Black Cocoa Sugar Cookie Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Buttercream are the perfect 'grown-up oreo' treat! Soft, chewy black cocoa sugar cookies are paired with a smooth cream cheese frosting to make the perfect sugar cookie sandwich.
Hi hi! I’m sorry that I’ve been hiding a little bit. Anxiety, jet lag and homesickness isn’t a great combination if you’re looking for a good time, it turns out! I always find coming back to NYC a little hard, but for some reason this time was extra tricky. I am so, so grateful to have something that makes coming back so hard. It’s been 6 years and I swear it gets harder each time, and I forget about how hard it is and expect to be able to throw myself full noise back into work, and get bummed out with myself each time when I remember I need to just take it easy on myself for a wee bit and say a big old NOPE to adulting for a few days, and sure enough, I popped out the other side and I am ready to party again (by partying I mean staying home and working with my cat)!
Thankfully past me must have been able to predict this wee slump, because I have a couple of things that I shot before we left tucked away to share with you! These Black cocoa sugar cookie sandwiches with cream cheese frosting are a wee riff on a few recipes that I have shared before. This sugar cookie recipe originally came from Sarah Kieffer’s amazing book, and I have tweaked it a couple of times over the years for a few different things. It’s a basic chocolate sugar cookie, which I gave the black cocoa treatment, which gives off some serious Oreo vibes. The cookies alone are super good, and are the perfect texture - soft but also a little chewy, and they bake up perfectly flat, with a coating of sugar on the outside, which makes them ideal for sandwiching with things, in this case a cream cheese frosting. Black cocoa pairs perfectly with the cream cheese in this case - the cocoa is a little bitter and the frosting is sweet and a little bit tangy. These are kind of like a grown up oreo - and they are very, very good. I hope that you give them a try! x
A few wee tips:
- The cookies alone are great. You should make them and eat them.
- The secret, I have found, to cream cheese icing that doesn’t go everywhere, is cold cream cheese. You want room temperature butter, and cold cream cheese. Don’t be scared to whip the heck out of it once you add the powdered sugar to get rid of any lumps.
- I sandwiched these together with little blobs of frosting which I piped with a french star tip, which meant that there wasn’t toooo much frosting. You could use a round tip or pipe a circle of frosting too - just make it nice and thin so that you don’t get too much sweetness from the frosting.
- These do soften up quite a bit once you make them so if you are preparing them ahead, I would make the cookies and frosting separately and store them, then assemble these the day you are serving. Just give the frosting a quick wee re-whip. I have two mixing bowls for this reason - I often will store something in the bowl with some plastic wrap pressed against the surface, so if it needs to be re-whipped I can just stick the whole thing back onto the mixer and whip it back up!
- If you can’t find black cocoa, dutch cocoa will work great too! Black cocoa and dutch cocoa have been through a similar alkalising process, black cocoa has just been taken one step further and alkalised even more to make it extra dark. It’s worth tracking down if you can, but if not, dutch cocoa works perfectly here too!
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A note on salt and oven temperature
It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes - if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is 'saltier' than others. Morton's salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.
All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.
Using the double / triple function in the recipe card
You will notice that there is a '1X' '2X' '3X' button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!
Tools and equipment
For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.
Why is this recipe in grams?
I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!
PrintBlack Cocoa Sugar Cookie Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Buttercream
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour plus chilling time
- Yield: 12 Sandwich Cookies 1x
Description
Black Cocoa Sugar Cookie Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Buttercream are the perfect 'grown-up oreo' treat! Soft, chewy black cocoa sugar cookies are paired with a smooth cream cheese frosting to make the perfect sugar cookie sandwich.
Ingredients
Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies
- 230g all-purpose flour
- 50g black cocoa powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 350g sugar, plus more for rolling
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 85g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 170g cream cheese, cold
- 340g powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
BLACK SUGAR COOKIES
- Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Line three baking trays with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until combined. Add the flour and cocoa mixture, and beat on low until just incorporated.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop 2 tbsp worth of mixture at a time. Roll into a ball using your hands, then roll generously sugar. Place on the baking tray, leaving plenty of room to spread (I had 8 cookies per baking tray).
- Bake one tray at a time for 11-12 minutes, until the cookies have puffed up and are beginning to crack on the tops, and the edges are set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking tray for 15 minutes and then transfer to an airtight container until ready to use.
FROSTING AND ASSEMBLY
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese on high until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add powdered sugar, and mix on low to combine. Add vanilla and salt. Turn the mixer to high and beat for another 3-4 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a french star tip (I used an Ateco #865). Alternatively use your piping tip of choice.
- Pair up the cookies. Pipe blobs of frosting onto one cookie and place another on top, pressing lightly to stick. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies. Chill until frosting is set.
- Store cookies in an airtight container in the fridge.
Notes
Cookie recipe slightly adapted from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book
Keywords: sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, sugar cookie sandwiches, cream cheese, cream cheese frosting
Comments
I was looking for a recipe to use my black cocoa powder with and this is the one. Love this recipe! So simple, anyone can make them. The cookies are utterly delicious, even before frosting!
★★★★★
Ah yayyyy so glad you love!
This a repeat at our house. With or without frosting, we all love it. Even our super picky kid likes these. It's different enough it feels fancy, but super easy so it's easy to whip up any day. And so so delicious.
★★★★★
Yayyyyyy! So glad you love! My husband likes them without frosting too! I always suggest taking some to friends when I make, and he won't let me - he says we need them all at home hahahah x
Oh these are just delicious! Even as a plain sugar cookie without the icing... I just made these as a "welcome to summer break" for my boys when they get home from their last day of school. They're going to love them!
★★★★★