My most favorite thing to bake is cookies. Sometimes, I get bored with baking the same cookies, so I go through the "small" collection of cookbooks I have devoted to cookies and find something new. Sometimes the chosen recipe gets a big black line marked through it, meaning don't ever come back to my kitchen again. Other times, it gets a star next to it, meaning it is so dang awesome it will end up in the lineup of cookies that I get bored of making so frequently because they're just delicious. These happen to fall in the latter category. Like I would share a bad cookie recipe with you anyways?? The only way I could describe the taste of this to you, is to say it tastes kind of like if you took a root beer float and turned it into a cookie. Don't take my word for it though, you should definitely make these and find out for yourself!
Root Beer Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 tsp root beer concentrate or extract
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups chopped pecans (Yeah, do I have to tell you at this point in my blog that I did NOT include those?)
Frosting:
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 TB water
1 1/4 tsp root beer concentrate or extract
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addtion. Beat in buttermilk, and root beer concentrate or extract. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in pecans, but only if you want these to be disgusting... in my humble opinion...
2. Drop by tablespoonfuls 1 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased (or just parchment covered) baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine frosting ingredients; beat until smooth. Frost cooled cookies.
Yields about 6 dozen
I have never done anything with root beer extract before, so this was new to me! This is what I got because it's all HEB had and it was the last one. SUCKAS!
If your dough looks like this, all oatmealy and whatnot, after adding the extract and buttermilk, don't freak out...
...because it will end up looking like this! This dough is very airy and reminded me of sponge cake batter a bit. Also it's delicious, so.... you might not get as many cookies as the recipe says if you eat, say, 3 cookies worth of dough... I don't know. I hear that happens sometimes. In other places besides my kitchen.
This is what they should look like when they're done baking.
And here they are frosted. The frosting makes the PERFECT amount if you use about 1 TB on each one. This makes a lot of cookies, so unless you're going to pass them onto friends or help feed an army, I would do a half recipe if you're just making them for fun :)
Resource: Taste of Home: The Ultimate Cookie Collection
Resource: Taste of Home: The Ultimate Cookie Collection