Crumbl Copycat Nilla Bean Cupcake Cookies from Lifestyle of a Foodie

Crumbl Copycat Nilla Bean Cupcake - made dough January 27, 2024 from Lifestyle of a Foodie

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream cheese frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons white sprinkles, as garnish, optional

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and powdered sugar until combined and creamy, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add egg, vanilla bean paste and vanilla, mixing to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder. Add to butter mixture in 2 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition.
4. Portion dough into 6 equal dough balls, flattening slightly to thick discs. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.
6. While cookies are cooling, combine all frosting ingredients except for sprinkles and beat until creamy and smooth. Spread equally over the 6 cookies while they're barely lukewarm. Top with sprinkles if desired.

Whenever Crumbl has a flavor coming up that I like and know I want to get, I try to find a copycat recipe so I can make the copycat and compare it to the Crumbl OG in real time. Lifestyle of a Foodie is the most consistently reliable blog I've found for the copycats so I knew I wanted to try her Nilla Bean Cupcake recipe when Nilla Bean hit the Crumbl menu again.

As is typical for most of her recipes, this one was easy to mix together and the dough handled beautifully. The main thing you should know is, depending on the size of the cookies you make, this doesn't make very many. I only got 5 good-sized cookies out it. Good-sized meaning something close to Crumbl size.

These didn't spread much so if you plan to leave them unfrosted (as I did for the ones I mailed in care packages), you might want to roll the dough balls into smoothness. I left them craggy as I prefer a more homemade look.

I didn't make the frosting so the smidge of frosting you see on the test cookie is my cheat of taking some from the Crumbl OG cookie. Flavor-wise, this is a good vanilla cookie. It's also good on texture but, compared to the Crumbl OG cookie, it was a little more bready and not as sweet-soft-chewy. It was still a soft texture but not as soft as Crumbl's. I think I might've had a heavier hand with the flour than I was supposed to. Next time, I'd cut it back a bit and see if I get a little more spread and a softer crumb. Still a good cookie though.

Crumbl's Nilla Bean Cupcake

I've already reviewed the Crumbl Nilla Bean Cupcake cookie so the only thing I'd add is this time around, I didn't like the frosting. Normally I'm fine with Crumbl's cream cheese frosting. I don't always love it but I don't hate it like some other fans do. Usually I don't mind it. Except this time, I don't know what happened but it seems like the cream cheese tang was too strong, in both taste and smell. 

That's one of the things that turn me off about most cream cheese frostings and until now, I hadn't felt that way about Crumbl's. But I didn't care for this frosting at all. Too strong a cream cheese smell and flavor. I ended up scraping most of it off and just enjoying the cookie. I hope this is just a one-off for my store but if they keep making the cream cheese frostings this way or using this strong cream cheese with the smell, I'm going to end up in the eye-rolling "cream cheese frosting again??" camp. #FirstWorldProblem