Crumbl copycat: Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies

Crumbl Copycat: Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough August 20, 2021 from Lifestyle of a Foodie

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 teaspoons red gel food coloring

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

3/4 cup white chocolate chunks, plus more reserved for tops of baked cookies

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined and creamy, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, vinegar and red gel food coloring; mix until combined and of a uniform color, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in the white chocolate chunks.
5. Portion into large dough balls to make 8 equal-sized cookies. Pull each cookie dough ball in half and press the two halves together so that the jagged edges face up. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls on baking sheets. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until edges have set and middles no longer look raw. Do not overbake. Immediately press reserved white chocolate chunks over the tops of the cookies. Let rest on baking sheets for 10 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Made 7 cookies

When I first saw the Crumbl copycat recipe of Biscoff White Chocolate Cookies from Lifestyle of a Foodie's blog, I got (willingly) led down the rabbit hole of other copycat recipes. One click led to another and I found myself trying out multiple copycat recipes from the same blog.

So far all the recipes have turned out well. As mentioned in the last post, I can't vouch for how true they are to the original Crumbl cookie since I haven't tried this flavor but, even without that validation, I can tell you this was a great red velvet cookie.

I mean, super delicious. I used my large cookie scoop so this only made 7 cookies in a batch. I ate one for a taste test and gave away the other 6. 

Don't forget the trick of baking the cookies first then pressing pristine white chocolate chunks on top of the (hot) cookies as soon as you take them out of the oven. Then let them cool completely before looking at them again so the white chocolate doesn't melt or get messed up if you handle them while they're still soft.

Crumbl Copycat: Biscoff White Chocolate Cookies

Crumbl Copycat: Biscoff White Chocolate Cookies - made dough August 25, 2021 from Lifestyle of a Foodie 

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1/2 cup cookie butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 Biscoff cookies, crushed

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

5 Biscoff cookies, split in half for topping

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, cookie butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy and well combined. Add in egg and vanilla; mix until just combined.
2. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and crushed Biscoff cookies, mixing until just combined. Fold in white chocolate chips. Portion evenly into 10 portions and roll into thick discs. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough discs. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Do not overbake.
4. Remove from oven and gently press 1/2 Biscoff cookie in the center of each cookie. Let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to wire cooling rack to cool completely. 

You're about to see a series of Crumbl copycat recipe posts, not just for their original milk chocolate chip, but for some of their other flavors.

My biggest disclaimer is I can't vouch for how authentic they are or not, namely because I've only tried the milk chocolate chip and the Samoa from a Crumbl bakery. I don't live close enough to one to make a weekly foray to try out a different flavor every week. (Can you hear the regret in my writing tone??)

So I will have to assess these cookies based on their own merits, regardless of how well they might stack up against a real Crumbl version.

On that note, these cookies were amazing. I like the Biscoff/cookie butter and white chocolate combination in general as the flavors are very complementary, much better than semisweet or even milk chocolate with cookie butter. The white chocolate is subtle enough to let the cookie butter play the starring role and that's how the universe should align.

Add to that, these made thick, behemoth cookies that didn't spread too much, were crisp at the edges and had both an excellent flavor and a great texture (crisp edges, chewy middle) and you have a winner. 

The crowning touch was literally the Lotus Biscoff cookie on top. A cookie on top of a cookie - sheer brilliance.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough September 4, 2021, recipe adapted from Cookie Madness

8 ounces (16 tablespoons) vegan butter (I used Miyoko's)

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon egg replacer plus 2 tablespoons water 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups vegan chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the vegan butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined and creamy. 
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg replacer and water. Let sit for a few minutes until thickened before adding to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix in until combined. Add vanilla extract and mix to combine.
3. Add flour, baking soda and salt, mixing just until combined. Fold in vegan chocolate chips.
4. Portion dough into dough balls and flatten slightly. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. 

Made 22 (small-ish) cookies 

I am new to the world of vegan baking. I have the privilege and luxury of not having any food allergies so I've never had to really substitute anything for typical ingredients that contain dairy or gluten. But thanks to my niece watching her dairy intake, I got my first introduction to baking with vegan butter a couple of months ago.

It was a mostly dairy-free adaptation to Cookie Madness' Crumbl copycat recipe, with the "mostly" being due to my using milk chocolate chips and semisweet chocolate chips, which contain milk. I decided to try going all-out vegan, not just by using vegan chocolate chips from Enjoy Life but also using Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer, to see what it would be like.

One of the reasons I've been hesitant to stray from my dairy and non-vegan recipes is the investment in more specialty ingredients that I thought might be hard to find. Turns out, they're more widely available than I expected, probably thanks to the increasing number of vegans and the demand for vegan products. I bought the Miyoko's vegan butter from Trader Joe's and the vegan chocolate chips and egg replacer at Target. 

One thing I've learned from my limited experience of baking with vegan butter is it doesn't add as much moisture to cookie dough as dairy butter does. So I modified the original recipe from Cookie Madness to increase the vegan butter by 1 tablespoon to use the full cup of vegan butter that it's sold as. That definitely helped with the consistency of the dough. 

As did the egg replacer which added the same amount of moisture as a large egg. I also increased the vanilla extract to a full teaspoon.

This turned out really well. It didn't brown as much as a non-vegan version of the cookie and didn't quite have the same brown sugar caramelization but the edges were still crisp and the middle was chewy and moist. To be honest, in a blind taste test, I'm not sure I could've told you this was vegan. But it is.

