A TASTE OF BUTTERSCOTCH
Each cookie, cake, muffin or candy that I make has a story. I can vividly remember each place that I find a recipe. If I look through a book or magazine and days later I am still thinking about a certain recipe that I saw, then I know I need to cut that out and keep it.
It’s a Tuesday evening and I am in the mood to bake something new. So the recipe that comes to mind if this one. This butterscotch cookie recipe is one that I have been wanting to try for a year now.
It was a year ago that I visited my sister Laura in Kansas City. We were shopping at antique malls looking for furniture for her loft apartment. At one particular store I left with a big glittery star (not sure how to use it, thinking I would hang it somewhere), a very cute red and white apron that ties around the waist, and a recipe for butterscotch cookies.
As I was waiting while my sister and my mom shopped I was engrossed in a shelf of books at the back of the store. There were old and weathered Missouri cookbooks from years ago. Some from religious parishes or communities with unique family recipes. I was looking at a particular hard-covered red book. It was so old that the pages had turned a golden color and were ripping out of the binding. The letters on the hard-cover were worn away and it had the musty smell of an old book.
I flipped through until I found the section on cakes and cookies. Buckeyes, sugar cookies, peanut brittle and many more recipes covered the pages. Like many cookbooks, I find that all of the recipes are the same….And then I saw this one: “Butterscotch Cookies." I have never seen a cookie called this before! I was hooked….and to make it better it was made with "Burnt Butter Icing." I just had to try it! I copied the recipe and brought it home where I kept it in my special folder of recipes that I have found over the years.
Well, it’s been a year since I found this butterscotch cookie and I thought it was about time I try it out. As I looked over the ingredients, the sour cream was an interesting addition. With no picture of what this cookie would look like, I was excited to see how it would turn out!….
BUTTERSCOTCH COOKIES
(Makes about 3 dozen cookies)
- ½ cup butter
- 1 ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs, well beaten
- 2 ½ cups sifted flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup of chopped walnuts (or pecans)
-Cream butter, add the sugar and cream thoroughly. Blend in the well beaten eggs. Sift (I whisk it all together) the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the dough, alternating with the sour cream. Blend in the vanilla and nuts. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Let cool before icing.
BURNT BUTTER ICING
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3-4 tablespoons hot water
-Melt Butter and keep over heat until golden brown. (This takes a while and keep watch over the butter and stir it. Make sure you don’t burn it!) Once a golden brown, add in sugar, vanilla and hot water (you can add more hot water later if the icing hardens too much).
-Icing the cooled cookies. I sprinkled the top with a few chopped walnuts. The icing will harden which is great for packaging the cookies because it won’t smear and be messy!
The cookies are fluffy so don’t overbake them! Keep them soft. I like the look of the chopped walnuts on the top because without them, the cookies look a little plain because the golden icing was the same as the golden cookie.
If I make these again I would add even more chopped walnuts the cookies to make them chunkier :)
I packaged the cookies in a plastic container and wrote out a recipe. It’s for my dad to bring to work with him: My weekly baking gift to the office!
I also packaged some come cookies in a bag to take to the family I would babysit the next day. Home-baked goods are such a great gift. The only thing better than enjoying the cookies myself is sharing them with others!