Apricot Butterscotch Peanut Butter-Filled Sandwich Cookies

Oreo Double Stuffed cookies, you have nothing on these. They are triple-stuffed and full of fluff and puff.

Have you ever made something and wished you could have a “do-over” on the recipe?  Anywhere from that was totally horrible to that was decent but I’m not completely satisfied? I think we’ve all been there.

Most recently for me, it started with these Mango and White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Don’t get me wrong, the taste is excellent, and they are really soft and chewy. One woman wrote in to say she’s made them multiple times for a firehouse and they’ve been a huge hit and apparently have made some fireman’s days.

But I was never completely satisfied with their lack of thickness.

I am not a fan of thin cookies. Texture and thickness is just as important as taste.

When Frigidaire asked me if I’d like to try my hand at a culinary do-over, I knew just the recipe I wanted to choose and it was the thin mango cookies.

The results of my do-over and resulting cookies are anything but thin and flimsy. Oh, contraire. You need may need a forklift to get one up to your mouth.

I made changes by turning the mango cookies into apricot cookies, added butterscotch chips in addition to white chocolate chips, and played with recipe for the dough.

I also stuffed them with an uber-decadent peanut butter buttercream and made sandwich cookies. But we have to make dough and make cookies before we can make frosting. My mind always wanders to frosting, too.

 For the dough, I loosely followed the Cooks Illustrated recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies but made a very important right-hand turn.

Their recipe calls for melting the butter; but unless I am adding oats or peanut butter to cookie dough, I find that melted butter results in thinner cookies. Instead, I creamed the butter, sugar, and eggs, which is a proven gold standard for thicker cookies.

Also, that recipe does not call for chilling the dough. However, the single most important step I believe one can make in cookie-making is chilling the dough for at least an hour, up to about 5 days. I let this dough chill about 36 hours.

I made the dough, put it in a mixing bowl with a lid, parked it in the refrigerator and forgot about it for a few days.

When it was time to make cookies, I used my $3.99 cookie scoop and made 1-inch diameter mounds. The Cooks Illustrated recipe advocates bigger cookies, at least one-quarter cup of dough per cookie, but I have better results when I keep the dough portion smaller.

My cookie scoop and my Silpat liners have transformed the way I bake. It’s like trying to train for a marathon without proper shoes. Don’t do it. Cookies spread less on Silpats because the cookie can “grip” the mat rather than slipping around a non-stick baking sheet doing the slip ‘n slide, or the slip ‘n spread out in a hot oven. The mat gives them traction.

I like knowing that when I use a scoop, cookies will all turn out the same size and thickness, which is important if you just want them to look pretty.

And it’s also important if you want to make sandwiches with them and easily pair the halves.

And here we have our sandwich filling known as peanut butter buttercream frosting, which is made with butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Diet food.

I got a little carried away in how thick I applied the frosting. But as I’ve always said, I like a little food with my condiments and a little cake with my frosting.

In this case, I like a little cookie with my sandwich filling and didn’t make all of them quite as well-stuffed as I did for the ones that made the photo session.

The cookies turned out just the right thickness even before they were made into sandwich cookies.

The sandwich-making was a happy afterthought and worth every jawbone-stretching chew.

I love mango anything but I also adore apricots and they added sweetness, moisture, and such a lovely fragrance to the cookies.

Apricots, butterscotch, and with white chocolate worked really well together.

And everything in my book works well with peanut butter and frosting.

I am now 100% satisfied with my “mango cookie recipe” that’s been elevated, literally.

 

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Apricot Butterscotch White Chocolate Peanut Butter-Filled Sandwich Cookies

Makes 36 small cookies, 18 sandwiches

3/4 cup butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg + 1 yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch salt, optional

2/3 cup dried apricots, diced (about 25 whole dried apricots)

1/3 cup butterscotch chips

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine the butter and sugars and cream for 3 to 4 minutes, stopping at least once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg plus yolk and beat for 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and mix until blended. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and mix until just combined. Add the apricots, baking chips, and mix for a couple seconds until incorporated or fold in by hand. Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap or transfer dough into an airtight container and refrigerate dough for at least one hour, overnight, or up to three days.

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare Silpat- or parchment-lined baking sheets or spray baking sheets with cooking spray. Form 1-inch diameter balls using a cookie scoop or rounded tablespoon, spacing cookies at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 minutes or until edges near the base are just turning golden and tops are just barely setting, taking care not to overbake. Note: these cookies are pale, even when done. While baking at 9 minutes, they will look almost raw and very pale on the tops. Check the edges carefully near the base of the cookie for signs of browning and don’t just by the base, not the tops. Pull them from the oven by 10 minutes, 11 minutes maximum. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for at least 15 minutes before moving them.

Serve immediately or make frosting while cookies cool. Extra cookies will keep in an airtight container on the counter for up to one week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

Makes about 4 cups

6 tablespoons butter, softened (3/4 of one stick)

6 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus extra if needed

1 tablespoon cream or milk, plus extra if needed

To the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and peanut butter and cream for 3 to 4 minutes on medium-high speed, stopping at least once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla extract and 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar and beat for 3 minutes, or until sugar has incorporated and mixture is thick and smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. If you desire very thick frosting, stop now – you’re done.

Tip: Use caution when turning on your mixer after adding the sugar because you don’t want your kitchen wearing it. Start slowly and ramp up the mixer speed to medium-high.

For slightly thinner, but still very fluffy frosting, add 1 tablespoon cream and beat for 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, beating for 1 minute or until smooth. Evaluate thickness and play with cream and sugar ratios based on desired result. Frosting will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Spread a generous layer of frosting in between two cookies. Store cookies that have frosted in the refrigerator or frost them as you go and they’re needed because frosting should be kept refrigerated.

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Related Recipes:

Peanut Butter Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies – I adapted the Cooks Illustrated recipe and although the butter is melted rather than creamed. because of the peanut butter and oatmeal, the dough can handle the melted butter without spreading. These are some of my favorite cookies of all-time, period.

White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies – for the white chocolate fans

Puffy Vanilla and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies – I used shortening rather than butter in these cookies and boy did they puff up. However, shortening lacks the flavor of butter and I just love butter in cookies. I could always try butter-flavored shortening.

All Mango Recipes

All White Chocoalte Recipes

Do you have any recipes you’d like a do-over on?

Have you re-made it or just forgotten about it and moved on? Did things improve the next time around if you re-attempted it?

Sometimes I am stumped what to do to rectify a failed recipe; I don’t even know where to begin. It’s especially disheartening when I follow someone else’s recipe to a T and they had success, but I didn’t.

Other times, results can be such a disaster that wild horses could not bring me back to the scene of the crime to attempt the recipe again.

Other times I just don’t care that much and use the other fish in the sea tactic. So many new things to make; why re-make something that didn’t work.

Other times I am driven to make it again. It’s my obsession until I get it right, make it successful, and I really research it and think about it so that I don’t end up back at square one again.

Any amazing cookie or sandwich cookie recipes you’ve tried lately?

Link them up

This post was sponsored by Frigidaire. When you share your own do-over moment at Facebook.com/Frigidaire, Frigidaire will donate $1 to Save the Children’s U.S. programs. Plus, Frigidaire will help cover the costs for one lucky visitor to win the ultimate do-over.