Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamed together.

Add applesauce, molasses and vanilla and mix again.

Stir in the flour mixture until soft dough forms.

Drop by spoonful onto ungreased baking sheet.

Optional, gently sprinkle cookie dough with sugar or you can roll cookie dough balls into a bowl of sugar.

Bake about 10 minutes in preheated oven until golden brown.

Allow to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

While cookies are cooling, mix ingredients for filling together in a small bowl.

Once cookies have cooled, spread about 1 tablespoon of filling in between 2 cookies.