So if you're looking for a vegan version of a good chocolate chip cookie, give this one a try. It turned out better than I expected.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake - made September 5, 2021 from I Scream for Buttercream 

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons

Glaze

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13" pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. 
3. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, whole eggs, egg yolk, vanilla extract and vegetable oil.
4. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until the flour mixture becomes crumbly and resembles sand.
5. Add in half the liquid and mix on medium speed until just incorporated. Add the remaining liquid and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat briefly. Do not overmix.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
7. Remove cake from oven and poke holes into cake with a skewer.
8. Once cake is out of the oven, immediately make glaze: melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. When butter is completely melted, turn off heat and add brown sugar, vanilla and buttermilk. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add in the confectioners' sugar and stir until well combined and any clumps have dissolved.
9. Once cake has been out of the oven for 15 minutes, pour the warm glaze over the warm cake. Let glaze set before cutting and serving cake.

Expect to see a few more recipes that use buttermilk since I'm still working my way through the half gallon of it before the expiration date. I'm glad I have local recipients for cakes and other more fragile/short shelf life baked goods so I can bake more than the usual cookies and brownies I send in care packages.

This is another good cake recipe to bake for a crowd and is simple and easy to make. The cake itself isn't that sweet so the glaze adds just the right touch. When doing the toothpick test, the toothpick inserted in a corner or at the edge should come out clean and one inserted in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs. Then you know it's done.

Lemon Texas Sheet Cake

Lemon Texas Sheet Cake - made August 30, 2021, modified from Five Heart Home 

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter

1 cup water

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons lemon zest

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 large pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the water and lemon juice. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in flour until smooth.
3. Transfer to bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add sugar, sour cream and lemon zest, mixing until combined.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined after each addition. Mix in the vanilla and lemon extract. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the top of the batter and mix in until combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake completely.
6. Make the glaze: combine the powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice until smooth. Adjust amounts of powdered sugar or lemon juice until glaze is desired consistency. Pour over cake and smooth. Let glaze set before cutting and serving.

I love sheet cakes. The most common ones are chocolate and vanilla but since I'm batch baking for larger populations these days, I'm branching to try different flavors. Yes, still going through my Costco bag of lemons. After this recipe, I now have two left.

I loved this cake. It has the tender crumb of all good sheet cakes and I loved the texture. The only thing I would do differently is cut the glaze amount in half. I keep forgetting the proportions are for an actual sheet pan, not the 9 x 13 pan I prefer to use. 

While using the smaller pan makes for a thicker cake, which is why I do it (who wants thin cake??), it also makes more frosting than is necessary to cover a smaller surface area. If you're not a frosting person, which I'm not, this is not good news. So if you do bake in a 9 x 13 pan. you might want to make only a half recipe of the glaze or a 2/3 recipe if you don't mind a little more icing. Either way, this is good cake.

Lemon Bundt Cake

Lemon Bundt Cake - made August 29, 2021 from Simply Suzanne's at Home

4 lemons

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 large egg yolk, room temperature

18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a large Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and flour lightly.
2. Zest and juice 3 lemons then mince the zest until it is almost a paste, yielding about 2 tablespoons.
3. Mix zest with 3 tablespoons lemon juice in a medium bowl; set aside for 10-15 minutes. Set aside the remaining juice for the glaze.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. To the lemon juice mixture, add vanilla and buttermilk; whisk to combine.
6. In a separate small bowl, whisk eggs and egg yolk.
7. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and granulated sugar at medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, to keep the mixture even-textured.
8. Reduce speed to medium and add half the eggs. Mix for about 15 seconds then add the remaining eggs; mix until combined.
9. Reduce speed to low and add 1/3 of the flour mixture. Mix briefly, add half the buttermilk mixture, and mix for several seconds. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix briefly, add remaining buttermilk, mix briefly then add remaining flour and mix until just combined and no flour streaks remained.
10. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and loosen the sides with a rubber spatula. Turn onto a rimmed baking sheet.

Prepare glaze

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon buttermilk

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, buttermilk and confectioners' sugar to a bowl and whisk until smooth. Add more lemon juice until desired consistency is reached.
2. Pour half the glaze over the cake and let cool for an hour. Cover the remaining glaze with a damp towel while the cake cools. After an hour, pour the rest of the glaze over the cake and let cool to room temperature.

Back again with another lemon recipe. I'm still using up the bag of lemons I bought at Costco. You know, when I only needed 1 lemon for lemon bars but somehow buying a whole bag of them seemed like a good idea.

I also, for some reason, bought a half gallon of buttermilk because I needed a cup of it for banana bread and a half gallon was all that was available at the grocery store. Yes, I now had two First World problems.

Fortunately lemon pound cake or lemon bundt cake almost inevitably helps solves these problems by using both ingredients. In fairly modest amounts but every recipe helps. And since I now bake regularly for the food distribution to the houseless population in my area, I can now try out more cake recipes such as this one, glaze and all.

This is a good lemon bundt cake, soft crumb, good flavor. Added bonus that it came out of the Bundt pan fairly intact. Alas, not all my Bundt cakes come out so well. Don't skip the glaze if you want the punch of lemon flavor.

Buttermilk "Brownies"

Buttermilk Brownies - made August 27, 2021 from Louisiana Bride 

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup water

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, water, cocoa and oil over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Pour over flour mixture and whisk to combine. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Stir to combine. 
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

Icing

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup buttermilk

pinch salt

4 cups powdered sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine butter, cocoa powder and buttermilk in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add salt, powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Spread over warm brownies.

I had to put the term "brownies" in quotes as they're a bit of a misnomer. That was the name on the original blog I got the recipe from so I wanted to stick with it.

But ultimately, this is a Texas sheet cake. It's made the same way with whisking together the dry ingredients and melting the butter, water, cocoa and oil before combining with the dry ingredients.

Then you pour the frosting over the warm cake and let it set. Texas sheet cake. Regardless, it was good, no matter what you call it. Cakey and tender with a nice crumb.