Friday, August 16, 2013

Chocolate Strawberry Sandwich Cookies

Nothing feels better to a frugal freak like me than being able to use up every last scrap of a recipe. During one of our family BBQ shindigs recently, there was so much food that not many people made it to dessert - and as a result we had a half batch of No - Berry Strawberry Rhubarb Cake taking up valuable fridge space! I also had some leftover Luxuriously Healthy and Sweet Potato Frosting
in the freezer and fridge, so I tried to figure out a way to combine the delectable flavours of chocolate and strawberries without making cake balls. I like cake balls as much as the next person, but they're tedious to do and involve coating in some form of chocolate... and I didn't feel like getting more dishes dirty than necessary. Besides, I already had some cake balls in the freezer to coat (which I still haven't done!).

That said, I liked the idea of mashing up the cake and re-forming it into something else. If you remember my Miser Bars from eons ago (and my unposted, yet photographed Double Raspberry Brownie Cookies), I followed the same basic idea - baked good + liquid to make a dough, scoop and bake. For these particular ones, I wound up essentially clearing out leftover dairy from the fridge, using plain, non-fat yoghurt, cream cheese and a splash of milk. Before they baked off, I sprinkled the domes of re-purposed dough with crushed arrowroot cookies (from the "get rid of it" pile from the end of the school year). 


Chocolate Stuffed Strawberry Rhubarb Cookies

Surprisingly, they turned out remarkably well - soft and cake-like cookies with a little chew, sandwiching creamy chocolate frosting. The strawberry-chocolate combo was a winner too, not being too sweet or too bitter. The cookies got bonus points for being one-bowlers, and excellent travelers to boot!

Have you ever done something like this? How frugal are you in the kitchen?

Chocolate Strawberry Sandwich Cookies
Makes 18
2 tbsp soft cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
½ batch No - Berry Strawberry Rhubarb Cake, crumbled (alternatively, use a 9" pan of your favourite strawberry cake recipe)
1/3 cup non-fat plain Greek yoghurt
3 tbsp whole milk
Crushed arrowroot or vanilla wafer cookies, for topping
9 tbsp Sweet Potato Frosting (or combine Sweet Potato and my Luxuriously Healthy Chocolate Frosting - if, like me, you have some in the freezer!), for filling 
  1. Preheat the oven to 375F and line a cookie sheet with parchment.
  2. Beat the cream cheese and vanilla until softened and creamy.
  3. Add the cake, yoghurt and milk, beating well to form a moist "cookie-like" dough.
  4. Scoop 36 small balls of dough and place on the sheets. Flatten slightly with damp fingers and top with cookie crumbs.
  5. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely on the sheets.
  6. Sandwich two cookies with ½ tbsp of the Sweet potato frosting and enjoy!
  7. Store in a tightly covered container in the fridge and eat within a week.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 131.0
Total Fat: 4.6 g
Cholesterol: 21.9 mg
Sodium: 65.0 mg
Total Carbs: 18.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.6 g
Protein: 3.5 g

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