Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Caprial Pence

Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies - made dough February 15, 2024 from Caprial's Desserts by Caprial Pence

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

1 cup chopped white chocolate

3/4 cup chopped toasted pecans

1. Place melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed, until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
2. Add eggs and vanilla extract, mixing on low speed, until just combined.
3. Add flour, baking soda and salt, mixing on low speed, until just combined and no floury streaks remain,
4. Fold in bittersweet chocolate, white chocolate and pecans, mixing until evenly disbursed. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. 

Every once in awhile I have to remind myself that there are people out there who like thin, crispy cookies. I'm not one of them but they do exist. In which case, I inadvertently stumbled on a recipe for them.

I've had this dessert book by Caprial Pence for awhile and I periodically leaf through it to see if there's a recipe I want to try. I'd just gotten some white chocolate chunks so it seemed like it was the right time to try this recipe.

The dough was soft and sticky which was my first warning these would probably spread thin. I froze the dough balls before baking but to no avail. These spread so much I couldn't even use the swirling trick to get them inside my largest round cookie cutter to neaten the edges . I hadn't made the dough balls that big either. Sigh.

However, they weren't a total failure as the flavor was quite good. And again, if you like thin, crispy cookies, bake them a little longer than I did to get a more even crispness and you have a winner.

Cinnamon and Sugar Sour Cream Cookies from The Semisweet Sisters

Cinnamon and Sugar Sour Cream Cookies - made dough February 7, 2024 from The Semisweet Sisters 

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter (I used unsalted and added 1/4 teaspoon salt)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg \

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Topping (whisk together in small bowl)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg, sour cream and vanilla, mixing until combined.
3. Add flour, baking soda and baking powder and mix on low speed until just combined.
4. Drop dough by round tablespoonfuls on prepared baking sheets, evenly spacing 2 inches apart. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

If you go by the pictures, you'd think these were snickerdoodles. They look similar and almost, but not quite, taste "the same" but these are actually sour cream cookies.

Using sour cream in cookie dough almost always results in a cakey cookie and that's what these were. The sprinkling on top of cinnamon sugar (I used the Penzey's vanilla sugar blend) contributes to the snickerdoodle vibes. But these don't have cream of tartar and are more cakey than your average snickerdoodle so that's where the similarity ends.

Because these are more cake-like in texture, you don't want to underbake as much as a more typical cookie as it doesn't set to a fudgy texture as much as a mushy one. But don't overbake it either or they'll get too bready and dry.

Overall, these were good….as long as you're not expecting snickerdoodles. They're like a soft, cakey vanilla cookie. The sour cream flavor wasn't pronounced but it also helped prevent the cookies from being too sweet. It's a good way to use up leftover sour cream if that's what you're aiming for and want a simple, no-fuss cookie. The batter does tend to be soft and a little sticky but despite that, as you can see, the cookies didn't spread thin and stayed nice and thick.

Crumbl Copycat Nilla Bean Cupcake Cookies from Lifestyle of a Foodie

Crumbl Copycat Nilla Bean Cupcake - made dough January 27, 2024 from Lifestyle of a Foodie

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream cheese frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons white sprinkles, as garnish, optional

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and powdered sugar until combined and creamy, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add egg, vanilla bean paste and vanilla, mixing to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder. Add to butter mixture in 2 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition.
4. Portion dough into 6 equal dough balls, flattening slightly to thick discs. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.
6. While cookies are cooling, combine all frosting ingredients except for sprinkles and beat until creamy and smooth. Spread equally over the 6 cookies while they're barely lukewarm. Top with sprinkles if desired.

Whenever Crumbl has a flavor coming up that I like and know I want to get, I try to find a copycat recipe so I can make the copycat and compare it to the Crumbl OG in real time. Lifestyle of a Foodie is the most consistently reliable blog I've found for the copycats so I knew I wanted to try her Nilla Bean Cupcake recipe when Nilla Bean hit the Crumbl menu again.

As is typical for most of her recipes, this one was easy to mix together and the dough handled beautifully. The main thing you should know is, depending on the size of the cookies you make, this doesn't make very many. I only got 5 good-sized cookies out it. Good-sized meaning something close to Crumbl size.

These didn't spread much so if you plan to leave them unfrosted (as I did for the ones I mailed in care packages), you might want to roll the dough balls into smoothness. I left them craggy as I prefer a more homemade look.

I didn't make the frosting so the smidge of frosting you see on the test cookie is my cheat of taking some from the Crumbl OG cookie. Flavor-wise, this is a good vanilla cookie. It's also good on texture but, compared to the Crumbl OG cookie, it was a little more bready and not as sweet-soft-chewy. It was still a soft texture but not as soft as Crumbl's. I think I might've had a heavier hand with the flour than I was supposed to. Next time, I'd cut it back a bit and see if I get a little more spread and a softer crumb. Still a good cookie though.

Crumbl's Nilla Bean Cupcake

I've already reviewed the Crumbl Nilla Bean Cupcake cookie so the only thing I'd add is this time around, I didn't like the frosting. Normally I'm fine with Crumbl's cream cheese frosting. I don't always love it but I don't hate it like some other fans do. Usually I don't mind it. Except this time, I don't know what happened but it seems like the cream cheese tang was too strong, in both taste and smell. 

That's one of the things that turn me off about most cream cheese frostings and until now, I hadn't felt that way about Crumbl's. But I didn't care for this frosting at all. Too strong a cream cheese smell and flavor. I ended up scraping most of it off and just enjoying the cookie. I hope this is just a one-off for my store but if they keep making the cream cheese frostings this way or using this strong cream cheese with the smell, I'm going to end up in the eye-rolling "cream cheese frosting again??" camp. #FirstWorldProblem

Crumbl Cookies review #67 - Tres Leches Cake

Crumbl Cookies review #67: Tres Leches Cake - visited February 19, 2024

Tres Leches Cake

By all indications, I shouldn't like this cake. I tried Crumbl's Tres Leches Cookie last year and found it bland and dry. I'm not a big fan of Tres Leches cake in general. I've had some good ones but I've also had some bad ones. The bad ones are sopping wet rather than moist cake. Plus I had some big feelings about Crumbl switching to cake products when I go to them for cookies (see: Cinnamon Square)

And, like the Cinnamon Square, this cost more than their cookies. The premium on top of the cookie was even more than the Cinnamon Square. At my store, this cost $6.25 vs the $5.27 for the Cinnamon Square and $4.74 for a regular cookie (all prices include tax).

Also like the Cinnamon Square, since this is served to you in the square container it's baked in, you can't easily or neatly eat it without a fork or spoon. And it's chilled, another negative. Plus, you know how I feel about whipped cream, also known as "air with calories".

With all that stacked against it, no one was more surprised than me that I absolutely loved this cake. Love. Not like, not "hey, it's okay", not shrug take it or leave it, not even a little crush. MAD LOVE. 

This was perfectly soaked in the milk, with perfectly meaning it was moist but not wet, and it was still fluffy cake. Like ladyfingers soaked in the espresso mixture in a well-made tiramisu. Even more shocking to me, I even liked the whipped cream topping. I know, I know, who am I? Remember I almost always scrape off frosting from the cookies and I like frosting more than whipped cream. Nope, I ate it all on this Tres Leches Cake. 

Even more shocking and somewhat dismaying, I ate the whole thing on the same day I bought it. Normally, I portion into 3 or 4 pieces, eat one piece and freeze the rest for later. I ate a corner of this, then half of it. Then I jumped on the treadmill and hustled my ass for 50 minutes. Later on, after dinner, I polished off the rest of the cake. I've never eaten a whole Crumbl cookie on the same day before. Technically, I still haven't because this is a cake not a cookie but that's splitting calorie hairs. I'm even publishing this review in real time for anyone on the fence on whether they should get the Tres Leches Cake this week or not. If your budget (and waistline and A1C levels) can take the hit, I highly recommend this one. Props to my local store for doing an amazing job on this. 

Peanut Butter Overload Cookies from Table for Two

Peanut Butter Overload Cookies - made dough January 29, 2024 from Table for Two 

1 3/4 cups (219 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (129 grams) creamy peanut butter (not natural peanut butter)

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (110 grams) dark brown sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups Reese's peanut butter cups, chopped

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter, granulated and brown sugar until no butter lumps remain. Add peanut butter and mix to combine. 
3. Add in eggs, milk, and vanilla extract, mixing to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients in two additions and mix until just combined. Fold in peanut butter cups.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
6. 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 or shiny. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

This is a good, solid peanut butter cookie recipe. It's amped up by the peanut butter cups but if you want to take it a step further, you can also add peanut butter chips to the dough. Be sure to reserve a handful of the peanut butter cups to chop up and press (gently) over the cookies as soon as you take them out of the oven.

The dough was easy to handle and they didn't spread much, always a hallmark of a good cookie dough. The texture isn't super soft but has a slight crispness to it but is still chewy. It's hard to explain but most peanut butter cookies are like that, even those made without shortening.

Some peanut butter cookies are a trifle fragile because of that airy crispness. These were fairly sturdy so I thought sending them in military care packages would be okay, especially since I vacuum sealed them and put the sealed bags inside ziploc freezer bags, not just for additional protection and cushion but also to keep the peanut butter flavor from permeating to the other baked goods in the box.

Amish Buttermilk Cookies from Amish Heritage

Amish Buttermilk Cookies - made dough February 8, 2024 from Amish Heritage

1 cup butter, softened (or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening)

2 cups brown sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Glaze

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon buttermilk or milk

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition, until just combined. Add buttermilk and vanilla; beat to combine.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture in 3 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition until just combined.
5. Portion into tablespoon-size dough balls and evenly space on prepared baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
6. Once cookies are cool, combine glaze ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, whisking until completely melted and smooth. Drizzle warm glaze over cookies.

A lot of my baking experiments are driven by what ingredients I need to use up before they expire. In this case, it was buttermilk. Yes, I know I can use buttermilk powder to avoid the expiration issue but rehydrated buttermilk powder just doesn't feel like using the richness of the real thing. Because it isn't. I also know I can freeze buttermilk for later use but where’s the challenge in that?

Buttermilk is always tricky for the uses I need it for. I've tried buttermilk "brownies" but they end up so cakey, they're really cakes, not brownies. It's always dicey how well they'd survive overseas shipping in military care packages. Normally a good use of buttermilk is in pancakes. Or biscuits. Or bread. None of which I can mail either or eat all by myself. 

So I went hunting for buttermilk uses in cookies. Turns out there are a lot of Amish cookie recipes out there. How genuine they are, I don't know. But I got this recipe from someone who used to be Amish so I'm going to assume that's pretty genuine.

This dough was more like a heavy, sticky batter than actual cookie dough and past experience baking with buttermilk in cookies taught to me expect this will be a cakey cookie. And it was. It didn't spread so much as puffed up and smoothed out. This isn't the kind of cookie you want to underbake too much as it doesn't set into a "fudgy" texture so much as seem like uncooked cake batter. But if you bake it too much, it can easily get dry. I underbaked the test cookie very slightly so you can see the middle in the picture below is a little moist and sunken. The baked ones puffed up and stayed puffy.

Surprisingly, although I'm not normally a cakey cookie sort of person, I liked these cookies. The flavor was good, like a nice little vanilla cake in cookie form. But be aware that's exactly what these are - cakey cookies. Or somewhat mini cakes in cookie form. I did end up packing and shipping them for a (large) care package and hopefully they'll survive the mail. The recipe made a lot so I baked them all off and included them in a large box going to a military chaplain to distribute. Between a full batch of this recipe and several other cookie batches I made, I ended up shipping 12 lbs of cookies. Hope they make it okay.