7-Layer Bar Cookies from Salt & Baker

7-Layer Bar Cookies - made dough July 4, 2024 from Salt & Baker

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/8 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 teaspoon cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (I used almonds)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined and creamy, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add egg, vanilla extract and corn syrup, beating until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 2 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition, until just combined.
5. Add coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and nuts, mixing on low speed until evenly disbursed.
6. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls, cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. 
8. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw or shiny. Let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm fond of 7-layer bars. Normally I'm a purist and prefer only a few flavor ingredients in my baked goods but I like the combination of graham cracker crumbs, coconut, chocolate chips and even nuts blanketed in a sweet layer over the base crust.

So I was willing to try whether the 7-layer bar cookie in actual cookie form would work. Okay, and because I had coconut, butterscotch chips and chocolate chips to use up. I even set aside my bias against nuts in cookies to include them here. But I used almonds instead of walnuts as I don't like the bitterness of walnuts. I had to draw the line somewhere and walnuts are a bridge too far.

I don't know that I would consider this one of my favorite cookies but it was pretty good if you like the 7-layer cookie combination. All the ingredients worked to make an almost faithful rendition of the bar cookie. I say almost because one thing I preferred in bar cookie form versus round cookie form is the prevalence of the graham cracker crust. In the cookie form, the graham crackers are mixed in the dough. It imparts the flavor but not the same texture as in the bar cookie base.

This is still a good cookie - the dough handled well, the cookie didn't spread much and it's packed full of 7-layer cookie flavor. I'm glad I tried it and it makes a nice change but the original 7-layer bar cookie still reigns for me.

Blue Ribbon Sugar Cookies from the Semisweet Sisters

Blue Ribbon Sugar Cookies - made dough May 12, 2024 from The Semisweet Sisters

4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup + 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract, optional

sugar for sprinkling

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add eggs and vanilla extract (and almond extract if using), mixing until combined.
4. Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition, until combined and no floury streaks remain.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and flatten slightly. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls. Bake 11-13 minutes or until edges are set and light golden brown and middles no longer look raw or shiny. 
7. Remove from heat and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. 

As much as I like chocolate, I have to confess, when it comes to cookies and possibly even cakes, I tend to gravitate more towards sugar cookies and vanilla cakes. Good chocolate is rich and a little goes a long way. Good vanilla baked goods just makes me want to keep eating and keep the flavor going. So yeah, greed and gluttony probably play a role in my vanilla preferences.

These sugar cookies are exactly the type of cookie I enjoy the most: they're thick, they taste buttery and vanilla-y and their texture is just perfect. Slightly underbaked so they're dense rather than cakey. I know that's not everyone's preference but it's mine.

The key to good sugar cookies is the quality of ingredients. There is no strong flavor profile like chocolate or spices to overwhelm the cookie. The flavor relies on fresh butter (not margarine or "butter-flavored" shortening) and real vanilla extract. Please don't even side eye imitation extract.

Some people, who are not me, like almond extract. *shudder* Needless to say, I left it out of my baking and liked these (and any) cookies without it. If you need to bring cookies for a summer gathering, these work well since there isn't any frosting or chocolate chips to melt.

Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies from Tasty Kitchen

Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies - made dough June 9, 2024 from Tasty Kitchen 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup buttermilk

2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cocoa powder and melted butter, mixing on low speed until smooth.
4. Add granulated sugar, vanilla and buttermilk, mixing until combined. Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed after each addition, until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Portion into golf-ball size dough balls and flatten slightly into thick discs. Evenly space on baking sheets and bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw.
6. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

This is a good chocolate cookie recipe to make if you have some extra buttermilk that you want to use up. I usually only buy buttermilk when I make my banana bread and I always have extra to use so I keep a pinterest board where I pin recipes that use buttermilk. Whenever I have buttermilk to use up, I go to that board.

I rolled one baking sheet of dough balls in granulated sugar and left the other uncoated. Mostly because I couldn't remember if I was supposed to roll them or not and I didn't bother checking the recipe. You can do either but my taste test cookie was the non-coated one.

These are a bit rich for me. Or else my sweet tooth and my chocoholic tooth were on strike when I tried this. The outside had a slightly crisp shell and the inside was dense and fudgy. All hallmarks of a good chocolate cookie, right? They didn't spread much and had a soft bite. So I think my sweet tooth was just off as I had a couple of bites and was good. I didn't feel the need to finish the cookie. Weird, I know. It's not the cookie, it's me.

Crumbl copycat Cookie Butter Cookies from Lifestyle of a Foodie

Crumbl copycat Cookie Butter Cookie - made dough July 3, 2024 from Lifestyle of a Foodie

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup cookie butter plus 4 tablespoons, separated

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cookie butter, for drizzling

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop 8 dollops (1/2 tablespoon each) of cookie butter on it. Freeze for 20 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, 1/2 cup cookie butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Add egg and vanilla extract; beat to combine.
4. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt, beating on low speed until just combined.
5. Scoop into golf-ball size dough balls, make an indent in the center of each one and place a frozen dollop of cookie butter in the middle. Fold the cookie dough over to completely seal in the cookie butter, pinching in any seams; roll into a smooth ball.
6. Evenly space on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes then drizzle with melted cookie butter. Sprinkle with Biscoff cookie crumbs. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

There was no Crumbl tester this week so I'm not doing a Crumbl run. I've already had the Snickerdoodle Cupcake and Sugar Shark that are on this week's menu. So, instead, I give you this Crumbl copycat from Lifestyle of a Foodie, my go-to site for reliably great cookies, especially Crumbl copycats. 

