Looking through the pantry and the fridge, I had only the basics - flour, sugar, oil, eggs, things like that. And then I saw it, in the back of the fridge, the very overpriced tub of chocolate spread I had bought for Pesach to try and lure the kids to eat something, anything. The tub was still pretty full, no one liked chocolate matzah - and can you really blame them? No. No, you can't.
So using what we had in the house, we made sugar cookies that went from mixed to baked in less than 15 minutes. Then we sandwiched pairs of cookies together with the chocolate spread, and presto chango from plain sugar cookies to fun sandwich cookies!
Sugar Cookie Recipe -
2 eggs
2/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 and 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
This is a really quick recipe, so preheat the oven to 400 degrees before you start. Lightly spray three cookies sheets with cooking spray. Combine the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar in a standing mixer. Add the flour and baking powder and you are done. See? I told you to preheat the oven before you start.
Using a teaspoon*, drop the dough onto the cookie sheets, stopping after each sheet to go back and actually roll the dough into balls with your (dry) hands. After all the dough ballies are on the cookie sheets, go back and gently flatten each cookie with the palm of your hand. Don't smoosh them too hard, they shouldn't be that thin. If you like, sprinkle half the cookies with sprinkles and bake for between 4-10 minutes. Four to ten minutes? That's a pretty wide range. Crazy, I know. But it all really depends on your oven and how big the cookies really are. Here's the real rule - as soon as you see any browning whatsoever on the edges of the cookies, they are done. I don't care if the centers don't look done, they are.
And wow, look, you're done - and Caillou is still on the TV! Does that show never end? Now, quick, look at your cookies. They look like you worked so hard and made a chocolate filling and everything. No one has to know, I certainly won't tell.
*I initially wanted to make mini sandwich cookies and I kind of thought that I was. The balls of dough that I made were pretty small, all 36 of them. But the truth is, I could have made them half the size because they spread in the oven. Half-sized dough balls would have been mini. Oh well. These are actually kind of large sandwich cookies. I hope my boys won't be too disappointed when only one cookie shows up in each lunchbox.