Star Fruit Chips with Cookie Butter Cream

Crispy-sweet, baked star fruit chips, dunked in a dreamy, creamy blend of cookie butter and whipped topping. Incredibly easy, undeniably unique, and extra sensational. 

Talk about unique! Star fruit (also called Carambola) is a wonderful fruit that tastes like a combination of apples and grapes. It's a firm fruit that, when sliced crosswise, creates star-shaped pieces. You can certainly eat it raw, but I wanted to create "chips" so I could dunk them in cookie butter dip (the fruit is actually firm enough to dunk, but you know how I like to explore possibilities with foods...). 

Now for the cookie butter. What is it? Cookie butter is a spread (it has the consistency of peanut butter), made from cookie crumbs, condensed milk or butter, flour, and sugar. The flavor is like a subtle gingerbread, with hints of cinnamon. Biscoff has a version, as does Trader Joe's. I bought my cookie butter from Sprouts, my local farmer's market (they have their own brand too). It's awesome on its own, but I wanted to lighten it up to make it "dippable". It's truly amazing!

Oh, and this recipe is for 1 star fruit, but you can easily double or triple the recipe. 

Star Fruit Chips with Cookie Butter Cream

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 lemon
1 star fruit, cut crosswise into very thin slices, about 1/16-inch
1/2 cup Cool Whip or other non-dairy whipped topping
2-3 tablespoons cookie butter

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, sugar and about 3 slices of the lemon. Set the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat, remove the lemon slices and add the star fruit slices. If necessary, press the fruit down so it's covered by the syrup. Let stand for 15 minutes.
Drain the star fruit (reserve the syrup for another use if you want) and let the fruit sit in the colander for another 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Arrange the star fruit slices in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 1 1/2 -2 hours, until crisp (thicker slices will take closer to 2 hours).
Remove the pan from the oven and let the fruit cool.
To make the dip, combine the Cool Whip and cookie butter (start with 2 tablespoons and add more if you feel it needs more).
Serve the star fruit chips with the cookie butter on the side.
Serves 4