Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies
I know, I know. Gingerbread in February. I’m linear. I post things in order that I make them 97 percent of the time so I’m sorta sorry about this. Who says you can’t have gingerbread year-round? It’s been cold enough to justify this with a mug of whatever warm thing you’ve been drinking lately.
Using butterscotch pudding is brilliant. You know that’s totally why I picked this right? The flavor melds right into the overall ginger flavor, and I didn’t have to buy a special jar of molasses that will take me forever to get through.
This cold weather is nice for softening butter since I always seem to have our fireplace on, and I can’t ever seem to remember to take the butter out in a reasonable amount of time.
These ended up being perfectly soft and chewy. Ginger snaps these are not, but it’d be easy to make them so. Just bake them longer. They already seem thick enough to make it happen. I went with a simple circle shape with a biscuit cutter because I didn’t have anything else handy, and I don’t really want to store a bunch of cookie cutters. Besides, I’m all about classics [except where I threw pudding mix into a cookie…].
Inspiration: Almost Makes Perfect
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 3.4oz box of cook and serve butterscotch pudding
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Preparation
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon.
In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. I like to do this for several minutes until it’s nice and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until fully incorporated. In batches, slowly mix in the dry ingredients until a dough forms. Shape the mixture into two or three balls and cover and chill in the fridge for about an hour.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll each dough ball out until about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat. Leave about 2″ between cookies so they don’t spread.
Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and then to a cooling rack.
The original recipe calls for icing that I didn’t want to use. I’m an icing free kind of girl. You do you.