Soft and chewy snickerdoodles with a sweet cream cheese filling in the middle.
Happy Monday everyone! It’s finally starting to (maybe?) cool down around here and feel just a little bit like Fall. Which means we should all head inside, don our fuzzy sweaters, and turn on the oven!
Because the arrival Fall necessitates cookies. Obvs.
And it just so happens that I have a fabulous Fall cookie to share with you today. Cream Cheese (think cheesecake) Filled Snickerdoodles ????.
The ingredients for these Snickerdoodles are fairly standard. I’m using my favorite snickerdoodle cookie dough as the base of course. These snickerdoodles turn out famously soft and dreamy every single time.
The sweet cream cheese filling in the center of these cookies is incredibly simple with only two ingredients: cream cheese and sugar. To get the cream cheese filling inside, all you’ll need to do is scoop about a teaspoon onto a flattened bit of dough. Place another flattened piece of dough on top and pinch the sides together to seal it up nice and tight. After that, roll it into a ball, and you’re ready to continue. Easy!
Chewy butterscotch chip cookies with a chocolate surprise underneath!
Like any college kid worth her salt, I spent the better part of my freshman year living off the food in the vending machines.
My “healthier” meals consisted of egg salad sandwiches and granola bars. And an occasional visit to the salad and wrap bar in the student center.
But more often than not, I ate junk all day every day. And, boy… it was good. My typical choices were usually something along the lines of chocolate milk, Twix ice cream bars, Dunford pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, Dark Chocolate Peanut M&MS, chocolate covered Sunbelt granola bars, and Black Bottom Toffee Doodles.
Oh my gosh, you guys.
Those toffee doodles were LIFE! So what exactly is a Black Bottom Toffee Doodle?! Well. I’m glad you asked! This little gem of a cookie is (not so little, first off…) a fabulous combination of a snickerdoodle and a chocolate chip toffee cookie with a thin coating of chocolate on the bottom of the cookie.
It’s everything you want out of a vending machine cookie and so much more ????. If you are ever lucky enough to stumble across one, promise me you’ll buy it!
Anyway. All this to say… adding chocolate to the bottom of a cookie is realllllllllly good. And I just knew that if I dipped the bottom of my favorite butterscotch chip cookies in chocolate, all would be well with the world.
Soft and chewy snickerdoodles with a buttery caramel surprise on the inside.
Happy Tuesday! Can you believe we are HALFWAY through October?? Halfway! Cooler weather is on the way, the leaves are just starting to turn, and I’m getting a million other cues that it’s time to hunker down in my kitchen for Fall baking.
But before we go there, I have to go here:
Meet my newest baby, Mackenzie.
Remember when I wrote this post all about how I don’t actually like dogs all that much? It’s still true. I am totally not a dog person. Or an animal person for that matter. Frankly, I have no idea what we were thinking adopting a dog out of the clear blue!
But it was like some crazy cosmic force drew us in, and even though we kept saying, “but we really didn’t ever want a dog….” we just couldn’t NOT take this sweet pup home with us. And even though all the annoying-dog stuff we were worried about really is as annoying as we thought it would be (omg, like I NEED more poop in my life!), the joy of having someone else in our home to love outweighs it somehow. We’ll just figure out how to deal with the poop and dog hair and stupid vet expenses and the 5 more weeks we’re all cooped up in an apartment together, because she’s ours and we love her!
It’s been less than 48 hours and I already can’t remember life without her.
It’s been the most bizarre twist of events in my life. Seriously.
Speaking of bizarre twists… how about this delicious surprise– caramel filled snickerdoodles!
I am so excited to share this recipe with you today. Not just because it’s an absolutely delicious, soft, buttery, cinnamon-y cookie that you will fall insanely in love with. But also because it comes from a cookbook written by one of my very favorite bloggers, Jamielyn Nye who blogs over at I Heart Naptime.
