Orange Creamsicle Cookies

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Orange Creamsicle Cookies

a photo of a golden baked orange creamsicle cookie loaded with white chocolate chunks and surrounded by other cookies.
Why is the combination of bright orange flavor with creamy vanilla so dang good?! I don’t have the answer, but these orange creamsicle cookies hit the spot!
 
Remember being a kid on a hot summer day and asking your mom for a 50/50 bar? You know, those popsicles that were vanilla ice cream wrapped in orange popsicle. I can taste them now. So dreamy! 
Anyway, I used to loooove the orange dreamsicle, creamsicle, whatever they are called, Popsicles when I was little.
 
 
Then Jamba Juice came out with the smoothie and I loved it. In fact, when I got out of the hospital after having our second baby, I was feeling a little hungry (that happens sometimes when you haven’t done anything other than throw up for months!) and the doctor really wanted me to try and eat anything I could.
 
So, off we went to Jamba. BEST. SMOOTHIE. EVER. I’m sure it was because I hadn’t eaten real food in forever but ohhhh it tasted good. I threw it up the second we got home, but worrrrtttthhhhhhh itttttttt!!! (Little one, you were worth it too.)
 
Back to these cookies…they have bold orange flavor thanks to fresh orange zest and are loaded with white chocolate chunks for that creamy vanilla flavor. These creamsicle orange cookies will make you feel like a kid again! 
 
 

Ingredients Needed for Orange Creamsicle Cookies

This cookie recipe has all of your standard cookie ingredients with some fresh orange zest for natural orange flavor and white chocolate chips for creamy vanilla goodness. Here is what you will need:

  • Flour: just regular all-purpose flour 
  • Corn Starch: the addition of just a little corn starch keeps the cookies tender but still crumbly
  • Baking Soda: the leavening agent that gives the cookies their fluffiness
  • Salt: enhances all the flavors
  • Orange Zest: rub the zest with the white sugar to release oils for smell and flavor
  • Sugar: adds sweetness
  • Brown Sugar: make sure it is firmly packed and it adds richness to cookies
  • Butter: unsalted and softened
  • Shortening: you can use all butter if you want but you will get a fluffier cookie with some shortening added
  • Egg: gives the cookies structure as they bake
  • Vanilla: adds flavor
  • Orange Extract: totally optional, I prefer the cookies without it but it won’t have as strong an orange flavor. Never use orange juice.
  • White Chocolate: chunks or chips, I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chunks.

The measurements for each ingredient are listed in the recipe card below along with the instructions for how to make these cookies.

 

How to Make Creamsicle Orange Cookies

  1. Preheat oven.
  2. Chop the white chocolate chunks.
  3. Combine dry ingredients.
  4. Activate the orange zest by rubbing

Summer Strawberry Cookies

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a photo of several baked strawberry cookies lined up on a white parchment paper. some of the cookies are stopped with a white glaze and other have been rolled in sugar.

Strawberry cookies made with real strawberries! These cookies are soft with slightly crispy edges and a thick, chewy middle. You can top them with a light glaze or roll them in sugar.

I was about to make our lemon drop cookies a few months ago when I got the brilliant idea that if a candy could be blended to flavor a cookie, surely freeze dried fruit could as well. Sure enough, a summer strawberry cookie was born! 

I thought strawberry was the absolute best flavor as a kid. Now I actually tend to go more raspberry out of the berry family (curious what you all would pick), but my kids are for sure on the childhood bandwagon of fresh, juicy red strawberries. They love that these cookies are dense and chewy but they have the pick of rolling in sugar or topping with a crackly glaze.

I personally prefer to make a lemon glaze to brighten up these sweet cookies, but you can do whatever makes you happy!

