Gallagher’s Favourite “Frogwiches”:
Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla or Citrus Cream
Today’s the Last Day of our Illustrate-Your-Own-Book project for MARCH breAK!, and it’s time, once again, to make a treat drawn from our book, A Study in Emerald. In Chapter Six of our seven chapter tale, snake-detective Gallagher feasts on “Frog Sandwich Cookies” as he triumphs over his recent arrest of a suspect in the “Wolfe Tone Mystery.” Today, we’ll be reading the last chapter and acting out the whole story with our freshly made Sock Puppets, our Necktie Bean-Bag Snakes, and our Snake Stick Puppets. So, of course, we needed to make these Frogwiches to give our puppet theatre production an authentic feel!
This recipe produces a very thin, crispy sandwich cookie. By using the butter/shortening blend for the cream filling, you achieve something like an Oreo filling. In fact, the whole cookie tastes like a Spicy Ginger Oreo! The butter-only option will be more like a buttercream icing, but it won’t store as long in a tin. We like both the vanilla and the citrus (especially the lime!) options for this cookie!
Ginger Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla or Citrus Cream
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 c flour
- 2 tsp ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon we like “Ceylon” in this recipe
- 1/4 tsp tsp ground cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbs butter
- 1/2 c brown sugar
- 1/2 c granulated sugar
- 1/4 c c molasses
- 1 egg
- 1 tbs vanilla
- .25 c icing sugar for dusting
Sandwich Cream
- 4 tbs butter AND
- 4 tbs shortening vegan, non-hydrogenated, a-okay
- OR
- 6 tbs butter AND
- 1-2 tbs milk or cream if required
- WITH
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla AND
- green food colouring optional
- OR
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 2 tbs lime, lemon or orange juice
- 2 tsp zest optional
- green, yellow or orange food colouring optional
Instructions
COOKIES
- With a whisk, combine flour, spices, soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Beat the butter and sugars in a mixer until fluffy.
- Slowly incorporate the molasses into the fluff.
- Add the egg and the vanilla until just combined.
- Add the bowl of dry ingredients slowly.
- When the dough appears combined, use a spatula to form it into a ball.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours.
- Dough may also be rolled into a long wax or parchment paper log and refrigerated for at least 4-6 hours.
- Heat the oven to 350 F.
- Roll the dough into 1 inch balls with your hands
- Flatten onto a parchment lined pan. (Leave a lot of space! Don’t exceed a dozen per pan! These cookies spread!)
- Or, slice the log of dough into 1/8 in slices and place on parchment with liberal spacing.
- Bake for just about 10 minutes.
- IMMEDIATELY after removing cookies from pan, use (frog) cookie cutter to make a print in the cookie without completely slicing through.
- Cool cookies on racks and make the icing.
FILLING
- Mix butter and shortening until soft.
- Add icing sugar.
- Add optional vanilla or citrus.
- Add optional food colouring.
- If icing hasn’t formed, add milk or cream 1 tsp at a time to mixer.
ASSEMBLY
- Place some icing sugar in a tea strainer or in a spoon.
- For HALF of the cookies: Place the cookie cutter back on the top of the indentation you made wtih the it previously.
- Tap the sides of the tea strainer or gently shake your spoon to spread the icing sugar over top of the cookie.
- Use a butter knife or an icing spreader to spread a dollop of icing on the bottom/flat portion of the other HALF of the cookies.
- Place the sugar-dusted cookies on top of the iced ones to create the sandwiches.
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