have cake, will travel!

adapted and veganized from cookie madness

you need the VCTOTW dulce de leche recipe [you can halve it or even quarter it] to make these cookies. or you can have them by themselves, but careful, they are spicy. feel free to tweak the amount of spices if you are super sensitive. I usually have somewhat of a sensitive stomach, but their heat is definitely tolerable, I just want to warn you that there is a kick to them, is all.

makes 5 big cookie sandwiches

3/4 cups flour
6 T Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t cayenne
pinch salt
pinch ground black pepper
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 + 1/4 t vanilla extract
1 Ener-g egg
6 T Earth Balance whipped margarine

add flour, cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, and pepper together in a medium bowl. whisk well.

place sugar, vanilla, and “egg” in a mixing bowl, beat well with an electric mixer, until kind of thick, for about 3 minutes.
add margarine, beat for another 3 minutes.

combine flour mix with wet ingredients, using your fingers, until combined.

form a log with the dough, place on parchment paper and wrap really right. let chill in fridge for one hour.

in the meantime, make the “dulce de leche” recipe you can find in VCTOTW.

preheat oven to 350F. prepare a baking sheet with non stick cooking spray. since you will get 5 cookie sandwiches out of the recipe, you can simply spray 5 spots on the sheet, like I did.

take dough out of the fridge while the dulce de leche is cooling down for 10 minutes [or even better, place the dulce in the fridge for about 10 minutes so that it's easier to handle].
cut dough into 10 slices. press each slice down carefully with your hand, press center with a 1/2 t or one of your fingers, scoop and drop a big 1/4 t dulce de leche in there, press down another slice of dough and press it on top, making sure the sides are pressed down well. it will be messy! [especially if you live in California's armpit like I do...]
repeat until you have your 5 cookie sandwiches.

bake for 9 minutes, remove from oven, place baking sheet on cooling rack for 10 minutes. remove cookies from sheet and let cool some more. place in fridge once completely cool. they’re better out of the fridge so that the dulce de leche remains thick-ish.