Ingredients for Strawberry Cookies

Most of the strawberry cookie recipes out there use strawberry cake mix or strawberry pudding to get the strawberry flavor (in fact we have our own strawberry pudding cookie recipe here on the blog), but I love using real strawberries in this recipe to get that true strawberry flavor. Here is what you will need to make these cookies:

For the Cookies

  • Freeze Dried Strawberries: Don’t use fresh strawberries. They will add too much moisture to the dough and make the cookies cakey.
  • Sugar: regular granulated white sugar
  • Butter Flavored Shortening: You can also use regular shortening (you’ll lose a little richness in flavor) or just regular butter but they end up more dry with just butter.
  • Unsalted Butter: softened, combined with the shortening, the cookies are tender and still rich in flavor
  • Eggs: add structure to the cookies
  • Vanilla: adds flavor
  • Strawberry Extract: just for a little boost in flavor
  • Flour: use all-purpose flour
  • Baking Soda: leavening agent to give the cookies rise and fluffiness
  • Baking Powder: leavening agent that works with the baking soda to help the cookies rise
  • Salt: enhances all the flavors

For the Glaze

  • Powdered Sugar: adds sweetness and structure to the glaze
  • Milk or Water: milk will be a little more rich in flavor
  • Lemon Juice: I love to add a little lemon juice to give a nice flavor burst to the cookie, but it is totally optional.
    • BONUS: You could also add a little strawberry extract to the glaze if you want even more strawberry flavor.

Sugar

  • Sugar: Roll the cookie dough balls in sugar before baking if you prefer that instead of the glaze.

The measurements for all the ingredients and the instructions for making these cookies can all be found in the recipe card at the

Berries and Cream Cheesecake Bars

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Berries and Cream Cheesecake Bars

a photo of a cheesecake bar with a thick crust, creamy cheesecake layer and a mixed berry topping.

These Berries and Cream Cheesecake Bars are my favorite dessert! The easy oil pie crust pairs with the most delicately sweet cheesecake filling and is topped with a simple berry topping.

We’ve teamed up with my dream brand, Oregon Berries to bring you the BEST berry dessert that you will find online this year. I’M SERIOUS. I cannot stop eating it!!

I debated on whether to call these no-bake or not. You bake the crust, but the cheesecake layer is no-bake. And I’m telling you, this is a totally unique crust and it’s life-changing!

My friend Megan always tells me about this yummy chocolate pie business, but then she mentioned that there’s a berry version and I couldn’t help it, I needed the recipe immediately. Like, yesterday. And you all should be forever grateful that I got it because this is going to be one of the dreamiest berry desserts you’ll ever devour. In fact, I’m writing this post before I’ve even photographed the recipe because I’m just so excited!

Oregon Berries

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest I had berries written into my very soul! There is no berry quite like the Oregon Marionberry. Oregon was made for growing blackberries- HELLO, Optimal soil, air, water, climate and love!

It’s all about the local families who are total stewards of the land, supporting environmentally sustainable practices and always picking at the height of ripeness. And blackberries are actually good for you so you can feel good eating them in multiple ways.

If you’re the wanderlust or bucket list type of person I absolutely insist you make visiting the Oregon coast during the summer appear on your calendar. There is absolutely nothing like the breathtaking drives with music blasting, wonderful friends and conversation in the car and then pulling over to the roadside stands to buy freshly picked berries. It’s my favorite thing ever.

Ingredients for Berries and Cream Cheesecake Bars

I’m going to divide up the ingredients list into what you will need for each layer. Here is what you will need:

Pie Crust Layer

  • Flour: just regular all purpose flour is all you need
  • Sugar: adds sweetness to the crust
  • Salt: enhances all the flavors
  • Vegetable Oil: the fat needed to create a flaky strong base for the bars
  • Milk: helps bind everything together

Berry Layer

  • Berries: for this recipe we are using blackberries and raspberries, but you can use any combinations of berries you want (see section below for suggestions)
  • Sugar: adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the berries
  • Cornaby’s Ultra Gel: my favorite way of thickening the berry layer, cornstarch can be used as a substitute (see recipe card notes)
  • Water: thins everything out to create a beautiful glossy berry layer

Cream Layer

Always Soft Lemon Cheesecake Cookie Recipe

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Always Soft Lemon Cheesecake Cookie Recipe

a photo of a stack of golden lemon cheesecake cookies full of white chocolate chips with the top cookie broken in half with the insides of cookie showing.

When the cookie dough is making you drool you know you’ve found yourself a winner. We cannot stop making this white chocolate lemon cheesecake cookie recipe now! The smell of the dough was eye rolling-ly good!

If you own our second cookbook, Raised in the Kitchen you know that our oldest daughter adores her delicate iced lemon cookies recipe and we all 100% agree. But late one evening I needed to bust out a lot of cookies for a friend and found myself a little short on what I needed.

