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Home » Food, Kids and Allergies

Egg-free butterscotch cookies

Submitted by Debra on Friday, 12 December 2008 4 Comments
It's amazing sometimes what you'll find digging around in the archives -- and when it comes to recipes, my archives rival the Library of Congress.

This week, when I was poking through a fishing-tackle box that holds just one of my collections, I ran across a recipe of indeterminate origins for butterscotch cookies. It's in my writing, but the penmanship is legible so it probably dates back to my teens. My writing's been consistently mistaken for a doctor's since then.

Since the ingredients didn't include egg, I decided to try it. I wish I had years ago, because it's quickly become a favorite.

It's easy to make -- only five ingredients and no chopping. It's quick to bake -- scoop, smash, send to oven. And Big Guy loves it. "Dude! I'm going to eat all my good food from now on so I can eat these all the time."

It tastes like a cross between a butterscotch shortbread and Pecan Sandies. I added a holiday look by sprinkling with red and green sugar. I wouldn't recommend making it with a hand mixer or even a wimpy stand model -- the batter's too stiff. And the dough will trick you at one point, looking briefly like it needs a liquid added. Do not panic: It will come together without intervention.

Egg-free butterscotch cookies

  • 4 c. flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 c. butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 c plus 2 tbl. brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, then dry ingredients. Shape into one-inch balls (I used a melon scoop) and flatten with a glass dipped in sugar on the bottom. I did a criss-cross pattern with a fork to flatten, but you need to press hard. Bake on a greased sheet at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. It took mine 14 minutes on AirBake sheets.

Copyright 2008 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

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4 Comments »

  • ParentingPink said:

    Mmmmmmmmmm – good! Keep passing the yummy recipes my way. I have a small collection, so I’m always looking for new things to try. Plus, I love that your recipes are egg-free. No egg allergies here, but now the girls can eat all the cookie dough without me screaming at them that there is “raw egg” in there! LOL Happy Friday!

    - 12 December 2008 at 5:32 am
  • Debra said:

    He he he. That IS a nice bonus to egg-free baking. The guys are so used to mooching cookie dough and cake batter they’ll have huge problems understanding if the egg allergy ever clears and we go back to normal.

    - 12 December 2008 at 10:26 am
  • Madhuram said:

    Another interesting recipe Debra. I too bake egg free butterscotch cookies using instant butterscotch pudding mix.

    - 4 January 2009 at 10:50 pm
  • Debra said:

    The guys LOVE this one! They loved it even before it was the last Christmas cookie left in the jar, and that’s quite an endorsement. :)

    I’ve seen the pudding mix recipe, but I gave up on pudding mixes when I saw that most contain dye, and we try to avoid that though I’ll admit we weave and bob some around the holidays.

    - 4 January 2009 at 10:55 pm