Peanut Butter Butterfinger Cookies from The Food Charlatan

Peanut Butter Butterfinger Cookies - made dough November 1, 2023 from The Food Charlatan 

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup peanut butter (not natural peanut butter)

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

16 ounces Butterfingers, coarsely chopped

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar, beating for 2 minutes until fluffy. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
2. Add peanut butter and mix to combine. Add egg and vanilla, beating until just combined.
3. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, mixing on low speed until just combined.
4. Fold in chopped Butterfingers until evenly disbursed. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill for 15-60 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space chilled dough balls. 
6. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

It's National Candy Day (November 4). I don't know where these food holidays come from but I assume this particular one coming so close on the heels of Halloween had some kind of purpose. Like to remind people to use up their leftover Halloween candy in some way?

Okay, maybe not but that's what I'm going with. I had moved to a new neighborhood earlier this year so I didn't know what to expect in terms of trick or treating. Last year in Las Vegas, I had literally no kids show up at the door. The year before, in my old house in Reno, I had so many kids I ran out of candy. Eeek.

I'm not into the costume part of Halloween for myself but I am all about the candy. And for the past few years, I've been buying the full-size candy bars from Costco. Because candy and kids, right? It's once a year so why not be that house that gives out the full-size bars? 

Not wanting to risk running out, I stocked up on 4 boxes of candy bars. Which means I had 100 bars to give out. Then, come Halloween night, I had 25 kids trick or treat at my door. Oops, overshot that estimate by 3 miles.

But it does mean I have plenty of candy bars to incorporate into my future baking. So here we are. I'm not a big Butterfinger fan (what's with all those flakes?) so I had to look up recipes on how to use up Butterfingers on pinterest and found this recipe.

Chop up Butterfinger bars, which was not easy as the layers crumbled into, well, crumbs. Then add to the dough. When you bake anything that has a caramel-ish component, prepare for leakage in the cookies. Which means the cookies can come out misshapen. This is where using the swirl trick comes in handy. Take a round cookie cutter larger than the cookies and swirl each cookie around it as soon as they come out of the oven while they're still hot. All the cookies you see pictured were misshapen out of the oven but I swirled them to neat roundness as soon as I could.

I have to confess, much as I don't like Butterfinger candy bars, this was an excellent cookie. Didn't spread much, swirled nicely round, great texture and good flavor. Let the cookies cool completely before trying them so the Butterfingers will add a little crunch rather than be melty-chewy. This might be the only way I'll eat a Butterfinger. This one's definitely for both peanut butter lovers and Butterfinger lovers. But even if you're not either, this was really good. 

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies from Stephanie's Sweets

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough October 14, 2023 from Stephanie's Sweets 

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup Oreo crumbs (5 cookies crushed until fine)

3/4 cup Oreo pieces (6 cookies broken into small and medium pieces)

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. 
2. Blend the 5 Oreos into fine crumbs using a blender. Measure off ½ a cup, save the rest to top the cookies. Use the blender to pulse the 6 Oreo cookies into pieces.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Beat on high until light and fluffy. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. 
4. Add in vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. Mix until just combined.
5. Slowly add in the dry ingredients on low speed until just combined. Add in chocolate chips, Oreo crumbs, and Oreo pieces. Chill for 40 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop the cookies using a large 3 oz cookie scoop. Place 6 cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and freeze until the oven is preheated. Scoop the rest of the dough on the other cookie sheet and place in the refrigerator while the others bake.
7. Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes. The edges will be lightly golden brown and the middle with be slightly underdone. Let the cookies sit on the pan for 4 minutes. Use a biscuit cutter to scoot the cookies in a circular motion until round. Top with Oreo pieces and extra chocolate chips. Sprinkle Oreo crumbs on top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I hadn't used up all the Oreos in the package for the Gideon's Bakehouse Cookies and Cream copycat so I tried out this recipe that's been on my pinterest board for awhile.

This one isn't meant to be all covered in Oreos like the Gideon's Bakehouse recipe but still has the same elements. It's also not meant to be as big either but I still made them fairly large. They didn't spread much so stayed nicely thick.

I liked these cookies, maybe even a trifle more than the Gideon's Bakehouse one. It's slightly more sweet but not too sweet and the Oreo chunks added a nice crunch without overwhelming the cookie.

Plus the texture was on point. Underbake it a tad so you get the moist "fudgy" texture. These were also sturdy enough to make for good candidates to mail in a care package. Which is exactly what I did with them.

Pecan Shortbread from Pudge Factor

Pecan Shortbread - made dough October 16, 2023 from Pudge Factor

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (3 ounces) powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 cup (4 ounces) pecans, toasted and roughly chopped

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla on medium speed until well combined and smooth, about 1 minute.
2. Add flour and mix on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Fold in toasted pecans with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
3. Transfer dough to a gallon-size Ziploc bag and place on a flat surface. Leaving the bag unsealed, roll the dough into a 1/4" thick rectangle that completely fills the bag. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough to avoid creases. Seal the bag and chill in the refrigerator or freezer for 2 hours or up to 2 days.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Place the chilled ziploc bag on a cutting board and slit open. Discard the plastic bag. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut into squares. Transfer squares to lined baking sheets, spacing evenly. Prick each square with a fork. 
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. until edges are set. Remove from oven and let rest for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Dust lightly with powdered sugar if desired.

Can you tell I'm working my way through a Costco-sized bag of pecans? Hence why I keep baking cookies with nuts in them.

Shortbread is one of the few cookies where I'm good with pecans in them or almonds or macadamias. Shortbread is usually flavored most by the butter but when you add nuts, it takes on the additional flavor profile of the nuts you use. I always, always recommend toasting whichever nuts you're using before adding them to the dough. Trust me, the flavor will be much better.

