Crazy Good Ginger Spice Cookie Sandwiches
We’re eating chewy ginger spice cookie sandwiches with a honeyed mascarpone-chevre filling.
The one time every year I could count on my mom baking was around the holidays. Pretty much the rest of the year my mom stayed as far away from the kitchen as possible. (Love you mom! but you know it’s true. 😉 ) Several weeks before Christmas she would go into hyper cookie baker mode and would bust out dozens upon dozens of different cookies that she would give to our teaches, bus drivers, church going friends, etc. I remember red and white candy cane shaped cookies, mexican wedding cookies, bourbon balls and of course her favorite – spritz cookies, dyed green to really look like Christmas trees. (at least in my child’s mind’s eye they looked a lot like xmas trees!) I don’t remember her ever making gingersnaps or any kind of ginger cookies, and I know she sure as hell wouldn’t have filled them with chevre anything as she doesn’t like goat’s milk, but whenever I make holiday cookies it floods me with tons of memories of being in the kitchen with my mom and all of the excitement of Christmas for a child comes rolling back. Maybe that’s why, even though I am not really big cookie eater, this time of year I love to make and share cookies with my friends and family.
So far I only have feedback on these cookies from two people – Tyler (of course) and our neighbor, Rob, who gets a sample of pretty much every sweet thing I make. Both of them gave these cookies really high ratings so I think all in all they are a success. If you are looking for a slightly out-out-of-the-ordinary holiday cookie to share with your friends and loved ones this holiday season, I suggest giving these chewy ginger cookie sandwiches a try! P.S. – If you try them out we’d love to hear your opinion in the comments below!
For the cookies:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 packed cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup granulated sugar, for rolling
For the filling:
5.5 oz chevre, at room temperature
8 oz mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack positioned in the upper third of the oven. Prepare a baking sheet with parchement paper or silpat.
Sift together the first 7 ingredients for the cookies into a bowl.
Using a stand mixer or hand-mixer in a separate bowl cream together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and molasses and continue to beat again until fully incorporated.
Finally add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl with the sugar-butter mixture. Beat until the all of the flour has just been incorporated.
Place granulated sugar into a bowl.
Scoop out a heaping tablespoon of the cookie dough. Roll into a ball. Place the ball into the bowl with the sugar. Roll the ball around to coat with sugar. Place the cookie ball onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat this process, placing the cookie balls at least 2-3 inches apart as they will spread significantly. Will make about 3 sheets of cookies. Bake each sheet separately.
Once the sheet is full, place on to the rack in the upper third of the preheated oven. Bake 10-12 minutes until the cookies are flattened and the edges are slightly more golden. Place parchement paper with cookies onto a wire rack to cool. Repeat baking process two more times with next two sheets of cookies. Cool all cookies for at least 1 hour before filling.
While the cookies are cooking make the filling. Cream together all ingredients for the filling. Set aside until cookies cool.
Once the cookies have cooled evenly distribute the filling over half of the cookies. Place a second cookie onto top of each filled half to form a cookie sandwich. Serve immediately or store at room temperature for upto 24 hours or refrigerated for upto 4 days. Enjoy!
a lil bit of cayeene in there? reaaaaally? love it. stellar photo too.
Oh my!! I am mad over ginger…love love love it… and now sandwiched with chevre and mascarpone!!! How truly Scrumptious!
thanks, dawn! you know, just a little pinch! if they were only for me it would be a big pinch. i’m a spice junky! 🙂
thanks bron! they’re kind of like the red-headed step child of the oatmeal cream pie. 😉
Justin’s PISSED that you made these while we were gone! 🙂
nicole – let justin know i’m sure he’ll get a chance to taste some soon. 😉 i have at least a couple of weeks to overwhelm you guys with holiday sweets!
Droolicious. Ginger is my favorite kind of cookie and add in that filling and I am done for….
Love it, love it.
I live and work in a drug rehab. and work very long hours. I have very little time for elaborate recipes but, enjoy a good home cooked meal. Any suggestions?
wow, the combination of ginger with the sweet/savory mascarpone and chevre filling sounds, well, out of this world.
that filling sounds absolutely divine!
first time i’ve used a recipe from the site
must say, these came out way too good
can’t wait to eat the rest of them into a coma
Hey!
I have just baked these cookies! They are really good, the flavours together work well, and agreeing with the spice lovers the pinch of chili can be a big one! The amount of filling is quite a lot and there’s some left, somehow half would have been sufficient with my cookies… and next time I will use cream cheese instead of mascarpone for no remorse… 🙂
If you readers try the recipe, don’t bake the cookies longer than what was written, I took out the first sheet but found they were too soft and left the others in slightly longer, now those are a little too crispy, though still delicious! I guess by tom they will have softened again a little..
Yummy! Thanks for your recipe, next will be the apple and pecan bars..
All the best,
sunblade
These look awesome. Sorry I haven’t visited in a while–finally got time to look up holiday recipes and this looks awesome. Although, I’m pretty pour, so I might have swap out the mascarpone-goat cheese mix with a little old fashioned cream cheese. Ghetto McGuyver cooking! Thanks for the recipe!
Wow these came out perfect!! Definitely not as pretty as yours but I was so happy with the outcome and will be making them again for sure. The flavour was amazing and they were also nice and light & just fell apart in my mouth. Thank you for the recipe!!
Made them…loved them! I only used 4 oz of chevre and it was just enough to taste a hint of it an not too overwhelming! The cookies alone are fantastic. They are so soft and chewy!
I just made these. I substituted a mixture of cream cheese and cream for the mascarpone, for price’s sake, but kept in the goat cheese. God, they were delicious. They tasted like cheesecake. Everyone I fed them to raved about them. Next time I’ll use real mascarpone, and I’ll keep them all for myself.
I just made these (still have one sheet in the oven!) and have to tell you that the cookies on their own are terrific! I may add some fresh grated ginger next time for a bit more of an intense gingery flavour, but they are more than good. Thanks for a great recipe!
Yes, please. With my latte right now which is lacking something alongside it to nibble on. I think I could snarf down a whole batch of these 🙂