Stuffed Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, I know. I’m a slacker. I missed posting last week (don’t worry, my coworkers still got fed). I have some good excuses. I know I am about 10 years late to jump onboard the Lost train, but I started watching it last week and I am officially addicted. So last Sunday night I chose Jack and Sawyer over uploading a blog post. Sorry kids. I started a new role at work right after the New Year which has me driving to Rhode Island a few days a week and last week I spent in the lovely Chicago suburbs. So by the time I get home at night, I get a little Jack/Sawyer time in, and then fall asleep hard. Old age. My 22-year old self would be shaking her head at me saying Rebecca, you used to get on a plane 2-3 times a week for 2 years straight, now a 3-day business trip has you in bed by 9pm. Grandma status. If blogging was popular back when I first started my consulting job, I would be a straight up bazillionaire had I documented my hilarious life stories from those days. Like the time I made friends with the hotel staff when I lived in the Raleigh Sheraton for 9 months. And on my twenty-third birthday, the guest relations manager, bartender, and hotel security guard took me out for my birthday. So this week I proactively made friends with the hotel bartender (got myself a free glass of wine, woo) just in case I will be spending my 29th birthday in a few months in the Westin.

Anyways. I figured I needed to come back this week with a solid cookie to make it up to you. And not browned butter for a change. My friend Sarah who happens to be one of my favorite people gave me a challenge last week to use cookie butter in one of my recipes. Since yesterday was her birthday, I figured this was a good weekend to take on that challenge.

If you’ve never had cookie butter from Trader Joe’s, I recommend you just don’t go near it. It is like cocaine for anyone with a sweet tooth. I mean it. You might indulge in eating a few scoops of peanut butter from a jar from time to time, but I am warning you – you could eat an entire jar of cookie butter in one sitting. It tastes like gingerbread biscuits. The nectar of the cookie gods. With one bite, the skies open and angels sing. Life changing. That’s the best way I can describe it. But man, is this stuff addicting.

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So when Sarah challenged me, I got to thinking. I don’t know how cookie butter would change the consistency of a cookie, like if I used it in a sugar cookie base or a blondie. But stuffed inside a chocolate chip cookie? Seems like a no brainer. So when I started perusing the interwebs for stuffed cookie recipes, I came across one on one of my favorite blogs – Love and Olive Oil. She had done cookie butter and and nutella on the inside of hers. So I tried caramel, cookie butter, and some peanut butter. De-friggin-licious.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup cookie butter, peanut butter, or filling of your choice
  • 2 sticks salted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
  • Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or with nonstick spray. Dollop 1/2 teaspoon spoonfuls of the filling onto the tray and freeze for at least 15 minutes. I used cookie butter, peanut butter, and then I melted up some caramels I found in my baking drawer.

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Step 2: Cream together butter and sugars. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.

Step 3: Sift together the flour, fine sea salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to the wet mixture and beat on low until incorporated.

Step 4: Add in the chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed. I recommend chilling this dough for at least 15 minutes to make it easier to handle, but you can skip this step if you’re like me and lack patience.

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Step 5: Use a larger cookie scoop, or spoon to scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough. I fit about 6 cookies on each tray, you have to leave enough room because they are giant and will spread. Here’s my approach on stuffing cookies: take the heaping ball of dough, divide it in half. Flatten one side in the palm of your hand, then take the filling and place it in the middle. Take the other half of cookie dough and spread it over the top and roll into a ball until the surprise center is completely covered. Flatten the cookie a little bit when you put it on the tray and top with a dash of coarse sea salt.

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You can also top with a few chocolate chips, which is a nice trick for getting cookies to photograph well when they are baked.

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Step 6: Bake at 375 degrees for about 11 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. Let them cool on the tray for a few minutes when you take the tray out of the oven, then transfer to a wire rack so that they can cool and set completely.

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Colleen and I cut into one to share and it had a peanut butter inside. Holy bananas was that delicious. I bet the caramel one would be better hot when the caramel is melty instead of set, but we’ll just have to let the coworkers be the judge of that on Tuesday morning.

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Some weird black smoke just arrived on the island in Season 2 on Lost so I’m going to have to wrap up this post so I can see what the heck is going on, so the week recap is going to be short and sweet.

Tuesday morning I got up at 4am for my flight to Chicago. The last and only time I had been to Chicago was for Core Analyst school when I first joined Accenture back in the day. I spent 2 years getting up at 4am on Monday mornings flying out glamorous client sites like Raleigh, NC – Pittsburgh in the winter, or my favorite, lovely scenic Malvern, Pennsylvnia. I used to be a pro at air travel just like Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air. That movie was based off of my life. But I have lost all my skills, because I thought the flight attendant was going to punch me straight in the face Thursday night when there was no overhead space and they made a group of us stand in the back of the plane until the ENTIRE rest of the plane boarded before we could go back to the front to check our bags. I had made a few suggestions about how this may not be the most efficient process, and perhaps they could get on their little flight attendant phone and phone a friend up at the front of the plane to stop boarding. Or perhaps get people to take their ski jackets out of the overhead bins. Lesson learned. Don’t try to tell a flight attendant how you have ideas on operational efficiencies because they will ignore you and force you to sweat it out in the back of the plane. At least I got this sweet pic of Chicago Tuesday morning.

 

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Colleen and I went out to a romantic dinner last night, to celebrate one year of living together (that’s normal right?) We shared a piece of cheesecake for dessert at Stephi’s in Southie, and this is the best pic I could get of it. Since it lasted about 30 seconds on the plate. It was espresso flavored with an oreo cookie crust. I feel like this is going to be a cookie in a few weeks. 
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And last but not least, we went out last night to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. This is about as good of a picture as we can take.

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