Stuffed Cookies Are Made Easy With An Ice Cube Tray

There's only one thing better than freshly baked cookies: Cookies that are stuffed with chocolate, caramel, or another fun sweet surprise. While making stuffed cookies is not too difficult a task, it does require you to spend a good amount of time spreading out the cookies, inserting the piece of chocolate or caramel, and then rolling each cookie before it's ready to bake.

But, as it turns out, if you have an ice cube tray — as most of us do — you can speed up the process. All you have to do is push pieces of cookie dough — whether homemade or store-bought — into each square of the ice cube tray. If you're using the store-bought pre-cut squares, then you'll want to split each in half, starting by pressing just one half into the square. Then, add the chocolate or caramel piece atop the cookie dough, pressing it down into the dough, and finish by adding more cookie dough on top (the second half of the precut square).

Next, cover with plastic wrap and pop the ice cube tray in the freezer to set the dough — about an hour should be sufficient, but it can last for up to two months if you aren't ready to make the stuffed cookies the same day that you prep them. Finally, bake the cookies according to the instructions on the packaging (if store-bought) or the recipe you used for homemade cookie dough.

Making stuffed cookies with either a piece of chocolate or a piece of caramel in the middle is probably the most common iteration, but there are plenty of other options to try out. Firstly, it's important to note that using a regular-sized ice cube tray does limit what you can stuff a cookie with, but you can always seek out an ice cube tray with larger square molds to widen your choices.

For example, maybe you want to make double chocolate cookies stuffed with peppermint patties for a holiday sweet treat. Other candies that work well as stuffing include Rolos, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and even chocolate truffles. Or, you could look at other cookies and whip up a batch of sugar cookies stuffed with Oreos. Another classic stuffed cookie idea is using small brownie pieces inside of, really, just about any type of cookie — who doesn't love a little extra chocolate? For something a little more unique, you could stuff pieces of white chocolate into red velvet cookies or peanut butter cookies stuffed with marshmallows.

The possibilities are endless. And, with the easy ice cube tray method, you can keep trying out ideas until you find your favorite.