Blueberry-Spice Sandwich Cookies

I'll be right upfront that these Blueberry-Spice Sandwich Cookies that we made for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day started out with another name... they were labeled as "whoopie pies". While technically they could considered one, a whoopie pie to me shouldn't even think of having a fruit-y component in the filling.

So, we'll go with sandwich cookie and then we don't have that problem anymore, right? I know... a little over the top, but some things should remain sacred - hee hee!

For these cake-like cookies to get started, the dry ingredients are pepped up with warm spices - cinnamon, ginger, cloves and fresh grated nutmeg. It's funny because as soon as I have the jars lined up for these types of add-ins, I always quickly remove their screw lids, then shake each one a little bit so the dust that sits inside rushes out and releases their fragrant aromas around me. It seems to whisk me away to the slow moving days of fall, apple picking time and and the start of the my favorite holiday seasons.

Since the dry ingredients were given a boost, the wet ingredients deserved a little help too, which came in the sticky form of molasses being beaten in once the butter and brown sugar were creamy and smooth. The dry ingredients were mixed in alternately with a scoop of tangy sour cream - besides adding moisture and tenderness, the sour cream has the acidity the baking soda needs to activate, allowing the batter to spread and puff as it bakes. The billowy batter ends up being thinner than a typical cookie dough, but is still thick enough that it doesn't turn into a puddle as soon as you portion it out.

Testing for doneness is thankfully quite easy - as soon as the rounds are lightly golden and you lightly press a finger into its center, the cookie will spring right back when its ready. If the indent from your finger remains, the cookies need a bit more time. Once done and the cookies are off on their racks cooling themselves down, I got right to work on bringing the filling together.

To stick these cookies to each other, the filling was a very unadulterated combination of cream cheese and one of my all-time favorite ingredients, marshmallow fluff. Yes, you can use marshmallow crème if you must, but what can I say, I'm loyal to my fluff! What adds the colorful, unexpected element into these sandwiches are fresh, bouncy blueberries! Even though I'm a big fan of blueberries (eating at least a cup a day in my yogurt), they still did seem a little out of place at first... but after sneaking out a spoonful of the filling, enjoying the contrast between the smooth filling and the juicy burst of the berries, my mind was scrambling to come up with a reason why this shouldn't work! Cutting the fluff and cheese with the tartness of the berries was a novel riff on the filling and I can now see why they found a good home with these cookies.

While the filling is studded with those blueberries, it does wash them out and make them not look as appealing as they could - for a little more drama and just because we had plenty to go around, we pressed a few clean berries around the edges of each stuffed sandwich. However you want to name them, this treat with its soft, cake-y cookies, laced with aromatic spices and then loaded with a decadent, yet light filling, is definitely worth the time needed to construct them. Wrapped up in individual cellophane packages, I bet they would also be a fine addition to any bake sale table!

Recipes
Blueberry-Spice Sandwich Cookies