Life
If you’re in something of a baking rut, exhausted by sourdough starters or just generally sick of making stuff from scratch, welcome. Some of us have been here for a hot minute. Here, in this baking safe haven, we are ready and willing to acknowledge the fact that there are plenty of recipe hacks for store-bought cookie dough. So, put down that bag of flour — we’re going full Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee.
We needn’t reinvent the wheel especially when that wheel is made of cookie dough. There’s the classic Toll House break-apart cookies. There’s the Pillsbury tube of sugar cookie dough. From there, there’s pretty much every iteration of cookie dough your sweet tooth could dream of. There’s cookie dough inspired by Frozen II. There’s cookie dough with marshmallow pieces. There’s cookie dough with Oreo crumbles, cookie dough with rainbow M&M minis, cookie dough with Reese’s peanut butter, Funfetti cookie dough, even cookie dough infused with pumpkin spice. There is a pre-made, store-bought cookie dough for any and all of your cookie dough dreams.
Honestly, the most difficult part of most of these recipes is deciding which pre-made cookie dough to go with. Once you’ve got your store-bought dough tube of choice, all you’ll need to do is pick from one of the 11 recipe ideas for pre-made cookie dough that aren't your standard cookies.
1
S’mores Cookie Skillet
Break out that cast iron skillet and press your cookie dough into it creating a “crust.” Let it bake for a bit but take it out with 5 or so minutes to spare. Then, top it with chocolate chunks, marshmallows, maybe some graham cracker crumbs, and pop it back in the oven to let everything get melty and gooey. Voila! A s’mores cookie skillet.
2
Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins
As Food Network brilliantly points out, a tube of chocolate chip cookie dough can easily become a pan of muffins. All you need to do is let your dough sit out at room temperature. Then, mash two ripe bananas into the mix. Bake at 350°F until golden brown and revel in the fact that you just turned one baked good into a completely different baked good.
3
Stuffed Cookies
You know you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to try out this sugary concoction. Now is that time. Put Oreos inside of premade chocolate chip cookie dough. Press caramel squares in sugar cookie dough. Create a little well into a ball of double chocolate cookie dough and spoon in some Nutella. There is really wrong way to stuff cookie dough.
4
Mini Cookie Bites
Something about making food miniature makes it better. Maybe it’s because it’s cuter. Maybe it’s because you feel like you can eat more. Either way, just take golf-ball-sized pieces of your premade dough, press them into a lined mini-muffin tin, and top accordingly. Add sprinkles to your Funfetti cookies. Add a Hershey’s Kiss to your chocolate chip cookie dough. Stick an entire Oreo atop some peanut butter cookie dough. The world is your cookie oyster.
5
Fruit Pizza
Pillsbury recommends making fruit pizza with your sugar cookie dough. Top your sugar cookie crust with a cheesecake frosting and your fruit of choice. They recommend kiwi, strawberries, and blueberries.
6
Cheesecake Bars
Sub out a graham cracker crust for a tube of cookie dough. Some pumpkin spice cookie dough would be perfect but you could use pretty much any kind of dough. Then, top the crust with your favorite cheesecake filling and enjoy!
7
Cookie Pops
Cake pop purists, avert thine eyes. You can turn premade cookie dough into a delicious cookie pop in no time. Just bake the cookies as per usual, break apart the cooled cookies into a bowl, add some frosting, and form into balls. Nestle’s Very Best Baking recommends using cream cheese to bind your crumbled cookies together.
8
Chocolate Chip Cookie-Stuffed Soft Pretzels
Half Baked Harvest has created an otherworldly wonder: cookies inside a soft pretzel. It’s sweet! It’s salty! It’s a snack and a dessert all in one and it’s perfect. To save a little time, use storebought cookie dough rather than making it from scratch.
9
Lemon Pound Cake
With just a few ingredients, you can turn a tube of sugar cookie dough into an entire lemon pound cake. All you’ll need is some sour cream, lemon, egg, blueberries, and powdered sugar. You can see the entire recipe on Pillsbury’s website.
10
Berry Streusel Tart
Transform a tube of sugar cookie dough into a crumbly berry tart. Check out Kroger’s tart recipe, which only uses six ingredients, one of which is premade cookie dough.
11
Bread Pudding
Add chocolate chip cookie dough to your bread pudding base for a leveled-up version of the brunch-y dessert. Nestle’s Very Best Baking has a recipe that uses a loaf of crusty bread and a can of condensed milk for the perfectly balanced bread pudding.
If all else fails, you can always just bake your cookies as per usual and slap some ice cream in between to make an ice cream cookie sandwich. Inventive? Not exactly but still equally delicious.
