Cookie Butter Recipes: It’s Not Just for Eating By the Spoonful

I admit I was a little late to the cookie butter game. I’d seen bakers use it on my favorite reality TV baking competitions, heard my friends and neighbors sing its praises, and given it the side-eye in the grocery store for a good 18 months before I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a jar of the good stuff.

Cookie butter is made with crack speculoos cookies. If you’ve ever had the gingersnappy tasting cookies they give out on some airlines, you’ve had speculoos cookies. Cookie butter is nut-free, but it’s the consistency of peanut butter. Typically, its available crunchy or creamy, and sometimes it’s mixed with a chocolate hazelnut spread (which makes it not nut-free)

At first I was kind of at a loss. I mean, it tastes great by the spoonful, but I wasn’t sure how else to use it in the kitchen. The suggestions on the back of the jar seemed a little underwhelming. (Put it on toast, spread it on apples, mix it into vanilla ice cream–OK, that one got my attention!) I couldn’t really justify buying a jar of this stuff when the daily fight with my kids was why they could not replace peanut butter and soy nut butter with cookie butter for lunch.

But then I was gifted another jar of the cookie butter and thought I’d better figure out how to use it. My Google search did not disappoint. 

Cookie Butter as Peanut Butter Replacement in Baking/Snacking

(Check the label first!)

We have nut allergies in our house, and I have found that I can replace peanut butter with cookie butter in monster cookie recipes. Be sure to check the label of your cookie butter for nut-freeness if that applies to you and your family–not all cookie butters are nut free. I have also found that the back of the cookie butter jar was right–it does taste pretty darn good on apple slices and swirled into vanilla ice cream.

Cookie Butter Cookies (AKA Cookies Laced with Crack)

But my all time favorite use for cookie butter (second only to eating by the spoonful) is making these delicious white chocolate, oatmeal, cookie butter cookies. My favorite recipe is from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I find this recipe to be soft, chewy, buttery, and not too sweet. The first time I made the cookies I was worried about the batter seeming a little dry, but don’t worry! In my experience with this recipe the cookies come together perfectly in the oven. So whip up a batch, pour yourself a cup of milk, and eat them after the kids go to bed!

Sally’s Baking Addiction Recipe for Cookie Butter, White Chocolate, Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 C of flour
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2  C unsalted, melted and slightly cooled butter
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 C cookie butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C oatmeal
1 C white chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or baking mat.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl mix together cooled melted butter and brown sugar.
4. After the brown sugar is dissolved (i.e. no lumps), mix in egg, cookie butter, and vanilla.
5. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Then add oatmeal and white chocolate chips.
6. Scoop onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 8 – 10 minutes. (I always bake for 8.)

Enjoy!