Strawberry Sorbet Brownie Sandwiches

Ingredients

For the Strawberry Sorbet:

• 6 cups chopped organic strawberries (about 1.5 pound)
• ⅓ cup cane sugar (add a bit more if your berries are not sweet enough)
• 2 Tbsp finely ground chia seed (optional)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice (optional)
• 1 Tbsp vodka (optional)
• 1 pinch of salt

For the Chocolate Brownie Cookies (adapted from Pure and Yummy):

• ½ cup butter
• 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 8 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 ½ cup unbleached white flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. 1
   For the Strawberry Sorbet: Place all the sorbet ingredients in a food processor and process until creamy. Strain out the strawberry seeds if you wish (optional), for a smoother sorbet. Pour into a shallow container and freeze for about 3 to 4 hours. Break the frozen mixture into chunks, let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, and then put it all back into the food processor. Puree until smooth and lighter in color. You may need to stop and start the food processor to move the chunks around a bit so the processor can break them all down.
2. 2
   Once the sorbet is creamy and smooth, you can use it right away to make your cookies sandwiches, or if you find it's too soft, it may need about 20 more minutes in the freezer. You can also leave it in the freezer and use it at a later time. If it's been in the freezer for a while, it will likely need about 15 minutes of thawing out before being 'scoopable' and ready to spread on the cookies. If it's been a few days or weeks in the freezer, you may need to cut it into chunks again and throw it in the food processor again until it has a smooth consistency.
3. 3
   For the Chocolate Brownie Cookies: Melt the butter and chocolate on very low heat in a small saucepan. Stir often and remove from heat as soon as melted. Let the mixture cool.
4. 4
   Beat the egg, sugar, and vanilla on high speed for about 3 minutes, until lighter in color and fluffy. Add the cooled butter and chocolate and mix well.
5. 5
   In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Gently add these dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, mixing by hand until a soft and uniform batter is reached. It will feel more like a cake batter than cookie dough, this is normal. Scoop the dough onto parchment paper-covered baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between the cookies. The cookies won't spread out much in the oven.
6. 6
   You can make the cookies as big or small as you want your sandwiches to be. For a nice palm-sized sorbet sandwich, I like to drop about 3 Tbsp of cookie batter and I use the back of a spoon or spatula to flatten and round out the cookies slightly so they are about 3 to 4 inch circles, and about 1/2 inch thick.
7. 7
   Bake the cookies for about 35 minutes at 350F. Cool them on the cookie sheets for about 5 to 10 minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.
8. 8
   For Assembly: Make sure the cookies are completely cooled down before making your sorbet sandwich, otherwise the sorbet will melt.
9. 9
   Your sorbet should be nice and 'scoopable', if it is too hard, thaw it out on your counter for about 10 to 15 minutes.
10. 10
    Place the amount of sorbet you'd like (I use about 1/4 cup of sorbet per cookie) on the bottom-side of a cookie, spread it out gently and top with another cookie. You can serve the cookies right away or freeze them and serve later. If they have been frozen for some time, they will benefit from thawing out for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.