Today begins the first-ever Hobby Haven Holiday Cookie Blitz! For the next 12 days, you'll be treated to one delicious cookie recipe per day! Cookie swaps? Holiday parties? Currying favor with your boss? No problem!
So check back every day now through December 12th to get your daily cookie recipe fix. And to kick it all off, today's first recipe will be below the jump.
Now, to start the Blitz off right, I have two things I need to tell y'all. Number one, invest in some cookie tins. You can find these at dollar stores, drugstores, etc. Your cookies will keep best in metal tins; I've been able to get them to stay fresh for up to two months, with minimal exposure to air. Second, I'll be listing the "tools you'll need" section once, in this post. Just assume for all following recipes that you'll need to use the same tools. (I'm trying to save on time here, given how many posts I'll be making!)
Today's recipe makes heavy use of "cookie butter," a wonderful (caloric) product that's absolutely heavenly. I'm willing to bet most of you have heard of it, but for the uninitiated, it's essentially ground-up cookies made into a paste. Kind of like peanut butter. It's Dutch in origin (made from "speculoos" cookies), but you can find it everywhere now. Cookie butter, cookie paste, speculoos butter, Biscoff paste...it's all the same, and many grocery stores will either carry a store brand or one of the famous brand-names (Biscoff).
So if you've ever wanted to make some cookies with cookies, now is your chance!
The ingredients:
- 1 stick unsalted butter**
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg, and one egg yolk (already separated from the egg white)
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cookie butter
- 2 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. corn starch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cup chocolate chips***
**Have this softened to room temperature before you do any of the other steps!
***You can also toss in peanut butter chips for a variant!
The tools:
- An oven
- A fridge
- 2 mixing bowls
- Hand mixer
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cups
- A rubber spatula
- A whisk
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper or silicone baking sheet liners
- Aluminum foil or plastic wrap
- A soup spoon
- Cooling trays
- A turner
How to make them:
- Take the first mixing bowl and beat the softened butter with your hand mixer. This will take you about a minute, maybe a little bit more. The butter should be very smooth and paste-like once you're done. Then add in the two types of sugar, beating until the mixture is very soft and fluffy in texture. Then add the eggs and vanilla, beat until mixed, and then add in the cookie butter. You may need to crank up the speed on the mixer for this, because the cookie butter will be pretty stiff at first. Mix until well combined.
- Now turn your attention to the second mixing bowl. Whisk together the baking soda, flour, cornstarch, and salt until well combined.
- Pour the dry ingredients in mixing bowl #2 into the wet mixture in mixing bowl #1 and mix on low. Once it's been combined, stir in the chocolate chips and mix that on high speed. You'll know it's ready when the dough comes together and is sticky to the touch.
- Cover the bowl tightly with foil or wrap and refrigerate for 3-8 hours. (You can leave it in longer, up to 24 hours!)
- When ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge and let sit at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare your baking sheets (with the parchment paper or silicone mats).
- Use the spoon to scoop the dough into small balls, about a tablespoon of dough per ball. Place the balls on the baking sheets.
- Bake for approximately 10 minutes, rotating the pan midway through baking.
- Note that the cookies will look very soft when you take them out of the oven. This is okay! Let them cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, and then move them to the cooling racks to cool completely.
