Sublime Superlemon

I will only occupy you with cookies and baking seeing as I have no new developments in physics… or if I do then they will take up another whole post on education reform. Anyway, I’ve been wondering what a butterscotch-pistachio cookie would be like ever since my friend Sarah offered to get me free pistachios in bulk from her parents store. Apparently they’d be like this

This is two recipes combined together. First I used the butterscotch recipe from SimplyRecipes. I made one quantity of the sauce and added 200g of crushed pistachios. The pistachio-butterscotch mixture replaces the sugar in a recipe from the Cook’s Illustrated monthly magazine. Credit should be given to the Cook’s Illustrated people not only for this original cookie recipe but also for telling me to brown butter before using it. SO TASTY! Anyway, I will now attempt to retell in recipe form what I did to get those cookies above.

Pistachio-Butterscotch Cookies

Butterscotch sauce (as seen in  SimplyRecipes)

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar
• ¾ cup heavy whipping cream (not ultra-pasteurized)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt

Please, just follow the instruction there, it is really their recipe. Once you have one quantity of this sauce add 200g of crushed pistachios. If you can’t crush them, cut them on a cutting board in batches. They’re quite soft and won’t go flying everywhere if you apply pressure or cut quickly. Keep your mixture in a medium size bowl.

Cookies (adapted from “The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie”, Cook’s Illustrated Monthly no. 98)

• 1¾ cups AP flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 10 teaspoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk

1. Preheat over to 375 deg. F and prep two baking sheets using butter and flour or non-stick cooking spray or parchment paper
2. In a frying pan with high edges or a skillet, melt and cook the butter on medium heat, stirring constantly. After about4-5 minutes it will look darker and smell delicious. Remove and let cool.
3. Add the butter to the butterscoth/pistachio mixture and stir until combined. Add egg and egg yolk, stir again.
4. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Then, add the butterscotch mixture. Mix with a spoon until just combined. If you overwork the dough you’ll get less structurally stable cookies
5. Make balls of dough a little over an inch in diameter and press them onto your baking sheets. This particular batter doesn’t need a whole lot of room to grow on the sheet if that’s what you’re used to.
6. Bake each batch for 10-14 minutes. Remember to rotate half-way through the baking.

That’s it! The whole recipe, and my first! Although most of it is stolen I supose. If the cookies don’t work out try this tarte that my friend made from a recipe in SmittenKitchen. She had extremely fresh strawberries and that probably makes all the difference.