Cookies and Cream Cookies

My buddy’s girlfriend sent me an early birthday present!  She sent me the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook!  I screamed because as I’ve stated here. I’ve been wanting this book since it came out.  Well, I’m completely in love with this cookbook.  I’m in the process of reading it cover to cover.  I sleep with it in my bed, and I don’t want to part with it when I go to work in the morning.  While at work, I often think about how I can’t wait to get home to my book.  Did I say I’m in love with it?  Every recipe blows my mind with its creativity and techniques.  Needless to say, I’ll be baking and posting from this book often, once I’ve finished reading it.  In the meantime, I wanted to test out two of the techniques from the book in a different recipe: 1) creaming the butter and sugar for 10 minutes, and 2) adding “the crunch”.  Hence, these Cookies and Cream Cookies.  And yes, clearly I’m going through a cookies and cream phase.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Cookies and Cream Cookies

Adapted from here.

Inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar.

Makes 20-25 cookies depending on the size of your ice cream scoop.

Chocolate Crunch Recipe

Ingredients

1 ¾ cup chocolate wafers (about 20 wafers - those dark chocolate cookies that are basically the cookie part of Oreos.)

1 Tablespoon sugar

¼ cup milk powder

6 Tablespoon of butter, melted

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

2.       In a large bowl, crush chocolate wafers into small chunks using your hands.

3.       Add sugar and milk powder and toss to combine.

4.       Add melted butter and toss to coat the chunks.

5.       Lay on baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.

6.       Bake for 15 minutes, or until there’s some browning on the underside.

7.       Cool completely before adding to dough.

Crushed chocolate wafers.

Chocolate crunch after baking.

Cookie recipe

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1 teaspoons vanilla syrup (or 1 teaspoon extract)

1 ½ cups flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 Hershey’s Cookies n' Cream chocolate bar, chopped

Chocolate Crunch (from above recipe)

Directions

1.       Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.

2.       In a large bowl (or in a standalone mixer), cream butter for 2 minutes.

3.       Add brown sugar and beat on medium for 8 minutes.

4.       Add cream cheese and beat until thoroughly incorporated.

5.       Add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

6.       Add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.

7.       Stir in chocolate bar chunks and Chocolate Crunch.

8.       Chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes (and not any longer) to make the dough easier to work with.  If you are baking it the next day, bring the dough back up to near room temperature.  Do not bake cold dough – it will not bake properly.

9.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

10.   Scoop dough with ice cream scoop so that it’s flush (not heaping).  Place on a parchment paper or silicone mat lined cookie sheet.

11.   Bake for 7-8 minutes or until the edges are brown and the top is showing slight browning.

12.   Place Cookies n' Cream Kisses on each cookie. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet before moving to cooling rack.

*It’s OK if they look a bit underdone when you first take it out of the oven as long as there’s some resistance when you press the Kisses onto them.  The cookies will finish cooking on the sheet.

*If you can’t find (or don’t want to use) chocolate wafers and make the Chocolate Crunch, you can substitute with chopped Oreos.  However, I would leave out the Hershey’s Cookies n' Cream chocolate bar as it might be too much.

Chopped Hershey's Cookies n' Cream chocolate bar.

Dough ready to be scooped.

Before baking.

After baking.

The "Kisses" melt from the heat of the cookies.

Verdict: I brought these cookies for my colleagues and my girlfriend Joanne and got rave reviews from both.  They are soft, but with crunch from the Chocolate Crunch.  What I like about these cookies is that the “cream” really comes out, probably from the milk powder and the Hershey’s Cookies n' Cream chocolate bar.  Joanne said that they may be the best cookies I’ve every baked! Hmm, challenge accepted, Joanne!!  By the way, best birthday gift ever!  Thanks Yoko!