It pains me to confess this, but cookies and cream is one of my favorite ice cream flavors. Especially Ben & Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie ice cream (because mint chocolate chunk is another favorite), but I'll take any brand that makes a rich, creamy ice cream and giant chunks of Oreo. I'm always disappointed when I try a cookies and cream ice cream where everything has been blended together. The cookie pieces need to be sizeable. Why am I talking about ice cream in a blog post about cookies? I guess it's because the name of these cookies and cream cookies from Cookie and Cups makes me think of ice cream, not cookies. And now that I'm writing about them, I wish I had put these cookies and cream cookies on top of cookies and cream ice cream, because it would have been extra delicious.
I've already written about Shelly's fantastic cookbook, Cookie and Cups, when I posted about her phenomenally addictive confetti white chocolate bars. I've been meaning to talk about these Oreo-based cookies for ages now, and today I'm finally getting them up! 
These cookies are a great variation on a basic chewy chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips (because they contain tons of big Oreo pieces), but you could also make them your own by replacing half or all of the vanilla with mint extract, replacing the cocoa powder with flour while decreasing the sugar by ¼ cup, and/or substituting the white chocolate chips with milk chocolate chips.
As usual when baking with white chocolate, I highly recommend buying at least Ghiradelli-brand or higher quality white chocolate, or even better, buying white chocolate bars and chopping them into chunks. On a related note, as much as I love their giant 1-lb bars of chocolate, I haven't been pleased with the performance of Trader Joe's chocolate chips (semi-sweet or white), so I wouldn't recommend them here. Their Joe-Joe's (knock-off Oreos) will work great... especially the Candy Cane Joe-Joe's with the mint extract addition. [This post is not an advertisement for Trader Joe's, in case anyone might be concerned. I independently evangelize for the brand, because they rock.]
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (385 g) brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup (40 g) cocoa powder unsweetened
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ⅔ cups (373 g) flour
- 1 cup (6 oz) white chocolate chips or chopped pieces
- 12 Oreo cookies chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed.
- Add the egg and vanilla. Mix until just combined, then scrape down sides of the bowl.
- Add the cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat at medium-low speed until combined.
- Add the flour, mix on low speed until just combined, then scrape down sides of the bowl.
- Gently fold in the white chocolate chips and chopped Oreos until evenly distributed.
- Using a standard ice cream or cookie scoop (3 tablespoon/1.5 ounce capacity), drop mounds of the cookie dough 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. (At this point, you can freeze the dough balls in a single layer, then store them in a freezer-safe Ziploc for several months.)
- Bake for 8-9 minutes, until the edges are just set. It is better to under rather than over bake these.
- Transfer the cookie sheet to a wire rack, letting the cookies cool on the sheet for 3-4 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to the wire rack and let them cool completely.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