Jamielyn is one of the sweetest people I have come across in the blogging community. She has a beautiful blog, a creative mind, and such a big heart. I couldn’t be more thrilled for her to release her very first cookbook, aptly titled The I Heart Naptime Cookbook. I haven’t been able to put it down– between the beautiful photography and the recipes that are so very perfect for the busy home-cook, it’s a fabulous addition for any kitchen.
Just as she’s done on her blog for years, Jamielyn has filled this book to the brim with beauty, smarts, good taste (figuratively and literally), and extremely functional tips, tricks, crafts, and recipes. In fact, each recipe in the book can be made in under an hour! Woot!
Less time cooking = more eating. There’s a little basic Ashton Kitchen Math for ya.
Let me share one of these amazing recipes from her book with you. These caramel filled snickerdoodles caught my eye right away, and I knew this would be the perfect October recipe to make for you all! It’s like every warm and cozy flavor wrapped up into one amazingly soft and perfect cookie.
Sweet cinnamon sugar on the outside of a super soft cookie wrapped around buttery, melty caramel. Ah! I can’t even hardly look at these pictures without needing to jump up and make another batch!!
Will you just look at that caramel?? *swoon*
Tip: I used Werther’s Original soft caramels in a second batch of these (not pictured), and I actually liked that batch better. The caramel in the middle stayed softer after baking versus the standard cello-wrapped caramels pictured in this post. Right out of the oven, these were fine, but the caramel did harden after cooling.So look for Werther’s soft caramels in your grocery store!
Happy Fall Baking ya’ll! And be sure to get your hands on Jamielyn’s book. It will make a fantastic holiday gift!
It’s easy to see why Epicurious ranked these as their favorite chocolate chip cookies!
It’s been a little while since I posted a chocolate chip cookie recipe. A month, to be exact (but who’s counting??). So it feels like a good enough time whip out another recipe in the Chocolate Chip Cookie experiment.
Is there ever a BAD time to make chocolate chip cookies? I submit that there is not.
Speaking of a good time to make chocolate chip cookies, wanna see a picture of the house we’re building?? She’s so pretty…
And if you’re wondering… that’s pretty much how all of my conversations go these days. Talk, talk, talk, talk– wanna hear about my house??? Talk, talk, talk, talk– did I tell you about the house??
We’re just so excited, and it’s moving along so quickly that it’s hard to not be obsessed. I was prepared to be super patient in the beginning, but that went out the window as soon as they got the walls up. When I saw how fast it could happen, I started toe tapping.
Anyway.
I’ll pretend to think about something else.
Like chocolate chip cookies. If anything could distract me from the house, it would be warm chocolate chip cookies. You know this about me by now.
So let’s talk about these chocolate chip cookies. In case you’re not familiar, Epicurious is an online food community full of “expert” recipes and cooking advice. Truth be told, I’ve never spent too much time on their site, but I do enjoy their social media posts. And I was pretty confident they’d have a more than decent CCC recipe.
Some of what sets this cookie apart from other recipes we’ve tried:
???? This recipe calls for baking powder in addition to baking soda. The cookies aren’t puffy, like I’d expect a cookie with baking powder to be. But they don’t spread too terribly much, despite the lack of chilling the dough. And I think I’d attribute that in part to the baking powder.
???? There is a little less fat in this recipe. 10 tbsp instead of the 1/2 cup you would normally find in proportion to the amount of flour and sugar called for. This might also contribute to the cookies not spreading as much as I expected them to. I think it also contributes to the nice, crispy edges.
???? Two eggs instead of one. More eggs = more moisture and more fat = more chew!
In regards to how I would rank this recipe agains the other cookies I’ve tested, it gets a solid two thumbs up. That being said, I don’t think that particularly stands out as anything outrageously different than most other CCC recipes. But it’s a very good, very solid, worthwhile chocolate chip cooke recipe to hang on to!
You’ll enjoy the crispy edges, the chewy centers, and most of all– LOTS of chocolate! This recipe calls for chopped high quality chocolate– which always makes for a most excellent chocolate chip cookie 🙂 .
