Day 36: Butterscotch Chip Spice Cookies ala Mr. Garcia

she's back.....No cold or flu will keep me down! Not for long anyway.
This recipe comes from one of my husband's oldest friends, Steve Garcia. These are some things I know about Steve: 1)he graduated from Garces Memorial High School in 1985 2) he has a beautiful wife, Tammy 3)he teaches math at his alma mater 4)He shares my husband's great taste in music. What I did not know was that he can bake! The only thing I love more than a man who bakes is a man who doesn't complain when I bake, when he comes home to a kitchen that looks like a bag of flour exploded in the middle of it, who doesn't seem to mind that there has been at least one egg shell in the sink everyday since November and who still cooks dinner every single night.
Back to Steve. Steve mentioned on Facebook he was baking some kind of butterscotch cookie, that immediately peaked my interest as I have not had very good luck with butterscotch lately. He very generously sent me the recipe stating he made these and took them to school and they were a big hit. My own son's reaction, "Holy Crap!"

Butterscotch Chip Spice Cookies

2 C flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.

1 ½ C brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

12 oz. butterscotch chips

Powdered sugar

Stir flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt together in a bowl; set aside.

Cream butter and brown sugar with a mixer until smooth.  Beat in egg and vanilla, then add flour mixture.  Mix in flour just until thoroughly blended.

Fold in butterscotch chips, then cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Shape dough into approximately 2 inch balls.

Roll balls of dough into powdered sugar and arrange on the baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.  Bake 12-14 minutes until golden and just set.  Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes then transfer them to a rack.  Makes about 2 ½ dozen

**Now for my take: Be sure to chill at least an hour if not 2. The dough is sticky and not easy to roll, but if you drop a tablespoonful into a bowl of powdered sugar you can achieve the "ball" while rolling the dough in the sugar . Bake the full time, cookies will be a toasty brown color. The first batch I removed after 10 minutes and the cookies kind of flattened. I also added a couple extra spoonfuls of flour.

These cookies will definitely be added to the Christmas Cookie repertoire. While they are baking your entire house just smells like, well, Christmas. But the spice is not too overwhelming in the taste.
Since Steve and Tammy will not be able to make it to the X concert at the Crystal Palace this year maybe I will have my son take a batch of these to the band before the show.