Taste column If something’s not geographically available, try a copycat recipe
I have to admit, I have not yet had Crumbl cookies.
I even had a chance to try one recently, but wasn’t feeling like a cookie that morning.
The bakery chain started in 2017 in Utah, and I love the idea. It’s a gourmet cookie bakery with more than 300 locations in 36 states — including two in South Dakota, Rapid City and Sioux Falls, and one in Bismarck, North Dakota.
These are the closest locations to us here in Aberdeen. Which is a good thing, because just looking at its website makes my mouth water.
It’s also a good thing for my wallet, because the cookies retail for $4 to $5 each. They are huge and many of the people I’ve seen post about them on social media share them with a friend or loved one.
Even the company recommends sharing them, selling a cookie cutter that quarters the desserts.
I’m not going to make it to a city with a Crumbl location for a few weeks, but they keep coming up in conversations in real life and on social media.
So I had to do the next best thing, seek out a copycat recipe.
I love a good copycat recipe; it’s fun to try to make favorite restaurant dishes at home. I always find that, no matter how authentic a recipe claims to be, it’s never quite the same as the restaurant dish.
And that’s OK.
The goal isn’t to replace the experience of eating out, it’s to remember it.
When you live in a rural area like we do, there are a lot of culinary experiences that we can’t have every day. A copycat recipe helps share an experience from vacation or back home with friends and family where we live now.
Based on visuals alone, one of the things I like about Crumbl is that they’re not heavily decorated cookies.
The sugar cookies are just round cookies with frosting neatly smeared on top. Even the ones that do have more decoration aren’t ornate.
That’s kind of my cookie philosophy. I’m more about presenting a cookie baked with care than one that’s heavily decorated.
Crumbl always has its chocolate chip cookies available, and then another four or so that rotate in and out of its stores on a weekly basis. The new flavors are announced each Sunday on social media.
I decided to make classic sugar cookies. “Lifestyle of a Foodie,” the blog I found the sugar cookie recipe on, has several Crumbl copycat recipes, so it was hard to choose.
This was just a simple sugar cookie and American buttercream recipe. While my mixer got a bit of a workout — do not slouch on creaming your butter and sugar for the cookie dough or for the frosting — the overall process was not hard.
If you’ve tried Crumbl cookies and have a favorite, let me know on Instagram at @aberdeentaste.
I’m headed to a city with a Crumbl at least once this summer, so I’m hoping to try the real thing, and see how these stack up.
Ingredients
Sugar cookies
- ½ cup butter softened.
- ¼ cup oil.
- ½ cup granulated sugar.
- 2 tablespoon powdered sugar.
- 1 egg at room temperature.
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract.
- 2⅓ cup flour.
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar.
- ¼ teaspoon salt.
- 1 teaspoon baking powder.
Pink sugar almond icing
- ½ cup butter softened
- 2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon heavy cream, cold
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract Use another ¼ teaspoon if you want more almond flavor
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pink gel food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 then line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cream the butter, oil, sugar and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla extract and almond extract to the creamed butter mixture and mix until combined.
- Add the flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking powder and mix until combined, using a large cookie scoop, ¼ cup, scoop out eight equally-sized cookie balls, place on the prepared baking sheet then using your hand flatten to about ½ inch in thickness.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes then cool on the baking sheet for at least 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack fully before frosting. Don’t worry if the cookies look underbaked, they will continue baking as they cool.
- Make the pink almond sugar cookie frosting.
- In a large bowl or in a stand mixer bowl using a paddle attachment, cream the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract until well combined.
- Add in the heavy cream and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add in a tiny bit of pink gel food coloring using a toothpick, mix, then check the color. Add more if you want something brighter.
- Generously spread the almond sugar cookie frosting on the chilled cookies and serve or chill some more before serving.
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