We've Come A Long Way Baby!

As I mentioned in my previous post, while on my recent forced hiatus, I missed out on celebrating that my blog turned 1 year old. Me being me, I look for any and every possible reason to bake up something sweet. So of course the 1 year anniversary of the creation of Culinarily Obsessed was a perfect reason, and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I already had some buttercream on hand that makes a perfect filling for sandwich cookies. So I sat down in front of the bookcase and started searching. I decided on a chocolate sandwich cookie recipe that yielded a cookie that is remarkably like an Oreo. Retro Desserts is a book I've adored for ages, it's packed full of cake, cupcake, pie, pudding, cookie, candy and ice cream recipes, they've even got a chapter titled "Posh Nosh - Classic Desserts of The Fancy-Pants Restaurants". If you're a dessert person, the book is worth checking out, everything in the book really does tempt me to try out the recipe, and I can't always say that about an entire book. I hope y'all try out the recipe and enjoy it. I can assure you it was kid tested and better than that - kid approved! I have enjoyed my first year as a part of the food blogging community. Thanks to everyone who has made this first year so wonderful, I hope to share many more blog anniversaries with y'all. Chocolate Sandwich Cookies With Vanilla-Cream Filling* Cookies: 1 1/4 cups sll-purpose flour 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened 1 large egg 1. Set 2 racks in the middle and upper third of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. 2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or in a food processor, thoroughly mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. While mixing on low speed or pulsing, add the butter, then the egg. Beat or process until the dough is thoroughly blended and massed together. 3. Drop rounded teaspoons of batter onto parchment-lined cookie sheets at 2-inch intervals. With moistened fingers, round out the cookies and flatten them a little. Bake for 9 minutes, turning the pans once for even baking, until the cookies are set. Sit the cookie sheets on a rack to cool. Vanilla-Cream Filling 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 2 cups confectioners' sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 1. Put the butter and shortening in a mixing bowl and, at low speed, gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla, until blended. Turn the mixer speed to high and beat for 2-3 minutes more, until fluffy. 2. To assemble, place teaspoon size blobs of filling onto the tops of half of the cookies. Keeping the smooth bottoms of the cookies facing up, flip the remaining cookies on top of the filling and lightly press to form sandwiches. (You can also pipe filling onto cookies using a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch tip.) Makes 36 cookie sandwiches *I used a shortening based buttercream for the filling, so I have not tried the vanilla-cream filling.