Sandwich Cookie Recipes

Moisture moves from the filling into the cookie, so the drier the filling, the longer the snap lasts. Buttercream and set ganache hold for a day or two; jam and marshmallow soften cookies faster. For crisp wafers, store the halves and the filling separately and fill a few hours before serving. Whoopie pies are meant to be soft, so fill those whenever.

Make it stiff. Buttercream should hold a peak, and ganache should cool until it is about as thick as peanut butter. Pipe a mound in the center, leave a small margin, then press the top cookie down gently so the filling spreads to the edge. Fifteen minutes in the fridge sets it.

Use a cookie scoop for drop doughs, one round cutter for rolled doughs, and a printed circle template under the parchment for piped macarons and whoopie pies. After baking, pair the halves by size before you fill them. Nobody will know the batch was not perfectly even.

Yes. Most freeze best unfilled: stack the baked cookies between parchment in an airtight container for up to three months, then thaw and fill. Buttercream-filled cookies such as whoopie pies and macarons also freeze well filled if each one is wrapped. Jam-filled cookies are better frozen unfilled and dusted with powdered sugar after thawing.

The near-black wafer in a classic chocolate sandwich cookie comes from very dark, heavily alkalized cocoa. Black cocoa bakes that color in with little to no food coloring and brings the familiar sandwich-cookie flavor. The easy starting point is half and half: swap black cocoa in for half the cocoa in your recipe and keep Dutch-process cocoa for the rest.

In a pinch, yes. Canned frosting is softer than homemade buttercream, so it squishes out the sides and softens the cookies sooner. Beat in a few spoonfuls of powdered sugar to stiffen it before piping. A basic vanilla buttercream takes about five minutes and holds up better.