#15: Butterscotch Chip Cookies

I love butterscotch. As a kid, butterscotch reminded me of my grandparents, especially my Grandpa Peters. Whenever they would come and visit, Grandpa would always take me to Shopko and let me stock up on all the hard candies I could fit into one bag (does Shopko still have a bulk candy section like they used to?). We would buy EVERYTHING- peppermints, Werther's caramels, those strange strawberry hard candies no one likes, but every old person seems to have in their homes, and of course, butterscotch. I still remember Grandpa slipping me a butterscotch in church one Sunday (probably to shut me up, let's be honest here), and now whenever I eat one, that's what I am reminded of.

All right, enough with the sentiments. Although the name of the cookies really caught my eye, the main reason I wanted to bake these cookies is because there is a woman at my church who makes these phenomenal butterscotch cookies... and I wanted to find my own recipe and outdo her. I'm not sure if mine are as good (I love them, but I'm kind of biased), and I KNOW one of my goals is to EVENTUALLY try to find the recipe for HER cookies (because dangit, they're good!), but here is my attempt at outdoing Shelly. Enjoy!

#15: Butterscotch Chip Cookies (taken from Sandra Lee's Bake Sale Cookbook)

Ingredients:

1 package (18.25 ounces) yellow cake mix
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
5 tablespoons buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
     - You know, one day I think I'm going to have to try this parchment paper trick, just to see if it makes any difference. I will say that this cookie dough gets kind of hard to work with when you're molding it to place on the cookie sheets, but they turned out fine even without the parchment.

2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix and brown sugar. Add buttermilk, butter, and egg, stirring until well mixed. Add butterscotch chips and pecans, stirring until combined.
     - I have decided, I kinda hate buttermilk. The buttermilk I was using for this recipe was left over from my red velvet whoopie pies, and the date on the carton read that it was still good for an additional day. It smelled rotten (which apparently is how buttermilk SMELLS?!) and the "curdy" looking stuff was separating, leaving behind milky water. None of us are dead from these cookies though, so... I guess buttermilk is just supposed to be disgusting?

3. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls (or use a 2-tablespoon scoop) onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart.
     - This was really interesting dough to work with. It was super sticky, and yet, the dough didn't want to stick together to form really nice balls on the cookie sheet; instead, it just wanted to stick to me, and the spoon, and the cookie sheet, and everything else it came in contact with. Annoying, but delicious!

4. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes or until set in centers. Cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes.
     - Funny story about this step: I couldn't wait five minutes to try the cookies, because seriously, these might be the best SMELLING cookies I've made, so I popped one in my mouth and burnt the crud out of my tongue. The next day I was reprimanded at the dentist office for being too impatient and not letting my food cool off before eating it because according to my hygienist, it was a pretty bad burn. I am SUCH a fat kid. 

Here they are! DELISH!

Oh yeah, and this would be a shot of the super sticky dough.