Crumbl Cookies review #15: Pink Velvet and Lemon Glazed

Crumbl Cookies review #15: Pink Velvet and Lemon Glaze - May 2, 2022

Back in the groove of my weekly Crumbl visit. I gave last week a pass because I wasn't interested in any of the flavors. I might not have been the only one as, for the first time since my store opened (that I'm aware of), it looks like they had plenty of last week's flavors on offer (2nd column from the left, top to bottom: classic oatmeal, brownie batter, peanut M&Ms and confetti cake). Of course, I don't normally go on a Monday either so maybe that's not unusual to have all of them still available. I've gone twice on a Monday before this and they had one or two of the prior week's flavors available but not all of them. Until this week.

In any case, still not interested in last week's flavors so I homed in on my choices for this week: pink velvet and lemon glaze. I have no idea what "pink velvet" is as I've never had it before. I'm not sure what flavor it's supposed to be. You know how red velvet is like chocolate? Pink velvet is not chocolate based. In fact, it seemed like a vanilla sugar cookie colored a pretty pink.

That said, I loved this cookie. It was baked to perfection, not too underbaked and mushy, even when warm, and not overbaked and dry. It was a bit like a thick, soft shortbread which is a little bit of an oxymoron since shortbread is supposed to be more crisp in texture. 

But I can't describe it any other way. It wasn't a super soft, fragile-cakey cookie like some Crumbl cookies are but it was firm enough to hold up the cream cheese frosting. Against all odds, I do like Crumbl's cream cheese frosting, as long as it's not too heavy or too thickly piled on, because it isn't tangy like a typical cream cheese frosting. And no, I don't want to know how much sugar that takes. I enjoyed the pink velvet so much that I ate all of it that same day. It was good warm, it was good at room temperature. I normally pace myself and eat half a cookie flavor a day but, yup, I ate the whole cookie that day. Granted, it was over three separate sitdowns with it but the whole cookie was consumed and enjoyed.

Which, of course, meant the Lemon Glaze had to wait. I did have a bite of the lemon glaze in the car of the Crumbl parking lot (what? who doesn't do that?) and, while the glaze made eating the cookie a little messy, it was worth the mess. It was excellent warm and the lemon flavor was on point. I'm so glad they did this as a glazed cookie and not a frosted one. I've enjoyed their glazed cookies tremendously so far.

If I had one suggestion for improvement, it would be to skip the slice of lemon and sprinkle it with sugared lemon zest bits instead. The lemon slice was just weird. The slice I got was too skinny to treat as a lemon wedge to squeeze over the cookie and having the lemon slice sit overnight over the glazed cookie just made a wet patch over that part of the cookie. Not great. But still, I also loved this cookie. When warm, the cookie is soft, gooey goodness. At room temperature, it was a nicely chewy cookie, of a texture I prefer in my cookies: dense, soft and chewy. The lemon flavor of the cookie was also perfectly balanced with the sweetness of the glaze.

I'd definitely get either or both of these cookies again. 

Crumbl Copycat: Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Crumbl Copycat: Iced Oatmeal Cookies - made dough May 1, 2022 from Lifestyle of a Foodie 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 1/4 cups old-fashioned whole rolled oats

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Icing

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined, creamy and no lumps remain. Add vanilla extra and egg; beat until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together oats, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture in two additions, mixing until just combined after each addition, until no floury streaks remain.
4. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even-textured.
5. Portion into 8 equally-sized dough balls and flatten slightly to thick discs. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 20 minutes.
6. Make the icing: in a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Thin with a little more milk until desired consistency. Dip cookies into glaze.

Now that I've tried more of the actual Crumbl specialty flavors, I'm more interested than ever in finding credible copycat recipes of the ones I really liked. As mentioned before, Lifestyle of a Foodie seems to have the most copycats and not only that, but hers are some of the best I've tried. So do peruse her blog directly if you want to go down the Crumbl copycat rabbit hole (and who doesn't?). In some cases, while the recipes don't turn out exactly like Crumbl's, they're still pretty good and sometimes, might even be a tad bit better.

I liked Crumbl's Iced Oatmeal when it came out so I was interested in trying this copycat recipe. And, like so many of her recipes, this one didn't disappoint. It doesn't spread much so if you want a uniform thickness, make sure you flatten the dough balls into thick discs. Mine came out a little puffier than Crumbl's but that was okay (and possibly even preferable).

