Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Sandwiches

You see those? They're better than they look. No, really. They're the sort of thing that you'd steal from the plate of your small child when she isn't looking.

Not that I did that.

Oats, chocolate, peanut butter. If there were a key lime pie shoved in there somewhere I'd be in heaven.


Chocolate-covered oatmeal peanut butter sandwich cookies
(makes about 2 dozen sandwiches, adapted from this)

Cookies:
1 1/2 c. AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c butter (2 sticks, softened)
1 c peanut butter (I used creamy, but crunchy would work)
1 c white sugar
1 c  brown sugar (light or dark, packed)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c  quick cooking oats

Filling:
6 Tbsp butter (softened)
2 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (crunchy here might affect the end result)
5 Tbsp heavy cream

Chocolate:
12oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (typically one whole bag. I like Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips)
3 Tbsp shortening (like Crisco. I really hate using it, but it's important for the chocolate to set. Butter won't work, unfortunately).

Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt (sifting insures they're fully mixed together). In a separate bowl cream the butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each one thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat. Add the oats and mix thoroughly. Drop by the tablespoon onto a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten to about 1/4"with a spatula (make sure to flatten, otherwise they won't make very good sandwich bases).

Cook for about 10 minutes (they may not look done, but take them out). Let them sit on the sheet for about 5 minutes (they will finish cooking by sitting on the hot sheet) and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack (no cooling rack= soggy bottoms).

Make the filling: Beat all the ingredients together. That's all. Neat, right?

Make the chocolate:
Using a double boiler to melt the chocolate and shortening, stirring well. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Assembling your cookies:
Make sure your cookies are completely cooled, or your filing will just melt.

Use a tablespoon to put a glob of the filling in the center of a cookie (remember, the bottoms of the cookies should face the inside). Place a cookie on top and gently smoosh down. This will distribute the filling more evenly than spreading the filling will. You could also use a pastry bag.

Use a pastry bag (or a Ziploc with a small snip of corner cut off) to pipe the chocolate on top. Alternately, you could just dip one half of the cookie or the entire top in the chocolate.

Enjoy!