Ultimate Cookies and Cream Blondies

Ultimate Cookies & Cream Blondies - made March 7, 2021, adapted from Baker by Nature

I just posted a similar recipe for Oreo Blondies from Six Sisters' Stuff. The only reason I'm posting a similar recipe so soon after the last one is there were still Oreos left in the package and I was afraid I was going to eat them all. Which I shouldn't do (I think) so I tried out this recipe from Baker by Nature to use up the rest of the Oreos.

This one was a good blondie bar as well. I can't tell you if it was better than the other one because I only had a sliver of each. Because, let's be honest, I was only it in for the Oreos and I ate that "straight".

Still, for cookies and cream fans, any kind of Oreo blondie has to be good, right? Just don't overbake them. And don't skimp on the Oreos.

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, melted

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chunks

1 cup Oreos, roughly chopped 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat together melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix to combine. Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. 
4. Fold in chocolate chips, white chocolate chunks and chopped Oreos. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Beat for 25-30 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middle is set. Cool completely and cut into squares.

Cadbury Mini Eggs 7-Layer Magic Bars

Cadbury Mini Eggs 7-Layer Magic Bars - made March 20, 2021 from Together as a Family

Just in time for Easter or, more importantly, for the after-Easter sales on Cadbury mini eggs, here's a springtime way to dress up the traditional Magic Cookie Bar recipe: chop up those pastel eggs of milk chocolate goodness and layer them on top of any traditional magic cookie bar.

I love these things; they're my favorite Easter candy. Never come near me with anything from the Peeps family and I will side-eye jelly beans any day of the week. But wave this magical bag of Cadbury mini eggs at me and you're my new best friend. At least while the mini eggs last.

The "hardest" part is cutting the eggs in 2. Notice that I didn't say "in half" because there's no way to cut them exactly in half so don't even try. The point is just to cut them into smaller pieces than the full-on mini egg. Not only does that provide more coverage of mini egg goodness on top of the magic cookie bar but it's also more visually interesting to see the inside milk chocolate and the outside pastel shells mixed up on top.

It's also easier to eat that way but let's face it, eating this was never going to be a problem for me. If you like magic cookie bars, try this version any time of the year. Just don't forget to stock up the day after Easter Sunday and grab whatever bags are left on sale.

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups chopped Cadbury mini eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine melted butter and graham cracker crumbs in a bowl. Mix until well combined. Press into prepared pan in an even layer.
3. Sprinkle coconut and pecans over the crust.
4. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over it. Top with chocolate chips and chopped Cadbury eggs. Gently press top on the top to adhere to the crust.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Cool completely before cutting.

Cookies & Cream Oreo Blondies

Cookies & Cream Oreo Blondies - made March 5, 2021 from Six Sisters' Stuff

We take a slight break from the cookie stamping posts to bring you this recipe for Cookies & Cream Oreo Blondies, the first of two recipes I tried because I wanted to mix up the bar cookies I was sending in military care packages.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, as snobby as I am about homemade cookies and turning up my nose at storebought cookies, I will freely admit Oreos are one of the exceptions to my snobbery. I love Oreos. I rarely buy them because I would eat them. Not one or two. Maybe 5. At a time. Hence why I don't buy them very often.

When I do buy them, it's to bake with them. Because I can try out a new recipe and eat one (or 5) while I'm chopping them up to put in the batter. Win-win. This was a good bar cookie and should ship well. At least I hope so as by the time I post this, they would've already been packaged up and mailed. And hopefully received. 

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3.4-ounce box instant vanilla pudding

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips

16 Oreos, broken into pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar.
3. Add eggs and vanilla; mix to combine. 
4. Add dry pudding mix and mix until combined.
5. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips, white chocolate and Oreo pieces.
6. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until center is set and toothpick inserted near center comes out with a few moist crumbs, not raw batter. Cool completely before cutting.