Shortbread is also one of the rare cookies where I don't recommend underbaking. You want to bake the shortbread long enough for the bottoms and edges to turn golden and the middles to start looking "dry" or very definitely not looking soft or shiny or wet. If you don't bake it long enough, you won't get the crisp snap of a good shortbread and the texture will be somewhere in texture purgatory of chewy but not crisp. Chewy is for other cookies. Shortbread should have a good snap.

I liked these cookies. I love shortbread anyway and these cookies delivered on that buttery flavor amped up by toasted pecans and a good snap and crunch in the texture. These are good for care packages as well as sharing at holiday parties. The visible presence of the pecans can also easily signal away anyone with nut allergies.

Grandma Lilly's Brownies from Lisa Yockelson

Grandma Lilly's Brownies - made October 22, 2023, modified from Brownies and Blondies by Lisa Yockelson

1 1/2 cups unsifted cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped black walnuts, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 9-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. In the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt butter and unsweetened chocolate, whisking until completely melted and smooth.
4. Beat sugar into melted butter-chocolate mixture. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing until combined. Add vanilla extract and mix to combine.
5. Add dry ingredients and beat until combined. Do not overmix.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Back to my baking books for this one. I'm either trying to get the number of "recipes need to try" down on my pinterest boards or getting more use out of my baking books. This is from my cookbook library and a very old slim book I bought long ago in a used bookstore. Lisa Yockelson is one of the premier cookbook authors who offers a plethora of reliably good brownie recipes.

I will confess though that my palate isn't discerning enough to tell the difference between all the different recipes she has for brownies. Whether it contains more or less flour, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, sugar, eggs or whatever. I just know they're typically going to be fudgy and good.

This was as well, although I made the recipe in a 9 x 9-inch baking pan, not the 9 x 13 one that the original recipe called for. Baking in the larger pan would've made the brownies too thin for my liking. 

The two drawbacks to this one though is it made a crust and it was more sweet than chocolatey. Some people like a crust on their brownies but not me. I also prefer more of a chocolate flavor than a sweet one. This is still a good fudgy brownie so it was worth trying. I have more brownie recipes from her books to try and will be testing those out, mostly just to do something different than my usual go to brownie recipe. 

Gideon's Bakery Cookies and Cream copycat from Buuck Farms

Gideon's Bakery Cookies and Cream copycat - made dough October 13, 2023 from Buuck Farms 

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups (165 grams) bread flour

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup salted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (165 grams) dark brown sugar

1/4 cup (55 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste

1 teaspoon Lorann butter vanilla bakery emulsion

1 family-sized package Oreos, chopped and divided

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, bread flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
3. Add the egg, yolk, vanilla bean paste and butter vanilla emulsion. Mix an additional 3 minutes. scraping sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
4. Add dry ingredients in two additions and mix on low speed after each addition until just combined.
5. Stir in about 1/3 of the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until combined.
6. Portion the dough into 6 giant 6.5-ounce cookie dough balls.
7. Chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. 
8. Add the remaining Oreos to a bowl. Roll the dough into a ball and roll in the chopped Oreos, covering completely except for the bottoms. Press the Oreos into the dough to make sure they stick. Cover and chill for 12-24 hours.
9. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and remove dough balls from refrigerator while oven preheats. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
10. Bake 2 cookies at a time, leaving enough space between the two for the cookies to spread, for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and bang the baking sheet on the counter 4-5 times to collapse the cookies. Bake another 3 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

This is the last of the three Gideon's Bakehouse copycat recipes I tried from Buuck Farms Bakery. It was the easiest of the three to make and turned out just as well as the Coffee Cake one.

I didn't make it as large as I was supposed to as I didn't need three types of super large cookies to send in military care packages (two would do) or I didn't think I could fit very many cookies into the boxes. 

But I still made these decently large. They didn't spread much since I baked from frozen dough. These were delicious. The Oreos covering the top added a nice crunch and the cookies were moist and chewy.

When baking with Oreos, don't use the Double Stuff Oreos. Just use the regular ones. Too much filling, which the double stuff has, melts and bakes greasy. I learned that the hard way.

Crumbl Cookies review #58 - Salted Caramel Pretzel Pie (test cookie)

Crumbl Cookies review #58: Salted Caramel Pretzel Pie (test cookie) - visited October 18, 2023

I am clearly never going to be able to post my Crumbl reviews in "real time", aka when the actual cookies are available. But I keep plugging away as most cookies come around again and I've noticed my blog traffic spikes up on those past reviews when the cookies make the menu again.

Which is why I keep faithfully trying out the test cookies and reviewing them as someday I assume they'll make the regular menu. And when a cookie contains caramel, it's not such a sacrifice.

Last week's test cookie was the Salted Caramel Pretzel Pie. My test store (Sparks, NV) executed this one beautifully as you can tell from the pictures. I'm a huge fan of Crumbl's salted caramel. They do it really well and the flavor and texture are on point. I liked the cookie base as well but it was a trifle too underbaked for me, which is rare. Not seriously underbaked and you have to be careful with shortbread bases as they can easily become dry. But this wouldn't have hurt spending an extra 60 seconds in the oven. It was still good though.

I'm not usually a pretzel person but they worked well in this cookie. Probably the part I enjoyed the least was - you guessed it - the caramel mousse. The flavor was good but I'm not much of a custard-mousse person. The texture was not as fluffy as a mousse but lighter than their usual cream cheese frosting. 

If this makes the regular rotation, I wouldn't mind getting it again but I'd probably take off half the caramel mousse as a personal preference.