Baked Sunday Mornings: Salt-n-Pepper Sandwich Cookies

I couldn't wait to try the Salt-n-Pepper Sandwich Cookie from Baked Explorations. I love the combination of sweet and salty (see, e.g., the Baked salted caramel brownie, the salted fudge brownie, the salted chocolate chip cookie, and the peanut butter pretzel chocolate chip cookie). And while I don't have any experience baking with white pepper, I loved the pistachio-black pepper creme caramel I made a little while back. So I was confident that the combination of salt and pepper with chocolate was sure to be, as some might say, #WINNING.

I mixed together my dough of flour, salt, fleur de sel, white pepper, cocoa powder, butter, sugar, powdered sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, and melted dark chocolate. As directed, I formed the dough into two balls and refrigerated them for more than 3 hours. When I was ready to bake, I took the dough out of the fridge and discovered that the dough was hard. Deadly-weapon hard. No-way-in-hell-you-could-possibly-roll-it-out hard. Fortunately, I also had a batch of malted milk sandwich cookie dough ready in the fridge, so I left the salt-n-pepper dough at room temperature while I rolled, cut, and baked all of the malted milk cookies. 

A few hours later, I rolled out the salt-n-pepper cookies. The dough was much easier to handle than the malted milk dough; it was fairly dry (although slightly prone to tearing) and didn't stick much. I used a fluted 2-inch diameter round cutter and was able to cut 90 cookies (enough to yield 45 sandwiches, more than the expected yield of 36). However, the cookies that I had cut from re-rolled scraps had air bubbles in them; if I ever make these again, I would just throw away the scraps. 
These cookies have the same filling as the malted milk sandwich cookies, a mixture of shortening, butter, powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla. The finished cookies were beautiful, especially with the little sprinkle of fleur de sel on top.  

I am at a bit of a loss trying to pass judgment on these cookies. To me personally, the cookie has a nice chocolate and salt flavor on the front end, but a strong and unpleasant aftertaste of white pepper on the back end. While I love pepper, I thought that the pepper gave this cookie a medicinal taste that completely ruined it for me. Tom wasn't a big fan either -- and he definitely preferred the malted milk cookies -- but he thought that the cookie was okay. 

I took the cookies to work and received a wide range of feedback. Some gushed enthusiastically without reservation that the cookies were delicious. Others politely said it wasn't one of their favorites. Some said that they were a better match for the sweet filling than the malted milk cookie (which I had brought to work just the day before). Others said the filling was too sweet for the cookie.  Some specifically praised the strong salt and pepper flavors. Others didn't like the strong pepper flavor. And some comments were mixed, such as: "Great taste.  Weird aftertaste." No one told me that it was terrible, but my co-workers are really nice people, and I wouldn't expect any of them to tell me such a thing, even if it were true.

In the many years that I have been baking -- including the more than a decade that I've been bringing baked goods to my office at least once a week -- I have never encountered a more divergent set of opinions about something that I've made. This cookie is the Rashomon of baked goods. I don't know if I would make these again. I have an idea in the back of my head that I might like them better with black pepper, so who knows, I may have to give them another try.
This cookie was a good reminder that many things in life, including taste, are in fact just that -- a matter of taste. I do understand, however, why Matt and Renato chose to feature these cookies on the cover of their cookbook along with the malted milk sandwiches; they are both so lovely to look at, especially together!

Recipe: "Salt-n-Pepper Sandwich Cookies" from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at BAKED Sunday Mornings.

Comments

Christina said…
I had mixed feelings about these too; in fact, it took me a couple of days of eating them to decide that I liked them ( I couldn't bear the thought of them just going to waste). I don't know if I'll make them again, but I kind of liked the contrast of sweet and creamy filling to spicy, crunchy cookie. This cookbook is full of surprises, and I'm really looking forward to the crisp malt tart. Thanks for sharing your experience with these cookies!
Louise said…
Hmmm...interesting observations of taste. I bake a ton of cookies. I'll have to try the malt cookie so I'm familiar with the filling. Without tasting it, I think I might like a chocolate ginger type sandwich. Thanks for sharing.
Candy said…
Great post! I had people other love them or just eat one (a sure sign they don't like them). I did reduce the pepper by half and I think that helped.

Your cookies look perfect!
mike509 said…
I loved the combo - but others.....? Same response. You have to like pepper though - most like salt! Great post / comparison - and I love your two-toned presentation!
Trevor Sis Boom said…
I love that line, "The Rashomon of baked goods"!!! lol.
Elaine said…
What a great post! I felt the same way when I pulled my disk of dough out of the frig! I put way too much salt on top of mine, so I need to make these again without so much to compare. How great that you make the malted milk cookies as well. Your picture of both cookies is beautiful.
Rebecca said…
I didn't make these (I left that to another baking sister) but they got great reviews generally. Now I am curious to make them and see for myself.
Unknown said…
As someone who was fortunate enough to taste BB's Cookies, I loved these. Kind of like bacon and chocolate. The perfect food to some, and to others....

Q for you BB--I really hate discarding the dough left over after the "first cut" and I was very interested in your comment about air bubbles. I always thought the problem was that the dough became too tough/chewy from overworking. How do you handle this as a rule? Or does it depend on the dough?
Kris' Kitchen said…
Your post is great and I read it before baking these cookies...gave me some things to think about. We really love the cookies, but I don't know what my grandkids will think when they come over to try them in a few minutes...these are not for everyone.
Unknown said…
Wow, what a great post! I used black pepper in mine and loved it. Like you baked both of them...great photo showing the contrast!
My mom made these and after trying hers, I opted to not bake this recipe. I took one bite and that was enough for me ... too salty!
@Kim -- re-rolling scraps can cause several related problems. If you have to use flour during rolling, more flour will generally result in a less tender cookie, and thus this problem is magnified the more times you re-roll and re-flour. Using flour is the same reason you sometimes end up with air bubbles -- if you have two floured scraps and try to smush them together to re-roll, the flour can prevent the dough from sticking together, and thus result in air bubbles that expand during baking. Generally, the first time I make a cookie, I will always re-roll the scraps -- and then note for the future whether or not I have any problems.
Roadtrek Girl said…
I'm am still hysterical over the no way in hell can I roll them out. Ditto here-I was beating the dough down to a manageable level with my rolling pin. I didn't get a strong peppery taste but I'm still not so sure about the salt-I thought I used it sparingly but it stayed with me. Stunning photos by the way.
Louise said…
Sometimes chilling the scraps before they are rerolled alleviates the bubble problem.