Crumbl Cookies review #43 - Red Velvet Cupcake, Waffle, Lemon Bar (mystery cookie), Fried Ice Cream

Crumbl Cookies review #43 - Red Velvet Cupcake, Waffle, Lemon Bar (mystery cookie) and Fried Ice Cream, visited June 19, 2023

I've been eating Crumbl cookies long enough and tried enough flavors that it's a rare week when they offer 4 flavors I've never tried before AND they were flavors I actually wanted to try.

I always try to take a picture of the menu for posterity's sake. This shot is a little (badly) angled as there were people in front of the kiosk putting in an order so I had to take the picture from the side.

I wasn't interested in the Chocolate Cookies and Cream so I was glad the mystery cookie was Lemon Bar. I love lemon so that one took up the 4th slot in the 4-pack I bought.

Red Velvet Cupcake

In order of how they were in my 4-pack left to right, let's start with the Red Velvet Cupcake. I've had other Crumbl red velvet cookies before so I figured I would like this one, especially since it didn't have white chocolate chips to detract from the texture of the cookie.

And sure enough, I really liked this cookie. Loved the red velvet flavor and the texture was perfectly fudgy and chewy. I also like the cream cheese frosting, even though I did have to scrape some of it off. I definitely prefer this version of red velvet vs the ones that have white chocolate chips in them.

Waffle

Unfortunately I was less impressed with the waffle cookie. I thought I would like this one better than I did as the cookie itself is usually what I like best about Crumbl cookies: nice and thick, dense, chewy, brown-sugar based. 

But I made the mistake of going by the recommendation of Crumbl Waffle cookie lovers who said to spread the buttercream dollop evenly over the cookie, pour the syrup over it and eat it warm.

I did all that and the mistake was in pouring the syrup over the whole cookie before trying the cookie without the syrup. Because with the syrup over it, all I could taste was the syrup, not the cookie. It was also messy to wrap and freeze because of the syrup.

So, yeah, no, didn't love this one. If it comes around again, I'll have to try it without the syrup. Maybe I'll like it better then.

Lemon Bar

Fortunately, the Lemon Bar more than made up for the Waffle cookie. I let it come to room temperature first (of course) and it was perfection.

The lemon curd on top was nicely tart and paired well with the sugar cookie base which I also loved since it was thick, dense and chewy. 

This might be one of my favorite lemon-based cookies from Crumbl and I'd definitely get it again. All the other lemon cookies get bumped down the list when they're up against the Lemon Bar.

Fried Ice Cream

I had never had the Fried Ice Cream before. When it came on the menu last year, I had read the "fried" topping was stale or got stale fast so I was leery of getting it. I don't eat any Crumbl cookie all at once, in one sitting or even on the same day. I usually try a piece of the cookie then break up the rest, wrap the pieces and freeze them until later.

Past experience with cereal-esque toppings have taught me those toppings don't fare well being frozen then thawed. They get stale, soft and chewy-not-in-a-good-way. But YOLO so I wanted to try it this time. 

And I'm so glad I did. I loved this cookie as well. I was going to love the cookie base anyway (look at that texture) and I appreciated the frosting wasn't so thick. But the fried topping really made the cookie. Mine was nicely crisp, almost like feuilletine, and made a great contrast with the chewy cookie and the smooth frosting, adding a perfect crunch. The downside was, as I expected, the topping didn't freeze well and wasn't as good when thawed. If I get this again, I'd prioritize eating it sooner than later to avoid having to freeze it.

All in all, this (last week) was a great week for Crumbl flavors. Which turned out to be a good thing because this week (week of June 26, 2023) had nothing that interested me. I'm hoping the mystery flavor this week will be good. Otherwise, it's a (rare) skip week for me at Crumbl.

Kahlua Crinkles from An Affair from the Heart

Kahlua Crinkles - made dough May 27, 2023 from An Affair from the Heart 

1 2/3 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon coffee extract

2 teaspoons Kahlua

2 large eggs

Kahlua Sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons Kahlua

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Kahlua sugar: in a small bowl, mix Kahlua into granulated sugar with a fork until incorporated; set aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and espresso powder; set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, coffee extract, and Kahlua for about 4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until just combined.
5. On low speed, mix in flour mixture until just combined.
6. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, roll each ball in the Kahlua sugar and evenly space on baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let cool on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Can you tell I bought a new bottle of Kahlua? Hence another cookie recipe that uses it. This one has both espresso powder and coffee extract so it's really more of a chocolate espresso cookie than a Kahlua one.

This is a variation of a crinkle cookie. A typical crinkle cookie is rolled in powdered sugar before baking. This one is rolled in a mixture of granulated sugar and a little Kahlua. Normally granulated sugar melts in baking but this stayed crystallized, probably because the addition of the Kahlua prevented it from melting into the cookie.

It does clump as you can see from the pictures so as much as possible, try to break up the big clumps and distribute the granulated sugar as evenly as possible.

The texture of this was nicely soft, not hard or crusty shell-outside at all. I liked it as the granulated sugar coating gave it a little crunch if you want a texture contrast but not too much so. Overall it's a soft, flavorful cookie. The Kahlua taste isn't that strong as espresso and chocolate tend to take over the flavor profile but it's still a great cookie, especially for coffee lovers.

Crumbl Cookies review #42 - Cinnamon Fry Bread

Crumbl Cookies review #42  - Cinnamon Fry Bread, visited on June 6, 2023

Cinnamon Fry Bread

Clearly I've given up trying to keep current with my Crumbl reviews since I got this several weeks ago. 

You can also see I've given up getting only one flavor a week (did I ever really try that? I used to, long ago). However, I've already gotten the Nilla Bean Cupcake and Lemonade Cookie before and loved them so I did go with a 4-pack to try the Cinnamon Fry Bread and got my favorites to fill out the rest of the box (and my freezer for future indulgence).

I liked the Cinnamon Fry Bread. I've never had real fry bread so I don't know how the cookie version stacks up against the real thing but it was a great cinnamon-based sugar cookie. I tend to like Crumbl's sugar cookies, whether they're lemon-flavored, vanilla-based or spiced with cinnamon. It's the texture that lures me in.

Taking the advice of Crumbl aficionados, I spread the "dollop" of cinnamon buttercream more evenly over the top and it worked well. The cookie had a slight crust to bite through to the softer inside when it was freshly purchased. I only had a piece of it before I stored the rest in my freezer. When I had a thawed piece later, there was less texture difference between the outside and inside, which is typical of any thawed cookie. Nothing beats the texture of newly baked/bought though. I just can't eat a whole cookie in one sitting. Well, I probably can but I don't. 800 calories? Can't. Shouldn't. Don't.

Kahlua Mudslide Cookies from Daily Dish Recipes

Kahlua Mudslide Cookies - made dough May 31, 2023 from Daily Dish Recipes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 tablespoons espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup Kahlua coffee liqueur

1 cup chocolate chunks

3-4 tablespoons sprinkles, optional

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In another bowl, beat together melted butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla, beat to combine.
4. Pour in Kahlua and mix to combine.
5. Add dry ingredients in 2-3 additions, mixing on low speed until just combined. Fold in chocolate chunks. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls on prepared sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Do not overbake.
7. Remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

These aren't "mudslide" in the sense that there's (not) a lava flow of chocolate in the middle only waiting for your teeth to sink into.

But they are soft, chewy cookies, amped up with espresso flavor. I couldn't taste the Kahlua as much since the espresso is a pretty strong flavor as is the chocolate. The dough was a little soft and sticky when I mixed it but I deliberately didn't add any additional flour as I didn't want to change what's supposed to be a soft texture by making it more cakey with too much flour.

You definitely don't want to overbake these or you won't get any "mudslide" texture at all. As you can see from the below picture, I only baked until the edges were set but the middle still looks soft. It might seem raw but when they're at room temperature, they're nicely fudgy.

Toasted Coconut Cookies from Beyond Frosting

Toasted Coconut Cookies - made dough May 31, 2023 from Beyond Frosting

1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut flakes, toasted

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon coconut or vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the coconut in an even layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Toast for 5-8 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until lightly browned. Cool.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar, beating on medium speed until light and creamy, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs and coconut or vanilla extract, beating until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Add in 2-3 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition, until just combined. Add toasted coconut and mix until combined.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls then flatten slightly into thick discs. 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 chilled or frozen dough discs. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until edges are golden and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Another great recipe for the coconut lovers - a chewy, almost crisp (but not overbaked) cookie, thanks in part to the texture from the toasted coconut. The coconut flavor also comes through clearly, in large part, not only from the coconut itself but also the toastiness of it.

I didn't use coconut extract simply because I don't like the artificial taste of it so I went with vanilla extract instead. But you don't really need extract as the coconut flavor is pretty prevalent.