I didn't fancy these up like the recipe directed in terms of drizzling the baked cookies with melted cookie butter and sprinkling with Biscoff cookie crumbs. I was sending these out in military care packages and the fancy version would've been messy to package and mail.

But that's okay as these were delicious "plain". It's been awhile since I've had the Crumbl original Cookie Butter Lava but according to my notes, the edges were crisp on the original and the middle was soft.

The texture on these was more evenly crisp throughout although they weren't hard and they were still chewy. They didn't quite have that soft texture of a typical Crumbl cookie. But still, taste-wise, they were pretty good. Can you really go wrong with a cookie butter cookie stuffed with cookie butter? I think not.

Do NOT skip the step of dolloping cookie butter and freezing it for the inside of the cookie. It'll make "stuffing" the cookie dough ball much easier. Freeze the dollops (don't be skimpy with those dollops either) then pat a golf-ball-size portion of dough into a ball, flatten into a thick circle, place the frozen dollop of cookie butter in the middle and enclose it with the cookie dough, pinching the edges sealed and rolling into a smooth ball.

You can see above the dough broke open during baking on a couple of them but fortunately, the cookie butter didn't leak out. I don't mind this look and I probably had a little too much cookie butter stuffing for the cookie. I didn't mind that either.

Easy One Bowl Nutella Blondies from Cake Babe

Easy One Bowl Nutella Blondies - made July 4, 2024 from Cake Babe 

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces Nutella

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together melted butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
4. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk for 30 seconds then add the vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
5. On low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until just barely combined. Fold in chocolate chips until evenly disbursed.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth into an even layer.
7. Drop the Nutella by spoonfuls over the batter and use a butter knife to swirl the Nutella through the batter.
8. Bake for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a non-Nutella part comes out clean. Do not overbake.

I have mixed feelings about this bar cookie. On the face of it, it lived up to its claim of being easy to make and using only one bowl. But I wonder if the original recipe directions and ingredients were correct? By that I mean the ingredient list includes the spices but the directions don't mention actually adding them to the batter.

I added them to the directions here to avoid confusion but in hindsight, I think this would've been better without the cinnamon and the nutmeg. Not just because I'm not a fan of nutmeg (cinnamon is fine) but this is better just as a straightforward Nutella blondie. Nutella and a brown sugar blondie stand well on their own and don't need an additional flavor profile of spices. Not to me anyway.

I baked this for exactly 25 minutes and they were fine, not overbaked, but they were cakey. If I'd taken them out a couple of minutes earlier, they might've had a more "fudgy" texture, which I would've preferred.

All in all, this was good but I'd give the nod of the Nutella-Swirled Chocolate Chip Blondie recipe from Averie Cooks as more of a favorite.

Crumbl Cookies review #76: Pumpkin Cake (tester)

Crumbl Cookies review #76 - Pumpkin Cake (tester), visited July 16, 2024

I'm really glad when Crumbl has a test product (can't always call them a test "cookie" anymore) that I want to try, especially during the weeks where I've already tried the flavors I would've been interested in (the Cannoli cookie, the Vanilla Crumb Cake, the Cookies and Cream and the Milk Chocolate Chip) and it's a pass on the rest.

 

Presumably they are testing out the Pumpkin Square in advance of releasing it to the regular, nationwide menu this fall. 

Overall, I liked this cake. I don't know that I would agree with the Crumbl description that it was "fluffy". It was slightly dense, probably from the brown sugar cinnamon butter that was supposedly marbled into the cake but seemed more like it lay on top at the top of the cake as the top was slightly more dense than the bottom. But I like that sort of texture in a pumpkin cake so that was fine with me. If they want it a little more fluffy, I'd cut back on the brown sugar cinnamon butter "marbling" but most pumpkin cakes tend to be dense.

I appreciated that the frosting wasn't so thick either, not like they do on some of their cookies. Instead, this was only just slightly heavier than a glaze but not so thick as a trowel of frosting.

Flavorwise, this was what a good pumpkin cake should be, not overly spiced but just right with the cinnamon. Thankfully I couldn't taste any nutmeg as I don't care for nutmeg. This had an upcharge of $1.49 at my store. Regular cookie price is $4.49 so it was $5.98 plus tax. I liked it and I'm glad I tried it but, similar to how I feel about the Cinnamon Square, it's good if you just want a little cake but this is something I could make myself. I'd only get this again if I felt like having a pumpkin cake, didn't want to go to the trouble of making a larger one of my own and don't mind spending almost $7 on a little cake.