Hi. We need to talk…
About THISSSS – Cookie Butter from Trader Joe’s!!
I saw a friend tweet about this stuff the other day and pretty much went out and bought a jar immediately after, which was pretty much the best decision I ever made. Cookie Butter is basically a biscoff/ginger snap flavored spread with a peanut butter consistency, which you can smear on apples, turn into cookies or, cough, eat off the spoon – muwahahaha!
Or you can heat up a dollop with a splash of milk and drizzle it over 1-ingredient banana “ice cream” for dessert, like I did last night. OMG! Top 5 most amazing desserts ever! Must. Try!
PS Biscoff cookies make me think of the last time I flew Delta, the airline that offers them for snacks, and how when the flight attendant got to my row with the snack cart mid-flight and asked the guy next to me, “Peanuts, pretzels, or cookies?” he replied “Yes.” She’s all “but…” and he’s all “Right, yes.”
She was so mad but eventually handed everything over. Bahaha!
In other news, I’ve got a humdinger of a recipe to share with you today – BAKED Crab Rangoons! 
It’s a fact that Ben and I are Chinese food addicts. It’s a weekly battle talking ourselves out of going to the $5 all-you-can-eat Chinese food buffet at HyVee, and while he’s a Beef and Mushroom kind of guy and I’m a Sesame Chicken kind of girl, we’re definitely a Crab Rangoon kind of couple.
Creamy, savory inside, crispy, oil-pocked outside – DELISH, right?! But bad. So bad! I literally can’t think of anything worse for you than fried cream cheese. Well, fried butter, obvi…but still.
We never get them, per my previous statement, but I recently decided to try and create a lightened up version that we could enjoy with our lighter Chinese food recipes. Enter, Baked Crab Rangoons!
I started with the filling, which I lightened up by using 1/3 less fat cream cheese cut with fat-free sour cream. Then I mixed in a bunch of flavor-packed ingredients like garlic, soy sauce and ginger. Finally I added in flaky, uber-flavorful crab.
I know, I was scared too, at first. Canned crab? It couldn’t be any worse than imitation crab I decided, so I gave it a go.
After I mixed up the crab filling for the rangoons, I wrapped it up in won ton wrappers. I use these puppies for everything from Prosciutto Ravioli to homemade Pot Stickers. Love ‘em!
I placed about a Tablespoon of the crab mixture in the center of each wrapper, then wet two sides with water.
Next I folded it in half and pressed around the filling to remove any air pockets (which will result in a crab rangoon explosion in the oven!) and pressed the edges tightly to seal.
Start to finish, it probably took me 20 minutes to mix up the filling and make about 20 rangoons. Not bad!
After I got all the rangoons made, I placed them on a non-stick sprayed, foil-lined baking sheet and sprayed the tops with more non-stick spray.
Into a hot oven for about 10 minutes…
and BLAMMO!
I could not tell that this filling was lightened up at. all. It was just as creamy as anything you’d find in a Chinese restaurant, and that crab was awesome! So glad I tried it!
Baked Crab Rangoon
Adapted from Food.com
Makes approx 20 Crab Rangoon
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons fat-free sour cream
8oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
1 green onion, sliced thin
1 clove garlic , minced
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup white crab meat, drained
wonton wrappers
Directions:
1. Combine sour cream, cream cheese, green onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sugar in a bowl. Fold in crab.
2. Lay out 4 wonton wrappers at a time and place about 1 Tablespoon filling into the center. Wet two sides and fold the wonton wrapper over. Press down to seal tightly, making sure to press around the filling first to remove any air pockets.
3. Preheat the oven to 415 degrees. Place crab rangoon on a foil-lined, non-stick sprayed baking sheet and spray the tops with more non-stick spray. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Do not freeze and bake.
I served my baked rangoons with a Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce that was off the charts good.
Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
From SheSimmers.com
Makes about 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
1 red serrano pepper, deseeded
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoons water
Directions:
1. Combine garlic, pepper, sugar, water, vinegar and salt in a food processor. Process until chili and garlic are finely processed. Pour into a small saucepan and cook on medium heat until chili flakes soften, about 3 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water. Pour into the sweet chili mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick, about another 2-3 minutes. Pour into a jar and let cool.
This sauce was AWESOME! I was so glad I didn’t buy a store-bought jar, which I was originally going to do, because this was incredibly easy and delicious. A little sour, a little sweet and a little heat. Awesomeness.
These babies are definitely keepers. I was actually really surprised at how much I ended up liking them! Cheesy, crispy and relatively guilt-free. Well, as far as Crab Rangoon go! 
Month of Holiday Giveaways
The fa-la-la-la-lucky winner of the One Sydney Road Anna Earrings is…
Susie @ Foodie fabulista: I am most excited about Santa bringing a Barbie house for my almost 5 year old–I can’t WAIT to see her face:)
Congrats Susie! Email your full name, address and Ph# to IowaGirlEats@gmail.com and we’ll get your earrings right out to you. To everyone else, don’t forget you have until Tuesday @ 5pm to enter to win a Fitbit Ultra!
Have a great night!
~~~~~
What’s your favorite holiday movie?
I’m going to go with Little Women – a classic! Also, please tell me I wasn’t the only one reciting the lines pretty much verbatim while watching it on the CW last night?!
The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven. Not to be missed!
I recently made petite lasagnas using wonton wrappers so now I have half of the wontons waiting to be used.
I would totally use them for this recipe.
P.S. You have really nice skin
Kristen–the Cookie spread looks amazing. Where can I buy it? (you may have said already, but I missed it,if so.) Happy Holidays! Hillary
It’s from Trader Joe’s
Ahhh! I love Crab Rangoons! And I love your use of Wonton Wrappers! Will have to try this soon!
Thanks for this great recipe!! When I try to “Pin It” I’m getting an Invalid URL message. Thoughts?
Make sure this is the URL you are on: http://iowagirleats.com/2011/12/12/baked-crab-rangoon-recipe-osr-giveaway-winner/
I think if you come in from a RSS reader, or are on “page 1″ instead of the actual post it gives you some trouble!
Made the crab rangoons tonight. They got all ‘splodey in my oven, but ohemgee were they good! I guess I got all excited and missed that crucial step. Might have to try them again next wee–nay–tomorrow lol!
I tried the recipe as well and no matter how hard I tried to get rid of air pockets they always exploded on me! What do I do to stop this?
Ack – I’m so sorry, I really have no idea! Maybe make sure your wonton wrappers are really super fresh? Otherwise you could maybe try cutting a small slit on top of the rangoons to let the steam escape during cooking ?
Yay! You found the cookie butter! It does taste like Biscoffs!
Hi there,
I’m trying to prepare some food ahead of time for a party and I’m curious to know why you specifically instructed “do not freeze and bake” as I was hoping to do just that! Is it a soggy-factor in the thaw? What do you think about baking and then freezing and reheating in an oven?
Thanks!
Exactly – I froze-then-cooked them straight from the freezer and they didn’t cook right. They were ok frozen, then thawed, then cooked, but best made the same day they’re assembled!
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So I made these tonight and the flavors were delish!! My husband and I love crab rangoons a little too much:) But I did have a problem with a minor “crab explosion in the oven!) I thought I pressed the air out…apparently not well enough! Any pointers???
Hmmm, maybe just make sure the side are really well sealed?!
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Oh my goodness I love those biscoff cookies!! I’ve never seen this at our local TJ’s…I must find it!
The crab rangoon is delicious! The filling tastes just like in the restaurant. For some reason only the edges got brown and crisp but they were still very good. Thank you!
OMG. I just bought the Cookie Butter. The. Best. Thing. EVER. I’ll never lose weight now!
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Instead of spraying cooking spray on aluminum, you can get non stick foil.
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