Good Ol' Fashion Root Beer...Cookies!!

I am VERY excited about the following cookie recipe for two reasons. 1) I LOVE root beer and 2) I FINALLY made cookies without burning them!!! Score!

This is also a GREAT recipe for those of you who have labor day weekend BBQ's coming up. Perfect way to end summer!!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I saw a recipe posted through the Better Crocker website for Root Beer Cookies and I was immediately attracted to it. My first hurdle, however, was finding root beer extract or root beer concentrate. NONE of the grocery stores around me, even the specialty food ones, sold it!! I know McCormick's makes root beer concentrate but it's not a big seller where I live apparently. So my husband and I found a store online that sells pretty much any extract you'd want. We decided to invest in a few for recipes we felt we'd make later on but within two days, my root beer extract was at my door!

Then it was time to try it out...based on my past failure with cookies, I was nervous. But determined.

So, I followed this recipe exactly, but halved it. I didn't want to waste too many ingredients if I messed up again. Here is the recipe:

Cookies
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup flat root beer
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla


Heat oven to 375F.
In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.
In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, root beer, eggs, root beer extract and vanilla until well blended.
Beat in flour mixture just until combined.

Form dough into balls, about 1 1/2-inch diameter (using a rounded tablespoon of dough).
Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. (Do not over bake or cookies will be dry.)
Cool completely on rack.



Icing
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon flat root beer
2 teaspoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate

In small bowl, combine icing ingredients, with spoon, until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if too thin; add more root beer if too thick. Spread on cooled cookies.


Makes about 4 dozen cookies

I baked mine for about 10 minutes and they turned out great!! I also had to add a little more root beer to the icing recipe, mine was coming out too thick. But it turned out well and my husband loved the cookies. I also sent some to work with him for his parents to taste and will be delivering some to my own parents so I am hoping to get some good feedback on these.

I think my next challenge will be cream soda cookies! I love cream soda!

Enjoy!