Gingersnap Cookie Pizza with Cookie Butter Glaze

You knew it was only a matter of time after our Oklahoma City Trader Joe's opened that I post a recipe with cookie butter. Cookie butter isn't new to me, but now it's at arms reach (DANGEROUS). See here and here where I've used cookie butter before!

Cookie butter is great. There is nothing not to love about cookies ground up into a sweet spreadable delicacy. My everyday use for this stuff is spreading it on graham crackers for a nighttime snack, but I really try to limit my intake because it's a deep black hole once you have one bite. It pulls you down this rabbit hole where one taste turns into four or five or more spoonfuls. I've found that baking it off into sweet treats is the best way to make the jar disappear.

I'm on a cookie pizza kick! After making my sugar cookie with strawberry icing and chocolate chip M&M cookie pizza, I had been plotting what my next cookie pizza would be. 

This combo is perfection. I took my mom's ginger cookie recipe and adapted it to turn into a cookie pizza. Cookie butter already has a gingerbread taste to it, so it only makes since to turn it into a glaze and lather it all over the top! 

One big soft ginger cookie smothered in cookie butter. All the heart eye emojis!! 

Gingersnap Cookie Pizza with Cookie Butter Glaze

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp. molasses
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
extra sugar

Cookie Butter Glaze:
1/4 cup cookie butter or biscoff spread
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
3 Tbsp. milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a large mixing bowl or round object, about 10 inches in diameter, trace a circle on the parchment paper. Flip the parchment paper over so you don't get any pencil or pen marks when you spread out the dough.

Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and molasses and mix on low. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure the molasses is evenly distributed. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger and mix on low until the dough comes together.

With clean hands spread the dough out on the parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the dough out, filling the circle shape you drew. Sprinkle the top with extra sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Start on the low end. The key to yumminess in this cookie pizza is for it to be slightly underdone! I found 11 minutes to be perfect, but that is according to my oven. Let it cool completely.

Once the pizza is cool, make your glaze. In the electric mixer with the whisk attachment or using a handheld mixer, whisk powdered sugar, cookie butter and milk until fully mixed. It should be the consistency of thick glue. Using a spatula, spread the icing over the cookie pizza leaving about a half inch border around the edges. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

Cut with a pizza cutter and enjoy!

All hail Trader Joe's being in Oklahoma and all hail cookie butter! Huzzah! 

Annie

Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip and Coconut Cookies (Best Cookies Ever)

I've firmly decided cookies are my favorite thing to bake and eat, when it comes to dessert. Cookies are fun to make, the dough is always great, they are equally great straight out of the oven and even a few days later. They are the best for sharing with friends and family and easy to stash in the freezer to pull out when you need a last minute dessert. 

I think I really got on the cookie train after my quest to fine the perfect CCC! Found here:) I made recipe after recipe and never got tired of baking cookies. My sweet roommate Lindz had her two childhood besties come stay with us way back in April. One of her friends had been following my chocolate chip cookie quest and said I had to try this recipe. The recipe is titled "Best Cookie Ever Recipe." With a name like that, how do you pass it up?

The recipe has been sitting on my phone, hiding, until I recently resurfaced it. No questions asked, I needed to make the "best cookies ever" stat! They are chock full of goodies (my favorite kind of cookies). Oatmeal, chocolate chips, pecans and the best-coconut. They'd even be great with some espresso powder, pretzels, potato chips, butterscotch chips etc. added in. Really whatever your heart desires. 

They are just one of those All-American cookies everyone will love! I baked off a ton last week and took them to our kickball league. I got thumbs up all around as we washed them down with Coors Light. It was a winning combo in our bellies and on the field. 

Best Cookies Ever
yields about 50 cookies

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 cups quick cook oatmeal
12 oz. bag of chocolate chips (2 cups)
2 cups coconut
2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars on high for two minutes. Scrape down sides. Add vanilla extract and eggs. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix until combined. Then add in all the goodies - oats, chocolate chips, coconut and pecans. 

Using a cookie scoop, place golf ball size balls of dough on your cookie sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes, don't over bake! 

This recipe makes a ton! Perfect for sharing and storing leftover balls of dough in the freezer. I have about a dozen and half waiting for me to pull out tonight to bake off then take as house guest treats while I crash at the "Marge Motel" for OU/Texas this weekend!

Enjoy the best cookies ever!

Annie

Sugar Cookie Pizza with Strawberry Icing

Okay college friends, who's excited? I cracked the code on cookie pizzas. Whether it was someone’s birthday, finals week, a sisterhood event, or sometimes just because, these cookie pizzas used to always make an appearance during my time at OU.

A little shop just east of campus called Cookies and Cards is responsible for crafting up these cookie pizzas. They had all different flavors such as chocolate chip, M&M, red velvet, lemon, but everyone knows the sugar cookie with fresh strawberry icing was the best. 

I ate too many cookie pizzas to count during my four years at OU. Since graduating I still think about them often. They weren't just a cookie cake, they were a cookie pizza. Very important fact.

My new job has me working in Norman sometimes. It was my Maddie girl's birthday last week and I thought how fun it would be to surprise her with one of these coveted cookie pizzas. Work didn't pull me to Norman last week and I was too lazy to make the drive, so I thought why not make my own cookie pizza? 

Taking on this task involved a few requirements. The cookie needed to be slightly un-done and the fresh strawberry icing had to be spot on. You knew you got a good cookie pizza when it was basically dough in the center, and when you get one still warm, it was game over. The strawberry icing is what makes the sugar cookie flavor. This means puréeing fresh strawberries to achieve it.

Good news Normanites, I think I did it. Several friends came over to celebrate Maddie's birthday and several went to OU. They all got a bite and agreed it was delicious and fulfilled the Cookies and Cards' cookie pizza shoes!

Sugar Cookie Pizza with Strawberry Icing

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softned
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Icing:
1/4 cup puréed strawberries (about 4-5 strawberries)
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a large mixing bowl or round object, about 10 inches in diameter, trace a circle on the parchment paper. Flip the parchment paper over so you don't get any pencil or pen marks when you spread out the dough.

Cream butter, oil and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and both extracts. Add flour, baking powder and salt, and mix on low until the dough comes together.

With clean hands spread the dough out on the parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the dough out, filling the circle shape you drew. Bake for 10-13 minutes. Start on the low end. The key to yumminess in this cookie pizza is for it to be slightly underdone! You want to take it out just before it starts to brown. Let it cool completely.

While the pizza cools, purée your strawberries in a food processor or high powered blender. In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, whisk purée, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla on low until fully mixed. It should be the consistency of a thick glaze. Using a spatula, spread the icing over the cookie pizza leaving about a half inch border around the edges.

Cut with a pizza cutter and enjoy!

Annie