These cookie sandwiches are the perfect combination of sweet and salty. I wanted to make a silly kind of dessert for the dinner my friends and I do every week before they all went to 90s night, and what is sillier and more childish than a cookie sandwich? Nothing.
I used my chocolate chip cookie recipe as the base for these little guys and went with a salted caramel frosting filling to balance out the sweetness of the cookies. I had salted caramel sauce that I made a little while ago sitting in my fridge, but if you don’t have any or don’t feel like taking your chances with hot sugar, caramel sauce from the store is totally fine, too.
This frosting is seriously the best. I would probably just eat this frosting all by itself {who am I kidding, I totally did do that}. Salted caramel can do no wrong.
When you’re making the cookies, I recommend going with a smaller size cookie scoop. I was happily using my regular cookie scoop when it decided to break. After fighting a losing battle to get it back together and giving up, I first went for my large cookie scoop only to end up with cookies as big as my hand. Ideal for cookies by themselves, but not for a cookie sandwich. Contrary to popular belief, there is such a thing as too much sweet and that would have been it.
The little cookie scoop made perfectly sized cookies, perfect for sandwiching together with some salted caramel frosting.
I’m going to warn you now, these are the kind of cookies that you only need one of. They’re sugary, salty and delicious, but more than one might have you bouncing off the walls. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches with Salted Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. hot water
- 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Frosting:
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup salted caramel {I used homemade, but store-bought is good too}
- 2 - 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp. heavy cream
- pinch salt
Instructions
Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add to the batter along with the cream of tartar and salt. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto an engrossed cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.
- While cookies are cooling, make the frosting filling.
Frosting:
- Cream the butter for 1-2 minutes, until nice and smooth. Add in vanilla extract and salted caramel and beat to incorporate, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add 1 1/2 cups of the powdered sugar, heavy cream and salt and beat together. Add remaining powdered sugar as necessary, depending on the consistency you want for your frosting {I made a stiff frosting so it wouldn't ooze out the sides of the cookies}.
- Once cookies are cool, pair them up. Transfer frosting to a piping bag and pipe some frosting on one half of each cookie pair. Sandwich together.