The dough was also a dream to work with, not too dry or too sticky but easy to portion into dough balls. I made them small so I easily got several dozen out of the batch.

The only issue I had is the cookies spread more than I expected and the texture was more crisp-chewy than cake. I don't know if I would've gotten a softer, more cakey texture if I had made the cookies bigger. 

But it's a good summer cookie to make since it doesn't have frosting and holds up well to be packaged and mailed.

Dark Chocolate Cookies with Caramel Filling from Sprinkle Bakes

Dark Chocolate Cookies - made dough May 29, 2023, adapted slightly from Sprinkle Bakes

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (43 grams) black cocoa powder

1 cup (5 ounces) caramel bits

1 tablespoon water or milk

Sea salt flakes for garnish

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract, beating until just combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, black cocoa powder and salt. Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed, until just combined.
3. Roll dough into small dough balls and roll each ball in granulated sugar. Press/stamp into cookie molds or mooncake molds. Chill for 15 minutes or freeze before baking.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space stamped cookies and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
5. In a small saucepan, melt caramel bits and water or milk until completely melted and smooth. Pipe into center indents of the cookies and garnish with sea salt flakes.

I've been wanting to try this recipe for awhile so I could use my cookie stamps from Williams Sonoma but since they were best with a caramel filling, I couldn't send them in care packages. But my church had a potluck for a graduation celebration for one of the Sunday School students so I got the opportunity to try the recipe and share the results with others (as opposed to me eating them all).

You can tell by the dark chocolate appearance that this used black cocoa which also contributed to the Oreo-esque flavor of these. Which paired perfectly with the sweetness of the caramel filling so flavor-wise, this worked really well.

You can also tell from the pictures above and below that I got inconsistent results in the stamped cookies. Part of that was user error. The dough was a little dry. I managed well enough with stamping out the first two-thirds of the dough by warming the dough in my hands before stamping. But the final third was more floury so I ended up adding more and more vanilla extract until I could get the dough moist enough for handling. It isn't hard to tell that the cookies that spread more and turned out bigger were from that last third that had more moisture.

The other tricky thing (also user error) is I eyeballed each piece of dough before I stamped them so I didn't consistently use the same amount of dough for each cookie. Some turned out thicker than others. Which wouldn't have been a big deal except for the last third of the dough; more dough meant more spread.

Oh well, despite my errors, these still turned out pretty well and I liked the dark chocolate and caramel pairing. The texture of the cookies was more like chocolate shortbread so don't expect a regular chocolate cookie texture of chewy moistness. It wasn't dry but it definitely falls into the shortbread camp. I skipped sprinkling with flakes of sea salt because I already used salted caramel and I'm not big on salting my cookies. 

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Kroll's Korner

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 28, 2023 from Kroll's Korner 

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cake flour

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cubed

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups milk chocolate chips

Glaze

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cake flour, rolled oats, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cold, cubed butter for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and beat until incorporated.
4. Add egg, egg yolk, molasses and vanilla extract; beat until combined, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients in 3-4 additions, beating until just combined after each addition.
6. Portion dough into 6-7 large dough balls. Flatten slightly and evenly space on baking sheets.
7. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes. Let rest on baking sheet for 15 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
8. Glaze: whisk confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla extract until combined. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

I didn't make these the way they were supposed to be made so I'm doing them a disservice by saying I didn't like them as much as I had hoped. They were still good but they didn't stand out.

For one thing, I didn't make them as big as Kroll's Korner did since I was shipping out for military care packages and I went for quantity (smaller size to stretch out the number of cookies I could get from the batch). And for another thing, I also didn't glaze them like you're supposed to since the glaze wouldn't have survived the mailing time and desert country temps. A glaze would've added a bit more sweetness and a nice contrast to the heartiness of the oats.

The flavor was good, although I could taste the molasses in the first bite. Which I normally wouldn't mind but for some reason, I wasn't feeling it this time. And that's odd because my new favorite recipe for oatmeal cookies (skip the raisins, sub in chocolate chips) from Sally's Baking Addiction also has a tablespoon of molasses and I didn't mind it in there.

These cookies do not spread at all so shape the dough balls the way you want the final cookie to look. Mine turned out like little mounds of cookie and that's fine except a little harder to package. I should've gone with mini hockey pucks for the dough balls. 

When you bake with old-fashioned oats, I recommend chilling the dough balls overnight in the refrigerator before freezing or baking. It gives the liquid in the dough more time to soften the oats and the flavor to develop.