Cookies and Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe updated June 29th, 2021.  This Cookies and Cream Cookie is one of the best chocolate chip cookies and one of the mosts popular recipes on Joy the Baker and has been updated in images and recipes!  Please leave reviews and comment below as you make and enjoy these fine cookies! xo Joy

I have this tooth whistle.  One of my teeth, maybe it’s two… in combination with my tongue and the letter ‘s’… it whistles.

That’s a weird way to start a cookie recipe.  With a tooth whistle.

It’s an elusive whistle.  It arrives unexpectedly with the sound of an ‘s’, just every few months.  One short whistle and it’s gone again only to surprise with its presence months later.  Something about the stars aligning just so.

I’m always delighted by its presence.  Like I’m part bird and party fairy for just half a second.  I think so hard about what I’m trying to say that when part of it comes out as a whistle… well that’s just a bonus.

I know it’s just a tooth whistle.  But I’ve come to cherish it.

I mention my tooth whistle today for two reasons, because… I was thinking about it, and that’s how this whole blog things works.  You have to endure banal stories about my teeth in order to get the very best cookie recipes.  But also… a truly stellar, gooey, delicious, addictive, PERFECT cookie recipe is as elusive and delightful as a tooth whistle.  The stars have aligned and our cookie is here.

Here’s What You’ll Need To Make Cookies and Cream Cookies:

•  unsalted butter and cream cheese, both softened to room temperature

•  brown sugar

•  powdered milk (which will lend a creaminess and chewy texture to the cookies)

•  all-purpose flour or an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend

•  baking soda, baking powder, and salt

•  a large egg

•  vanilla extract

•  milk chocolate chips (though white chocolate chips are fun, too!) and Oreo cookies coarsely chopped

If you’ve ever wondered:

How To Make The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

well there are two possible answers: browned butter and/or cream cheese.

Browned butter adds a nutty richness to the cookies as evidenced by Dad’s Perfect Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie.

For today’s incredible chocolate chip cookie we’re using:CREAM CHEESE to make a tender, moist, and divinely rich cookie.  Perfectly chewy around through the center and crisp around the edges.

Start these chocolate chip cookies by first whipping the softened butter and cream cheese together in a medium bowl. 

The two fats have slightly different consistencies so to ensure the two play nice together, ensure that they’re both very soft. This might even mean popping the cream cheese in the microwave for a few seconds to get any chill off.

Secondly, we beat the brown sugar and an egg into the butter and cream cheese mixture. 

Lastly, before we add the dry ingredients we’ll beat in a dash of vanilla extract.  

You’ll notice that the batter feels almost stretchy! That’s the cream cheese doing us a great favor and the start of perfectly chewy cookies.

Next, in a small bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.  Whisk the flour, milk powder, leavening, and salt in a separate bowl (even though it dirties another bowl ugh I know!) to ensure that all the ingredients are evenly combined preventing over-beating the cookie dough.

Add the dry ingredients all at once to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until just combined. 

Lastly, stir in the Oreo pieces and chocolate chips.  

You may find that powdered milk is a bit grainy. Not to worry, it will absorb the liquid in the batter and ease before baking.

Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour before baking to re-chill the fats and allow the flour and milk powder to settle and absorb the liquids.  

Portion the dough balls into generous tablespoon size portions and place a few inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 35p until just golden around the edges. I like these chocolate chip cookies a tad under baked and just a touch gooey in the center.

Cool what you don’t eat straight from the oven on a baking rack!

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Photos with the wonderful Jon Melendez.