4th of July Layered Cookie Cake
I saw this recipe in my Google Reader and knew instantly that I would be making it soon. Since my family was going to be in town for the holiday and we all love cookie cakes, I had the perfect opportunity. And I would have the opportunity to use my flag plate which only comes out once a year.
My little sister and I made the cake and everyone LOVED it! The filling between layers was a perfect compliment to the chewy chocolatey cookie layers. We halved the recipe and it made about 12 servings. We made it with half chocolate chips and half M&Ms so that it was festive for the 4th of July. We had my little brother sort out a bag of M&Ms and just pull out the red and blue ones. What a great guy!
Below, I am listing the halved recipe that I used. Please see original post for original recipe and her story about the cookie cake. We used a small flag and some festive cupcake decorations so spice up the look of the cake. The cookies were very moist and easy to cut through. I ended up only using about 3/4 of the filling and it worked out to be a good ratio of cookie to filling.
Layered Cookie Cake – from Dozen Flours – originally from Martha Stewart Online
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
6 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
6 Tbsp heavy cream
3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cups red and blue M&Ms
If you have a Silpat mat: Trace an 6 1/2 inch circle on a piece of parchment paper using a marker. Place it face up on a cookie sheet. Place your Silpat mat face up on top of the parchment. You should be able to see the circle you drew peeking beneath the Silpat. If you don’t have a Silpat mat, flip the parchment paper face down on the cookie sheet.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Put butter and brown and granulated sugars into mixer bowl and mix on medium until well combined (it will look very dry and not fluffy at all). Mix in vanilla, eggs, and yolks. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the cream. Stir in chocolate chips and M&Ms.
Divide the batter evenly into 3 bowls. Drop batter onto center of baking sheet. Keep unbaked dough refrigerated while the other dough is baking. Using a small offset spatula, spread into a circle, using the drawing on the parchment paper, or as close as you can get it.
Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate cookie and reshape if necessary (mine did not need to be reshapen). Bake for 8-10 more minutes untile edges are golden brown. DO NOT OVER COOK! Remember you’re going to have to cut through all 3 cookies. Slightly under-cooked cookies is what you want. Transfer to wire rack; let cool. Can be stored airtight up to 1 day.
Cream Cheese Filling2 8oz packages of full fat cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cups confectioners’ sugar
Mix cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar in clean mixer bowl on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Divide in half spread onto 2 cookies. Stack cookies onto a cake board or platter, placing unfrosted cookie on top. Refrigerate until frosting is set, at least 20 minutes or overnight. Serve at room temperature.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Dark chocolate truffles in cookie form? Um, YES!!! I’ll take a dozen for myself and another dozen for later, please.
Wow – these sound good! and I truly do not understand how people can just “not be into chocolate!” It is my favorite!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:26 pm
Yea, I really don’t get it either. Oh well, more for me!
Oh wow, chocolate truffle cookies sound divine! These look ridiculously good! Love that they’re salted too!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:27 pm
I have been sprinkling salt on all of my cookies recently. It makes them much more adult and less super-sweet.
Yum these look divine!
I’m always in need of a chocolate fix! I have several friends that claim they are not chocolate people, yet I find whenever I make something chocolate + salt, they are all over it!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:28 pm
I definitely find that people who claim they aren’t chocolate people rarely say no to any homemade baked goods. Chocolate or otherwise.
Oh my! These look divine 🙂 I’d love to make these babies soon!
these look amazing!! and how thick that batter is 🙂 love the sea salt!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:29 pm
The batter was basically ganache. You could have just made truffles from it directly.
I love any and all things dark chocolate. These look so decadent!
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you’re working with?
I’m having some minor security problems with my latest blog and I’d like to find something
more safeguarded. Do you have any suggestions?
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:56 pm
I use WordPress
Wow! Those look so perfectly decadent! I’m practically drooling on my screen 😉
Just made these. Worried I didn’t bake them long enough… however they still tasted divine. Waiting to get the verdict from my husband on them.
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:11 pm
I think underbaking these sounds like a great idea. I might have to do that next time.
Since I’m trying this recipe for the first time, can I halve the entire recipe?
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:12 pm
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I didn’t see this comment until now! I don’t see why you couldn’t make a half batch of these cookies. Did you try it? How did they turn out?
These are the most amazing chocolate cookies I have ever made. Everyone with whom I have shared them have gone absolutly nuts and want the recipe. I do not wet my hands when rolling the cookies into balls—too messy. I just let my hands get sticky and rinse and dry them after making several balls. This is one of the best recipes on Pinterest.
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:13 pm
Thanks for the kind words! So glad you enjoy these cookies. I was wondering if getting my hands wet actually helped with the messiness very much. Next time I’ll be sure to just go at it without dealing with the water.
Hey! I tried halving the recipe…but it melted while in the oven. Became runny & all of them just stuck together 🙁
I tried just one batch. Anything I can do to fix the remaining batter?
beantownbaker — June 18th, 2013 @ 4:01 pm
Interesting… How did you account for half of an egg? And is your baking powder past it’s expiration date?
Ohh! Looks like I’ve added a lil too much egg. Damn! Any way I can fix the batter? Add more flour perhaps? Plz help!
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 7:12 am
I’d add a little more flour to see if you can balance out the extra amount of egg in there.
I added 1/4 cup more flour & a teensy bit of baking powder to my messed up batter & they came out wonderfully! They’re so gooey & yumm that my husband & son (who never eats chocolate!) finished six cookies at one go!
Amazing recipe!! Thank you so much for your help, I appreciate it !
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 7:00 am
Oh GOOD! So glad you were able to make them work. Aren’t they divine?
U bet! They are sinfully delicious! Sent some in my son’s snack pack & I have mommies calling for these cookies!
I’m officially ur No.1 fan now! 🙂
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 7:18 am
Aww Thanks! 🙂
Hi, I was wondering if I could put them in the freezer instead of the fridge for a shorter period of time? If so, how long should I put them in the freezer for instead of the fridge?
beantownbaker — June 27th, 2013 @ 8:06 am
Hm. You could definitely try it. I would think it’s still going to need an hour or so in the freezer since you want it to set up pretty well. Let me know how it turns out if you do.