Most Excellent Chocolate Sugar Cookie

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Sugar cookies are hard to improve upon, unless of course chocolate is involved! I love the dense chocolate flavor of these cookies. The secret ingredient to these cookies is granulated instant espresso in the cookie dough. There's some kind of magic that happens when you mix a little instant espresso with chocolate. It's a match made in heaven.(insert sappy Valentine talk here)  Perfect for Valentine's day, or any other day you want a delicious chocolate cookie. No special occasion necessary. I won't even tell if you decide not share and just eat them all yourself. 
So how do you make an excellent cookie even more excellenter... Yes, I realize that excellenter is not actually a word but  it should be to convey the excellency of this cookie. Okay? How, you ask?? Well you sandwich said excellent cookies together with a chocolate khalua filling...see, I told you, definitely excellenter! All right to keep the grammar police happy, I'll go with most excellent chocolate sugar cookies...Schwing!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
 (Printable Recipe)
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tsp instant espresso 
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
Course sugar for decorating (optional)

Method:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, instant espresso, and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. divide dough in half, wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
Roll out cookie dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. It does disappear once baked, though, so don’t worry if they have flour on them when they go into the oven. ( I used a smaller cutter to cut out the center of some of my cookies.) Sprinkle with course colored or white sugar, if using. Bake on a silicon mat or parchment-lined baking sheet for about 8 minutes until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed. Do not over cook!
Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Using an off-set spatula, spread chocolate khalua filling between the cookies to make sandwiches.

Chocolate Khalua Filling

Ingredients:
4 squares Baker's unsweetened baking chocolate
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter  softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1Tbs Khalua
1/3 cup milk

Method:
Microwave chocolate in large microwaveable bowl on high 1-1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.
Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool 5 minutes or to room temperature.
Add sugar, butter, vanilla, and Khalua.
Gradually add milk, beating with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. If frosting becomes too thick, beat in additional milk by teaspoonfuls until frosting is of spreading consistency.

Happy Valentine's Day!!