Milk & Cookies

Whats black and white and red all over?

Baking ritual part II. Scotch. As I mentioned before, nothing is as good as turning up the music and tuning out the world. As a part of that goal, I love to have a glass of scotch while I make cookies. Somehow music, a smooth scotch, and baking unite to form a trifecta of awesome that turns my kitchen into a temporary sanctuary from the world. I suggest that you try it, at least once.

These cookies come (yet again) from Joy the Baker. The results of this week’s baking experiment are below:

INGREDIENTS (makes 10 huge cookies)

For Cookies:

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbls cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 5 Tbls butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbls red food coloring
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

For Vanilla Glaze: (OR VANILLA FROSTING)

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbls hot water

For Chocolate Glaze:

• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 3 Tbls butter
• 1 Tbls light corn syrup

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.

Now, I needed to make cookies for more than 10 people so I doubled this recipe. I don’t recommend this. These cookies are HUGE, and you can get away with just making more smaller cookies if you so desire. Anyways, lets get started. Stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set it aside for now.

In another medium bowl, beat together the sugar and softened butter until fluffy (~3 min).  Then add in the egg, vanilla, and food coloring and beat until well mixed.  Next, slowly incorporate the buttermilk and the flour mixture beating them in until the whole thing is smooth.  Nice red dough huh?

Now start spooning 1/4 cup scoops of dough onto the baking trays.  Spread them around a bit with a spatula so that they are nice and round.  The dough tends to want to puddle anyways, so it shouldnt be to hard.  Leave 2″ gaps between cookies, as these suckers will expand.  These cookies will be very large.  I was only able to get 6 per cookie tray without them merging during the baking process.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test. Let the cookies cool and then set them aside until you are ready to glaze them.

The vanilla glaze is very easy to make…just combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, corn syrup, and water in a bowl and mix it together with a fork (or whisk). The glaze immediately begins hardening and crystallizing so make sure you are ready to put the glaze on right away. I made the mistake of letting mine sit on the counter for a while and when I went to use it, it was virtually un-spreadable. Alternatively, you could use vanilla frosting from a mix. I would like to try this recipe again later and try that, as I felt this glaze was way too sweet.

The chocolate glaze is made by melting the chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Then add the corn syrup and mix it a little bit more. Voila!

Spread the glazes onto the cookies 1/2 and 1/2 with a butter knife or a spatula. Then pop the cookies into the fridge for 20+ minutes to set the glaze. These cookies can be very beautiful, but its not actually that easy. Maybe a few more tries and I can get it right. Thanks for reading…