Caramel Living: Sugar Cookie Sandwiches

Sparklers, celebration and food!! Fourth of July is such a great time of the year. We typically head over to my parents’ cabin for the Fourth. We swim, go for boat rides, eat and be merry. There is a Fourth of July boat parade which is a blast because a water fight with water balloons and water guns is bound to happen between the boats and viewers.

Fourth of July = FUN, yummy treats and more fun and more yummy treats!

Today I have a fun cookie, along with a kick butt frosting recipe, to add to your holiday menu. These cookies are cute, fun and delicious. Like I’ve mentioned, oh I don't know... a few hundreds time, I enjoy a soft and chewy sugar cookie. The recipe that follows will leave you with just that.

Sugar Cookie Sandwiches

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Blue food coloring
Red food coloring
Sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare cookie sheet with a baking mat or parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking soda and baking power in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture. I usually do this in three steps… add a bit of flour, mix well and repeat two more times.

Separate dough into two even halves and place them in separate mixing bowls. Add red food coloring to one half and blue to the other. I used about 1/2-3/4 tbsp of each color.

Roll dough into large blueberry size balls. Really you can make them any size but this size makes them easy to pop. And by pop I mean… into my mouth. Roll the small balls in sugar sprinkles and place on the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake cookies for about 3-5 minutes, remove from oven and let them rest on the cookie sheet for another 2 minutes. I take my cookies out of the oven while they are still quite soft looking. They will continue to “bake” a little longer as they rest. (Note: If you enjoy a crisp cookie, bake them a little longer)

These little guys are about the size of a quarter

Once the cookies are completely cool we can build our sandwiches. This frosting is amazing and very versatile. It can be used on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, you name it. It's light and creamy, but also sets very nicely and doesn't run like other whipped frostings I've tried. If you are looking for a new frosting recipe, here it is!

Whipped Cream Frosting (original recipe) :

1 8oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 cup heavy cream

Blend together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract. Once the texture is creamy slowly whisk in heavy cream. Whisk until it reaches a stiff peak. I whisked mine for about 6 minutes.

To build the sandwiches, take one cookie and apply frosting to the top. Take another cookie and gently press the bottom side down on to the frosted cookie. There you go. Your cookie sandwich is complete.