Stamped Brown Sugar Shortbread (recipe 3)

Stamped Brown Sugar Shortbread - made March 13, 2021 from Kelly Neil

Recipe alert - make this. So far it's the best of the ones I've tried, in having dough that's easy to work with to pattern, in keeping the impressions during baking and, best of all, in taste and texture. This was delicious.

I veered slightly away from embossed rolling pins (for now) as I discovered, thanks to a blog post (which I'll cover in the next embossed cookie post), the art of cookie stamping via mooncake molds.

If you find cookie stamps a little expensive (the good ones always are), try the much cheaper alternative of using mooncake molds. Super pretty impressions and the molds make them a great size for a cookie as well as keep the cookie tidily in shape since it's literally a spring-loaded cookie (or mooncake) mold.

I inadvertently made them a little thicker than a normal cookie as it was hard to judge from the size of the dough ball how thick the cookie will turn out once you press the mold down. But the cookie was so good, it turns out they're perfect when they're a little thick.

 

And look how well the impressions stayed. Not gonna lie, that made me happy. Like I said, it doesn't take much these days, lol.  

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour 

1. Place granulated sugar in a shallow bowl.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar until well combined, 2-4 minutes. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
3. Whisk together salt and flour in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture in 3 additions, mixing after each addition, until combined and no flour streaks remain.
4. Portion into 24 dough balls. Roll each ball into granulated sugar, coating completely. Press each ball with cookie stamp. Chill and freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space stamped cookies. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool cookies completely on wire rack.

Stamped Butter Cookies (recipe 2)

Stamped Butter Cookies - made January 16, 2021 from Beyond the Butter

Another recipe as I am still on the hunt for the one that will keep the impression from an embossed rolling pin.

Speaking of embossed rolling pins, I have to confess, after Bennett gave me the first one, I went and bought four more from etsy. Told you it was the start of an obsession. Although to be fair, I bought one as a gift for a friend just so I could try to get someone else obsessed with them. So I'm not the only one with a new freak flag.

One of the three I kept for myself is this stars one pictured above. I wanted something with a patriotic flavor (very punny, right?) for the cookies I send in military care packages as a volunteer with Soldiers Angels. Cool, eh?

And because I saw it from the same Etsy seller that I got the stars rolling pin from, I also bought this Disney one. I thought it was cute and would be fun to cut out into Mickey-Mouse shapes.

Technically, I don't have a Mickey-Mouse-shaped cookie cutter but details....

These didn't quite turn out as well as I had hoped though. It might be hard to see in the pictures but that's indicative as, in real life, the imprints weren't as clear either. At least not as clearly defined as the one from the embossed rolling pin Bennett gave me.

Evenly more sadly, as you can see below, this recipe didn't hold up well with keeping the impressions either. That could be partly my fault in that I didn't roll the dough thinly enough or bake the cookies long enough. I'm also learning the depth of the imprints from the rolling pin matters. I liked the stars embossing but the Disney one just didn't have enough depth or dimension. 

This recipe made so much dough that I did try it out with my new cookie stamps as well and, in fairness to the recipe, it did better with larger patterns. So I guess this isn't one to use for small patterns that have more detail as the finer details will bake out but with larger patterns, it holds its own decently well.

The flavor on these cookies was good but the hunt continues for a butter or shortbread recipe that holds the impressions and doesn't spread during baking.

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together butter and sugar until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition until combine. Add vanilla and mix until just combined.
3. Add dry ingredients in three additions, mixing briefly after each addition. Mix until no flour streaks remain; do not overbeat.
4. Divide dough in half and place each half on a large piece of parchment paper. Cover with another piece of parchment and roll each piece into a smooth and even thickness, 1/8 - 1/4" thick.
5. Chill in refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.
6. Once chilled, remove from refrigerator and remove top piece of parchment. Dust lightly with flour and roll embossed rolling pin, imprinting the dough. Cut into desired shapes, cover and chill again briefly, 15-20 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space chilled cookies. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven, let rest on cookie sheets for 2-3 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely.