And most recently, beer cookies! Who'da thunk it. These are by no means the most amazing thing I've ever baked--they come out light and squishy and sweet but aren't knock-your-socks-off--but hell, they're a lot of fun to make, mostly because a batch only requires about 3/4 of a beer, so you'll end up dancing around your apartment while you bake, downing the excess in your bottles so as *not to be wasteful* ahem yes that's the reason. *AND* they were incidentally vegan (as in, I was roaming aimlessly looking at recipes and stumbled across these babies on a non-vegan website)--alls you gotta do is use some vegan beer in the recipe, and your vegan friends will love ya.
These yielded a tiny bit shy of 2 dozen cookies.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup packed vegan brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup vegan butter (I think I used Soy Garden brand)
1 1/4 cups room temperature beer (When I baked these cookies most recently, I used their Holy Moses beer (which is my favorite beer of the moment--god bless you, coriander)--for more vegan beers checkHERE)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
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DIRECTIONS:
1. Cream together the butter or margarine and the brown sugar. Cut in flour, baking soda and spice.
2. Blend in beer slowly to form a soft dough.
3. Drop by teaspoonfuls and top with a walnut piece.
4. Bake 12-15 minutes at a 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven until lightly brown. Cool one minute on cookie sheet and remove to wire rack.
(from All Recipes.com)
The cookies were nicely squishy (which I like in a cookie) and gave you potent enough beer breath that it had the added amusement of making everyone at work smell like they'd just dragged themselves out of an awake-through-the-morning drinking binge. When I have some spare cash, my goal is to pick up a 12-pack of Great Lakes Brewing Co. beer (with it's 4-different beer assortment) and try out these cookies with each of the beers. I also intend to tamper with the recipe some so that they're a bit more flavorful and to turn them into KILLER beer cookies that will immediately get me laid.