I thought about making a traditional linzer cookie for Valentine’s Day, and then I thought a chocolate heart linzer cookie might be interesting.  Somehow I started thinking about sandwich cookies and came up with this hybrid cookie.

I knew I wanted to make the cookie filling pink and I wanted to leave some cookies with the plain filling showing through the top, but I also wanted to try using sprinkles as decoration inside the cut-out portion.  I bought a Valentine’s Day themed sprinkle canister so I could have a couple different sprinkle options for the cookies since I wasn’t sure what would compliment the chocolate cookie best.  Turns out they all looked good!

I strongly suggest you make this cookie in two days instead of one, unless you have a whole day you can devote to your cookies.  Bake and decorate the tops of your cookies with chocolate drizzle the first day and complete them the next.

Ingredients for chocolate dough:

1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

10 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

1.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.
2.  Combine flour, cinnamon, cocoa powder and baking powder in separate bowl then add a little at a time to the batter.
3.  Chill for 2 hours.  I like to separte the dough into a couple different packets wrapped in waxed paper.  This helps it chill faster and it is easier to handle later.
4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5.  Roll dough about 1/4″ thick and cut with cookie cutters.  Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

I suggest placing the top part of your sandwich cookie next to it’s bottom on the cookie sheet so you end up with the right amount of each at the end.

When your cookies are done cooling its time to get ready to decorate the tops of your sandwich cookies!

I like to use disposable plastic pastry bags to melt chocolate.  It’s much easier and less messy.  Fill one pastry bag each of pink and white chocolate pennies.  Melt the bags in 30 second intervals in your microwave.  Be careful how wide you cut the tips of your bags, you can always make them wider, but  not smaller.

Now you’re ready to decorate!  You can make up your own designs or just drizzle away!

While the chocolate on your cookies is hardening, prepare your sandwich cookie filling:

Ingredients:

1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-4 drops pink gel food coloring

1.  Cream together butter and vegetable shortening.
2.  Add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time.
3.  Add vanilla extract.
4.  Add water if necessary to loosen the filling
5.  Add the pink food coloring

Put some of your filling in a pastry bag and line up the cookie bottoms.  Pipe a line of filling around the outside edge of the cookie, leaving a 1/8″ margin.  Fill in the rest of the cookie and smooth with a butter knife.  Place one of your finished cookie tops on the filling and press down slightly to seal the cookie.

Choose the colored sugar or sprinkle mixture of your choice and gently pat it into the cut-out opening.  Tap off the extra sugar or sprinkles onto a plate.  You can re-use them on another cookie.

Repeat with other cookies until you are done!

You can personalize your cookies with your valentine’s name or use the cookies as place settings for your Valentine’s Day dinner party.

Some other options:

1.  Dip 1/2 of the top portion of your cookie in milk chocolate and add sprinkles.
2.  Instead of a vanilla sandwich cookie filling make chocolate by adding some cocoa powder to the recipe.
3.  Before baking your cookies sprinkle granulated sugar on top and skip the chocolate drizzle.
4.  Separate your filling into a couple different bowls and make each a different color instead of using the sprinkles or sugar.

These cookies can be changed seasonally by using different cookie cutters.  For example, for Easter you could use a large egg cutter and cut out a small chick shape.