Peppermint Mocha Kahlua Brownie Sandwich Cookies

December is nearly over, and we've almost made it to the end of the holiday season. I don't know about you, but I'm kind of glad. Spending time with family is awesome, and obviously I love to bake, but I'm no Martha Stewart. This baking blogger is enjoying leftovers and savoring my quiet weekend. So, about those leftovers. Everyone has leftover candy canes, right? I mean, I buy them every year because they're cute, but no one really eats them. Now that Christmas has passed, I thought I'd experiment and find something interesting to do with them. Also, I'd picked up some Peppermint Mocha Kahlua, per Ellen's recommendation, so obviously I had to do something fun with that! Still, I felt like keeping it simple and doing something easy.

Here's what I came up with: these Peppermint Mocha Kahlua Brownie Sandwich Cookies are VERY easy to make, they look deceptively impressive, and they're DELICIOUS. If you need something festive to bring to a New Year's Eve party, and don't have a lot of time, these would be great.

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Here's how it's done:

For the cookies:

Ingredients:
** Note: each brand of brownie mix is a little different, so you may need to make adjustments if the batter seems too dry or too wet. I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownie mix - my fave.
** The number of cookies will depend on how large you make your cookies. I like to use an actual cookie scoop, so that the cookies will be the same size. What size - that's up to you. Mine turned out huge. Monstrous, even! I ended up with 18 cookies, which made 9 sandwiches.

• 1 box brownie mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4 cup Peppermint Mocha Kahlua
• 1/4 cup flour

Instructions:
(1)  Preheat the oven to 350.
(2)  Mix the wet ingredients, then blend in the dry ingredients. The mixture should have the consistency of cookie dough. If it's too dry, add a little more Kahlua. If it's too wet, add another tablespoon of flour.
(3)  Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. Make sure you leave room for the cookies to spread out as they bake.
(4)  Bake for about 12 minutes; a little more for larger cookies, a little less for smaller cookies. They'll spread out, and the tops will crack a bit like brownies do. Don't overbake - just like brownies, these fudgey cookies will set as they cool.
(5)  Remove from the oven and let the cookies set for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

For the filling:
 
Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 2 candy canes, crushed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1.5 cups confectioner's sugar 
• a couple drops of red food coloring (optional)

Instructions:
(1)  Mix butter, vanilla bean paste, food coloring, and crushed candy canes. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar until your mixture is the desired consistency.
(2)  Pipe or spread with a knife onto half of the completely cooled cookies, then add the other half to make cookie sandwiches.

Peppermint Mocha Kahlua Brownie Sandwich Cookies

--Jacqueline