Embossed rolling pins make beautiful patterns in these rich chocolate cookies. The mint buttercream stuffing is so thick you can roll it out and pattern it! Half of these cookies are sandwich cookies with embossed and finger painted tops, the other half are “topless” sandwich cookies. Yum. 😋

This cookie recipe is very rich and sturdy enough for sandwiches but also soft and fudgy. The super thick mint buttercream is utterly decadent and together they create quite the cookie experience!

Luster dusts create the sparkling magic on these cuties, but the patterns themselves are created with 3 of our embossed rolling pins: Snowflakes & Trees, Pinecones & Cardinals, and Christmas. The luster dust is simply finger painted on! No talent or special tools required. Watch how in the decorating video!

This post has written instructions, photos, and videos of how to make these surprisingly easy treats. 🙂

Chocolate Rolled Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (I always recommend Land-o-Lakes butter, as some generic butters have a different moisture content and can throw the dough texture off.)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the sugars and honey and cream together very well, until it is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg, re-creaming the mixture after each addition. Add the cocoa powder to this wet mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture slowly, mixing on a slow speed until it comes together. Make sure all of the flour is incorporated evenly. Knead it by hand until it is a smooth uniform dough that does not stick to your fingers.

Troubleshooting: Perfect rolling dough has a clay-like, workable texture that is not too sticky or too stiff. If it feels difficult to knead, it is probably too stiff. Add a little water or vanilla extract a teaspoon at a time until you achieve a workable texture. If it is too easy to knead or is sticking to your fingers, it is probably too soft. Add flour a tablespoon at a time until it is workable like clay. This dough can turn out soft so don’t be surprised if you end up adding flour! I added a third of a cup the day I made these as it was humid out. Depending on your humidity, the moisture content of your butter or flour, etc, it can be sticky. Add flour till it’s a workable dough like a soft clay. I show the right texture/consistency in the video!

You can also refrigerate the dough for 10 to 15 minutes if you’re working in warm conditions. This dough does not generally require any refrigerating. You should only need to on a hot day or in a particularly hot kitchen. Re-knead the dough making sure the temperature is even throughout so that it rolls and impresses evenly.

Divide your dough into balls a little bigger than your fist. Work with one portion at a time to keep it manageable. Cover the unused portion to keep it from drying out.

Use a regular rolling pin (preferably one with thickness spacer rings to make a perfect thickness, picture of ours at bottom of post) to roll your dough on to a silicone baking mat, glass cooktop, or lightly floured surface. Oil the pin and roll to a 1/4” thickness, and wide enough to accommodate the designed pin. Create a long rectangular slab of dough. The patterns on the embossed pins are designed to repeat, so you will be rolling a long rectangle of patterned dough.

Oil your embossed pin with canola (or similar) oil before rolling. Make sure to get it down into the engraved areas. Wipe off any excess with a paper towel. Oil should be down in the patterns, but not pooling in them! You can use a pastry brush or apply by hand, gently squeezing the pin to get oil into the shapes, and rubbing the surface to coat.

Roll with your embossed pin, pressing down with a steady pressure that leaves a deep impression in the dough. The designs should be as raised up on the dough as deep as they are in the pin. If the pattern is not deep enough it will disappear as the cookies bake and puff. As this dough is not cold or stiff, you do not have to press terribly hard! Just an even pressure.

Here is a quick video of me oiling the pin, embossing this dough, cutting shapes with cookie cutters, and getting them off to parchment paper.

Once rolled, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Remove any excess dough around the edges. Keep your spatula/lifter flat, dust the end with a little flour, and lift the shapes, beginning by lifting one edge slightly first, then sliding the spatula/scraper under the whole shape. Transfer them to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them at least an inch apart. The rolling pin with thickness rings, bench/dough scraper and cookie cutters I’m using here are available at our website and Etsy shops. Links at bottom.

!!If you are making sandwich cookies, make sure to roll out some dough without embossing, as bottom cookies don’t need to be fancy. Cut them out in even numbers of sizes and shapes as your patterned cookies so you can match them up. NOTE: Consider going a little thinner than 1/4″. Embossing thins them out a bit and if you do 1/4″ bottom cookies know they will end up slightly thicker than the tops and take a little longer to bake.

Bake at 400°F for 7-10 minutes, checking at 7 minutes and every minute after. It’s hard to see these browning so I suggest doing your first batch with just a few cookies to figure out the time you like. They should be soft, but not mush in the middle. You don’t want them to be overly hard.

Move to a cooling rack after 5 minutes.

Now make the filling/topping!

Super Thick Mint Buttercream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon mint extract

Cream the butter, then add the cream and mint extract and mix thoroughly. Add powdered sugar a little at a time. Do not be alarmed or surprised! This mixture will be very dry and crumbly, so finish kneading by hand until a smooth clay-like dough forms. Add cream to an overly stiff mixture, or powdered sugar to a soft sticky mixture, as needed to get a workable clay-like consistency. It will be fun to knead when it’s the right texture. It will be stiffer than the chocolate cookie dough.

To add color, use gel food dye and add a little at a time. You can always add more but you can’t take it out! I dip 2 toothpicks into the gel, add it to the buttercream and hand knead it in.

Roll this out the same way I showed in the cookie dough video. Same basic process. Lift them the same way, starting with an edge. You can use powdered sugar to keep your spatula non-stick for lifting the same way you use flour for cookies.

For sandwich filling, roll these to 1/8″ thick, as 1/4″ is a bit much. Use the same cookie cutter that you used for the cookies to cut non-embossed pieces to use as sandwich stuffing. Lightly wet the bottom of the of the buttercream circles with a touch of water and they will stick to the bottom cookies. Then lightly wet the top of the buttercream and top with an embossed cookie.

If you’re going to paint the top cookies I’d assemble the sandwiches after painting. Easier handling!

If you’re doing embossed buttercream for “topless” sandwiches, also roll to 1/8″ and then emboss and cut out. Again slightly wet the backs so they stick.

These cookies are lovely simply embossed with patterns, but they pop even more when decorated. My technique here is finger painting luster dust onto the embossed cookies. This is a “wet” technique, using vodka as the paint base. The alcohol evaporates quickly and dries with no taste!

Luster dust is what makes this beautiful presentation possible. I use it so often in my cookie press posts that this year (2022) we’ve started selling it on our website and Etsy shop! We chose to partner with an American company, Bakell, that makes dusts here in the USA. They make gorgeous dusts that are silky, vibrant, and a joy to work with. Their 4 gram jars last and last. A little goes a long way! I have to admit, that 24k gold was amazing to work with for this post. Wow it’s just a silky dream!

Here’s a video clip of finger painting these cookies, start to finish. It’s much easier to show than explain in writing. 😉

You can cover these loosely but they tend to stay soft even uncovered. If you’re concerned about the buttercream store them in the fridge.

That’s it! Have a wonderful cookie making season. 😊 And as always, Happy Baking!

~Susie

Disk Designer/Co-Owner at Impress! Bakeware, LLC

Our website has all of our 200+ disk shapes, cookie press, embossed rolling pins, luster dusts, baking accessories plus more about our Women/Family Owned company! impressbakeware.com

All products are on our Etsy shop.

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If you’re not familiar with rolling pins with thickness rings, here’s ours: