Homemade Peppermint Oreos

I attended a Cookie Exchange party last night. It was so much fun!
It was hosted by this lady whom I met at the PCI Cupcakes Galore class I took several months back. Kim graciously opened her home to us, went through great lengths to prepare her house and painstakingly baked gingerbreads till the wee hours in the morning so that we can all have fun at putting together our gingerbread houses. Kim pulled out all the stops and even bought all the cute decorative sprinkles, colored sugars and vibrant color icing - prefilled the piping bags too - all we had to do was show up, assemble and then just have a blast decorating the gingerbreads!


I baked these cookies for the party, which was inspired by a box of Peppermint Oreos by Trader Joe's. Vanilla buttercream with chunks of peppermint candies sandwiched between two decadent chocolate wafers. A great milk-dunker and definitely a change from the usual choc-chip cookies.

Ingredients:
Cookie Dough:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Filling:
½ stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup peppermint candy canes, crushed.
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

1. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
2. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then beat in yolk and vanilla.
3. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches just until a dough forms.
4. Divide dough in half a disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm ~ 2 hours
5. Preheat oven to 330 ˚F. Grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
6. Roll out 1 piece of dough and cut out as many rounds as possible with a 2-inch fluted or round cutter
7. Transfer cookies to a buttered baking sheet, arranging them ½ inch apart.
8. Bake cookies until baked through and slightly puffed ~ 12 minutes. Cool on cooling rack
9. To make the filling, beat the butter and shortening together at medium speed until combined and smooth. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Increase the speed to high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until the filling is light and fluffy. Fold in crushed peppermint candies
10. To assemble the cookies, pipe a heaping teaspoon of filling onto the flat side of the plain cookies. Top with the sugared cookies to make sandwiches. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

(Adapted from the Brown-Eyed Baker & Gourmet, December 2007; addition of peppermint crunchies by Jencrafted)

The party was a huge success! Another lady taught us how to make X'Mas stockings, we went to town with our Gingerbread decorating and the food?! Oh, there was enough to feed an army and everything was so delicious! It's been a while since I had so much fun hanging out with girlfriends. Good times and great way to kickstart my 2009 holiday parties!