Too Cute, Too Pretty: Recipe: Chocolate Peppermint-wich

I found this recipe from Taste of Home. I love Andes mint chocolate candies and mint chocolate chip ice cream! If you love those, you'll be sure to enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients for the Cookie:

6 tablespoons butter, chopped
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (12 ounces; usually 1 entire bag)
I used the mini chocolate chips because they melt faster.
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Baking Instructions for the Cookie:

1. Preheat oven at 350°.

2. In a medium size saucepan, place your chopped butter, brown sugar, chocolate chips, and water.

3. Turn on stove at its lowest setting and mix ingredients until all the chocolate chips are melted and smooth. Remove from heat, pour into a mixing bowl and let it cool for a couple minutes.

4. Once the chocolate mixture is cool, add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until well blended.

5. While you are waiting for the mixture to cool, in a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together to make your flour mixture.

6. While the mixer is running at a low speed setting, spoon the flour mixture into the bowl.
Do so until the entire flour mixture is evenly mixed with the chocolate mixture.

7. The mixture will be very thick and slightly doughy.

8. Spoon 1 tablespoon and roll it into a ball (approximately 1 inch balls) and place it onto a cookie sheet. Do not grease the cookie sheet.

9. Bake it in the oven for 10-12 minutes. (My oven's baking sweet spot is at 11 minutes.)

10.Remove it from oven and let it cool. It will come out plump, but eventually will flatten out a little bit.

Ingredients for the peppermint filling:

2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
1/4 cup butter, softened (make sure this isn't so soft that it's really soft, but just enough so it's not straight from the refrigerator)
3 tablespoons milk (I used fat free milk because that's what I normally have in the fridge... this is not a fat free dessert *for sure!* however, the fat free milk worked just fine)
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
4-5 drops of green food coloring, optional (darken or lighten at your choice)

Instructions for the Peppermint Filling:
Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix until smooth and well blended.

Tip: The first time I made the mixture, I kept the butter at room temperature too long. The butter was really soft. So when I blended the ingredients together, it was too "liquid-y" and was oozing out of the cookie. Make sure to use soft butter but not one that has been sitting out too long.

Assembling the Chocolate Peppermint-wich:
Most of your cookies will be about the same size if you used a cookie dough scooper. If you didn't, you should match your cookies so that like-size cookies can be together. Maybe I'm a little OCD about that, however, it will make a better presentation.

Spread the peppermint filling on the bottom cookie and place the other cookie on top.