White Chocolate Chunk Doodles

These white chocolate chunk doodles transform the traditional snickerdoodle with the rich caramelized taste of browned butter and the tangy kick of cream cheese, all while featuring the irresistible charm of white chocolate chunks.

The recipes stars: browned butter & cream cheese

Browned butter and cream cheese aren’t just ingredients; they’re the heart of this recipe. This really is a step, in various desserts, I recommend getting comfortable with. It truly takes these treats to the next level. The browned butter offers a deep, nutty flavor, achieved by gently cooking butter until its milk solids caramelize. This process, known as the Maillard Reaction, adds a complexity that’s simply mesmerizing. Cream cheese, with its tangy flavor and creamy texture, balances the sweetness and adds richness.

Why brown butter for this recipe?

Browning butter deepens its flavor, adding a caramel-like taste that enhances the overall flavor profile of the cookies. Once you understand how to brown butter, it takes all the stress and guess work out of it. Butter actually tells you right when its done, a warning before it burns.

After the butter melts in a saucepan and starts to boil, it will make a lot of popping noises. These noises will continues as the butter foams up. Once the popping noises stop, take the butter off the heat. You can’t see through the thick foam, but the butter has successfully browned.

Let the browned butter cool completely to prevent melting the sugars and affecting the texture.

How does cream cheese affect the texture of white chocolate chunk doodles?

Cream cheese adds moisture and creaminess, resulting in a softer, richer cookie.

Can I use regular chocolate chips instead of white chocolate?

Yes, but white chocolate offers a unique, creamy contrast to the tangy cream cheese. Unlike dark chocolate, white chocolate adds a sweet, creamy taste, which contrasts beautifully with the other flavors.

What is the purpose of rolling the white chocolate chunk doodles in cinnamon and sugar?

This creates the classic snickerdoodle taste with a delightful cinnamon-sugar crust. By rolling the ball of dough in a bowl of cinnamon & sugar, you are ensuring that every bit of the cookie is covered. Plus, the alternative, sprinkling sugar over the cookie, will result in burnt sugar on your cookie sheet.

What is in White Chocolate Chunk Doodles?

Browned butter

It’s always important to use unsalted butter when baking. If you use salted butter, you have no way of knowing how much salt you are adding to your dough and it will result in an over salted treat

Cream cheese

Adds to the fat content, making the cookies more moist and adds a tangy flavor.

Granulated sugar

Adds sweetness, provides a caramelized flavor and crisp texture. Sugar assists with rising when creamed with butter & sugar. It helps add moisture to your cookie and helps it evenly spread as it melts into a liquid in the heat of the oven. Sugar also helps with naturally preserving your baked treat.

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is simply granulated sugar with a little molasses mixed in. Molasses is a more bitter natural sweetener, which actually makes the sugar a bit sweeter than plain granulated sugar. Brown sugar draws more moisture into your treat and is more acidic, which means it will help make the baking soda react.

Eggs

Adds both protein (egg whites) and fat (egg yolks). The egg whites help with rising because when foamed, little air pockets get trapped inside the mixture. The water content in egg whites encourages steam while baking which helps with gluten formation, resulting in nice and thick cookies. Egg yolks have emulsifying properties that bring batters together and help your dough from collapsing.

Vanilla extract

When using pure vanilla extract, it will add the deep rich flavor everybody wants in a treat.

Fine sea salt

Enhances flavor, adds balance, masks any bitter flavors. Salt is the most powerful and oldest preservative. Always make sure to use fine sea salt so that it melts down at the right speed in the heat of the oven. If you use larger granule salt it will not melt down fully when baked and will leave salt crystals throughout your cookie making it crunch like you dropped it into sand.

Cinnamon

Adding a spiced flavor to your cookie

Tartar

Adding a tart flavor to your cookie as well as helping with the rising of your dough

Baking soda

Elevates the pH level of your batter. It increases the spread in cookies and gives the crispy outside, soft inside texture everyone loves. Baking soda needs both an acid and a liquid to react. Things that will make baking soda react are: vinegar, fruit juice, molasses, brown sugar, tartar, buttermilk, sour cream. Baking soda only reacts once, right when its mixed into your batter it will create little air bubbles all throughout your treat. When the air bubbles get heated up in the oven, they expand.

All-purpose flour

Flour builds structure as it absorbs liquids and expands. All-purpose flour falls in the middle of bread flour (high in gluten) and cake flour (low in gluten). It’s exactly what it is named, all-purpose, the most universal flour that can be used in most baked goods. 

Cinnamon & sugar mix

The ratio is your preference, but every cookie should be coated in it. You simply can’t have a snickerdoodle without it.

White chocolate chips

Adds a sweet, creamy taste

Recommended Equipment

• Standing mixer – so that you can cream your butter & sugar correctly
• Light metal cookie sheet – these have the most even cook
• Parchment Paper – so that your cookies don’t stick

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