It's pretty much impossible for me to leave Trader Joe's without buying something on impulse. On a recent visit, a jar of speculoos cookie butter found its way into my cart. I think it's wonderful that Biscoff cookies have become so popular in the last few years, including in the form of a spread. Trader Joe's carries its own private label version of Biscoff spread and it's delicious. I mean, it's a spread made from cookies.
I bought the cookie butter with the thought that it might come in handy for a baking project. And fortuitously, I soon came across a recipe specifically calling for Biscoff spread: Dorie Greenspan's "Good, Better, Best Cookies." The "good" version is a roll-and-cut cinnamon cookie. The "better" version includes a Biscoff spread-based filling sandwiched between two "good" cookies. The "best" version is the "better" sandwich cookie dipped in chocolate. I decided upfront to go the "better" route.
You make this cookie dough in the food processor so it comes together quickly. You mix flour, almonds (I used almond flour), sugar, cinnamon, and salt; add cold cubed butter; and pulse in cold water mixed with egg yolk. The resulting dough was cohesive but not sticky at all. I rolled it out between sheets of parchment paper and left it in the fridge overnight. The cookbook says that this recipe yields only 24 "good" cookies -- meaning only a dozen "better" sandwiches -- so I made a double batch and expected to get 48 cookies.
The following day I used a 2-inch cutter to cut the cookies. I also chilled, re-rolled, and cut all of the scraps. The yield far exceeded what the recipe specified -- I got 108 cookies from my double batch, more than twice what I was expecting. My cookies were nicely golden on the bottoms and around the edges after nine and a half minutes in the oven, which was less than the minimum specified baking time. I sampled a cookie shortly after baking and wasn't very impressed. The cookie had a nice cinnamon flavor, but it was quite fragile and the cookie was so thin and insubstantial that I didn't find it very satisfying.
Because I had so many cookies I made a triple batch of filling, using up my entire jar of cookie butter. The filling is a mixture of cookie butter, softened butter, powdered sugar, salt, and a little milk. The texture reminded me a lot of the filling of my faux-reo cookies; it was dry to the touch. The filling tasted like cookie butter but was lighter and fluffier. I put a #60 scoop's worth of filling in each sandwich, which I thought was plenty; my husband analogized the cookie-to-filling ratio as equivalent to that of a Double Stuf Oreo. My husband and I each tried a cookie right after I filled them. Again, I was not that impressed.
I stored the cookies in the fridge overnight before taking them to the office the following morning. Since I felt lukewarm about the cookies, I wasn't expecting much of a reaction from my co-workers. To my surprise, they raved about them. A common theme of the wave of compliments was the the cookies had a delectable texture that melted in your mouth. And also that people wanted to eat a lot of them.
I didn't understand why my tasters were so enthusiastic about the cookies until after dinner that evening, when Tom and I ate the two cookies that I had stashed in our fridge. The chilling, or the time, or both, had transformed the cookies in two significant ways. First, the filling had become physically fused to the cookies -- the sandwiches were a unified whole. Second, and more importantly, the texture of the cookies had changed. The retained a pleasing crunch but were no longer brittle or crumbly. It's really the best of both worlds to be able to enjoy a sandwich cookie that still has a crisp exterior while somehow being tender enough to not create a single crumb when you bite into it. Tom and I both became instant fans.
I wholeheartedly recommend this recipe, especially if you like the flavor of Biscoffs. I might try the "best" version some day, but then again, I might not -- the "better" version is already perfection.
Recipe: "Good, Better, Best Cookies" from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, recipe available here from the Sur La Table blog.
Previous Posts:
I bought the cookie butter with the thought that it might come in handy for a baking project. And fortuitously, I soon came across a recipe specifically calling for Biscoff spread: Dorie Greenspan's "Good, Better, Best Cookies." The "good" version is a roll-and-cut cinnamon cookie. The "better" version includes a Biscoff spread-based filling sandwiched between two "good" cookies. The "best" version is the "better" sandwich cookie dipped in chocolate. I decided upfront to go the "better" route.
You make this cookie dough in the food processor so it comes together quickly. You mix flour, almonds (I used almond flour), sugar, cinnamon, and salt; add cold cubed butter; and pulse in cold water mixed with egg yolk. The resulting dough was cohesive but not sticky at all. I rolled it out between sheets of parchment paper and left it in the fridge overnight. The cookbook says that this recipe yields only 24 "good" cookies -- meaning only a dozen "better" sandwiches -- so I made a double batch and expected to get 48 cookies.
The following day I used a 2-inch cutter to cut the cookies. I also chilled, re-rolled, and cut all of the scraps. The yield far exceeded what the recipe specified -- I got 108 cookies from my double batch, more than twice what I was expecting. My cookies were nicely golden on the bottoms and around the edges after nine and a half minutes in the oven, which was less than the minimum specified baking time. I sampled a cookie shortly after baking and wasn't very impressed. The cookie had a nice cinnamon flavor, but it was quite fragile and the cookie was so thin and insubstantial that I didn't find it very satisfying.
I stored the cookies in the fridge overnight before taking them to the office the following morning. Since I felt lukewarm about the cookies, I wasn't expecting much of a reaction from my co-workers. To my surprise, they raved about them. A common theme of the wave of compliments was the the cookies had a delectable texture that melted in your mouth. And also that people wanted to eat a lot of them.
I didn't understand why my tasters were so enthusiastic about the cookies until after dinner that evening, when Tom and I ate the two cookies that I had stashed in our fridge. The chilling, or the time, or both, had transformed the cookies in two significant ways. First, the filling had become physically fused to the cookies -- the sandwiches were a unified whole. Second, and more importantly, the texture of the cookies had changed. The retained a pleasing crunch but were no longer brittle or crumbly. It's really the best of both worlds to be able to enjoy a sandwich cookie that still has a crisp exterior while somehow being tender enough to not create a single crumb when you bite into it. Tom and I both became instant fans.
I wholeheartedly recommend this recipe, especially if you like the flavor of Biscoffs. I might try the "best" version some day, but then again, I might not -- the "better" version is already perfection.
Recipe: "Good, Better, Best Cookies" from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, recipe available here from the Sur La Table blog.
Previous Posts:
- "The Better Nutter Butter: The Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie," January 13, 2014.
- "Doing It the Hard Way" Homemade Oreos," November 8, 2013.
- "I'll Stop the World and Melt with You: Classic Lemon Melting Moments," June 20, 2013.
- "The Quest for a Grapefruit Dessert: Pink Grapefruit Sandwich Cookies," October 21, 2011.
- "There's an App for That: Chewy Almond-Raspberry Sandwich Cookies," May 9, 2011.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Salt-n-Pepper Sandwich Cookies [and Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies]," March 13, 2011.
- "The Faux-reo: Farmeeoh Cookies," November 9, 2010.
- "A Perfect Fit: Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling," May 18, 2010.
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