Pastry School Diaries: Belgian White Chocolate Spread Cookies with Kinder Chocolate Maxi Pieces

Don’t you just hate being left of out the loop on things?! Especially when it’s something you are truly interested in…say, office gossip for example. Or THE new fad diet everyone is dropping pounds on (at least momentarily anyway)…or in my case…FOOD. Or more specifically the sweet, creamy, make-your-teeth-itch-from-the-sugar-overload Blondie Belgian White Chocolate Spread from Le Pain Quotidien. This stuff is selling OUT in Dubai like there is no tomorrow. I had never even heard about it till I was catching up on my weekly peruse on Expat Woman (a local website designed for expat families to share all sorts of useful info about our city) and all the ladies were like ‘I got the last jar!’ or ‘I bought 4!’ or my favorite ‘for those who want to buy, email me…’

I had to know what the madness was all about. Something selling this hot has to be good. Especially at 45dhs a jar…that’s about $12.00.

Mostly they were referring to the Speculoos flavor, which I think you can compare to Biscoff spread. However at Le Pain Quotidien, they have several varieties including chocolate hazelnut (similar to Nutella), and the Blondie white chocolate I used for these cookies.

Oh trust me it’s good enough to spread on toast or my personal favorite, eat straight from the jar, but since I’m all about experimentation, I thought it needed to be incorporated into my next recipe asap…or at least before I finished off the jar ‘testing’ it.

I would think any of the flavors could be substituted for peanut butter or Nutella in your favorite recipes as it has the same over-all consistency and fat content. Also, I added chopped Kinder Chocolate Maxi’s to these cookies but you can most definitely swap it out for chocolate chips, m&m’s, or what I originally wanted but couldn’t find, White Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Word to the wise; buy two jars. One to bake with and one to eat…on your own...specifically when no one else is home and won't complain about your ‘double-dipping’

Finally, my husband said I should name them Crackies…you know because they are THAT addictive.

Belgian White Chocolate Spread Cookies with Kinder Milk Chocolate Maxi Pieces

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Printable version

Ingredients:

½ cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup Blondie Belgian White Chocolate Spread from Le Pain Quotidien (or Biscoff Spread)

½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces at room temperature

1 large egg (*the eggs sold in the UAE are much smaller than what we have in the US so I used two medium-sized eggs)

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

10 Kinder Chocolate Maxi’s, roughly chopped (about 1 ¼ cups)**

½ cup milk chocolate chips**

**you can use any type of candy/chocolate chips you have on hand for this recipe. If using only chocolate chips, I would suggest using 2 cups

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine sugars, butter, white chocolate spread, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand-up mixer (or hand mixer). Beat until thoroughly combined, about 2-3 minutes.

Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix to combine but do not over-mix.

Add chopped candy and/or chocolate chips. Mix in by hand until combined.

Cover bowl and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Shape dough into balls (about 1 ¼ inch) and place on cookie sheet and place in freezer for about 15 minutes. Remove from freezer and place cookies about 3 inches apart on cookie sheet lined with waxed paper (I used a non-stick baking mat).

Bake for about 10-12 minutes until lightly golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes on the pan. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.