Red Velvet Cake Cookies

I made these for Sarah's bridal shower and they were delicious! And I've been thinking that if you left out the red food coloring and added a little more chocolate to the batter, you could make the frosting for German Chocolate cake and then have German Chocolate cake cookies with this recipe too. Maybe I'll try it and let you know how it goes... But anyway here's the recipe.

For the Cookies:
1 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 oz milk chocolate, chopped
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp red food coloring
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

For the Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, at room temp
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1 vanilla bean, halved and seeds scraped (I didn't have a vanilla bean so I just added 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.)

Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 375. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. combine the semisweet and milk chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 50% power until melted, about 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Whisk the melted butter, sour cream, eggs, vinegar, vanilla extract and food coloring in a bowl until combined. In another bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in four equal batches, whisking each batch completely before adding the next. Stir in the melted chocolate. Scoop heaping tablespoonfuls of batter (I used my small ice cream scoop) onto the prepared baking sheets and smooth the tops with a damp finger. Bake until the cookies spring back when lightly pressed, 8-10 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Make the filling: Beat the cream cheese and butter with a mixer until smooth. Beat in the confectioners sugar and vanilla seeds (or vanilla extract). Sandwich a heaping tablespoonful of filling between 2 cookies, repeat with the remaining cookies and filling. (And when this says heaping - it means heaping. I found the cookies tasted best with quite a bit more filling than I expected.) Refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. (I didn't actually do this last step - who wants to spend 30 minutes with cookies in the fridge when you could be eating them?? Not me!)

And as a side note I do admit that this recipe seems kind of complicated with too many ingredients and steps - I also admit that I probably wouldn't have made them because of all the ingredients and steps, except they were for a shower for someone who loves red velvet cake. But they are actually pretty simple to make and very yummy. So worth it. Enjoy!