I only made one cookie in a larger size, similar to Crumbl's and made the rest more normal-sized since I was going to mail these out in care packages, sans icing, since iced cookies likely wouldn't travel well. So I only made enough icing to cover the (large) taste test cookie. It was superb. Chewy from the whole rolled oats and just the right amount of spice from the cinnamon and pinch of nutmeg. I probably pinched less than a usual pinch since I'm not fond of nutmeg but it was just the right touch for my taste buds. The simple vanilla icing was also just the right touch, just like with the original Crumbl cookie. I'd definitely make this again.

The only thing to note is the original recipe said to bake for 10 minutes. In my oven, at the 10-minute mark, I could still see some parts of the cookie top was raw dough so I let it bake a few minutes longer and took it out after 14 minutes. So use the 10 minutes as a guideline, depending on your oven, and go by how it looks before taking it out.

Crumbl Cookies review #14: Caramel Cake, Boston Cream Pie and Red Velvet White Chip

Crumbl Cookies - Caramel Cake, Boston Cream Pie and Red Velvet White Chip - April 18, 2022

L-R: Caramel Cake, Red Velvet White Chip, Boston Cream Pie, Carrot Cake

I've been out of the country for almost 3 weeks and therefore missed 2 weeks' worth of Crumbl specialty flavors (*gasp* #FirstWorldProblems). But apparently that just meant that instead of limiting myself to only 2 specialty flavors when I got back, I would get 3. And since I was already going to get 3, I might as well upgrade myself to a 4-pack because it was cheaper per cookie to get 4. I can rationalize anything. But I didn't want the 4th specialty flavor that week as it was snickerdoodle and I had already tried Crumbl's snickerdoodle and didn't think it was special enough to get again. I was also feeling a little salty that they did a repeat of snickerdoodle within less than 2 months whereas I've been waiting for the churro to make a reappearance since December. Fortunately my Crumbl still had the carrot cake from the prior week so I chose that as my 4th cookie.

Red Velvet White Chip

Anyway, let's knock out the easy one first: Red Velvet White Chip. I had actually tried a copycat recipe of this before I'd tasted the Crumbl version. The original Crumbl version was good but, to be honest, it wasn't Crumbl-spectacular. Maybe because I thought the copycat version was already good. It wasn't an exact copycat but the copycat from Lifestyle of a Foodie was just as good or even better. So no need to spend $4.27 next time on this one. 

And despite my not being a frosting person, I think this one could've used a little more dressing up with a cream cheese glaze.

Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie: ever since the Banana Cream Pie set my expectations so high, I keep wanting that same nirvana in their cream-filled cookies. It was the only reason I tried the key lime pie cookie but that one disappointed me. I'm sorry to say that while this was better than the key lime, the Boston Cream Pie was no Banana Cream Pie. The ganache was fine and I loved the cookie base. But the vanilla pudding was bland and didn't have much flavor, not even vanilla. It was a light topping that was a cross between a pudding and an airy whipped cream (I don't like whipped cream - it's air with calories). If a cream filling wasn't going to have flavor, I would've at least liked a heavier texture, closer to a real pudding. 

I loved the cookie base though and I confess, after the first taste test of 1/4 of the cookie as it was meant to be eaten, I scraped off the filling from the rest of the cookie and just ate the cookie base. No need to eat more calories than necessary so the filling had to go. I wouldn't get this one again.

Caramel Cake

Then we come to the caramel cake. I loved this cookie but my love is conditional: it needs to be eaten warm and it needs to not be too underbaked. Mine was baked just right with the right amount of sweetness from the glaze. At room temperature, it was still good but I liked it better warm. If/when it comes around again, I'd get it if there wasn't another specialty flavor I wanted to try.

So now I'm caught up on all my Crumbl eating and reviewing.

This week's (week of April 25, 2022) flavors don't appeal to me but for posterity, I'm noting they are: Confetti Cake, Original featuring Peanut Butter M&Ms, Brownie Batter, Passion Fruit and Classic Oatmeal. The confetti cake was a possibility but it turns out the sprinkles are in the cookie itself as well as on top and I don't like sprinkles in my baked goods. So it's no Birthday Valentine. I'm indifferent to Peanut Butter M&Ms and I don't like passion fruit so pass on both. I can rationalize not getting the brownie batter because I haven't been enamored of Crumbl's chocolate cookies (the Oreo cookie one being the exception). The Classic Oatmeal got mixed reviews from the Crumbl fan page (dry, bland, good streusel topping, etc) so I'm also passing on that one and would rather wait for the Iced Oatmeal to make a comeback.

