A Cookie for Your Thoughts?

   cookies / europe / indy500 / nutella / online advertising / Privacy      Posted on May 24, 2012 by Annette

Saturday is a big day. Personally, I'll be sweltering in Indianapolis attending my first (and let's be honest, only) Indy 500 weekend.

In Europe though, it's a big day because Saturday is the day a new law regulating the opting in and out of website cookies goes into effect.

You can read AdAge's take on it here. Now, here at Blueprint, we love our cookies baked and digital. But we also talk a lot of cleaning up your digital self, etc. What do you think? Is getting the choice to opt into cookies upon visiting a site a good or bad thing?

Either way, in honor of the day, here's a cookie sandwich recipe featuring my favorite imported European product: Nutella.

Banana Sandwich Cookies (Or Whoopie Pies, via Martha Stewart)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (from 1 large ripe banana)
• 1/2 cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt
• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Optional: Piping Bag with large icing tip

You really can’t go wrong with a Martha Stewart recipe. Just follow her directions. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. I have two baking sheets going usually – one I line with a silpat the other parchment. Either work fine.

Essentially you mix your dry ingredients in a bowl. Then mix your wet. I substituted Greek Yogurt (like Chobani or Fage) for the sour cream – mostly because I didn’t have sour cream. My real motivation for making these was a pair of past their prime bananas and cream cheese lurking in my fridge... in addition to celebrating European Cookie Law Day!

Once you have your batter done – I’d recommend breaking out the icing bag and largest tip you have just like Martha says. If you don’t have an icing bag, a snipped ziploc would work or if you must, an ice cream scoop that has the clicky sweepy handle thing (I believe that’s the technical term for it).

Pipe out the cookie/icing vehicles into evenly sized dollops and bake 12-14 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a cooling rack and fill with Nutella frosting.

Nutella Frosting

• 16 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting
• 2 Tablespoons Nutella (or to taste)
• 1/2 stick butter softened

Cut up the cream cheese and throw it into your mixer. Add sifted powdered sugar in increments and mix until incorporated. Then add spoonfuls of Nutella to taste and mix. If it’s still not “frosting” like add a little bit of softened butter and keep mixing until you what will be the most amazing frosting you’ve EVER had.