Cookie butter makes everything better. This is a maxim of life. It is proven true yet again with these Cookie Butter White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars.
Cookie butter is found by the peanut butter in most grocery stores in the US these days. The most popular brands are Biscoff and Speculoos, but Walmart, Kroger, and Sprouts even have their own jars now!
What does cookie butter taste like? Well… rich, buttery cookie dough rendered into peanut butter-like form. That’s the only way to describe it.
In this recipe, the cookie butter flavor amps up the inherent baked-good yumminess of these bars. Add white chocolate and macadamias along with that? Oh yeah.
You end up with a ribbon of cookie butter through the middle and swirls across the top. These effectively acts like a thin frosting, as these otherwise aren’t heavy duty on sweetness.
The bars rise a lot as they bake and end up quite cakey. They hold together well, so you can cut them small, if you want.
I want to mention macadamia nuts again. They are lovely in this recipe, adding a sporadic crunch and buttery flavor that goes oh-so-well with everything else.
Bready or Not Original: Cookie Butter White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter 3 sticks, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 cups brown sugar packed
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 Tb vanilla extract
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 cup macadamia nuts chopped
- 2/3 cup + 1/2 cup creamy cookie butter spread divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil and apply nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add in both sugars, followed by the eggs one by one, then the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Gradually mix into the wet ingredients until just incorporated.
- Spread half of the dough in the bottom of the pan. Mixture will be thick. Use an uneven spatula to spread 2/3 cup cookie butter in an even layer over the dough.
- Top with remaining dough and spread to edges. Dollop the 1/2 cup of cookie butter here and there over the top, then use a butter knife to swirl it into the dough.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the middle passes the toothpick test. Dough will rise a great deal.
- Cool completely in pan. Use the foil to lift up bars for easy cutting. Store sliced pieces in a sealed container at room temperature for as long as a week.
- OM OM NOM!
