Gideon's Bakehouse Copycat Coffee Cake Cookies from Buuck Farms Bakery

Gideon's Bakehouse Copycat Coffee Cake Cookies - made dough October 17, 2023 from Buuck Farms Bakery

Double Baked Butter Crumbs

6 tablespoons butter, melted

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour 

Cookies

1 cup butter, cold and cubed

3/4 cup (165 grams) brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups (165 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups (165 gams) cake flour

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cinnamon Streusel

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 cup (110 grams) brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons butter, soft but not melted

1. Double Baked Butter Crumbs: preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a small mixing bowl, stir together brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon and flour until well combined.
3. Pour in the melted butter and mix until crumbly. It should have the consistency of wet sand; add extra melted butter if too dry.
4. Pour mixture onto prepared sheet pan and spread into an even layer.
5. Bake for 15 minutes then cool. Break up any extra large pieces but leave a variety of shapes and sizes. Set aside.
6. Make the cookies: in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the brown sugar, granulated sugar and cold cubed butter for 5 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to keep mixture even textured.
7. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla bean paste and mix for 2 minutes.
8. In a separate bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 
9. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 2-3 additions, mixing on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
10. Portion dough into 18 2-ounce portions of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Chill for 10 minutes.
11. Cinnamon streusel: combine all streusel ingredients and mix together.
12. Assemble cookies: take the chilled dough balls and flatten into rounds. You'll need 3 rounds for each cookie. Take one round and spread with about 2 teaspoons of the streusel mixture, almost to the edges of the round. Top with another round and spread another 2 teaspoons of streusel mixture. Top with a third round and roll into a tall ball. Repeat with remaining rounds to end up with 6 giant cookies.
13. Roll each cookie dough ball in the butter crumbs, coating sides and tops completely. Cover and freeze for 15 minutes.
14. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 2 cookies per sheet, spaced apart to allow for spread. Bake 15-20 minutes. 
15. Remove from oven and while the cookies are still hot, use a spoon or small rubber spatula to press the edges into place and create more of a perfect circle. Fill in any empty spaces with leftover butter crumbs and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Let cool on baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

This is a longer-than-usual post as this cookie has a longer-than-usual number of components and parts to it. I actually had to make it over several days as I didn't have time to spend on it all at once. 

First you make the butter crumbs mixture, bake it, let it cool then break it into pieces and crumbs. You'll need that for later.

Second, you make the cookie dough and weigh it out into 2-ounce portions which you roll into balls, chill then roll out into flat rounds. Or round-ish shapes. I faithfully weighed the dough into 2 ounce pieces but I only ended up with 14 2-ounce balls, not 18. I chilled the dough balls for a few minutes then sandwiched each ball between small pieces of parchment paper and rolled to flat shapes.

Third, you make the streusel while the small dough balls are chilling. My streusel wasn't a crumb mixture; it was more of a streusel paste. Which I spread over a flat piece of dough, covered with another piece, spread more streusel over it then topped with a third rolled-out piece of cookie dough.

Once the streusel is sandwiched between the three layers of cookie dough, pinch the edges to seal then ball up to make a smooth dough ball. You want to make sure the ball is sealed up well so none of the streusel paste leaks out during baking.

Depending on how soft or warm your dough ball is, you might want to chill it for a few minutes before covering with the butter crumbs. If your dough is too sticky, it'll be hard to handle. If it's too chilled though, it's harder to keep the butter crumbs stuck to it.

Do your best to cover all but the bottom of the dough ball with the butter crumbs. Your butter crumbs can/should be in various sizes and pieces, even with some small to large-ish crumbs.

The tricky thing with baking such large cookies, especially if you bake it from chilled or frozen dough (which I did) is the bottom will bake faster and brown almost well before the rest of the cookie which can lead to a harder bottom crust.

You can deal with this by double panning the baking pans to help the cookie bake more evenly. Or line a wire rack with a silpat and bake in a single baking sheet. Either way should work.

Final verdict? This was freaking delicious. Yes, a pain with more steps than your average cookie but this isn't an average cookie. The inside was moist and chewy, the streusel adds more moisture and cinnamon-brown sugar flavor while the butter crumbs add a nice crunch on top.

