The first time I met Molly it was at an apron sample sale that we get together at with Alanna and Courtney before going to brunch with some other la based food bloggers. Within the first 5 minutes she joked about how the apron she was trying on was great because it was long enough so she didn’t have to wear any clothes underneath it and that solidified my want to have her as a friend because topless/pantsless/completely nude jokes are my m.o. bread and butter.
Fast forward to now and her book is out and it’s beautiful and fun and just great. There’s a macaroni and cheese flowchart, a recipe for making your own baloney, coffee halva, black sesame milk and so much more. But the one thing that caught my eye, that was actually the first recipe I opened up to (I do this weird thing with cookbooks where I just randomly open the book first and see where it opens up to like it’s a prophet or some weird shit) was Lindsay Lohan Cookies.
With quotes from The Parent Trap.
Which means that technically we’re both part of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Lindsay Lohan Cookbook References©™ because I’ve got Peanut Butter Cookies & Cream Ice Cream in my book, with a Lilo parent trap reference. This sealed our friendship and I knew it was the recipe I had to share with you guys.
And the timing of this with losing a chunk of her finger wasn’t even planned! Bless you if you thought you were clicking on the link for this and expecting those weird witch halloween cookies with a chunk missing. I’m not fucked up enough to do that, that being making cookies that look like a finger.
These are basically peanut butter oreos, which cancels out the need for Hallie and Annie (who I legit thought were twins when I watched that movie a thousand times as a kid) to dip their oreos in the peanut butter. Imagine if peanut butter oreos already existed in 1998 HOW WOULD THEY HAVE FIGURED EVERYTHING OUT.
If you’ve taken anything away from this post today let it be that you should go buy this book. Right now. It’s perfect for the upcoming holiday season as a gift, perfect for yourself.
Lindsay Lohan Cookies
Makes 3 Dozen Sandwich Cookies (I made mine a little smaller than the original recipe that yields 18)
From Molly on the Range
Cookies:
2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter (2 1/2 sticks), room temperature
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons powdered sugar for dusting
Filling:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup unsweetened salted smooth peanut butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter isn’t salted
To make the cookies:
Preheat your oven to 325F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, 2 cups of cocoa powder, and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until pale, light, and fluffy. With the mixer running on low speed add the dry mixture gradually and beat just until combined. The mixture will be a little crumbly (unless your butter was tooooo soft like me then it might be a little too soft so about 5 minutes in the fridge will fix that) dump the dough onto the counter, bring it together, and place half in the fridge while you roll out the other half.
Sift together the 2 tablespoons of cocoa and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and use some to generously dust the surface you’re rolling out on, then dust the top of the dough and rolling pin and roll the dough out to be about 1/4″ thick. Use a 1 1/2″ cutter (or 2″ for larger cookies like Molly’s) to cut out the cookies, dipping the cutter in the dusting mixture after every couple cookies. After they’re all cut use an offset spatula to move them to the parchment lined baking sheets. Set the scraps aside and do the same method with the other half of the dough. Once they’re cut and transferred take the scraps from both halves and roll those and cut them out too. Go once more with any scraps you have left over.
Bake the cookies, rotating the pans halfway through if your oven is uneven like mine, for 15-20 minutes (15 for the smaller ones, 20 for the larger) until the tops are no longer shiny.
Let the cookies cool on the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
To make the filling cream together the butter and peanut butter until smooth then sift in the powdered sugar, add the vanilla, and beat on high for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
To assemble, pipe a heaping teaspoon on half of the cookies and place the other cookie on top. Set them in the fridge for a few minutes to set and serve. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
