Cookies & Cream Chunk Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are like heaven, personified cookie-fied (yes, I made up that word).  The cookies remind me of a less fudgy and less dense brownie, in cookie form, with milk’s favorite cookie, the Oreo, running throughout.  The Cookies & Cream part of this cookie brings me back to my childhood and reminds me of the similarly named ice cream flavor.  You take all these positive attributes and put it together and you have this cookie--a chocolate cookie this non-chocolate lover loves!

I friend recently asked me where I get my recipes from for all the things I bake.  I told her they are mostly self-created, though inspired by and adapted from other baking blogs.  My general process for creating a recipe usually begins with a Google search of the ingredients I want to use or the recipe I am thinking of making.  I will then usually look at the pictures and recipes listed and find the attributes about the item that I do and do not want to reproduce.

I usually never find one recipe I like; I take a sample of 10-20 recipes and see how they combine the ingredients and the results that come from it.  I look at their results and think about what I would like my results to be.  Next, I get to writing with all those things in mind.

Where did this cookie come from?  Well it is my own, with inspiration from Baking Illustrated and Brown Eyed Baker.  I like how Baking Illustrated used melted chocolate, though far too much in my opinion, and a higher content of flour than other recipes with melted chocolate, but they still did not use enough flour.  I also did not like that the Baking Illustrated recipe used 4 eggs.  I like the buzz Brown Eyed Baker’s recipe had been getting around the internet, but I wanted to use some melted chocolate in the cookie.  I love how brownies with melted chocolate come out, compared to brownies with only cocoa powder.  I wanted qualities of both in my cookie.

Therefore, I took the things I loved about the two recipes and combined them.  Then tweaked some other ingredients, after all baking is a science, as I thought I would get better results.  Did I mention I desperately needed to use the mega sized Hershey’s Cookies & Cream bar before it was consumed without being surrounded by a baked product?  That is another reason I created this recipe.  If I made this recipe a few weeks ago, when the bar was still whole, I would not have used any white chocolate chips.  Shhhhh, don’t tell!

So, there you go.  A little glimpse into my overly analytical and time-consuming way of adapting/creating a recipe.  It may be crazy to look at hundreds of pictures and a couple dozen recipes, but I generally (actually, overwhelmingly) get good results.  At a later point, I will discuss how I come up with my flavor combinations.

Cookies & Cream Chunk Chocolate Cookies

About 21 cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups All purpose flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
1 cup Butter
4 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 Large (Brown) Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
24 Oreos (1/2 cut into small pieces, ~9+ per cookie, and 1/2 broken into fourths, by hand)
4 oz (or more, approx. 6 oz) Hershey’s Cookies & Cream Bar cut into chunks
Optional handful of White Chocolate Chips

Methods:

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

1. Melt butter and semi-sweet chocolate together. Set aside to cool.

2. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.

3. Mix brown and granulated sugar into melted chocolate mixture.

4. Add eggs to chocolate/sugar mixture one at a time. Then add vanilla extract.

5. Shift the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

6. Add in Oreo pieces, Cookies & Cream bar pieces, and white chocolate chips. Stir until just mixed.

7. On a parchment lined baking sheet, scoop cookie dough. I used a standard size ice cream scoop.

8. The dough will not spread too much, so flatten it with the palm/heel of your hand. Smooth any rough edges.

9. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!