As I mentioned the other day, the most anticipated item from my Trader Joe’s haul was Cookie Butter. Everything I heard and read about it had me super excited and curious about the magic that would be unleashed when I cracked open a jar.

First, let me try my best to describe Cookie Butter: it has the consistency of peanut butter, but tastes like a gingerbread/graham cracker hybrid. It’s smooth, but has little tiny crunchy cookie bits.

I have to be honest and report that I just wasn’t blown away when I tried it.  Am I the first person on the internet to make this controversial statement? Don’t turn against me, internet!  Of course it took a few tries to figure out exactly what it was that I didn’t like about it. I finally put my finger on it, and it’s this: the main thing that turned me away was that it has a bit of a greasy texture, like icing made with shortening instead of butter. You know I can’t just get on board with that.  I guess that’s why it took me four months to tackle this baking challenge.

I tried it in three different formats, so these are the recipes I went with:

Cookie Butter Blondies

Cookie Butter Scones

Cookie Butter Sandwich Cookies

I’m sorry to report that I just didn’t love any of them. Nicole was over for our annual holiday baking extravaganza (more on that later) and sampled a bite of all three, and declared the cookies her favourite. I guess I would choose the blondies, in terms of texture and format, but I think maybe I was just Cookie Buttered out by the end of this experiment.

If you’ve made anything with Cookie Butter, or just enjoy eating it out the jar with a spoon, please report back in the comments and try to change my mind!