Low Sugar Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

This was one of those rare recipes that worked first time. I was jotting everything down as I went, ready to test and re-test until it was just right. But the thing is, when we tasted these sugar free biscuits, they already were. Just right.

I’ve never claimed that my attempts to remake popular things like ketchup or Jammie Dodgers sugar free have resulted in them tasting just like the originals (although arguably you might call them better!), but these Bourbon biscuits? Well, they taste just like Bourbons.

The only thing I couldn’t recreate without sugar was the snap. They are a little crunchy and crumbly and totally dunkable (trust me, this is important to a British reader), but the only thing that gives them away as ‘fake’ Bourbons is the lack of a snap when you break them in half. But the flavour. Oh, the flavour is all there.

I had a decent recipe to work with, but at nearly 5 teaspoons of sugar per cookie (remember, the World Health Organisation recommends aiming for a maximum of 6 teaspoons a day for adults), it was simply not a recipe I was willing to leave as is. So I played around and tweaked ideas for sweeteners and flavour enhancers, and felt that the recipe below would be a good first attempt.

Turns out it was spot on.

Don’t you love when that happens?

Anyway, enough blathering from me. Get yourself a cup of tea and one of these biccies, and catch up with a friend smugly as you enjoy your own bakes with all of the flavour and none of the sugar.

Win.

Little hands can:

• mix the biscuit dough ingredients
• older kids can roll out the dough and cut into rectangles with a child-friendly knife
• use a fork to gently mark the cookies (see photos for markings and help them)
• make the filling and spread over the biscuit bases then top with another biscuit

Print

Low Sugar Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

A low sugar take on a classic chocolate Bourbon biscuit, these are sweet, creamy and delicious!

Servings: 12 -20, depending on the size you cut them to

Ingredients

For the Biscuits:

• 1 cup (150g) plain flour (light spelt or light rye works, too)
• 1/2 cup (50g) ground almonds
• 1/2 cup (110g/1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup (70g) cacao powder
• 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (80g) xylitol (you could use half the amount of Natvia for equally low sugar, or use half the amount of a sugar-stevia blend to make them still low in sugar but not sugar free)
• 2 tbsp rice syrup, optional*
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1 tsp sugar free vanilla extract
• 2-3 tbsp milk

For the Chocolate Cream:

• 3 tbsp sugar free custard powder (I used Bird's Eye)
• 2 and 1/2 tbsp (35g) xylitol (a sugar free icing blend like Natvia's or a few drops liquid stevia works, too)
• 2 tbsp (30g) soft unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp (20g) cacao or cocoa powder

Instructions

1. First, make the biscuit dough: Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.
2. Mix all of the biscuit ingredients in a bowl or food processor until just combined, then press down into a disc shape and wrap in cling film before chilling in the fridge for half an hour.
3. Roll out the dough and cut into small rectangular shapes, then mark the classic Bourbon indents along the sides of half of the biscuits (see pictures if unsure how to do them).
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 mins until just getting firm. Allow to cool completely.
5. Meanwhile, make the filling: Cream together all the ingredients, adding the milk a tiny bit at a time until it becomes a buttercream-like consistency.
6. Spread the filling over the biscuits that have no indents, then sandwich by placing the indented ones on top.

Recipe Notes

*rice syrup helps the biscuits to firm up a little better, but you can leave it out if you want them to be 100% sugar free

Want to try some other low sugar cookie recipes? Why not try your hand at my Jaffa cakes, Jammie Dodgers, viennese whirls or gingerbread men? Looking for one that’s lower in sweetener? We love our apple & cinnamon cookies.