Cookie Butter-Stuffed Blondies

Cookie Butter-Stuffed Blondies - made on April 30, 2021 from Handle the Heat 

I feel a bit conflicted about this bar cookie. On the face of it, it's everything I like: easy-to-make bar cookie (always good when baking for a crowd, which I was), brown-sugar blondie and hello, cookie butter.

But I don't know if my taste buds were a bit on sugar overload when I made this or what the issue was but I didn't love this as much as I expected. For one thing, it was a bit too thick, even for me, so it might've been better to bake in a 9 x 9 pan instead of an 8 x 8. Plus the cookie butter-sweetened condensed milk filling was a bit too thick and didn't taste as cookie buttery as I would've wanted. Instead it just seemed gelatinous.

Next time, I might just thin the cookie butter by melting it and perhaps adding a few tablespoons of whole milk rather than mixing it with sweetened condensed milk.

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, melted

1 3/4 cups (350 grams) dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups (254 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup cookie butter

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl combine the hot melted butter and sugar with a rubber spatula. Let cool. Add the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until combined. Stir in the salt and flour.
3. Spread half the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes, or until it just begins to set. Keep oven at 350°F.
4. In a heatproof container, microwave the cookie butter and condensed milk in 20-second bursts, stirring between bursts, until warmed through and well combined.
5. Spread the cookie butter mixture over the par-baked blondie layer in one even layer. Use your palms to flatten pieces of the cookie butter mixture to layer over the blondie if needed. Spread the remaining blondie batter over the cookie butter layer until it’s completely covered.
6. Return to the 350°F oven and bake for another 30 minutes, or until golden brown and set. Let cool completely before chopping into bars with a big sharp knife. Wipe the blade with hot water for cleaner slices.

Biscoff Blondies

Biscoff Blondies - made April 30, 2021 from Jane's Patisserie

Hot on the heels of my earlier post regarding stuffed cookie butter cookies, here's a bar version where blondies are baked with cookie butter swirled in and topped with Biscoff cookie pieces. 

So you can already imagine I'm going to tell you this was also incredible. Because it was.

The cookie butter was a bit difficult to swirl in since it's fairly stiff. You can always warm it up slightly for easier swirling but I wouldn't worry too much about it because having large pockets of cookie butter in the blondie isn't a bad thing.

I've become a fan of adding Biscoff cookies to pretty much anything. Unlike my other favorite, the Oreo cookie, Biscoff cookies don't soften in baking and retain the crispness I like so much in these cookies.

I didn't bake this bar cookie as much as I could have as it was difficult to tell when it was actually done via the toothpick test so I could've baked it a little longer for more of a golden brown color.

Still, it was pretty feckin' delicious anyway. The original blogger, Jane's Patisserie, is from Australia (I believe) so the original recipe followed the metric system. I've translated to ounces for the butter but kept everything else in grams so it's best if you have a food scale to measure the ingredients.

200 grams (7 ounces or 14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

125 grams granulated sugar

125 grams brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

275 grams all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

200 grams white chocolate chips

250 grams cookie butter

100 grams Biscoff cookies, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 9" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar.
3. Add eggs and vanilla, beating after each addition.
4. Add flour and cornstarch; mix until just combined.
5. Fold in white chocolate chips.
6. Pour into prepared pan and dollop the cookie butter on top. Swirl through batter. Sprinkle chopped Biscoff cookies. 
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until corners are set, middle no longer looks raw and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.

White Chocolate Macadamia Coconut Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamia Coconut Cookies - made dough April 26, 2021 from Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen

This is still part of the mass baking day I did the first weekend in May. You'll always see cookie recipes as part of my mass baking days since I could (and do) mix together cookie doughs any time I have a spare 15-20 minutes throughout the week then I keep the cookie doughs in my freezer until I'm ready to bake. 

It's a handy time management trick since I tend to do my mass baking when I have several free hours (which only seems to be on my Friday day off and/or the weekend) and baking a ton of cookies is much easier and takes less time when the cookie doughs are already made up and ready to go.

I love the coconut-macadamia combination and macadamias are almost the only nut I can tolerate inside a cookie since they don't soften like pecans and aren't bitter like walnuts. Plus they taste good.

This is a pretty good cookie. It has brown sugar overtones, the chewiness of coconut, the crunch of macadamia nuts and the sweetness from the white chocolate. All in all, a great combination. 

1 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups white chocolate chunks

1 1/2 cups macadamia nuts, lightly toasted, cooled and coarsely chopped

1 10-ounce package sweetened flaked coconut

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined and no butter lumps remain, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition until just combined.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in two additions, mixing after each addition until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Fold in white chocolate, macadamia nuts and coconut. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls 2 inches apart. Bake 12-14 minutes until edges are golden and middles no longer look raw. Cool on baking sheets for several minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Maple Snickerdoodles

Maple Snickerdoodles - made dough April 17, 2021 from Butternut Bakery 

This is another cookie that was part of my mass baking day. I was a bit concerned when I made this dough as it was pretty soft after it was mixed and I had to chill it in the fridge before I even portioned it into dough balls. Usually when a cookie dough is that soft, it'll spread more, even when baked from frozen dough.

Now these did spread but not as much as I would've expected given the softness of the dough. And I thought I'd balk over these because of the addition of the maple syrup because, remember, I'm a snickerdoodle purist. 

Turns out I was wrong again. These were delicious. The maple flavor is subtle but still ups the  flavor profile a notch. The texture was perfect, crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle.

As always, watch the bake time. You want to bake just until the edges are set and the middle no longer looks raw. Don't wait until the middle is uniformly puffy, that'll always surely be overbaked by then. Bake just until you see some fissures near the center but not completely over the whole cookie. When baked properly, the middles will sink for this look (below).