Biscoff Butter Cookies

Biscoff Butter Cookies - made dough April 22 from Chop Notch

3/4 cup Biscoff cookie butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar, packed

3 tablespoons milk

1 large egg

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together cookie butter, shortening and brown sugar until well combined and fluffy.
2. Add milk and egg and beat until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add in two additions to cookie butter mixture, mixing after each addition until just combined.
4. Portion into dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space on prepared baking sheets and bake 12-14 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from heat, let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely. 

Back to baking new recipes again. Or at least one....for now. As always, this was for military care packages I send as a volunteer for Soldiers Angels. With the warm summer months approaching, I try to look for recipes that don't use butter so there's less risk of the cookies spoiling if they have to pass too long through hot weather before arriving at their (often) desert destination.

This one was perfect as it uses shortening and cookie butter. I also used ultra pasteurized milk to play it safe although there wasn't much I could do about the egg. The dough came together beautifully and was one of those perfect doughs that wasn't too dry or too sticky so it was easy to portion out.

When baked, the texture was also perfect (to me). It didn't spread too much and had a great chewy but soft/not too soft texture. It might be one of the best cookie textures I've had. 

I wish I could say the same about the flavor. For some reason, it didn't quite taste like cookie butter to me, probably because it was "diluted" by the shortening and other ingredients. To amp up the cookie butter flavor, I recommend either drizzling the tops with melted cookie butter or glazing the tops with cookie butter, or, if you want to be even more extra, "stuffing" the middle of the cookies with cookie butter AND glazing or drizzling.

Unfortunately I couldn't drizzle or glaze since I was sending in care packages and any kind of frosting or icing doesn't hold up well in the mail. But next time, I'm going to try stuffing these cookies with cookie butter to amp up that flavor.

Crumbl Cookies review #13 - Coconut White Chip and Cookies & Cream Milkshake

Crumbl Cookies: Coconut White Chip and Cookies & Cream Milkshake - March 28, 2022

I normally go to Crumbl on my day off which is Friday but I was leaving for a trip for the rest of the week so I *had* to go on a Monday this time. The sacrifices I make for the craft....

Okay, now that my dry wit is out of the way, I will tell you the coconut white chip cookie was perfection. I love coconut anyway so I was predisposed to like this cookie. I'm not a big white chocolate fan but I don't mind it when it's paired with coconut and/or macadamia nuts. This cookie didn't disappoint. Despite not being a frosting person, some of my favorite Crumbl cookies have been frosted (hello, churro cookie, I'm still waiting for you to reappear on the menu) so I'm almost trained to expect the non-frosted ones would be too plain and not worth the $4+ per cookie. This one was. The texture and sweetness were on point. This would go on my list to get again next time it comes around.

I wish I could say the same for the Cookies & Cream Milkshake. I didn't not like it but I didn't think it was spectacular. The cookie itself was more of a dry-shortbread texture rather than the soft thick cakey-ish cookie texture I've come to favor in my Crumbl cookies.

The frosting was also pretty thick and a little overwhelming. I did soldier on and finish the whole thing (I'm getting my $4+ worth, okay?) but it took me a couple of days, eating a piece at a time. 

I think I just had high hopes for this cookie based on the copycat recipe I'd made in my pre-weekly-Crumbl visit days but, in retrospect, I think the copycat I made was better than the original Crumbl, partly because I hadn't frosted the copycat and partly because Crumbl cookies were more of a rarity back then and my taste buds weren't so jaded.

This is still a good cookie. It just goes under the category of "glad I tried it, don't need to get it again".

Crumbl Cookies review #12 - Iced Oatmeal, Triple Chocolate, Peanut Butter Snickers and Key Lime Pie

Crumbl Cookies: Iced Oatmeal, Triple Chocolate, Peanut Butter Snickers and Key Lime Pie - March 26, 2022

For this week's lineup, my original two flavors to try were the Iced Oatmeal and the Triple Chocolate. I make oatmeal cookies reasonably often and while I like them (and am more favorably disposed to them than peanut butter cookies), I don't rave about any particular oatmeal cookie. Until now. 

This Iced Oatmeal was delicious, in both flavor and texture. I'm not even sure I can describe why I liked it so much but I did. It was the right thickness, it was moist (most oatmeal cookies tend to be on the drier side) and chewy but not overwhelmed by oats. The cinnamon undertone was perfectly balanced with the light icing glaze. I'm glad it wasn't a frosting but a glaze as I think one of Crumbl's more typical thick layer of frosting would've been too much for this cookie. The light glaze was perfect.

