Chocolate Brownie Sandwich Cookies with Coconut Cream Cheese Filling

Oh. My. God.

I have never eaten so much food in the space of 24 hours.

We had the NZ Food Blogger's annual conference this weekend, which equated to two days of eating. Heaven. Or so I thought.

My only regret? Perhaps starting with chocolate for breakfast (on both days) was a mistake.

So why am I into the chocolate again? At least these chewy, chocolaty, creamy brownie sandwich cookies will be devoured by my workmates tomorrow. I think I need to go on a chocolate detox.

Chocolate Brownie Sandwich Cookies Based on a recipe from Donna Hay (Makes approx 15 cookies)

For the Cookies
350g dark chocolate (I used Whittaker's Dark Ghana)
50g butter
3/4c caster sugar
1t vanilla extract (
2 eggs
1/4c flour
1/4t baking powder
A pinch of salt

For the filling
120g cream cheese
50g butter
1t vanilla bean paste
1/4t coconut essence
1c icing sugar

For the cookies
Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Melt 200g of the chocolate in a pot with the butter. Bring off the heat and let it cool slightly.

Meanwhile, add the sugar, vanilla, and eggs into the bowl of a standing mixer and beat for 10-15 mins until the mixture goes pale and fluffy. This is important, so take your time here. If you don't have a standing beater, then you can use a hand held beater. But make sure you have a book with you, because (as I found this afternoon), standing there for 15 minutes is less than entertaining.

Once the 10-15 mins are up, gently sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt into the egg mixture, and stir in the chocolate mixture. Roughly chop the remaining 150g chocolate, and stir in. Let the mixture sit for at least 10 minutes. But if you can leave it for 1 hour, it become thicker and easier to work with.

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Line tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough 3cm apart on the baking paper. If the mixture is stiff enough (if you've left it for longer), you may be able to roll these slightly and press them with a fork.

Bake for 8 minutes, or until cracked on the top but still soft and gooey to the touch. Bring the baking tray out of the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes for the cookies to firm up, before transferring to a cooling rack.

Continue until all the mixture is cooked.

For the filling
In a large bowl or standing mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla paste and coconut essence. Beat with the mixer (or a hand beater) until well combined. Add the icing sugar in two batches, beating well between each addition. Set aside until you are ready to assemble.

To assemble
Take one (cooled!) cookie, spread a generous amount of filling onto the bottom, spreading to the edge. Place another cookie on top, and gently rotate back and forth, pushing down gently, until the cookie is nicely sandwiched together.

Eat with a tall glass of milk.