One of my very, very favorite recipes I’ve found as I’ve dug around for new chocolate chip cookie recipes has been this King Arthur Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I have used it over and over and over again (here with M&MS and here with Reese’s Pieces), and it is consistently phenomenal.
And the recipe couldn’t be more straightforward.
Butter.
Brown sugar
Sugar.
An egg and an egg yolk (for extra thick and chewy cookies!).
Oatmeal and flour.
Aside from a few littles teaspoons of this and that, that’s really all there is to the recipe!
Oh, and today, Snickers OF COURSE!
I couldn’t resist taking my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe and adding my current candy bar crush to it.
You know the best part about adding Snickers to cookies? The ooey, gooey melted caramel and nougat. It’s THEE best, and I don’t know why we bother eating cookies any other way.
Take it from me: happy people eat warm cookies stuffed with Snickers.
You don’t need a mix to make these soft and buttery chocolate chip cookies that taste like a sprinkle-filled piece of cake!
If you’re anything like me, you’re obsessed with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Obsessed. Could you tell? I like my cookies a little crispy and golden around the edges, soft and chewy in the middle, and PACKED with chocolate.
I also LOVE funfetti cake. Which is why I created this cake batter-cookie hybrid with lots of chocolate, sprinkles, and that buttery golden yellow cake taste (without using a cake mix).
What gives us that cake batter taste without the cake mix?
Three simple extracts that, when combined, become a magical funfetti taste twin. Vanilla extract, almond extract, and butter extract (you can find all three of these at virtually any grocery store) all come together in this recipe to create cookies that taste just like cake batter.
If you’re not a fan of almond extract, have no fear. It won’t stand out on it’s own at all.
In the early ’80’s, many hotels gave treats (like fresh baked cookies) to their VIP guests. But DoubleTree (Hilton) Hotel decided they wanted to make each one of their guests feel like a VIP by offering every single one of them a freshly baked, monstrous chocolate chip cookie.
Every DoubleTree by Hilton hotel follows this exact recipe and bakes fresh cookies for their guests every single day, all over the world! Apparently, they also spread good cheer by donating these cookies to community members like fire fighters, homeless shelters, doctors and nurses, and orphanages. Isn’t that sweet?
The chocolate chip cookie. My favorite dessert on the planet. No, really. It is. I know I claim a lot of bests and ultimates and, yes, even favorites. But in truth, nothing will ever beat out a chocolate chip cookie for me.
Especially the RIGHT kind of chocolate chip cookie.
Now, I don’t discriminate, mind you. I like them all. From Chips Ahoy to bakery cookies to my own homemade batches– I love chocolate chips cookies.
But the right chocolate chip cookie? It’s like winning the cookie jackpot. And it’s different for everyone. Maybe your kind of chocolate chip cookie is soft and pillowy. Or maybe you like them crunchy. Maybe you like big chunks of melty chocolate oozing out the sides. Or maybe you like lots of mini chocolate chips in every single bit. Maybe you need a salty, buttery flavor. Or possibly you care more about subtle vanilla undertones.
We’ve all got our priorities when it comes to chocolate chip cookies.
For me? I need thick, crispy edges. I like the center to still be just a little bit underdone. And I really prefer cookies a little bit on the thinner side. Not like crunchy thin or barely-there-thin, it’s just I feel like thick cookies almost always get a little tough once they’ve sat a day or two– and I really don’t like that. The thinner cookies stay chewy, because they have a lower flour to fat/sugar ratio.
That buttery/salty flavor is a MUST. In fact, the saltier the better for me when it comes to CCC!
And I can really go just about any way with chocolate (chips, mini chips, shavings, chunks, etc…) as long as it’s semi-sweet. I went through a brief love affair with milk chocolate chips, but I keep coming back to semi-sweet. Always. ????
These cookies have it all. At least for me, anyway. And I am completely smitten. ????
Those crispy, butter edges– be still my heart!