I've never had the real thing from Gideon's Bakehouse which is a specialty bake shop in Disney Springs in Florida and they don't ship online so it's unlikely I'll ever get a taste of the real thing. So I don't know how it compares to the original. But this copycat serves up a pretty good cookie.

Brown Sugar Cookies from Dinner then Dessert

Brown Sugar Cookies - made dough October 2, 2023 from Dinner then Dessert

14 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a skillet, melt 10 tablespoons butter over medium high heat. Stir constantly until butter starts to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat, pour into bowl and add remaining butter; set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
4. Add remaining brown sugar and salt to melted butter and whisk until smooth. Whisk in egg, egg yolk and vanilla.
5. Combine butter mixture with dry ingredients, stirring until a dough forms.
6. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls and evenly space on baking sheets. Sprinkle tops with sugar.
7. Bake for 12-14 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 completely.

I have mixed feelings about this cookie. On the one hand, the dough was easy to make and handled really well. It didn't spread too much and stayed reasonably thick.

On the other hand, it was incredibly sweet. I knew it would be sweet based on the amount of brown sugar in the recipe and I do like brown sugar cookies as it adds a nice flavor to a regular sugar cookie.

But holy bovine animal, this was sweet. I don't know if my taste buds are getting more sensitive to sugar as (believe it or not), I've actually been eating healthier for the past few months. A salad a day! Carrot sticks! Salmon! No rice! Okay, that last one is easier than cutting back on pasta or bread. But still...

Or this genuinely is that sweet. Or both. In either case, I had to admit I could only eat half of the taste test cookie. So, not sure I'd make this again. Hopefully the military service members I sent these to have a good sweet tooth and would enjoy them.

Crumbl Cookies review #57 - Snickerdoodle Sandwich 2.0 (test cookie)

Crumbl Cookies review #57 - Snickerdoodle Sandwich 2.0 (test cookie), visited October 11, 2023 

The October 11, 2023 test cookies were hardly anything new as one flavor was the skillet cookie which had already been tested and the other was the snickerdoodle sandwich again.

But presumably Crumbl made some tweaks to both and was testing those tweaks. My store opted for the snickerdoodle sandwich and I enjoyed that one last time so I got it again this week.

This new version hardly rates its own post as the cookies and filling seem exactly the same and the only difference I could tell is the white glaze drizzle on top. It just seemed like vanilla icing. I couldn't tell you if it was white chocolate or cream cheese or just powdered sugar and milk whisked together to make the icing. 

Like last time, I enjoyed the cookies more than the filling but it's still a good sandwich cookie. I prefer it plain though so I hope Crumbl doesn't go with the icing version. It might look prettier but to me, it doesn't add anything to the cookie other than more work for the employees to make the icing and drizzle it and more mess for the customers to eat it. 

Crumbl Cookies review #56 - Oatmeal Mallow and Graham Cracker Fudge Sandwich (test cookie)

Crumbl Cookies review #56 - Oatmeal Mallow and Graham Cracker Fudge Sandwich (test cookie) 

Believe it or not, I'm slowing down on my Crumbl consumption. I know, I know, you can't tell by the number of Crumbl posts I'm still making. And Crumbl cookies I seem to keep buying. I keep telling myself to skip a week or three, just to catch up with the stash in my freezer, most notably the 6-pack I bought during their birthday promotion, which is almost entirely still intact, given I only eat 1/4 of a cookie a day.

But, alas, I'm not always good at listening to myself and there was one cookie I wanted to try in the regular lineup this particular week and that was the Oatmeal Mallow Sandwich. Crumbl's been doing a fair number of sandwich cookies lately which is a better value when shelling out almost 5 bucks for a cookie which is technically two cookies and a filling when you get a sandwich cookie. Good value, right? The finance nerd in me and the first generation immigrant who grew up shopping sales and clipping coupons can't resist it. Or so I tell myself.

