Princezky: cocoa sandwich cookies with coffee cream

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1. Place the flour on a work surface. Add the softened Hera, eggs, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, and cocoa powder, and work together by hand to form a dough.

2. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour until firm.

3. Roll out the chilled dough on a floured work surface to about 4 mm thick. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and place them on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake the sheets one at a time in an oven preheated to 170 °C (340 °F) for about 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool directly on the baking sheets.

4. For the filling, place the instant coffee in a bowl and pour boiling water over it; about 2 tbsp is enough. Add 2 tbsp of the sugar, taken from the total amount for the filling. Stir and let cool to form a dark paste.

5. Beat the Hera with the remaining sugar and powdered milk, then pour in the coffee mixture and beat together. Use a piping bag to pipe the filling onto the underside of a cooled cookie, then top with another cookie to make a sandwich.

6. Place the finished cookies in a container and store in the refrigerator. The filling will firm up in the cold, and the cookies will stay fresh longer.

Tip: Sift both the powdered milk and powdered sugar for the filling, as lumps of powdered milk won't blend into the fat. If you don't have a piping bag, use a sturdy plastic bag with a corner snipped off.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Kakaové princezky s krémom zo sušeného mlieka a kávy