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

scant 1/4 cup maple syrup (I used Trader Joe's maple syrup)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon salt

Coating

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add maple syrup and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined after each addition.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cream of tartar and salt. Add in two additions to butter mixture, beating until just combined after each addition. If dough is too soft, cover and chill for 30 minutes before portioning into dough balls.
3. Portion into golf-ball-sized dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
5. In a small bowl, combine together 1/4 cup granulated sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough balls in mixture, coating completely. Evenly space on prepared baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

White Chocolate Snickerdoodles

White Chocolate Snickerdoodles - made May 1, 2021, modified from Kroll's Korner

I was gearing up to do a massive baking day last weekend, with some baked goods earmarked for military care packages and the rest for the lunch bags distributed every Sunday in my area for the local hungry/housing-insecure population. I promised to do baking for the Sunday lunch bags at least once or twice a month. It's not only a chance to contribute to a good cause but lets me test out new recipes and distribute treats. That's also one of the benefits of volunteering for Soldiers Angels - to send out care packages - but it would be cost prohibitive to mail out everything I wanted to bake. So I was glad to find a local option for baked goods distribution.

So I made a bunch of cookie doughs ahead of time and baked them off at once last week. This is one of them. The original recipe called to make these as giant cookies but I modified the directions for normal size cookies. For what I need them for, "normal size" goes farther than giant-sized. 

I did make one test cookie as giant cookie though, weighing out 6 ounces of dough, freezing it then baking it separately. Just to test out what the original recipe is meant to be like. When making a cookie that big, be sure to double pan it when baking. This keeps the bottom from overbaking while the rest of the cookie bakes.

Since I was multiple-batch baking when I baked the test cookie, it turns out I baked the giant test cookie a bit too long. It wasn't overbaked but it also wasn't as underbaked as I normally prefer my cookies. 

The flavor on this was good but I have to admit, I'm still a purist when it comes to snickerdoodles and I think I'd prefer this without the white chocolate chips. Because this feels like a (good) white chocolate chip cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar rather than an actual snickerdoodle. But if that's your thing, then this is a good cookie option for you.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cake flour

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cubed

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yokl

2 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Topping

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and free of lumps. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat until combined and fluffy.
3. Add in egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract; beat to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, beating until just combined after each addition; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients. Roll the dough balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, coating completely. Evenly space on baking sheets and bake 10-11 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Stuffed Cookie Butter Cookies

Stuffed Cookie Butter Cookies - made April 16, 2021 from Los Kitchen Co 

Cookie butter fans, you are my people. And because you're my people, let me share this amazing recipe with you from Los Kitchen Co. It's essentially a (delicious) butter cookie, mixed in with Biscoff cookie pieces, "stuffed" with cookie butter then drizzled with melted cookie butter. Freakin' genius.

Of course you don't actually stuff cookie butter inside the cookie like you stuff a turkey. Instead, you make thick discs out of the cookie dough, dollop cookie butter over half the discs, cover with another disc, pinch the edges closed to seal the cookie butter goodness inside then roll the whole thing (gingerly) into a dough ball.

Depending on how thick and/or big you make the dough discs, you can end up with a fairly large cookie. This is not a problem.

You can also be a little extra and take things further into cookie butter heaven by placing a (large) spoonful of cookie butter inside a ziploc bag, seal it shut, microwave it for 20-30 seconds until the cookie butter is melted, snip a corner of the bag and drizzle the melted cookie butter over the cookie. Yeah, it's as good as it sounds.

I ate the test cookie at room temperature so the cookie butter filling had already set but for extreme decadence - because why stop now - you can eat this somewhat warm and have gooey, oozy melted cookie butter in the center spill out. You're welcome.

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

3/4 cup (150 g) brown sugar

1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 3/4 cup (330 g) all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons (28 g) cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

12 Biscoff cookies, broken up

1 1/4 cup (212 g) white chocolate chips

8 ounces Biscoff cookie butter spread

1. Place butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add vanilla and eggs, mixing briefly to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add in two additions to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Fold in white chocolate and Biscoff cookie pieces.
5. Portion dough into 2-ounce pieces and flatten into thick discs. Place a scoop of cookie butter in the center of half the discs then cover each with another disc. Pinch the edges together to seal and roll into balls. Cover and cover or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space stuffed dough balls. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw or shiny. Let cookies rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely. 
7. Place 3/4 cup cookie butter in a ziploc sandwich bag and seal. Microwave for 15 seconds until thin and liquid. Snip corner of bag and drizzle the tops of baked cookies with additional cookie butter. Let drizzled cookie butter set.

Oreo Blondies

Oreo Blondies - made April 23, 2021 from Stephanie's Sweet Treats

Trying to keep the write-ups brief so we can just get right to the recipe. And this one couldn't be any easier. Mix the blondie batter, fold in chopped up Oreos and sprinkle more Oreo chunks on top. Bake. Eat.

I might've underbaked this one just a tad or I ate the taste test piece when it was still a bit warm and not fully set. Either way the flavor was good. It's literally a blondie with Oreo add-ins. Nothing wrong with that but don't expect a full-on cookies and cream bar. This was still good though because Oreos.... 

I do love how the Oreos stayed crisp in this one, at least the ones sprinkled on top/

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted, browned and cooled slightly

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped Oreos

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together browned butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a medium bowl. Add in vanilla, eggs and egg yolks, mixing until combined.
3. Add flour and salt. Mix until just combined. Fold in chopped Oreos and chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Top with more chopped Oreos and chocolate chips if desired. 
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool completely before cutting.