vanilla sandwich cookies w/ spiced rum buttercream

After my creation of double chocolate-mint filled Oreo's, I've wanted to do a "vanilla" version.
But to be honest, vanilla was just so boring.
I had to spice it up a bit.
Not wanting to mess with the vanilla cookie, I thought about adding peanut butter or maybe a spicy-savory version to the filling.
Seriously?
Nothing was jumping out at me to use until literally the bottle of captain morgan's spiced rum fell out of the cabinet and into my hands.  
Knowing how good this is with Coke, with root beer, somehow someway the food creations memory cells kicked in and said 'use this in your vanilla sandwich cookie'.
Pretty cool right?  I just love when ideas like that happen.
This filling, do I even need to stress to you how 'crack-like' addicting this taste is?
The spiced rum, mixed with the creamy butter, salt, and the sugar---serious flavor combination.
This spiced rum buttercream is going on a cake next!
Expect that recipe soon!

Are these crunchy like the double chocolate mint Oreo's I made?
No, not as crunchy.
BUT, I am fairly certain that if you slice the cookie dough very thin (the opposite of what I did--see photos below) you should be able to get them crunchier.


If you don't want to use alcohol what is a good substitution 
Can I just stress to you that the spiced rum is what makes this cookie amazing?
But if you had to, I guess you could try a splash of butter extract and a splash of root beer?


Yeah my rolling bites here.
Please do better than I did, for I had to re-roll the cookies.

See?  They were not round.  So I had to re-roll each slice into a ball, then gently press down.
So next time, remember to roll a nice ROUND log, wrap in plastic wrap, chill, then slice with a very sharp knife.
And as I stated before, the thinner the slice, the crispier the cookie.

vanilla sandwich cookies with spiced rum buttercream

print recipe

vanilla cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 ts cornstarch

¼  ts baking powder

½  ts baking soda

½  ts salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 egg yolks, room temp

2 ts pure vanilla extract

spiced rum filling

8 TB unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup + confectioners' sugar (might need a bit more)

giant pinch of salt

1 oversized Tablespoon of “Spiced Rum” (captain morgans has the best flavor)

Cook Notes: 

I’ve found the thinner you slice your cookie dough the crispier you can get your cookies.  This will lend itself to an almost vanilla Oreo cookie-like texture.  Of course the thicker the cookie the less crunchy; so do what you feel is best.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on med-high until well mixed.

Add in 2 egg yolks and vanilla extract and mix.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.  Please do not overmix.

Scrape the cookie dough out onto a very lightly floured surface.

Form it into a two long logs.  Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerator at least 2 hours or overnight.  I find that once the log is wrapped its easier to form it into a more even log by rolling it back and forth as if it were a rolling pin.  Get it as uniform as you can since we will be using this to slice out round cookies.

When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Remove one log of cookie dough from the fridge, place on lightly floured wooden board, and using a sharp knife slice cookies as thin as you can get them.  Place on cookie sheet about two inches apart.  If your cookies slices didn’t come out as thin or round as you like, then do what I did (see photo above) and roll into ball and gently press down into circle.

Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes, or until they have puffed and the tops look set. Remove the sheets from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for about 8 minutes before transferring them to cooling rack.  Cool completely before adding the filling.

For the filling:

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer mix all ingredients until well combined.

Do a taste test and see if it needs more salt or rum.  Chances are it won’t.

Using a plastic bag with edge snipped off or a pastry bag, place filling in bag and pipe onto cookies.

I don’t remember how many these made, sorry, but I think it was 20-25 sandwich cookies.  I know there was enough filling for all.