Chocolate Caramel Sandwiches

Ingredients:

Cookies:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup icing sugar
3/4 cups unsalted butter
2 eggs
4 Tbsp orange juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Glaze:
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate
4 Tbsp butter

Step 1:

A night or two before you plan on making the cookies, you are going to make the easiest,most flavorful caramel in the universe that you'll eventually spread on the cookies. Take a can of sweetened condensed milk (I used two incase I messed up the recipe royally and had to make them again.

Note: Picture shows 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk but this recipe only requires 1. I used an extra can just for backup.

Step 2:

Take the paper off of the can. Add to a large pot of boiling water (Do Not Open The Can), making sure they are submerged the entire time. Let the water come down to a simmer and leave for 2.5 hours. After 2.5 hours put in the fridge (after they’ve cooled down a bit) for at least over night and no longer than a week.

Step 3:

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease cookie sheets.

Take the can of caramel out of the fridge to bring it up to room temperature.

Step 4:

Sift flour and cocoa powder.

Step 5:

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

Step 6:

Add orange juice and eggs and combine.

Step 7:

Add dry ingredients slowly and combine until smooth (it kind of looks like frosting).

Step 8:

Put mixture into a pastry bag with a large flat tip. Pipe into overlapping ribbons, about 4-5 per cookie. I'm bad at piping, hence the ugly little mishapen cookies.

Step 9:

Also remember to space them out or you will have to cut them apart as I did.

Put into oven for about 5 minutes. Check to see that they are not burning. When the liquid middle begins to harden, take cookies out (it happened in 2 more minutes for one batch, another five for the other batch).

Step 10:

Remove from cookie sheet carefully and put on cooling racks to cool completely (the cookies are a little flimsy at this stage and you will melt the caramel too much if you spread it on now).

Step 11:

Now open the cooled milk cans. Behold the sweet sweet caramel.

Step 12:

When completely cool, spread the caramel over one cookie and make a sandwich with another cookie. How much caramel you use depends on how much you like. I like adding an amount somewhere between a hearty slop and a thunderchunk.

Step 13:

What a cookie should look like:

Now for the glaze:

Step 14:

To make the glaze, chop the four blocks of chocolate with a serrated knife or a chocolate fork if you have one.

Step 15:

Add to a glass or metal bowl over a pot of simmering water and put in the 4 tbsp pf butter.

Step 16:

Once melted completely and smooth, spoon over one side of the cookies.

Step 17:

You can do both if you want, but I find it too messy and it tastes pretty good with just one side done. Put cookies in the fridge for the glaze to harden, then enjoy.

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