butterscotch chocolate chip cookies

my sister p was upstairs when she screamed, it smells so good c! are the cookies done yet?

while they had only been in the oven for a few minutes, the smell of these cookies spread throughout the house! as they were baking, these pseudo cookies (they were in the transition between batter and cookie) had a sweet smell to them that was warm and inviting. it was tempting your nose, making you aware of its soon-to-be edible form.

i wasnt sure what i wanted to bake that night. i had a long day at work, and i was super tired. nothing better to cure a rough day than baking 5 dozen happy cookies (and shoe shopping, which i did as well!). furthermore, my good buddy's birthday was the next day, so all the signs were pointing towards baking a HUGE amount of yummy cookies! i had a bag of butterscotch morsels that i wanted to do something about - they were just sitting there, taunting me of my nonexistent attempts to create the pumpkin butterscotch cookies my friend once made, which by the way were pumpkin heaven. anyhow, i decided to use my tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe and put a butterscotch-y spin to it!

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 12 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
Yields: 72 servings (small cookies) i made close to 60 2" (in diameter) cookies

INGREDIENTS:
Cookie Base
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Butterscotch infusion
(1/2 stick) of butter (1/4 cups)
4 ounces (1/3 of the typical 12 oz. bag) butterscotch morsels

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 340 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In your makeshift double boiler, melt 1/2 bar (1/4 cup) of butter with 4 oz. of butterscotch. Stir occassionally, and always keep an eye on it. Let it melt - this may take 5 minutes or so.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Stir in your chocolate chips. (This will be your basic chocolate chip cookie batter.) Mix in your melted butterscotch. the result will be a light orange batter. if you want to do swirls, dont mix the butterscotch completely, just do it in loops.


the image of the left is what my batter looked like when i poured in the melted butterscotch. notice how pretty the color of the butterscotch is. its such a nice mix!






on the right is the batter all ready for the oven! it still looks a little damp from the butterscotch mix, but i rolled it a couple more times after that to fully merge the butterscotch into the batter.


4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

i played around with this recipe again when my friend jt came over. we had such a blast! she was teaching me all about oven chemistry and how oven temperature affects the way dough bakes. we decided the optimal temperature for these babies is 340-345. anything higher gives the cookie a good color but the insides are still soft. anything lower doesnt really do the cookies any good. yay for testing out temperature! its actually surprising how much heat affects the shape and color of cookies.

anyways, these babies are amazing right out of the oven a la mode. i topped a cookie with some chocolate ice cream. (i think it would have tasted better with vanilla, but i ran out.) regardless, it was super yummy! and they are so soft!

its amazing what pudding mix does to cookies! the ultimate test of the pudding mix theory is whether or not my sister, who lives in austria, will receive soft cookies or not. i was on the phone with her when i was taking these cookies out of the oven, and she asked me to send some over! shipping will take roughly a week, so ill keep you posted.

Bon appetit!