Oatmeal Mallow Sandwich Cookie

In any case, my rationalization was justified as I enjoyed this cookie. I let it come to room temperature first (can't abide chilled cookies). At room temp, the cookies are softer in texture and the filling is more mushy. I would probably have eaten this more neatly if the cookies were room temp and the filling was chilled but neatness be damned as this was a really good cookie. The cookies themselves were not quite as good as the oatmeal cookies used with the Iced Oatmeal but still very good nonetheless. Perfect balance of flavor and texture. It is a bit sweet so I ended up scraping most of the filling out and just enjoying the cookies.

Graham Cracker Fudge Sandwich

One of the main reasons I find it difficult to "just skip a week" is the test cookie. My store is a tester store and nearly every Wednesday they offer a test cookie flavor. Only a handful of stores are test stores and I feel I need to support my store and show my approval of their tester status by buying their test cookie each week. Yeah, I'm loyal like that. Ha.

This week's test cookie was another sandwich cookie. Value galore this week, amiright?

If you like the Keebler fudge striped cookies, you'd like this cookie. If you're a s'mores fan, you'd like it better if the filling was marshmallow instead of fudge. I've seen pictures online from other tester stores where they weren't as generous with the fudge filling as my store was (shoutout to the Sparks store as they deliver every time). 

I am neither a Keebler fudge striped cookie fan nor a s'mores fan so, to me, this cookie was good, but not great. Nothing wrong with it. The cookie texture was on point, the graham cracker flavor came through and I even enjoyed the filling which reminded me of the frosting on the Crumbl Dirt Cake cookie. But my sweet tooth would've preferred more of a brown sugar base cookie instead of a graham cracker one. Which would defeat the purpose of a graham cracker fudge sandwich. So I think this cookie delivers what it promises. It doesn't hit my top 5 but goes into the category of "good, glad I tried it, don't need to get again". 

This was also chilled so that's probably another reason I'm not a big fan. It tastes better at room temperature. Between the two (chilled, sandwich) cookies this week, Oatmeal Mallow was the winner.

Loaded Butterscotch Toffee Pecan Cookies from Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen

Loaded Butterscotch Toffee Pecan Cookies - made dough October 2, 2023 from Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 10-ounce package butterscotch chips

2 cups pecans, lightly toasted, roughly chopped

2/3 cup English toffee bits

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.
4. Add the flour mixture in 2 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition until just combined.
5. Add the butterscotch chips, pecans and toffee bits, mixing on low speed until disbursed.
6. Portion into golf-ball size dough balls, cover and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space chilled dough balls. 
8. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm trying to be more open-minded about putting nuts in cookies. Of course, that open-mindedness is immeasurably helped by the fact that I only have to eat 1 taste test cookie and I give the rest away in care packages for deployed military service members for Soldiers Angels.

I've also discovered I'm okay with nuts in cookies as long as it has other add-ins. In this case, those were butterscotch chips and toffee bits. Plus the cookies baked to a reasonable thickness so I liked the texture with all three add-ins.

Butterscotch chips, when baked, smell amazing. Almost nothing beats that smell. I just wish I didn't find butterscotch so sweet to eat. Probably the only thing I would change in this recipe is to cut back on the butterscotch chips and increase the amount of toffee bits. Otherwise, this is a nice solid cookie, especially for mailing.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars from Lovely Little Kitchen

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars - made October 3, 2023 from Lovely Little Kitchen

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts, divided

3/4 cup white chocolate chips, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8" pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and almond extract, mixing to combine.
3. Add flour and salt and beat on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Fold in 1/2 cup of the macadamia nuts and 1/2 cup of the white chocolate chips to incorporate. Spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle remaining macadamia nuts on top.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and gently press remaining white chocolate chips over top. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

The tl:dr on this one? Freaking delicious. I typically like a white chocolate and macadamia combination anyway but for this blondie, it was the blondie itself I enjoyed the most. Chewy texture and the perfect sweetness complemented by the white chocolate and flanked by the macadamia nuts.

Pro tip if you want your white chocolate chips to remain white: reserve a handful of the chips and as soon as you take the blondie out of the oven, press the chips gently on top. Otherwise if you have them on top of the blondie before baking, the white chocolate will turn brown before the blondie is done.

I liked this blondie and how easy it was to make. It's not too early for it to go on my Christmas baking list and will provide a nice change from white chocolate macadamia cookies. Plus it's faster to make since they're bar cookies.