The flavor is spot on, the texture is fabulously chewy and perfectly underbaked in the center, and every bite is full of miniature chocolate chips. Seriously, these are the BEST chocolate chip cookies I’ve made in the chocolate chip cookie experiment.
If you like that buttery-crispy-chewy-underbaked-perfection sort of thing, that is. If you’re more of a thick and soft cookie person, check out these. They’re fabulous too.
This recipe hails from a really fabulous BuzzFeed article all about the ultimate chocolate chip cookies. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out. It’s a great read (if, ahem, you know, you like to read about chocolate chip cookies… and some of us do)!
And if you don’t want to read about them, that’s fine too. But seriously, make these cookies!
Toasted coconut, crunchy toffee, and chocolate chips enveloped in a sweet, buttery cookie with golden crisp edges and soft chewy middles. What’s not to love??
About 6 years ago, I decided to have a bake sale in conjunction with a yard sale we were having. I emailed all my favorite bloggers at the time and asked them to send me their top bake sale recipe. My plan was to “market” my bake sale as a “blogger bake sale,” and have all the recipes submitted by my friends made up and ready to sell.
Several people saw my signs and excitedly showed up, hoping to meet really cool food bloggers with samples of their recipes… ????.
And instead, they found me (just me) with a table of baked goods I had clumsily made in our little apartment kitchen. Mind you, this was back when I used margarine instead of butter ????– so there was still quite a bit of development in my baking abilities yet to occur.
Woops.
Annnnnnyway. Embarrassing memories aside– I only bring it up, because it was that bake sale that landed me with this cookie recipe. A friend of mine gave me the recipe, and I fell instantly in love with it!
Albeit, I’ve tweaked it a little bit to use my favorite Quick & Easy CCC as the cookie base instead of her original recipe. But it’s the same concept– toasted coconut, toffee bits, and chocolate chips. So, so good!
I was pleasantly surprised at the texture of these cookies. The toffee, of course, lend a buttery crunch to each bite. But, to me, the real star of the show is the toasted coconut! Besides being deliciously fragrant and tasty, the coconut adds another layer of crispy texture to the cookies.
I absolutely adore these cookies. Crisp, buttery, golden edges. Crunchy, crispy toffee and coconut mixed with warm, melty chocolate in every bite. Believe me, you are going to fall head over heels for this recipe too!
PS- did I mention this is a spin-off of my Quick & Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies?? That means NO mixer, NO chilling, and NO spreading! Seriously, best. recipe. everrrrrrrrr.
One bowl, no mixer, no chill time, NO FUSS chocolate chip cookies. This recipe calls for melted butter, so all you need is a sturdy spoon and a bowl for fresh cookies right out the oven in under 15 minutes!
I’ve had several readers mention to me recently that they miss the chocolate chip cookie experiment.
And you know what? I do too.
You guys know that warm, fresh chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven are my very favorite dessert in the world. Donuts, pancakes, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and homemade bread all have a special place in my heart. But nothing, NOTHING, ever beats out a warm and gooey chocolate chip cookie in my book. Ever.
In doing the chocolate chip cookie experiment, I’ve found several recipes that I’ve really loved and have made on several different occasions. But last weekend when I was craving my favorite cookie, I didn’t feel like doing my usual 10-second increments and rotations in the microwave to speed soften the butter to the exact perfectness of room temperature.
Annnnnd I just didn’t feel like dirtying up the KitchenAid mixer and dough paddle that I would have to hand wash. I was just feeling that lazy.
But I really did want cookies.
So I did some online research looking through cookie recipes that called for melted butter with no chill time, and patch-worked together my own version.
This is butter straight from the fridge after 45 seconds in the microwave. It’s 90% melted, but some of the butter is still retaining a solid form (albeit very soft).
Typically, you don’t melt the butter in a cookie recipe unless you plan to chill the dough before baking, because the cookies will spread all over the baking sheet into a flat mess.
Which is what I fully expected to pull out of the oven when I experimented with the first batch of this recipe. But instead, when I opened the oven door, I found thick, puffy, PERFECT cookies! I made the recipe two more times, just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke. And every single time, I’ve been rewarded with the same results.