My go-to chocolate chip cookies for feeding friends and family is actually a pudding recipe. I use an adapted version for our chocolate cookies as well because the flavor, texture and stability on the shelf are unbeatable. The pudding keeps the cookies so perfectly soft and chewy and also makes it a totally no-fail recipe. I mean, you literally could not mess those cookies up. Even better? They feed a huge crowd so it’s the best to bust out for a group.

While on my last batch I suddenly realized that I was out of the french vanilla pudding. I immediately grabbed for chocolate but once again, out! I always keep them on hand, how had I forgotten to replenish? Through searching I found a box of cheesecake and a box of lemon and as I use a large box I’d have no choice but to use two small boxes to get the job done.

What Do You Need for Lemon Cheesecake Cookies?

Grab a box of lemon pudding and a box of cheesecake pudding and the rest you probably already have in the house! The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. You can also save or print the recipe from there as well. Here is what you will need to make these irresistible cookies:

  • Unsalted Butter – needs to be softened so it will cream together with the sugars
  • Eggs – gives the cookies their structure
  • Sugar – just regular white granulated sugar
  • Brown Sugar – adds richness
  • Vanilla Extract – use the real deal and no imitation flavoring
  • Almond Extract – just the tiniest bit enhances the flavor so much
  • All-Purpose Flour – make sure to measure the flour correctly
  • Salt – enhances all the flavors and cuts the sweetness
  • Baking Soda – make sure your baking soda is fresh, this helps give the cookies their fluffiness
  • Cheesecake Pudding Mix – measure out half the powder using a kitchen scale
  • Lemon Pudding Mix – measure out half the powder using a kitchen scale
  • White Chocolate Chips – we love Ghirrardeli or Guittard brand

What Does Pudding Do in a Cookie Recipe?

Adding pudding in cookie recipes makes the cookies super

Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Rice Krispie Treats

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Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Rice Krispie Treats

a photo of three dulce de leche stuffed gooey rice krispie treats stacked on top of each other with little pieces of parchment paper between them.

Brown butter dulce de leche Rice Krispie treats start as a traditional Rice Krispie treat that gets elevated to the next level! The nuttiness from the brown butter with the creamy sweetness of the caramel all wrapped around the crunch of the cereal…I’m going to be bold and say it will be the best Rice Krispie treat of your life!

Kerri here! You might remember me from the world famous gingerbread men cookies and the caramel Bugles. Head over to those posts to read about who the heck I am…haha! Anyway…I told Carrian that she had to try this new recipe I had come up with because it was the most amazing Rice Krispie treat I had ever had. Side note…can we just call them RKTs from now on? Rice Krispie treat is such a mouthful!

Afterall, it was her RKTs recipe that was the base of the recipe in the first place. She made my brown butter dulce de leche version, and photographed them. And here we are! She had cinnamon sugar Rice Krispies in the cupboard and she swears by the cinnamon sugar! I can’t wait to try it that way!

How This Recipe Came to Be

This all started with a trip to Blox, a restaurant here in Utah that specializes in dessert bars. We tried one of their Rice Krispie treats one time, and I could tell immediately that it was made with brown butter and I was hooked for life. Then I thought, I should stuff some dulce de leche in the middle of this gooey RKT.

We love dulce de leche here at Oh Sweet Basil, and Carrian is always stuffing it into delicious recipes to make them even more outrageous, so I probably should do the same! So the RKTs were stuffed (or layered really) and minds and tastebuds were blown! I’ve made them a few times now for different events and every single person has wanted the recipe. I absolutely love that they will live here now and I can just send people a link to the recipe rather than explaining all my steps.

Ingredients for Browned Butter Dulce de Leche Rice Krispie Treats

You only need 6 ingredients and about 10 minutes to have these RKTs ready to go!

  • Butter: I prefer to use unsalted butter so that I can control the salt in the recipe. The first step in this recipe will be browning the butter. I describe how to do that below.
  • Vanilla Extract: Use real vanilla extract for maximum flavor.
  • Mini Marshmallows: You want to use mini marshmallows so that they can melt quickly and evenly.
  • Rice Krispies Cereal: I’ve only ever used regular Rice Krispies, but Carrian used the cinnamon sugar flavored and says that’s where it’s at! I trust her and will be trying it next time. It gives it a churro flare and churros never disappoint! Use either one and you won’t be disappointed!
  • Sea Salt
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