Hello Lovely Friends!  Well, there is so much to talk about that I don’t know where to start.  So, I think that I will just talk about the yummy recipe that I want to share with you today rather than my ridiculous life.  Here goes. 

Who else has been lucky enough to have potlucks as part of your past or current existence?  I spent many, many, many an evening at political potlucks as I was growing up.  My dad was a party chairman in our county and a local politician for most of my childhood.  One of the best parts of that was going to the monthly potlucks.  It is not a fable that little old ladies can cook up magical food.  I have had the privilege to sample some of the best of midwestern cooking and baking.  As my boys were growing up, my husband was also a local politician and they got to experience this phenomenon themselves…and they loved it.  Nevermind that we had to sit quietly and listen to the speeches and obligatory meeting minutes etc.  We got to eat the best food and it was worth it.   

The recipe that I want to share today is reminiscent of one of the greatest (in my opinion) potluck desserts of all time….Texas Cake.  I adore Texas Cake.  I do not make it often and I have no reason for that.  Most people would say that it makes such a large cake and it is too much for everyday baking.  To that, I say, pssshhhaw.  There is never too much chocolate cake. End of story.  I think that, for me, Texas Cake has a special place at the potluck or family gathering and I don’t want to relegate it to an ordinary dessert.   

This recipe is not for Texas Cake, though.  It is for Texas Cake Cookies!!!!!  They taste just like the cake but in my warped, chocolate-fueled brain, cookies are eminently more simple and homey and comforting.  Cookies are for everyday and not just for special occasions.  I’m weird, I know.   

What makes these cookies so special is the icing so don’t skip it.  I am not a person who loves to frost cookies but this is the exception.  I have iced these with and without the addition of chopped pecans.  Both are wonderful.  To me the pecans are a part of the Texas Cake charm but some people are not into them and that is ok by me too. You may notice that in some of my pictures there are cookies made with and without pecans. I made these for a family gathering and I knew that some of my peeps do not like nuts in their cookies.  Go figure.  

Hey Everyone!  I hope that you are all surviving this craptastic winter weather.  In my neck of the woods, it has been sooooo sucky. You would know that as soon as I started a new job where I have to travel even farther every day, the weather would be ridiculous.  Well, that is what I get for living in central Illinois. I have to say that my nephew, Joe, has been my hero. We are carpooling into Springfield and he is doing the driving in his SUV.  There have already been a few days that I could not have made it in my small car, but Joe got me there and home safe and sound.

I have decided that I really don’t like winter very much anymore.  After Christmas and New Year’s are over I am pretty much done with the cold and snow.  But, Mother Nature gives not one dilly darn what I think. So, to console myself, I have been making cookies whenever I get the chance.  Baking cookies, to me, is the ultimate cozy activity. The kitchen gets all warmed up from the oven and you get to munch on cookie dough and then nice warm cookies.  Aaaahhh. I wish that I were doing that right now.

A couple of weeks ago I tried out a new combination of recipes.  I wanted to try a new butterscotch chip cookie recipe, but I also wanted chocolate.  And, awhile back I saw a recipe where someone had dipped chocolate chip cookies in melted chocolate.  I thought that the chocolate and butterscotch combination would be heavenly. I was right! Oh boy, these are good cookies.  These butterscotch chip cookies are buttery and flavorful. They are moist but still hold up when adding the chocolate and butterscotch base.  The combination is a chewy yet soft cookie on the top with a crisp and rich surprise burst of chocolate flavor underneath. These cookies have become a new favorite of mine and I hope that you will love them too.

So, this cookie starts out with a pretty basic recipe that can be used with any flavor of chips.  I have been on a quest for a while to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe and I have come to the conclusion that it does not exist.  I can find the pros and cons of all of the different recipe variations and methods. And, all of us seem to have different ideas about how a chocolate chip cookie should taste and what the consistency should be.  It is the same with any cookie that has flavored chips. I have a couple of different recipes for butterscotch chip cookies. This one works very well with the chocolate base. A cookie that is very soft would not hold up to that process.  And, I think that you really need a thicker cookie so that you have the proper cookie-to-base ratio. This one turned out perfectly. It is a nice standard recipe with one notable exception. It has a special ingredient. Drumroll please…instant coffee!  I know, amazing! Now, I am not a coffee lover, but I do occasionally use it in baking. Usually, it is paired with chocolate, but I think it works well with the butterscotch too. This recipe does require a slight amount of chilling but if you plan ahead you will have a great cookie that your friends and family will adore. 

