Happy Birthday Brother: Part 2

Welcome to the cookie segment! This is not a picture of a stack of plain old chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are jacked up on crushed oreos and vanilla pudding mix for extra flavor and a chewier texture. These, as well as sugar cookies in the shape of an M-Dot* because my brother is an Ironman, make up part 2 of my brother's birthday present. Commence drooling... NOW:


Cookies&Cream Cookies:
adapted from Nestle Tollhouse's original cookie recipe

2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1- 3.4 oz (not instant) pudding mix, any flavor (I used vanilla)
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 rows (32) Oreo Cookies, broken into pieces
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

2. Place pudding mix, flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine. Slowly stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients, then stir in oreo pieces and chocolate chips until just combined.

3. With a medium cookie scoop or a spoon, scoop dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cooked, but still soft (if the bottoms start to burn, place an empty metal baking sheet on the rack directly below the cookies to block direct heat). Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

And don't forget the milk!


Wait a second, you didn't think this post was over, did you? I did mention M-Dot shaped sugar cookies, didn't I? Did I also mention that they are dipped in and drizzled with chocolate? No? Well, they are. Unfortunately, I gave all but one of these cookies to my brother without photographing them first, and when I went back to my lone cookie, I found he was missing his head and one leg:

Alright, so maybe I went ahead and ate his leg upon finding his headlessness, but I definitely did not eat his shoulder:

Okay fine, so I did. He was destined for this fate, anyway! His tasty, tasty fate... I commandeered this sugar cookie recipe from I Am Baker.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

¾ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
powdered sugar for dusting
2-3 cups chocolate chips (if you want to dip your cookies in chocolate)

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and combine.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt (don't skimp on the sifting- it prevents flour from clumping up in your dough).

Slowly add dry ingredients into wet batter until fully incorporated.

Drop dough onto a large piece of saran wrap, mold it into a 4×4 square, and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.

When ready to bake the cookies, generously dust a flat surface with powdered sugar and roll out the dough. Use plenty of powdered sugar, more than you think you need! Doing so will spare you a serious frustration headache. Use cookie cutters to cut out your desired shapes, then use a metal spatula to transfer them to a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake at 325-350 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes. My cookies puffed up a lot during the baking, so as soon as they came out of the oven I went over them again with the cookie cutter to get clean edges. This produced a lot of cookie scraps. I am not complaining.

Once cookies cool, melt chocolate chips in a wide, shallow dish. Drop cookies in one at a time, using a fork (or two, as the case may be) to fish them out. Place dipped cookies on a sheet of wax paper to dry. Decorate as you please!

*M-Dot: the international symbol for an Ironman, which is a race of superhuman proportions consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike, followed by a 26.2 mile run, all within 17 hours. Yes, my numbers are correct. The (non-beheaded) M-Dot looks like this: