With the first night of Hanukkah approaching, I wanted to make something representative of our holiday. On the nights that we are not entertaining friends and family for dinner, we are invited to others for food and fun.

With that said, I wanted to make cookies that everyone could enjoy. I doubled the recipe and then cut out 3 1/2″ stars. After freezing the rolled dough, I cut them into shapes and froze once again (I find the cookies keep their shape when baking when I do it this way). When I was ready to bake them I sprinkled with turbinado sugar and added some white non-perils.

I had so many cookies that I decided to make cream sandwiches out of half of them. I whipped up a batch of the best white chocolate ganache. These were absolutely delicious!

Chocolate Gingerbread Stars

Makes 30 sandwich cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. line two baking sheets with parchment.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cloves. Set aside.

Using a standing mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg and blend. Add, slowly, the flour mixture until well combined.

Divide dough in half and roll each piece 1/8″ thick. Set on parchment paper and chill for 1 hour.

Remove dough from the fridge and cut into desired shapes. Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets, 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Chill again for 30 minutes.

Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, until firm to the touch and the lightly brown around the edges, 13-15 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack.

Make the ganache (recipe here) and then fill.

Susan Salzman writes The Urban Baker blog to explore her dedication to good food in the hope of adding beauty to the lives of her family and friends.