Salted Butterscotch Cookies

After making homemade butterscotch pudding for a Milk Jar holiday party and getting rave reviews about it, I knew I had to develop a cookie with that flavor profile. The rich, sweet butterscotch combined with the crispy salt flakes made it an immediate fan-favorite seasonal flavor in the shop; barely a week passes without a customer asking when this cookie will be around again. Lucky you, you can have it anytime the craving hits! Note that there is a fine line between just salty enough and inedible, but if you accidentally oversalt your cookies, just scrape off some of the salt, to taste.

Makes 15 to 18 three-inch cookies

INGREDIENTS

Milk Jar Cookies Bakebook Courtney Cowan

• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon table salt

• 11 tablespoons (or 2/3 cup) unsalted butter, cold and cubed

• 11 tablespoons (or 2/3 cup) vegetable shortening, room temperature

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar

• 2 extra-large eggs, cold

• 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 2 cups (16 ounces) butterscotch chips

• Maldon sea salt flakes, for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, shortening, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract and beat on medium-low speed until mixed with just small chunks of butter remaining, approximately 30 seconds. Every time you mix ingredients, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to be sure all ingredients are included in the mix—every bit matters! Add half of the dry ingredient mixture and mix on low speed until just incorporated and no flour is visible, about 30 seconds. Add half of the remaining dry ingredients and mix on low speed until the flour is incorporated and all butter chunks are gone, approximately 20 seconds. Add the emaining dry ingredients and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is not sticky to the touch, about 20 seconds. Be careful not to overmix—that’s how you get flat cookies. Stir in the butterscotch chips.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop the dough 1/3 cup at a time and firmly roll into round balls approximately 1½ inches in diameter. Place 6 cookies on each prepared baking sheet, spacing them out well. Bake on the middle and lower racks of the oven until the tops are a light golden brown and you notice hairline cracks forming on the sides, 12 to 14 minutes, spinning each pan 180 degrees and swapping their positions halfway through. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, sprinkle the top of each cookie with salt flakes, to taste.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer them to a wire rack or parchment paper on the counter to cool completely. Let the baking sheets cool before repeating with the remaining cookies.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or freeze for up to a month. 

RECIPE ALTERNATIVE: If you’re living a life free from gluten, this is an easy recipe to make gluten free! Simply substitute the all-purpose flour with 4 cups plus 2 tablespoons of gluten-free baking flour (I prefer Cup4Cup brand) and reduce the butterscotch chips to 1¾ cups. One trick to get the gluten-free version to bake perfectly is to mix the dough about 20 seconds longer when you add in the last of the flour mixture.

Excerpted from Milk Jar Cookies Bakebook: Cookie, Cakes, Pies, and More for Celebrations and Every Day by Courtney Cowan. Copyright 2020 Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.

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