Gather cocoa powder, flour, sugar, butter or shortening, salt, baking soda, and vanilla
Mix the dry ingredients together
Cream the butter or shortening with the sugar
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix into a dough
Roll out the dough and cut into small round cookies
Bake the cookies until set and crisp
Cool the cookies completely
Mix powdered sugar, butter or shortening, vanilla, and a little milk or cream to make the filling
Spread or pipe the filling onto one cookie
Sandwich with another cookie
Repeat until all cookies are assembled