For the cookies you will need 1 ½ cups softened butter, 2 cups packed brown sugar, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons vanilla extract, 2 teaspoons powdered instant espresso, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 4 teaspoons cornstarch, 4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 3 – 4 cups butterscotch chips (depending on how chunky you like your cookies).  If you are not a coffee lover, don’t worry. You won’t really taste the espresso. It just adds a little oomph to the butterscotch flavor. For the base, you will need 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup butterscotch baking chips and 2 teaspoons of coconut oil.  

Add the butter and both sugars to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.  Cream together until well combined and slightly fluffy.

Add the eggs and egg yolks and vanilla.  Beat until well mixed. Gradually add the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and espresso powder.  Mix until all the dry ingredients are incorporated with no streaks of flour but don’t overmix. Stir in the butterscotch chips.

Cover the dough and chill for 2 – 3 hours.  You can also make the dough a day ahead if you are pressed for baking time.  Just be prepared for dough-tasting, sneaky fingers to abscond with a bit of it.  At least that is what happens at my house. Now, if you are in a huge hurry you can put the dough in the freezer for about an hour.  I have done this, and it works pretty well too.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.   

Drop the dough by tall mounds.  Use about 2 tablespoons per cookie.  The tall mounds enable the cookie to stay thick and not spread too much.  This will help them hold together when you add the chocolate base.  

Bake for 9 – 11 minutes.  You want the bottom edges to be very slightly brown and the middles to be soft and puffy.   Don’t over bake or the cookies will be dry. Cool the cookies for a few minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.  Once they have cooled sufficiently you can place them on parchment to await the chocolate bottom process.

Once all are cooled, place 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips and 1 cup butterscotch chips and 2 teaspoons of coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave on 50% power until melted. Stir at least every minute. Mine took about 5 minutes but watch closely so that you don’t burn it. Allow the chocolate to cool for a couple of minutes. 

Place clean parchment paper on baking sheets or on the counter. Drop 1 – 2 teaspoons of the chocolate mixture on the parchment. If your cookies are rather large you will need more chocolate but if the cookies stayed in more upright little mounds you may only need 1 teaspoon.  Use your chocolate intuition here. I did a test with 2 cookies on a small baking sheet and placed them in the freezer for a couple of minutes to make sure that my measurement and method was right before proceeding with the whole batch. Place a cookie on a mound of melted chocolate and gently press down turning the cookie counterclockwise (or clockwise) until the chocolate has been squished and spread to the cookie’s edge.   Once the cookies are all chocolate-bottomed, you will need to let them set up for an hour or so depending on how warm your kitchen is. Just plan ahead. If your chocolate-bottomed cookies are on a baking sheet you can place them in the freezer for just a few minutes to speed up the setting process.

Once the chocolate has set, carefully peel the cookies from the parchment paper. 

Get yourself a big old glass of cold milk and enjoy.  These cookies are so buttery and delicious with a satisfying chocolatey snap. I had rave reviews when I took them to work.  Love to you all!

Print Recipe

Butterscotch Surprise Cookies

These butterscotch chip cookies are buttery and flavorful.  They are moist but still hold up when adding the chocolate and butterscotch mixture base.  The combination is a chewy yet soft cookie on the top with a crisp and rich surprise burst of chocolate flavor underneath.

Author: Wench Sherry

Ingredients

For the Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups butter softened
• 2 cups brown sugar packed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs large
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp powdered instant espresso
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 – 4 cups butterscotch baking chips

For the Base

• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch baking chips
• 2 tsp coconut oil

Instructions

• Add the butter and both sugars to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.  Cream together until well combined and slightly fluffy.
• Add the eggs and egg yolks and vanilla.  Beat until well mixed.
• Gradually add the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, salt and espresso powder.  Mix until all the dry ingredients are incorporated with no streaks of flour but don’t over mix.
• Stir in the butterscotch chips.
• Cover the dough and chill for 2 – 3 hours.
• When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Drop the dough by tall mounds.  Use about 2 tablespoons per cookie.
• Bake for 9 – 11 minutes.  You want the bottom edges to be very slightly brown and the middles to be soft and puffy.   Don’t over bake or the cookies will be dry. Cool the cookies for a few minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.  Once they have cooled sufficiently you can place them on parchment to await the chocolate bottom process.
• Once all are cooled, place 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips and 1 cup butterscotch chips and 2 teaspoons of coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave on 50% power until melted. Stir at least every minute. Allow the chocolate to cool for a couple of minutes.
  
