Soft Cake-like Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

I wanted to see if I could make a chocolate version of the soft cake-like ('Lofthouse') sugar cookies. So I did, by using 5 cups of flour and one cup of Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa. The dough was VERY soft, even after refrigeration. But with a generously floured work surface I was able to successfully cut circles.



Since these are for an afternoon of card playing, I gave a nod to the Earl of Sandwich and made ganache sandwiches.

For my ganache, I used 16 ounces of heavy cream, about 32 ounces total of Trader Joe's Dark and Bittersweet chocolates, and about 4 tablespoons of butter. I let that cool to room temperature then piped it onto the bottoms of half the cookies with a large star tip. I had enough cookies and filling to make 26 sandwiches (minus the ones sacrificed for quality control, of course).

These are for a bunch of guys, so I didn't fancy them up. But you could fill/frost/flavor these however you like. You could roll the edges in crushed candy canes, nuts, or whatever festive inspiration strikes.

(I really hope the approaching snow does not prevent tomorrow's card game from happening because I simply must not be left in house with these!!)

ETA 12/13/10: Slightly warmed in the microwave, these resemble molten chocolate lava cakes. Knowledge I did not necessarily need...