These aren’t your basic, vegan chocolate sandwich cookies. These are cookies chocolate sandwich cookies with a kick! A little bit cayenne pepper brings the heat to the party.
Of course, you can omit the cayenne if you want, but I encourage you to keep it. It makes these cookies taste a bit like a spicy, Mexican-style hot chocolate.
This recipe replaces eggs with aquafaba. Aquafaba is the liquid you pour off of a can of chickpeas. If you’ve never worked with Aquafaba before, you should check out this post. Don’t be afraid, it’s super simple to work with.
If you aren’t vegan (I’m not) and you want to make this recipe using eggs/dairy you can replace the aquafaba with 2 eggs and replace the Earth Balance with 1 stick of unsalted butter.
The finished cookies should be slightly chewy with just enough spice to make them special.
They make a great Christmas cookie for those who are tired of the usual suspects. Don’t get me wrong—I WILL EAT ALL OF THE SHORTBREAD—but these are unique and slightly surprising with that cayenne bite.
- Jasmine
Spicy Vegan Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Total Time: 90 minutes
Yield: 20 Sandwich Cookies
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
These spicy chocolate sandwich cookies are inspired by Mexican hot chocolate.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup dutch process cocoa
- ½ tsp kosher salt (omit salt if using earth balance buttery sticks)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 stick of earth balance shortening (not the salted version)
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 6 tbsp aquafaba
- 1 tsp vanilla
Ganache Filling:
- 6.5 oz of chopped dark chocolate 60-70% (roughly 1 heaping cup)
- ½ cup of full fat canned coconut milk
Instructions
Cookies:
- Whisk the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and cayenne together in a bowl. Set aside for later.
- Cream the earth balance together with the sugar in a stand mixer with a paddle for approximately 1 minute. Add the aquafaba 1 tbsp at a time until just incorporated, add the vanilla with the last tbsp of aquafaba. Don’t over mix.
- Turn the mixer down to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 batches. Mix until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. You may need to scrape down the mixer once halfway through.
- Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silpat.
- Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop out small mounds of cookie dough. Spread them out about 2 inches apart because these cookies spread when baked. In between batches, be sure to keep the cookie dough in the fridge so it stays chilled.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. They will look a bit puffy when you pull them out, but they settle to be nice and crackly. Let them rest for 1 or 2 minutes before moving them to a drying rack.
Ganache Filling
- Heat coconut milk over medium low heat until it starts to bubble around the edges.
- Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until completely smooth.
- Chill on the counter and then move to the fridge so it can cool and firm up a bit.
Assemble:
- Once the cookies are completely cool and the ganache has firmed up a bit, it is time to fill the cookies.
- Fill a large piping bag with the chocolate ganache and cut a small whole at the tip of the bag.
- Pipe the filling onto half of the cookies, leave space around the edges so you can squish them together without goo coming out the sides.
- Try to work quickly so the ganache in the bag doesn’t melt. If it gets to soft, put the bag back in the fridge to warm up a bit.
- Once you’ve piped the filling on half the cookies, sandwich them together with the other halves. Give them a firm squeeze so they stick together.
- Store the cookies in a cool, dry place or in the fridge until ready to serve.
Notes
I prefer the plain Earth Balance shortening sticks. I find it makes better tasting cookies. If you have the salted kind, be sure to omit the salt.
