Hello stranger. Ugh, my laptop is on the fritz, and if you saw the angle I have to manipulate the screen you'd wonder why I bother. So, I used this as one of my many excuses to not blog last week-tisk, tisk-I know! This week I decided to make a conscience effort to not make anything that contained chocolate or coffee. Clearly, I know what I enjoy, however I need to branch out a little and explore other ingredients. I also wanted a recipe that was going to be fairly easy on me. I had run myself down to the wire, and it was too late for anything that called for multiple steps that came with fillings or glazes. So I present... Butterscotch Sundae Cookies!
Recipe courtesy King Arthur Cookie Companion
3 Tbsp. plus 3/4 c. unsalted butter-at room temp.
2 c. small pecan halves
3/4 tsp. plus 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 c. dark brown sugar
A few drops butter-rum flavor to taste
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 c. flour
1 c. butterscotch chips
1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. In med. sized skillet, melt 3 Tbsp. butter over low heat, and add the pecans. Stir for a couple minutes , until the nuts begin to brown and smell toasty.
3. Sprinkle with 3/4 tsp. salt, stir to combine, and remove the pan from burner. Transfer nuts to a small bowl.
4. In a med. sized bowl, cream together the remaining 3/4 c. butter, sugar, and butter-rum flavor, then beat in the eggs. Beat in the remaining 1/4 tsp salt, baking powder, and baking soda, then stir in the flour, reserved pecans, and chips.
5. Drop the dough by the tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 13 minutes, until they are a deep golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and transfer to a rack to cool.
These cookies are as simple as making a batch of Chocolate Chip cookies. However, butter-rum flavor isn't a common ingredient in the house and neither is dark brown sugar if you don't bake often with it. Thankfully, these things aren't too hard to find (well... the dark brown sugar isn't anyway). Around in this area we have a store called Cake Craft. I love it! The women are lovely and helpful and they offer all kinds of cool things for a baker-professional or novice. I'm actually taking some classes there. But, ANYWAY... this store is where I found butter-rum flavoring, which I happened to pick up a couple weeks ago. I knew that I would be using it eventually, and look... I did! Now if you can't find it where you live, then Google a bake supply store or go to King Arthur's website. When you buy flavoring this concentrated you need to buy a little dropper; at Cake Craft they were with all of the other oil, extract and flavor bottles. I used three drops in the recipe.
Honestly, I was afraid that these weren't going to be all that great. My head wasn't in it, and I didn't stir in the flour. I threw it in and let my paddle mixer do the work on a medium speed. Then, my nuts were still warm when I added them to the batter, so I ended up stirring a glossy batter... oops. I threw it in the fridge, had some dinner and came back to it. I scooped them out on to my pan, and when they came out of the oven they looked yummy. Thank the Lord that these are some forgiving cookies!
My verdict: These are the perfect balance of sweet and salty, which I adore. They are crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle-well they are when they're fresh out of the oven anyhow. There is also no mistaking that these are indeed butterscotch cookies, and while I don't normally like nuts they add a nice texture and very mild flavor. I had these today (not fresh out of the oven), and I thought they were a little dry. I think if I do these again I won't bake them as long.
Survey Results: These got a 3.83 out of 12 surveys. I was beginning to wonder if people were being too nice, and then these cookies came along. I got a lot of, "I don't care for butterscotch" or "They were dry", the latter of which I completely agree. I think this week's cookie I'll go back to my favorite stand-by...chocolate.
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