If you buy too much phyllo dough for this recipe and you’re trying to figure out what to do with the rest, we also use it to make Spanakopita, which is a Greek spinach pie that’s great for dinner.

Cookie Butter Baklava Recipe

Affiliate links are included in this post and Drugstore Divas may make a small commission if you use them.

Cookie Butter Baklava Ingredients:

You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.

• Phyllo dough – You can find this in the freezer section of your grocery store, near the puff pastry and frozen pie crusts.
• Butter – We use salted butter in this recipe so the salt incorporate into the custard evenly. If you use unsalted butter, you want to add a pinch of salt to the custard.
• Eggs – Large, white eggs are fine.
• Heavy cream – This adds a thickness to the custard mixture and adds a nice sweetness that you don’t get if you use plain milk.
• Pure vanilla extract – This adds a sweetness to the dessert, which helps because phyllo dough is not sweet and you’re not adding any sugar.
• Cookie butter spread – You can find this in the grocery store near the peanut butter. You can substitute anything similar, like peanut butter, Nutella, almond butter, etc., although those all have different flavors and will make a different dessert.

How To Make Cookie Butter Baklava:

Quick note before we start: Phyllo dough comes frozen and you need to defrost it before you can use it. So, according to the package, you want to leave it out at room temperature for a couple hours to fully defrost it.

If you forgot to do that, that’s fine.

Microwave the phyllo dough — still wrapped in the plastic packing it comes in, but not in the paper box — on high for one minute. The middle may still be a little cool, but it will be warm enough to cut and use for this recipe.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Spray a square pan (either 8 x 8 or 9 x 9) with cooking spray.

If you don’t have cooking spray, you can just use a little bit of butter to grease the pan.

Cut the phyllo dough into quarter inch strips.

You can cut them directly into the square pan.

After it’s cut, unravel the pieces of phyllo dough to make long strips and place them in the bottom of the square pan.

If you leave them rolled, you’ll end up with large bites of phyllo dough that aren’t covered with the custard mixture. That can result in a really dry dessert.

Melt half the butter in a microwave-safe bowl.

Crack an egg directly into the bowl with the melted butter.

Add the heavy cream to the bowl.

Whisk with a fork, until everything is combined, to make a custard mixture.

You want to do the last three steps pretty quickly. And you want to whisk very quickly, too.

If you don’t, you run the risk of the hot melted butter cooking the egg a little, which can result in scrambled eggs in your dessert. And no one wants that.

It’s the same concept as when you’re making carbonara and add the pasta water to the egg and then whisk very quickly to avoid scrambled eggs.

Add the vanilla extract to the bowl.

Stir until combined.

Pour the custard mixture on top of the pieces of phyllo dough.

When you’re pouring it, make sure you’re pouring slowly so that you cover all of the phyllo dough. You don’t wanna leave any of it dry because then it could potentially burn.

Add about 2/3 of the jar of cookie butter into a microwave-safe bowl.

Microwave for 30 seconds until it becomes runny.

If you don’t do this, it’ll be very hard to spread the cookie butter, and you’ll end up ripping your phyllo dough.

Slowly pour the melted cookie butter into the center of the phyllo dough strips.

Use an icing knife, or the back of a spoon, to spread the cookie dough out almost all the way to the edge.

You can spread it to the edge if you want, but we always leave just a little bit of space to make a crust.

Cut the second sheet of phyllo dough into quarter-inch strips.

Unraveled them and put them on top of the melted cookie butter layer.

Quick note: If you cut the strips directly into the pan this time, they’ll get stuck to the melted cookie butter and it’ll be a little hard to unravel the strips, which results in those clumps of phyllo dough that we are trying to avoid.

So, cutting them into a separate bowl and unraveling them before placing them on top is the best way to go.

Make the second batch of custard.

So, just like before, melt the butter, crack in the egg, add in the heavy cream and vanilla, and stir.

Pour the second half of the custard on top of the phyllo dough.

Could you make all of the custard at once and then just put it in half? Sure. But, it’s just easier doing it this way to assure that you’re using the custard evenly.

Bake for about 15 minutes until the phyllo dough is a beautiful golden brown.

Depending on your oven temperature, you may need to add an additional five minutes to your baking time.

Melt a little more of the cookie butter in a microwave-safe bowl.

Use a spoon to drizzle it on top of the baked pastry.

You don’t have to do this, but it does look prettier if you do.

If you wanted, you could sprinkle some powdered sugar on top as decoration as well.

You can either serve this Cookie Butter Baklava straight out out of the oven, which means the cookie butter will be soft and melted, or you can serve this cool. It’s delicious either way.

Cookie Butter Baklava: Frequently Asked Questions