Fudge Stripes Cookies

Do you have a favorite cookie from your childhood? For me, Fudge Stripes cookies rank way up there... And now you can recreate the classic cookies at home with this easy-to-make Fudge Stripes cookies recipe.

(This recipe for Fudge Stripes Cookies was originally published in March 2012, but was updated with new photos in 2020).

I make a lot of cookies in my kitchen. Which means I almost always have a batch of cookies tempting me from the countertop. But I also have a guilty little secret... I sometimes buy store-bought cookies, too. Because some cookies just can't be replicated at home.

Some of these cookies include EL Fudge (so underrated and so good!), Chewy Chips Ahoy!, and Milano cookies. Another cookie that was once in that category but has now been removed? Keebler's Fudge Stripes. I swear there's something those little elves do that makes Fudge Stripes absolutely irresistible and so easy to just eat and eat and eat.

Let me tell you, living next to a 7-11 and having a very sweet fiancé who's always willing to run out to said 7-11 is very dangerous. Fudge Stripes whenever I want, no questions asked. Eeek.

Well, guess what? After experimenting with this Fudge Stripes cookies recipe from Annie's Eats, not only do I now feel like I AM a Keebler Elf, but I've also somehow made these delicious cookies even easier to access. And I'm not sorry about it.

Believe it or not, making Fudge Stripes cookies at home is actually quite easy. They're pretty much a simple shortbread cookie covered in chocolate on one side and chocolate stripes on the other. One difference with this recipe is that it involves clarified butter. This butter is easy to make from regular butter and gives the cookies a bit of a nuttier taste.

HOW TO MAKE CLARIFIED BUTTER

First of all, you might be wondering what is clarified butter?? Simply put, it's butter that has the milk solids and water removed so that it's pure butterfat. You might also know it as "ghee" if you do any Indian food cooking. Homemade naan with ghee is the best! And the Whole30 diet has made clarified butter quite popular in recent times.

To make your own, just melt butter in a saucepan and watch the solids separate from the fat. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let butter sit for about 5 minutes before skimming off that foam on top.

Then, pour the yellow liquid into a separate bowl, making sure to leave the remaining milk solids at the bottom of the pan. Easy!

One thing to note is that if you're making clarified butter for a recipe, be sure to start with more butter than you need (you'll end up with about 75% of the butter you started with after clarifying). So, since I needed ½ cup of butter (8 Tbsp) for these cookies, I melted 12 Tbsp.

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE FUDGE STRIPES COOKIES

Once your butter has been clarified, you're ready to make the Fudge Stripes cookie dough. All you have to do is combine flour, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer. Mix in corn syrup, butter, and vanilla just until dough comes together.

Remove dough from mixer bowl, form into a flat disk, and wrap with plastic wrap. I like to flatten my dough as much as I can in the plastic wrap so it makes it easier to roll. Chill in fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Once chilled, roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into a large round about ¼" in thickness. With a 2 ½" round cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, or drinking glass, begin cutting out rounds. You'll need a smaller round to cut out the center hole. I used a little pastry tip. Once you've cut out as many rounds as you can, gather up the leftover dough, re-roll, and cut more rounds.

Place the dough rounds on parchment- or Silpat-covered cookie sheets and poke little holes in them with a fork. I ended up getting about 22 rounds with my dough.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes. Let cool on pans for a few minutes before moving to racks to cool completely.

Now it's time to get your chocolate on. The original recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, but I didn't feel like that taste was true to the Keebler Elves Fudge Stripes cookies, so I went with semisweet instead.

If you want your chocolate to stay melt-free when stored at room temperature, you'll need to temper it. I recommend using this guide to learn how to temper chocolate. I actually didn't temper it this time and my cookies stayed great (the chocolate only got melty when being held in a warm hand). I melted my chocolate in a double boiler, but you can also do it in a heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.

Once chocolate is melted, dip each of the cooled cookies into it and place on parchment-covered cookie sheets to dry. When all cookies are dipped, fill a pastry bag, plastic bag, or squeeze bottle with the remaining chocolate and draw stripes over the cookies.

I am pretty much the messiest baker in the world, but ended up with pretty OK results here. I may not be a Keebler Elf and I don't have the steadiest hand, but I thought my stripes were passable!

Let chocolate dry (you can put cookies in the fridge to speed this up) and then enjoy this glorious childhood (OK, adulthood) treat.

These Fudge Stripes cookies really are, quite simply, a shortbread cookie with chocolate, but there's something about them that's so incredible. I'm not even usually a big fan of shortbread cookies. Maybe it's the clarifying of the butter? I might have to do that more often from now on.

Just like with the package of store-bought cookies, once you start snacking you can't stop. And I have to tell you; these taste pretty darn close to the real thing. Fudge Stripes cookies made at home? We can all do it! Might I even say they're uncommonly good? hehe.

They also go fantastically with a cup of afternoon coffee. Or with a glass of milk, of course.

I thought it was a good idea to be able to make these cookies from scratch, but now I'm even more worried that every time I get the craving, I'll immediately run to my kitchen and whip up 2 dozen of these cookies.

They're easy. And if I'm not blogging about them and not sharing them, they don't have to look even remotely attractive. I can make fudge squiggle cookies instead of fudge stripes. And you'll never know how many I eat on a nightly basis.

At least Chris won't have to run to 7-11 anymore at 11 p.m.? I'll count that as a victory for him.

What classic childhood cookie would you like to recreate at home?

If you're looking for more recipes that might remind you of your childhood, try my Cherry Lime Pop Tarts and my Blueberry Cornmeal Cakes. And I really want to try these Homemade Oreo Cookies from Baked Ambrosia!

📖 Recipe