Going in, I thought the Triple Chocolate would be my favorite but nope, it wasn't. In fact, I wasn't impressed with the Triple Chocolate at all. For some reason, the chocolate cookie itself didn't taste like anything special. This is another cookie that goes into the category of something I can make myself and don't need to buy at Crumbl. In fact, I think I prefer the Levain copycat for a chocolate cookie than Crumbl's version.

But wait, there's more. By now you know when you see me buy a 4-pack, I'm taking them as a gift for someone else. I ended up having to make an unexpected (and unwelcome) 300-mile drive out of state. The only silver linings were I got to meet up with an old friend and I brought her a 4-pack of Crumbl.

It gave me a chance to try the key lime and the peanut butter snickers cookies. I also added the Iced Oatmeal and the traditional milk chocolate chip cookie.

I didn't take a close up of the peanut butter snickers because I only had a sliver and you know how I feel about peanut butter. It was more of a dry texture than the moist, chewy, cakey texture so it wasn't going to score high on my taste bud scale regardless.

I had higher hopes for the key lime as I saw so many people raving about it online, the same way I raved about the banana cream pie. So I thought I would give it a try and see if it would overcome my usual bias against creamy desserts. I'm also not a key lime fan. Sadly, this cookie is no banana cream pie. The cookie itself seemed tasteless as was the topping. Someone had recommend squeezing the slice of lime over the cookie before eating and that probably would've given it more flavor. But my friend took the lime garnish off and sliced up the cookie for us to share and I wasn't about to tell her how to eat a cookie. But this was meh at best for me. I don't need to get key lime again, even with a squirt of lime or not. I didn't like the cookie base itself, much less the topping.

Crumbl Cookies review #11 - Sea Salt Toffee and Gold Coin Vanilla Sugar

Crumbl Cookies: Sea Salt Toffee and Gold Coin Vanilla Sugar - March 18, 2022

The Gold Coin Vanilla Sugar is literally their vanilla sugar cookie with a chocolate gold coin on top. That's fine with me as I love their Vanilla Sugar and I wasn't interested in more than 1 other flavor in this week's lineup so I was glad to get the vanilla sugar again.

The other cookie I wanted to try was this sea salt toffee. It was pretty good as well, especially eaten warm while some of the toffee was still melty and soft. Even at room temperature it was good. I liked it mostly because it seemed like their regular milk chocolate chip, just with toffee pieces and sea salt added. A good cookie although now that I've tried it, I don't need to have it again if there are other flavors I want to try the next time it comes around.

Crumbl Cookies review #10 - Cornflake Marshmallow and Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Crumbl Cookies: Cornflake Marshmallow and Cinnamon Toast Crunch - March 8 and March 12, 2022

Crumbl announced "cereal week" for this particular week's line up. All the specialty flavor cookies had some kind of cereal incorporated into them. I'm not a cereal fan so I thought this would be a good week to skip. Except I didn't. All in the name of research (of course), I decided to try the Cornflake Marshmallow cookie. Someone had described it as like a Rice Krispie treat and I like Rice Krispie treats so I figured it would be a safe one to try. 

Erk, no. I should've read Crumbl's description more closely (or read it at all); then I would've known it had peanut butter. No. Just no. The cookie wasn't terrible if you like peanut butter. I also mistakenly thought this would be served warm (also no) and for some reason, despite seeing the sample cookie at the store when I ordered, I thought that crunchy topping would be just that - a topping. Instead, it was the whole cookie. Sadly, this was not the cookie for me. In fact, I didn't even finish it, a Crumbl first for me, and an unfortunate waste of money and calories. But it just wasn't worth it to finish the whole thing so I didn't. Lesson learned. Read the descriptions on the website before buying. Wouldn't get again. 

You'll notice from the post title that I went back to Crumbl again the same week. I was traveling and there was a closer Crumbl nearby where I stayed so, before making a 7-hour drive back home, I stopped off at the Crumbl and this time got the Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That was the cereal the cookie was topped with but since it was just the topping, I figured the actual cookie itself would be more what I like about Crumbl cookies.

Fortunately, I called that one correctly. This was delicious. More like a snickerdoodle not rolled in cinnamon sugar but with a light frosting. When warm, the texture was just a tad too soft and a smidge underdone but when at room temperature, it was perfect.

I'm still not a fan of cereal but it was easy enough to pick off the cinnamon toast garnish and enjoy the frosted cookie itself. If cereal week comes back with the same offerings, this would be the only one I would get.