Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies

Sometime in December, before Christmas, I'd come across a wonderful recipe for Gingerbread Butterscotch cookies on someone's blog. Unfortunately, I could not find it again. Which is a shame because their cookies looked awesome. Fortunately, Google saved the day as I came across this recipe over at Nestle's Very Best Baking Site.

I go totally gonzo for anything butterscotch. And I have a peculiar fondness for gingerbread despite the fact that the smell of molasses makes me feel ill. There's just something funky about the smell and texture of it. But when I'd seen the original recipe in December I still actually thought it was an interesting combination. Sometimes, when a particular thought takes root in your brain, you know you have to try it even if it turns out to be revolting.

This turned out to be soooo good. Seriously. You have to try it. First bite is sweet. Then about a few chews into the mouthful, the spiciness kicks in. The two flavors definitely balance each other out. Only shame was that I did not have any milk in the house to go with the cookies and considering it's about 4 degrees out there with the windchill and I'm in the mood to whine about the weather I wasn't about to go walk up to the grocery store.

I found the  dough to be very thick when I mixed it so for once, I did not dump the morsels in the mixer anyway and stirred them instead by hand. And despite the recommendations to let the cookies cool for 15, I started chowing down on them about halfway to that and they were perfectly fine. It's a pretty simple, easy to assemble yummy recipe, with only a few dishes to wash afterwards and to me that is the sign of a perfect recipe.


Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1/3 cup mild molasses
• 1 large egg
• 1 2/3 cups/11 oz pkg Butterscotch Morsels
  

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt in small bowl.

BEAT sugar, butter, molasses and egg in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour mixture until well blended. Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Root Beer Float Cookies

Two great things that  usually do NOT go very well together for me are boredom and imagination. However, what with the weather getting colder today and the rain, I didn't want to go out to the store. And I had just about had it with doing any more cleaning. So having played computer games until my brain fell asleep, I figured I might want to do some baking with the vague intention of bringing some into my coworkers (I keep it vague in case they're really really good in which case I usually do not want to share or really really bad).

So having a taste for something root beer related, I googled for root beer cookies, with part of me hoping that I might be the only person to have ever thought of something like this. Which did not happen as I came across several recipes for the root beer cookies, including  a lovely recipe by KC over at Grandma's Desserts for Root Beer Float Cookies. Which was okay with me. I might like a bit of culinary glory but I like quick guaranteed results when I gotta have my cookies and I gotta have them now.

Now considering I did not have the patience to let the butter completely soften plus having forgotten to set the timer when I put the cookies into the oven, these came out tasting pretty wonderful but a  little on the crunchier chewier side than I normally like with my cookies. Also, I cheated a bit on the frosting and mixed just the powdered sugar, a dash of milk and root beer extract for a glaze instead of a traditional frosting. And to be on the safe side, and avoid a full out cookie frenzy later, I just made 8 cookies, putting the rest of the dough into the fridge to chill before freezing them to make at a later day. My picture does not do them justice...they're actually a very nice looking cookie.

These hit the spot on a nasty weather day for sure.

Root Beer Float Cookies

Preheat oven to 375*

COOKIES

1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tsp. root beer extract
1 tsp. vanille
4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

FROSTING

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp. half and half
4 tsp. butter, softened

2 tsp. root beer extract

In a bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar, butter, buttermilk, eggs, root beer extract and vanilla.Combine until well blended.Add flour, baking soda and salt. Bet until a soft dough forms. Drop dough onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool complete before frosting.

Apple Butterscotch Cookies

This is probably not the best recipe to make if one is borderline psycho pms'd because you will, as I was, be gobbling these down off the rack and then when you're thinking you can't possible eat one more bite, realize that you are in love with the butterscotch frosting. And not only are you in love with the butterscotch frosting, you somehow find the room to eat another 4 cookies because the frosting makes them impossible to resist.

