O-R-E-oh!

I just perfected a chocolate sandwich cookie recipe. You know the ones. People like to dip 'em in milk... You can get them obscenely "double-stuffed"... My one true pregnancy vice with Lily... (Sit me down with a stack of cookies and a glass of milk and call it dinner. Perhaps this is why I gained almost 60lbs with her.)

We're driving down state tomorrow - approximately a 4hr drive - to go to a failed family reunion. I was trying to think of portable bribes, I mean, snacks for the children when things start to get hairy around the 3 1/2 hr mark. Inspired by a recipe in a book whose title I cannot remember, Aevryn and I set aside the afternoon to bake cookies. In the sweltering 80+ degree, one million percent humidity, we somehow forged on. I'm sure all the chocolate cookie dough she could shove in her mouth when she thought I wasn't looking was motivation enough for Aevryn. Knowing that I have a neat treat for my littles was enough for me.

Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 C arrowroot
1 C cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp vit c crystals (or cream of tartar)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 C palm shortening (or coconut oil or similar)
1/2 C maple syrup
1/4 C water
1 tsp vanilla extract (in our case, homemade with vodka)

Yield: approximately 80 cookies

Preheat oven to 350*F

* Mix dry ingredients in one bowl.

* In the stand mixer or with a hand mixer, whip maple syrup & shortening. Add vanilla extract.

* Add dry mixture into wet by scoopfuls, letting it mix well before putting more in.

* It will be a bizarre texture. Not quite dough-like, not quite frosting, but some nebulous inter-region. Kind of like the middle of a truffle, actually. You can smoosh it together with your hands to make a big ball if you are so inclined.

* Scoop out a hunk of dough with a teaspoon (like a measuring spoon, not the spoon with which you stir tea). Roll it into a ball in your hands. Press down to 1/8 to 1/4" thick discs onto a VERY LIGHTLY greased cookie sheet. I used a half of a tea ball as a cookie cutter. It's somewhere between 1 and 2 inches in diameter. Peel the excess dough away.

* Bake for 12 minutes at 350*F.

* Allow to cool completely before trying to make sandwich cookies with a filling. I've considered straight up frosting, jam, and nut butter. None of those are particularly portable, though all tasty. So, I'm developing a "white stuff" recipe. I believe it's going to involve shortening, vanilla, maple syrup & arrowroot. We shall see. Aevryn is in full afternoon-heat melt-down (literally) mode, so I will have to experiment another time.

If you make these, let me know how they worked out for you, and if you made them into sandwiches. If so, please share what you used and how that turned out as well. Thanks!