Pumpkin Spice Cookies & Cream Cookies

Hello (virtual) world, I'm home! 

I hope you guys had a wonderful past few days and didn't miss me too much. ;)  I spent my fall break in New York City and it was an absolute whirlwind. I went on a little food industry tour and visited the Martha Stewart Living, Food52, Food & Wine, and West Elm offices, saw a few shows, visited the Jeff Koons exhibit at the Whitney, met up with some old friends, fainted on a random lady while I was in the emergency room with a friend who fainted at dinner, took a trip out to Valrhona's amazing new L'Ecole du Grand Chocolat in DUMBO, wrapped myself up in lots of sweaters and scarves, and conducted a lot of super scientific research (aka, eating dessert.) 

It was wonderful. Alas, I am back in New Orleans, which means I get to immediately go back to destroying my kitchen all in the name of food blogging. I just scheduled out the next month or so of desserts I want to make and the list is absolutely wild. Like, I-was-super-conscious-about-people-looking-over-my-shoulder-while-I-was-writing-it-all-down-and-judging-me level wild. 

In the meantime, we're going to keep things a little more classic around here. Can we all agree the pumpkins are the best part of fall? Because they are. While I'm not crazy fond of actual pumpkin desserts (I prefer to use them for more important purposes), pumpkin spice is where it's at. 

The stretch from October to April has always been my favorite time of the year, mainly because of all of the special festive holiday items that fill up my cart at the grocery store. I don't need these things, and frankly I never buy m&m's at any other time of the year, but there's just something about a special flavor or color mix that instantly makes me reach out and grab a few bags to "try."  I use that term loosely. 

Case in point: Pumpkin Spice Oreos. See, I was pretty certain that these would be absolutely disgusting when I saw these, but Nabisco really delivered. It only took me a taste of one cookie to get the mixer out and bake cookies with them. 

I have a few specialities when it comes to baking. You know, the recipes that people will ask me to make for them and continue nagging me until I finally cave in. Cookies & Cream Cookies are one of these. There's something so intoxicating about these cookies. It's probably the fact that there's a bunch of cream cheese and two cups of crushed up Oreos in the dough. Or maybe it's because I roll them in sugar before baking (because they obviously didn't have enough sugar in them in the first place). Whatever it is, they're *insert expletive of choice* delicious. While my traditional recipe is what I bake most often, this pumpkin spice version gives the classic cookies & cream cookies a definite run for its money.

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PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES AND CREAM COOKIES

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice 

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 2 cups Pumpkin Spice Oreos, chopped 

• 1/2 cup cinnamon chips

• sugar, for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and egg, mixing for 3 minutes more. Mix in the vanilla. Add all of the dry ingredients and combines. Fold in the chopped cookies and cinnamon chips.

Roll the cookie dough into balls, then roll them in sugar, and place them on your prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, do not overbake. 

Cookies & Cream Tart

I started my junior year of college this week. 

Junior.... COLLEGE.... Um... WHAT? 

It's bizarre, really, how fast we grow up. It feels like just yesterday I was running to the office in middle school because I ripped my shorts straight down the middle because I dropped it like it was [a little too] hot on the playground. (True story; I was a wild 5th grader.) I can vividly remember the first day of 8th grade at my high school, exactly what I ate and where I sat at lunch that day, how my mom picked me up and I immediately proclaimed how much I hated it. I remember the first day of senior year, thinking about how ready I was to graduate, but how equally scared I was to leave my comfort zone. Just as vividly, I remember walking blocks upon blocks from my dorm in the East Village with the most painful blisters on the backs of my ankles for the hot minute I was attending college in New York City. and now, here I am... only two years away from being done with school forever. (Don't you dare mention grad school, just no.) 

The first day back at school after summer break has always been my least favorite day of the year. Almost routinely, my first days have always been marked by so much knowingly unnecessary, yet unavoidable anxiety. This time around was no different. I was awkward when I introduced myself, my voice started shaking whenever I had to tell my teachers that I went by Graham and not Anthony (my actual first name), and once I got home, I may or may not have chugged a watermelon martini and went to bed at 9pm out of pure exhaustion. But this year, I was actually, wait for it .... excited to go back. I guess I really am getting old. 

To celebrate my second-to-last first day of school, I decided to whip up something special. Remember: it's scientifically* proven that sugar can calm your nerves on the first day of school. 

