evenly distribute the filling. Repeat until all cookies are used. Serve with milk!
Notes
Nutrition
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