• Place clean parchment paper on baking sheets or on the counter.  Drop 1 – 2 teaspoons of the chocolate mixture on the parchment.
• Place a cookie on a mound of melted chocolate and gently press down turning the cookie counterclockwise (or clockwise) until the chocolate has been squished and spread to the cookie’s edge.
• Allow the chocolate to set up on the counter or place the cookies in the freezer for a few minutes to speed things up.
• Once the chocolate has set, carefully peel the cookies from the parchment paper.

Hi Everyone!  Merry Christmas to you and yours!  I hope that you are all surviving the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.  It seems to me that it gets worse every year. Right before Thanksgiving I have the feeling of confidence in my ability to get everything done but the days speed by and here it is, almost upon us and I am nowhere close to being ready.  Yikes! I think that I just try to do too much, honestly. But, I want everything to be perfect for my family and friends. I want for the decorations to be beautiful and magical. I want for the gifts to be thoughtful and perfect. I want to make delicious treats to share with everyone.  But mostly, by this time, I just want to take a nap. Don’t get me wrong, I am still pursuing all that perfection. I’m no quitter. I will be working my tushy off until the big event arrives.

I do have some very special help.  Both of my sons, Cody and Alex, are excellent and willing candy makers.  They each have their specialties and happily make batches each year to share with family and friends.  And, let me tell you, their treats are much requested. I don’t know how they do it but they consistently make complicated candies successfully.  Cody is so easy-going about it that it frustrates me. If I had that same carefree approach the candies would never turn out. The caramels would be rock hard and the fudge would be grainy.  Alex is more strict at following his recipes but still amazes me when his divinity turns out perfect – every stinking time. That is so not fair. But I appreciate their help in the holiday kitchen.  It takes some of the load from my weary shoulders.

There are some treats that we make as a family, year in and year out, never fail.  Christmas wouldn’t be the same without these sweet delicacies. Peanut Butter Bonbons is normally a collaborative project.  I will be posting about those very soon. But, the most anticipated baking project each December is Monster Cookies. We all absolutely love them and have such a good time mixing the dough.  We all gather around the kitchen island and take turns adding ingredients and mixing the dough. Cody and Alex do most of the hard work of mixing and stirring (by hand toward the end of the process) the massive amount of dough.  Of course, we make sure to have our traditional Fay’s Twelve Days of Christmas dvd playing all the while. It cracks us up every year, even though we have seen it sooooo many times.

I have been making this recipe for about 30 or so years I would guess.  I remember that the first time that I made these by myself was my first year of marriage.  The recipe was in a community cookbook. I did not doubt the list of ingredients – big mistake.  There was a misprint in the book and it said 8 teaspoons of salt rather than 1. Holy Cow! Salty cookies.  So many salty cookies. I still use that same book each year but have made the correction. It is always a reminder to me to use my own judgement in cooking and baking.  Do not blindly follow.

As I said, this recipe makes a huge amount of dough and then a huge amount of cookies from that dough.  The original recipe said to make the cookies very large but I do a moderately large cookie. I find that if I make the cookies huge, people are unwilling to partake because it might be too much.  I’m not one of those people who is frightened by a huge cookie but I respect the wishes of those that are. The ingredient list is not long but the quantities of those ingredients might intimidate you.  It takes a dozen eggs, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, peanut butter, quick-cooking oats, vanilla, corn syrup, salt, M&M’s and chocolate chips. You need to use a very large bowl or dishpan for this project.  I have a deep plastic dishpan that is only used for making these cookies. You will need a hand mixer as well. I have one that we got for a wedding shower gift 31 years ago and it is still chugging along. I normally use my stand mixer these days, but this recipe requires something more mobile.  You will also need a very sturdy, large and long-handled spoon for the last portion of the mixing. The mixer may not be able to handle the whole process. When mine starts to bog down and gets hot we shut it off and my strong sons take over the mixing with the spoon. I have made sure that each of them now owns their own big spoon.  You just never know when you are going to need one.

Once the mixing is complete, plan on baking for several hours.  This makes about 20 dozen cookies depending on how large you make them.  I do place my pan of dough in the frig between dipping out batches. I have never baked part of the cookies and then chilled the remaining dough for later but I suspect that it would be fine to do so.

These cookies are a wonderfully satisfying treat.  They are chewy with just a slight crunch at the edges but soft and gooey in the middle.  The irresistable combination of chocolate, peanut butter and oats is out of this world good.

The ingredients are a dozen eggs, 2 pounds of brown sugar, 4 cups of white sugar, 1 Tablespoon of vanilla, 1 Tablespoon of white corn syrup, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 pound of butter, 3 pounds of peanut butter, 42 oz. quick oats, 1 pound of chocolate chips and 2 bags of M&M’s (at least a pound).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.