Terry Chen makes baked goods that take inspiration from her Taiwanese-American background. They combine the ingredients found in traditional Taiwanese cooking with the types of snacks our modern palates crave, resulting in mouth-watering goodies like black sesame cupcakes and snickerdoodle whoopie pies. In the interest of reproducing this magic in our own kitchens, we asked Terry to share one of her recipes — a request she was happy to oblige. Her Maple Black Sugar Cookies, with their cookie-sandwich shape and light-as-air coffee cream filling, are already starting to make us drool. 

If you end up making these, let us know how they turn out in the comments. And if you don't know your way around an electric mixer, back Terry's project and she'll send you some homemade cookies herself! 

Makes about 16.

Maple Black Sugar Cookies 

Ingredients:

Cookies:

1-1/2 cups of flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
½ cup butter (1 stick)
½ egg
1/3 cup sugar
3 oz. black sugar
4 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp water


Coffee cream filling:

1 cup confectioner’s sugar
7 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 Tbsp espresso powder
1 Tbsp of Kahlua

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a pot, place black sugar, maple syrup, and water on low heat. Keep mixing for about 5 minutes, until the black sugar is dissolved with the syrup and water to create a liquid. Do not let the mixture harden or burn so mix every 30 seconds.

3. In a medium-sized bowl, cream butter and sugar until well mixed, then add the egg and mix.

4. In another small bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

5. First mix 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture. Then, add the black sugar mixture into the batter. Make sure that the batter is constantly being mixed as the warm black sugar is poured.

6. Add the remaining flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture slowly. The dough should not be wet, but feel sticky.

7. Place tablespoon sized scoops of dough onto a pan.

8. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool for 5 minutes.

9. While the cookies bake, make the coffee cream filling. Combine the espresso powder and Kahlua into a bowl and stir until the espresso powder is dissolved. Then, cream the butter, adding in powdered sugar. Then add the Kalhua-espresso mixture into the butter mixture. Keep mixing until well combined.

9. Spread a layer of the coffee cream on one side of a cookie and place another cookie on top of it to create a cookie sandwich!