It's actually a fairly easy recipe to make all things considered but bear in mind this is a sticky dough when you're dropping it on the cookie sheet so they won't be perfectly formed. Also I made the glaze a little thicker so it was more of a frosting and skipped the walnuts in the frosting (mostly because I forgot them).

These are really rich cookies, so in theory a little goes a long way. And by a long way, I mean that I will be bringing the rest of them to work tomorrow with me to get them out of the house and far away from my greedy little hands.

Butterscotch Apple Cookies

from "Nestle's Best-Ever Cookies"

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup apple juice
1 2/3 cups (11 oz pkg) Butterscotch Morsels, divided
3/4 cup (1 small) unpeeled, grated apple (I used diced)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (divided)
Butterscotch Glaze (Recipe Follows)

Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Beat brown sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture, alternating with apple juice. Stir in 1 1/2 cups morsels, apple and 1/2 cup walnuts. Drop by slightly founded tablespoons onto lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Let stand for 2 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Spread with butterscotch glaze; sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

For Butterscotch Glaze:
Melt remaining morsels and 2 tbsp butter in small heavy duty saucepan over lowest possible heat. Remove from heat; stir in 1 cup sifted powedered sugar and 1 to 1/2 tbsp apple juice until smooth.

Spicy Maple Cookies

In my valiant quest to bake but not break the bank with buying new cookbooks since life without the internet at home, I've been resorting to flipping through my old cookbooks. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make but I knew there had to be maple involved with it. Just because sort of thing.

I wasn't quite sure how subsituting maple for the molasses called in the recipe would turn out, but four thumbs up (if I had them so which I don't  I'll have to borrow someone elses).

The original recipe called for a vanilla almond frosting but in my effort to be lazing and still produce something delicious, I settled for beating some powdered sugar mixed with brandy, vanilla extract and milk by hand with a fork until I got a nice thick glaze to pour over the cookies.



SPICY MAPLE COOKIES
adapted from Better Homes & Gardens Complete Book of Baking

1/3 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 cups flour
1 tbsp ground allspice
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Grease cookie sheet; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds or until softened.  Add brown sugar. Beat until combined. Beat in the egg and maple syrup until combined.
2. Stir together flour, allspice, baking soda and nutmeg. Beat as much of the flour mixture into the maple syrup mixture as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour mixture. Cover; chill 1 hour or until easy to handle.
3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.  Frost or glaze if desired.

DB: Macaroons

Alas, poor sorry macaroons..you deserved better.

After seeing all the gorgeous posts over at the Daring Bakers, I'm almost ashamed to post these. However, as misshapen as they are, they are also delicious even though I did not go as far as making my own homemade frosting. They were still delightful with Sarabeth's Strawberry Raspberry Jam.

I think after reading some of the other posts on the recipe that there's a few warning signs that I know now to observe for the future.

1. The consistency of the almond meal. I'd bought mine preground at the store and thought  it seemed a little grainy but figured that it would work itself out when I sifted it. I'm guessing now it did not.
2. The unexpected death of my sifter about 1/4 of the way through the recipe definitely did not help.
3. The suspicion that I did not beat my egg whites into hard peaks as I wasn't quite sure how far was too far after reading the warnings that it was imperative to not overbeat the eggs.
4. Possibility that the eggs weren't room temperature...according to Inga Garten on the Food Network, she leaves her eggs out overnight to bring them to room temp.

All things considered, I think the meringues were doomed before they even began.

Now I started out by being careful. I took my egg whites out and left them on the counter for 2 hours. I hovered over the mixer being careful to observe them going from froth to whipped. I had a small minor moment of despair when I tried to pipe directly onto the cookie pan before I gave up and piped into a small round cookie cutter but overcame that.

Still, flat tasty cookies.

So I think I would try this again, but I read a few tips over at the daring bakers that makes me think there could be light at the end of the tunnel. Among them, were:

I have made macarons many times before and I always use 3+ day old counter-dried egg whites and 1 tsp of egg white powder which really stabilises the egg whites. I always grind the almond meal with the icing sugar in a processor to obtain very fine meal and shift it THREE times this gives the smoothest shells and also I dry the piped shells for about one hour also.

