These are just so sweet for the holidays! The cookies on their own are delicious. A soft sugar cookie that doesn’t require chilling and rolling, making it perfect for kids to help too. Adding a filling to the cookie and the chocolate “wrappers” make them perfect for gift giving or a holiday cookie swap.

Tips:

• Customize the size of your cookies. If you don’t want to make them into sandwiches you may want to make the cookies bigger. Use about 3 tablespoons of cookie dough and increase the baking time to about 15 minutes.

• Take the cookies through step 7 and place the baking sheet in the freezer to store unbaked cookies for later. When you are ready to bake, just take out what you need and bake the cookies frozen. Increase the baking time by 3-5 minutes or until golden brown.

• Sugar Cookie Candies can be stored for 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Sugar Cookie Candies

Makes 2 dozen candies

PREP 30 minutes

COOK 9-11 minutes

INGREDIENTS

2 3/4 cups (358g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (224g) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup + 2 tablespoons (233g) granulated sugar

2 tablespoons (28g) light brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup of sprinkles, sanding sugar or any combination you like

Gel food coloring in color(s) you like

DECORATION

1 cup melting chocolate in coordinating color

Chocolate ganache, Vanilla Buttercream or anything you like such as Nutella

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place your sprinkles in a shallow bowl. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Make the cookie dough In a small bowl combine your dry ingredients- flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugars. Scrap down the side of bowl to combine the ingredients.

4. Add egg and continue to mix until blended.

5. Add vanilla and mix.

6. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix until the dough is just coming together. You don’t want to over-mix the dough, so stop when it looks like wet sand. You can use your hands to compress the dough together.

7. At this point you can add the food coloring of your choice. If using two colors, divide the dough first.

8. Using a small ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon, scoop out balls of cookie dough. Roll each ball into your decorations and place on baking sheet, leaving 2” between cookies. Once you fill a sheet use the palm of your hand to gently flatten the ball a little.

9. Bake the cookies for 9-11 minutes or until they are just getting golden brown on the sides and bottom. Allow the cookies to rest 1-2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

10. Assemble the “Candy” While the cookies are baking you can make the wrappers. In the microwave on 50% power melt your chocolate in a glass bowl, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is melted. Place a sandwich baggie or piping bag in a glass and pour your chocolate in. Snip the corner of your baggie just a tiny amount to allow the chocolate to flow out. On a piece of parchment paper draw the shape of the wrapper, using the end of the baggie or a spatula to fill in the shape with chocolate. You will need 48 wrappers or 2 per sandwich. You can make the wrappers a week ahead, just store in a container at room temperature until you are ready to use them. Any mistakes can be remelted.

11. While the cookies cool make the chocolate ganache or buttercream filling.

12. Using an offset spatula spread a generous amount of ganache or buttercream on the bottom of one cookie. Add a wrapper to either side of the cookie and sandwich with another cookie. Allow the ganache to set a little before stacking cookies.