Easy Holiday Sandwich Cookies With Fun Homemade Fillings Food

HOLIDAY SANDWICH COOKIES

Steps:

• For the cookies: Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
• Beat the cream cheese, butter and confectioners' sugar together in a large mixing bowl with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl. Add the egg, vanilla and lemon zest and beat until smooth, another minute. Scrape down the bowl again. Add the almond and coconut flours and the salt. Beat until a slightly sticky dough forms. Halve the dough and shape each into a flat disc. Wrap each in plastic and chill in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Work with one disc of chilled dough at a time, leaving the other in the freezer. Place the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll to 1/4-inch thickness. Carefully peel off the top sheet of parchment. Dip a 3-inch round cookie cutter into some coconut flour to help keep it from sticking to the dough and cut the dough into rounds. (The dough is very soft, so you will likely have to leave the cookies in place and scrape away the surrounding dough.) If you like, use mini cookie cutters to cut a hole from the middles of the rounds for half of the rounds. The dough will probably be too soft to transfer the cookies, so slide the parchment paper with the rounds onto a baking sheet. Gather the scraps of dough together and flatten into another round. Wrap the disc of dough in plastic, and chill in the freezer. Place the baking sheet of cut cookies into the freezer to chill for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, repeat the process with the second disc of chilled dough. Reroll the scraps and cut out more cookies. (You should be able to cut a total of 18 to 20 rounds.)
• Bake one sheet of cookies at a time for 5 minutes. Turn the oven down to 300 degrees F and continue to bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until lightly golden on the edges, about another 10 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack. (Do not try to transfer the cookies from the baking sheet until completely cooled.) Increase the oven to 350 degrees F and repeat with the other cookies.
• For the frosting: With a handheld mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and airy. Add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix on low speed until smooth. Transfer a third of the frosting to a piping bag and set aside. Divide the remaining frosting evenly between 2 bowls. Add about 1/2 teaspoon red gel paste to one bowl and 1/2 teaspoon green gel paste to the other. Mix until the color is evenly distributed, adding more gel as desired. Transfer to two more piping bags. Cut off the tips of the bags when ready to assemble.
• To assemble: Pair off the cookie rounds into tops and bottoms, using any cookies with cutouts as tops. Arrange the flat sides of the bottom cookies facing up. Pipe about 3 tablespoons frosting onto the bottom cookies. Smooth the frosting with an offset spatula. Top with the flat sides of the top cookies facing down, pressing gently so that the frosting is pushed to the edges of the cookies.
• Put the crushed peppermint candy and sprinkles on separate plates. Place the sanding "sugar" in a bowl. Roll the edges of each cookie in the candy or sprinkles, or spoon the sugar over the frosting. Sprinkle any cut-out windows with more decorations as desired.

EASY HOLIDAY SANDWICH COOKIES WITH FUN HOMEMADE FILLINGS

Steps:

• To make the filling, place the powdered sugar, shortening, and salt in a medium bowl and mix until smooth (a hand mixer helps). It will be dry at first, but should come together.
• Stir in the add-ins for your desired flavor (using the color ingredients as needed to get the shade you desire). The mixture should be quite thick, like an Oreo icing. But if too thick, you can add a little more shortening - it will still be quite sweet!
• Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip - I use Enjoy Life Soft Baked Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies or Handcrafted Crunchy Double Chocolate Cookies
• Lemon-Iced Gingerbread - I use Enjoy Life Soft Baked Gingerbread Spice Cookies
• Raspberry Sugars - I use Enjoy Life Handcrafted Crunchy Sugar Crisp Cookies
• Maple-Doodles - I use Enjoy Life Soft Baked Snickerdoodles

HOLIDAY SANDWICH COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350degreesF. Open package of cookies; sprinkle cookies with sugar or glitter. Bake cookies as directed on package. Cool completely, about 10 minutes.
• For each sandwich cookie, spread 1 tablespoon frosting on bottom of 1 cookie. Top with second cookie, bottom side down; press together gently. Store loosely covered.
• These cookies make a great holiday activity for children. Let them decorate the cookies with sugars and glitter. While cookies bake, decorate the tree or have a cup of hot cocoa, then let the children make sandwiches with the cooled cookies and frosting.
• Vanilla frosting may be tinted with red or green food coloring, if desired.

EASY VALENTINE SANDWICH COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream together butter and confectioners' sugar. Beat in egg, vanilla and almond extract. Mix well.
• In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; blend into the butter mixture. Divide dough into thirds and shape into balls.
• Working with 1/3 of dough at a time, roll out dough into desired thickness on a lightly floured surface. For each heart sandwich cookie, cut out 2 3-inch hearts. Cut out the center of ONE of the 3-inch hearts with the 1 1/2-inch cutter.
• Place each piece separately on an ungreased cookie sheet, 1 - 2 inches apart. Bake in a preheated, 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven until lightly browned (7-8 minutes for 1/4 inch thick cookies). Cool completely on wire rack. Frost bottom cookie with Pink Valentine Frosting and place an open centered cookie on top to form the sandwich. Also frost the small 1 1/2 inch hearts and serve as separate cookies.

SANDWICH COOKIE FILLING

Steps:

• With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar, and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in one of the flavorings. Use immediately.