Sea Salt “Caramel” & Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Everyone needs a good dairy cookie. Sometimes you just gotta use the butter for the goods. But This recipe has been tried and tested with ghee, and you all know how I feel about ghee. If you don’t here’s a quick recap for you:

Ghee benefits

• slightly more short chain fatty acids (namely butyric acid) than regular butter
• a great source of DHA (omega 3 fatty acids) which are known to release anti-inflammatory enzymes
• high smoke point, making it almost impossible to turn rancid as most refined oils commonly do
• it tastes just as yummy as butter without the presence of the milk solids (ie it’s lactose and casein free!)

If you don’t have ghee at home, you can totally sub the ghee for butter and the recipe is just as yummy. But if you are looking to get your hands on some ghee, there are three brands I have seen available to us Israelis. The first is sometime sold at Nitzat Haduvdevan but in my experience it’s quite pricey and you can get a better bang for your buck elsewhere. Though the quality seems to be pretty top of the game. The second is KTC brand, imported from the UK. I’ve seen it floating around the smaller health food store chains as well as at specialty cake shops like Mr. Cake. It’s slightly cheaper than the Nitzat brand. The last brand, which I’ve found to be the cheapest, is Organic Valley, but this is only available on iherb. Maybe worth checking out my iherb Essentials list and getting on that order 😉

Recipe Notes and Variations

• Flour: I have been successful with whole spelt, white spelt, and even whole wheat. Have yet to try a gluten free version so I will have to report back!
• Cocoa powder: My most favorite cocoa powder in Israel to date is Shaked Tavor. Just quality and makes the yummiest creations. Rich and so chocolatey. In my opinion, if you’re making a chocolatey dessert, this is a must. But feel free to prove me wrong and let me know which brands of cocoa powder worked for you in this recipe.
• Maple syrup: If you don’t have maple syrup on hand you can swap for date syrup or honey. In fact, the date syrup works marvelously well in the sandwich filling and gives the salted caramel a whole new depth of flavor. In a good way!
• Coconut sugar: swap for brown sugar or cane sugar 1:1
• almond butter: use any nut butter. I’ve tried with almond and cashew butter and both have turned out incredibly decedent. Peanut butter will change the flavor profile slightly, but still yummy.
• Dairy free version: you can swap any of the ghee or butter with coconut oil, but this will obviously give the cookie a coconuty flavor, so bear that in mind

That’s it peeps. This one is worth it. One last note: you’re going to find yourself wanting to double or triple the recipe because it doesn’t last too long.