* Disclaimer: Though Graham Blackall likes to believe he is a scientific authority, he is just a lowly boy with a sugar addiction. 

Well, attempted to whip up something special. I don't know whether or not it's because of school, but I'm having an off week in the kitchen. In 24 hours, I have ruined three different recipes. I had this lovely idea of celebrating back-to-school with a peanut butter and jelly dessert. Cute, right? Well... my oven didn't agree. First, I made a peanut butter pavlova — the meringue fell. After that, I decided to make a big giant vanilla cake that I would going to cut into a giant pb&j — my eggs scrambled when I added them into the batter. Finally, I had the genius idea of making a concord grape cake (strange, I know) with peanut butter mascarpone frosting. I had spent hours perfecting the recipe and as I was taking the cakes out of their pans, every single one of them cracked in half. This is when I realized that PB&J just wasn't going to work out. 

Luckily, I've had this recipe waiting, ready to be posted since last week. It's the most delicious white chocolate mascarpone tart in an Oreo crust. Aaand it's no-bake, so you have less chances to mess it up! To top it off, I made an Oreo whipped cream and covered the whole tart in cookie pieces and white chocolate shavings (not pictured). Absolutely amazing and pretty damn painless to make. 

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Oreo Crust 

• 10 oz. Oreo cookies
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/8 tsp. salt

In a food processor or blender, process the whole Oreo cookies (including the cream) until they turn into fine crumbs. Add the crumbs to the melted better and the salt. Mix until they form a workable crust. Press the crust into your tart pan. Freeze the crust while making the filling. 

White Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

• 8 oz. high-quality white chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup plus two tablespoons heavy cream 
• 8 oz. mascarpone, room temperature
• 1/4 cup icing sugar 

In a large bowl over simmering water, melt the white chocolate until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. 

Whip your cream until soft peaks form. 

In another bowl, mix together the mascarpone and confectioner's sugar until combined. Add in the cooled white chocolate and combine. Fold in the whipped cream. 

Pour the filling into the prepared crust. Refrigerate overnight to set. Serve with Oreo whipped cream, cookie pieces, and white chocolate shavings. 

Oreo Whipped Cream

• 10 Oreo cookies
• 1-1/2 cup heavy cream
• sugar, to taste
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

In a small bowl, cover the oreo cookies with heavy cream. Let sit for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator to infuse the cream. Strain the infused cream into a bowl and whip with the sugar and vanilla extract until you reach your desired consistency. Use immediately or store in the fridge. 

Lemon Cookies and Cream Cookies

So it's official — I'm back to baking. I don't know if it was all of the cakes and cookies that I was assigned to bake for Christmas, but my body had been rejecting sugar for the latter part of my winter break. But don't fret! My sweet tooth has returned and I'm back to craving sugar 24/7. 

This weekend, I decided to take my new KitchenAid mixer out for a spin and oh my god.... I'm pretty sure this mixer is the best thing to happen to me — a milestone of sorts in my quest to obtain the title of Mr. Betty Crocker. No but really, the 7 quart bowl is SO big and I can finally make double batches of cookies without the dough spilling out over the sides. It's also so much quieter than my sad, broken mixer that sounded alarmingly similar to a jackhammer. 

The first thing I decided to bake with it? Lemon Cookies and Cream Cookies. These cookies were born out of my obsession with Pinkberry's lemon cookie crunch. (If any of you have ever had that, you know how good it is!) I found myself craving the flavor one day, so I decided to play around with one of my favorite recipes and create something amazing; and amazing it is. 

These cookies have a cream cheese base that gives the cookies an amazingly soft texture and are chock full of lemon sandwich cookies and lemon extract. After rolling the dough — which is out of this world good I must add; it's literally lethal — in sugar, I baked the mounds of deliciousness and added a square of white chocolate to each piece right after coming out of the oven. Perfect. 

Lemon Cookies and Cream Cookies 

(adapted from this)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 cups coarsely chopped lemon sandwich cookies
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• white chocolate squares (about 24)

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and egg, mixing for 3 minutes more. Mix in the vanilla. Add all of the dry ingredients and combines. Fold in the chopped cookies and white chocolate chips.

Roll the cookie dough into balls, then roll them in sugar, and place them on your prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, do not overbake. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, place a square of white chocolate onto each cookie.