Butterscotch Cookies

I’ve got all the ingredients on the counter, all stacked up nicely, and I’m thinking to myself “What am I missing??”

Um, camera. Right. Cooking requires pictures, remember?? In particular, a portrait oriented pretty one of the final product for our Pinterest page. You did know we have a Pinterest page, didn’t you?

Not sure if you remember me, but I used to cook here a while ago, until I went totally crazy with school and got so bad at cooking that I barely managed to make cereal for dinner 3 days a week (the other 4 were cheese and crackers). But, I’m done with the 5 classes a semester thing, and I’m now mere months away from a degree, and someone at work asked me to make Butterscotch cookies.

So I found my camera, bought a hand mixer (it’s been a while, my Popeye arms are out of practice) and started cooking!

Butterscotch Cookies

• ¾ c unsalted butter
• 1 ¾ c darkest brown sugar you can find, like Demerara
• 2 tbsp cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 ¾ c flour
• ½ tsp baking soda

We’re going to do something a little different than the usual old “cream the butter and sugar and then beat in the eggs” with this one. Butterscotch originated as a hard candy of cooked butter and sugar, so that’s where we’re going to start.

Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat, and let it get all foamy and bubbly.

We’re going to *cook* the butter a bit before we add anything to it. After a minute or two the foam will subside (lifting the pot and gently swirling the butter from time to time will help

     

Once you’ve got a nice clear top, swirl the butter every 30 seconds or so until you start to see little brown spots on the bottom of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and the burner off.

What you’ve just done is made “beurre noisette” or browned butter. It’s called noisette, the French word for hazelnut, because the aroma gets a little nutty as it browns. You know how when you sauté something until it gets that delicious golden brown colour to it? You just did that to butter.

Dump in the brown sugar and the cream and start whisking. I put mine back on the burner as I whisked, and let the residual heat from the burner help melt the sugar as I decided whether or not I wanted to be risky in the next couple steps.

I was considering proceeding as if making a pate a choux like Taneasha did with the cream puffs. Dump the flour into the hot butter mixture and then add the eggs later. But my Popeye arms are out of practice, and I’m not sure my new little hand mixer can deal with that serious a pastry, so I took the safe route, and dumped the almost butterscotch sauce (add more cream, cook it 10 minutes, pour it over ice cream) into a big bowl.

Beat in the vanilla and salt.

Once it’s cool enough that you can hold your hand on the bottom of the bowl, add the eggs one at a time. Cracking them into a measuring cup first lets you pour them in without risking shells and without stopping the mixer.

Same thing with the flour. Measure into a giant cup, stir in the baking soda, and pour bits at a time into the bowl until you have a sticky ball of dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl, but that relaxes and puddles a bit when it’s left alone.

In a small bowl, mix about

• ¼ c dark brown sugar
• 2 tbsp plain old boring regular sugar
• 1/8 tsp sea salt, if you’re into that kind of thing

Recipe Guy’s sister is all over the salted-caramel trend, but I find most people over do it on the salting part so I generally stay away from it. If you’re not sure you want to go all in, try sprinkling a few grains of salt on top of each cookie after you’ve dipped them. If those work for you, add the salt next time.

Roll tablespoon or so sized balls of dough and dip the top into the sugar-sugar(-salt) mixture.

Bake them at 350 for 11 minutes for cookies that are not browned on the bottom, and have chewy middles. If you want them slightly crisp all the way through, let them go for 13 minutes, but be careful not to let the bottoms get too dark.

The butterscotch flavour is subtle in these; it kind of creeps up on you. It’s a lot more noticeable next to a sip of coffee though. Wow, is it ever! Definitely a breakfast cookie.

What do you think of the salted sweets thing?

Because Little Buns are in Fashion

Sliders are all the rage right now, and to be honest I think it’s great!  Not only are sliders cute (we all know little things are cute) but because of their small size, they’re easy to eat, and you get to have more than one!  That definitely appeals to our greedy nature, and it also allows for variety.  For those of us who are somewhat decision impaired, that’s a very good thing.  These little buns are perfect for your summertime cookouts.  (I’m converting to the local lingo.)

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• ¼ cup warm water
• Pinch of sugar
• Packet of yeast
• ½ cup hot water
• ½ cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4-ish cups flour

 

Into your mixing bowl go the ¼ cup warm water (think bathwater temp), pinch of sugar, and yeast.  Stir them together and set that aside. 

In a measuring cup combine the hot water and the milk, which should also land at warm. Add the butter and give it a minute to melt.

Once it has, add the egg and whisk everything together. 

Now back to your yeast.  It should be showing signs of life by now, in the form of bubbles mostly. 

Pour in the milk mixture.

Stir that together and add 2 cups of flour along with the salt and sugar. 

Mix that together until you have a nice batter consistency.  Add another 1 ½ cups of flour and mix until it comes together. 

If it looks like this, with a large area still sticking to the bottom of the bowl, you need more flour. 

This is what you’re looking for.  It should almost completely remove itself from the bowl.  I know it it’s a shaggy mess, but a few minutes of kneading will fix that. 

Allow it to knead for 5 minutes or so, or if you’re kneading by hand, probably 10 minutes.  Either way, you’ll need to butter a large bowl. 

When your dough is ready it should be smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky. 

Place it top side down into the bowl, then turn it and flip it over so that it has butter on all sides. 

Cover with a damp towel and set aside to rise. 

You want it to double in size.  That will probably take about an hour, but it depends on the temperature of your house.  You’ll know it’s ready when it looks something like this. 

Dump it out onto a floured surface and deflate most of the large bubbles with your knuckles. 

Cut off a small piece of dough and flatten it into a disk. 

Pull all the edges together to form a ball.

Then place it on an unfloured surface and move it in circles with your hand.  You should have a nice smooth ball about the size of a ping pong ball. 

Place it onto a parchment lined sheet pan. 

Keep your balls covered with a damp towel as you work so they don’t dry out. 

Continue doing this until you have 24 balls of dough.  I had a little extra dough left, so you could probably actually get 28 out of this recipe.  I just used the extra for a little dessert thing. 

Flatten them out a bit. 

Then, as before, cover with a damp towel and set them aside to rise. 

Generally, the second rise doesn’t take as long, so maybe 45 minutes or so.  They should be nice and puffy. 

This is probably a good time to preheat the oven to 375°.  Then, in a small dish, combine an egg and 1 Tablespoon water.

Beat thoroughly with a fork. 

Using a pastry brush, apply a small amount of egg wash to the top and sides. 

Repeat until each roll is coated. 

Sprinkle sesame seeds over the top. 

Or, if you’re like me, sprinkle some of them with sesame seeds, some with poppy seeds, and some with dried, minced onion.  I did mention I’m slightly decision impaired, right? 

Bake for 15 minutes.  They should be nice and golden on top and around the edges.  Move them to a rack to cool. 

Here are the sesame seed ones

The poppy seed ones

And the onion ones. 

Take your pick.  They are all fabulous.  I have actually done a batch since these and used all three toppings together.  They were basically “everything” buns and they were absolutely delicious.  Don’t limit yourself to just burgers on these little buns, either.  I made Sloppy Joses on some of mine, and next week I’ll be showing you a fabulous Thai chicken slider that is to die for. 

What is your favorite thing to put on your buns?