Using melted butter and getting to forego the chill time speeds up the cookie making process considerably. And it eliminates a couple of extra dishes that can’t be tossed in the dishwasher (if you usually use a KitchenAid mixer or similar like I do).
It’s literally as simple as microwaving the butter, add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl, and stirring with a spoon. Which takes all of maybe 5 minutes. Pop ’em in the oven for 9 more, and ta-da! It’s cookie time!!
I’m in love with this recipe. It might be my favorite yet, just for the simplicity of it.
However, I’m dying to know how it works in YOUR kitchen! It seems like every oven does things a little differently, and I’m wondering if anyone will make these and find that they spread out a ton. So I’m going to turn on the comments for this post below, and I’d love for you guys to whip up a batch one of these days and let me know what kind of results you get. ????????????
Speaking of favorite recipes… a lot of you have been emailing me wanting to know what the updated favorites are in my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. So here are my latest Top 5:
Today’s Quick & Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies (I can’t help it, I’m so lazy that to me these are just too perfect!)
Deep, dark chocolate brownie cookies loaded with chocolate chunks and milk chocolate toffee bits. Crackly tops, fudgy centers, and chewy edges.
I first published this recipe almost exactly 6 years ago. And while it was a delicious idea at the time, I’ve learned a lot about baking cookies in the past 6 years and felt like it was time for this recipe to evolve a bit.
I wanted fudgier centers, chewier edges, and even more chocolate chunks and toffee bits than the first version had. I also wanted crackly tops, just like brownies have.
Just look at that gooey cookie dough! It’s dreamy. Like fudge. Or brownie batter, since that’s basically what it is. Honestly. I could an entire bowl of just the dough.
This recipe makes THEE best chocolate cookies. And the recipe is really so simple. All you need is a brownie mix and a few simple ingredients that I’m sure you already have on hand (besides the chocolate chunks and toffee, be sure to pick those up if you don’t stock up like I do ????).
You won’t even need a mixer for these. One bowl, one spoon, badda bing, badda boom.
Pull up a big glass of cold milk and get ready to enjoy yourself. These cookies are 100% chewy, fudgy, and everything that’s right in the world.
Thick and chewy snickerdoodles are so easy to make from scratch! These are warm and fresh from the oven in less than 25 minutes.
These are the softest, dreamiest, buttery, pillowy snickerdoodles on the planet.
Have I tried all the snickerdoodles on the planet? Well, no. But it’s really hard to imagine that there are any out there better than these.
I use two very special ingredients to make these so good.
It’s a little out of the common way in a cookie recipe, but this first special ingredient makes a big difference: egg yolks. ONLY egg yolks. THREE egg yolks, to be precise. ????
I really don’t like cake-y snickerdoodles. I feel like they dry out super fast, which makes them good for only the day of. Using three egg yolks and none of the whites solves this problem. Egg yolks add moisturizing fats and emulsify the dough. They make baked goods fudgier, while egg whites tend to make them cake-y.
I wanted each bite of these cookies to be moist, and soft, and “fudgy,” even days later. So in went the egg yolks! (Save the whites for this Healthy Honey Whole Wheat Banana Bread. SO GOOD!)
The second super star ingredient is…. cream of tartar!
No big surprise there. Most people already know that a fabulous snickerdoodle MUST have cream of tartar. Can you substitute baking powder? Sure. But it won’t be quite the same. Cream of tartar gives these cookies that signature tangy flavor that all great snickerdoodles have.
Side note…see all those cracks around the edges? Don’t worry, that won’t happen to yours. My family kept eating the cookies from the first two batches as they came out of the oven– before I had a chance to photograph them! So the batch you see pictured was made from dough that had been refrigerated for over 24 hours. I forgot to leave them on the counter to thaw before baking, so I smashed them down a bit with a glass before sticking them in the oven (that’s where the cracks came from).
