Week 37: Cookies & Cream Cookies

I don’t think I could have found a recipe with a more redundant name than this one.

For this week, I decided to go back into the theme of “Cookies based on ice cream flavors” and went with Cookies & Cream cookies.

This recipe requires some planning, although I did manage to figure out how to make this on some reasonable amount of impulse. The recipe calls for an egg and half of a brick (I don’t think those are the proper units) of cream cheese to be at room temperature, but you can bring them both to room temperature easily. For the egg, you need a bowl of warm water (not hot) and leave it in there for about 5 minutes. Pull it out, dry it off, and it’ll be at room temperature. The cream cheese is easy: just put it on a plate and microwave it until it’s soft.

You will also need to refrigerate the dough for a minimum of 2 hours, so make sure you have the time to spare.

The only thing that will take some extra time is roughly chopping up the Oreo cookies. The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of it, but I think you could get away with a little bit more. Two cups might be pushing it.

Like most previous recipes, I like to whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt), and I also like to whisk the sugars together so they’re more evenly distributed throughout the dough.

It starts off pretty simple: mix cream cheese and butter, add combined sugars, add egg and vanilla, and add the flour mix. Once that’s done, throw in the white chocolate chips and chopped up Oreos. Yes, that’s this week’s random ingredient: Oreo cookies.

This is another recipe that you will want to use your 1.5Tbsp Oxo scooper, as this helps make about 3 dozen cookies. These cookies won’t expand too much, so if you can’t get an exact 3″ between cookies, you can move them a little closer, and you’ll be fine. For using aluminum cookie sheets with a single sheet of parchment paper, bake them for 15 minutes in the oven. They come out very chewy as well.

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (112g) block full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (180g) white chocolate chips
• 1 and 1/4 cups roughly chopped Oreos (regular or Double Stuf)

Instructions:

1. Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add the butter and beat until combined (see photo for a visual), scraping down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, beat in the white chocolate chips. Add the Oreos and beat on low speed or gently fold in with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon (dough is heavy) until combined. Cover and chill the dough for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
5. Roll cookie dough, a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
6. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.

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