These are not the quickest cookies to make although they're not terribly bad. Maybe 1 1/2 hours not including the "why are they spreading" meltdown you'll have if you follow my original lead.


Daring Bakers Macaroon Cookies
Adapted from Claudia Fleming

Ingredients

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)



Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Toffee Cookies

So a day of resting and meds did wonders for me as I felt up to making cookies tonight. I found a recipe for toffee chocolate chip cookies and thought, "hey I can do that." Did a little google search, found a recipe at allrecipes and away I went.

Now of course, I tweaked. The recipe called for toffee chips and milk chocolate chips. I had milk chocolate toffee chips and thought that was close enough. I ended up with a very soft dough but went ahead anyway as the dough tasted very good out of the mixing bowl.

They were tasty enough. I had 4 just to make sure I liked them. But they were crispier than I liked ... a kind of crispy chewy if that makes sense. I think because the dough spread out more than I had expected based on the picture at all recipes. Mine were pretty thin by the time I got them out of the oven.

In retrospect, I might add a little more flour next time and actually add more chocolate chips and a little less toffee bits. Or mostly chocolate chips and just a few toffee bits mixed in at the end. I have the rest of the dough in the bowl in my fridge yet and may take another shot at this in a day or so to see if a chilled dough and some more chocolate chips helps.

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup shortening 1/4 cup white sugar 1 egg 2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (kind of skipped this one - see notes above) 1 (6 ounce) package almond brickle chips (I used an 8 oz pkg toffee bits instead) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	Mix sugars, margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and brickle chips.
3.	Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9-10 minutes until lightly brown.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2009 Allrecipes.com

Cinnamon Fig Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now the recipe turned out a little different than I had expected but it's what happens when you modify and tweak a recipe you've never tried before. I had expecting a more traditional chewy chocolate chip type of cookie but ended up more with a cakey type of cookie.

The original recipe came from a computer game I bought several months back based on "Hells Kitchen." And what's best about the game is the in-game specials of the day that also include a downloadable recipe.

My biggest problem was I realized after I started making it that all of the ingredients are listed in ounces and pounds, not in cups and teaspoons. So I used my best judgment in guessing. Regular font is what was in the original recipes. Italics are what I came up with.

HK Game Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 3 dozen cookies depending on size

12 oz sugar (1 1/2 cups)
12 oz brown sugar ( 1 1/2 cups)
1 lb butter(same thing)
4 eggs (same)
1 oz vanilla extract (1 tablespoon)
1 pound 10 oz flour, preferably bread flour ( 6 cups regular flour)
1 oz baking soda (1 tbsp)
1 oz salt (1 tbsp)
1 1/2 pounds chocolate chips (1/2 12 oz bag)
(add: 2 tbsp cinnamon)
(add: 1 tbsp nutmeg)
(add: 6 figs chopped)

Cream the butter and sugars, add eggs one at at time, add vanilla. Mix all the dry ingredients and add in 2 parts. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

I deviated from the recipe from the get go. First, with guessing at measurements based on what I was able to find online, then by adding the extras. The mix was thicker until I threw in the figs and then I got a stickier dough....
I think my biggest problem was not adding enough chocolate chips. I liked the taste of the cookies with the spices, but I didn't get enough chocolate chip in my bite which is why I threw some extra ones on top. Also, I think next time I'll add more figs, but fold them into the dough by hand instead of using the mixer so the figs stay a little more intact. Possibly even adding chocolate chunks instead of chips too. The amount of figs I used didn't add any recognizable taste that I could tell.

Overall, I like it though. I'd rate it 3 stars myself because of the lack of chocolate chips. I would also want to either get a scale or a better conversion system before making it again, because as it was, the recipe made a lot more than 3 dozen cookies and I made some pretty good sized cookies at that.