The Stacks

 

The Stacks

I was trying to decide on a dessert to make for Altaf’s birthday and since he loves chocolate as much as I do, there was no doubt that it was going to definitely be chocolate related. I waffled throughout the week about what I was going to make and went through a few of my cook books looking for ideas. Well it came around to Saturday and I still had not come up with any idea. I happened to be reading King Arthur’s blog on cookies and spotted this cookie recipe that looked amazing.

So I went about making them. I will say they are very easy and a lot of fun to assemble. The one thing that is important is to roll them out evenly. I used a crinkle cookie cutter as I wanted to get a pretty edge. However, once the cookies were baked you could not really tell that they had a scalloped edge to them.  Another important factor is that you want them to all be the same thickness. These cookies do not spread so you can bake quite a few of the per sheet.

Once you have assembled them cookies refrigerate them. The longer you let them sit in the refrigerator the softer they become as the cream softens them. Which allows you to very neatly eat them with a spoon. They only stayed in my refrigerator for about 6 hours and were not really soft to be eaten with a spoon. Everyone ate them a cookie at a time licking the cream off of them just like you would a sandwich cookie.

I used Bailey’s to add a bit of oomph to the cookies but you can add Kahlua or any other liquor that would pair well.

 

Ingredients

Cookies (Makes 50) 

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1 large egg (at room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

 

Chocolate Baileys Cream

 

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream, cold

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 cup Bailey’s Irish cream

 

Method

Cookies

Line two baking sheets (11×17) with silicone sheets or parchment paper.

Using your electric mixer (with the paddle attachment) beat the sugar, butter, salt, baking powder and espresso powder until well mixed.  Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined.  Add the flour and cocoa powder and continue until combined.  Place the dough ball in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment/wax paper. I used the rubber guides on my rolling pin to get an 8th of an inch thickness. Well its pretty thin really. I used a circle crinkle cutter of about 1 1/2 inch. Place the cut cookies (they are not going to spread so they do not need to be placed far apart) on your baking sheet and then re-roll the remainder of the dough and repeat. The advantage of using the parchment paper is that you do not need to flour any surface.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes checking them prior to the 10 minutes and removing them if done. Cool cookies completely on a wire rack.

Cream

Whisk the cream until it starts to thicken. Then add the sugar and cocoa powder and continue until you get soft peaks. Then beat for a little bit more. Add the bailey’s if using and fold into the whipped cream.

em>Assembling
Put a cookie, spoon a  tablespoon of filling then stack the next cookies and continue until you get a  5 layer stack. Gently press down each cookie as you add it to the stack. Top with some more cream. Let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Dust with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings before serving.