Chewy Chocolate Rum Frosting-Filled Cookie Sandwiches

If you think the name of these cookies is a mouthful...it's NOTHING compared to the mouthful of flavor you'll get each time you bite into one!  There are some amazing textures and tastes going on with these cookies, and although they aren't your "traditional" Christmas cookie, you won't want to skip making these guys!  I used absolutely NO SUGAR in the frosting or the cookie, and the flour is whole wheat...so if you're worried that you'll be too tempted to eat the whole batch before anyone even knows you made them, rest easy...these cookies are about as healthy as you can make them, and no flavor has been sacrificed!  Serve these to the toughest critic you know, and they'll be sure to give them an A+!

The Chewy Chocolate Cookie Recipe:

Preheat your oven to 350

1 c. soft coconut oil (SO many health benefits from this ingredient...go ahead and throw away all of your other oils and butters...this is the only guy you'll need from now on!)
1/4 c. applesauce (you could actually use another 1/4 c. coconut oil...but I thought, hey, why not spare the extra fat...because let's face it...oil, even healthy oil, is super fattening!)  Ps-if this batch makes around 36 cookies...you're saving yourself about 2 g of fat PER COOKIE just by using 1/4 c. applesauce! (oh, and one more thing...since these are sandwich cookies...that's 4 g of fat per serving!)
1 c. agave
1 c. coconut palm granules (or sucanat which is much easier to find)
2 "eggs" (2 servings worth of egg replacer, prepared according to instructions)  Side note: if each egg is 9 g of fat per, that makes a total of 18 g of fat...by using egg replacer, you're saving yourself an additional .5 g of fat per cookie...(which is actually 1 full gram since there are 2 cookies per sandwich!)
2 t. vanilla

-Cream together all these ingredients until the granules are pretty much dissolved.
-Add:

3/4 c. cocoa powder (I really love Hersey's Special Dark)
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. sea salt
2 c. flour (I used King Arthurs White Whole Wheat)

-Mix until incorporated...batter will be thick enough to roll into a ball.
- Scoop out about a heaping teaspoon and roll into a ball.  Do this until all the batter is gone.
-Bake for 9-13 minutes (they'll begin to crack on top when they're done)
-When you take them out of the oven, you'll want to flatten them with a spatula, and move to a cooling rack.
-Fully cool before you begin to frost...it may even be best to chill them first.

The frosting:

Let me just say that this frosting is great for filling sandwich cookies...however, it's not like a royal icing that will harden, so don't use it as a piping frosting, as it will just make a big mess!

2/3 c. softened coconut oil
1/3 c. vegan butter (I love Earth Balance)
1/2 c. Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese (the kind in the yellow container, NOT the white, which has been hydrogenated...don't know why they even sell it!)

-Cream these ingredients together really well...if you don't, you'll end up with lumpy frosting...very unappetizing!
 -Add:

1/4 t. sea salt
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. unsweetened almond milk (warm)
1/2 c. agave (taste and add more if you want it sweeter)
1/3 c. King Arthurs White Whole Wheat Flour

-You're gonna mix this for a while on high until everything is really well incorporated.

-Note:  frosting is something that for me, changes every single time I make it...so I'm always tweaking it as I go...this is the best job I could to do record what I did!!

-Put in the refrigerator for a few hours, and it will firm up as the butter and oil get a chance to harden.

-For the rum flavor, I added 1 t. rum extract per cup of frosting (this recipe makes around 2 c.)

-If you want...split the cookie recipe up, as well as the frosting recipe, and use the other half for the Chewy Chocolate Andes Mint Sandwich Cookies!