A Batch Made in Heaven

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My husband is not a dessert person, which is ironic, considering my main hobby includes churning out dessert at an alarming rate. However, bless him, he still tries every dessert I make because he knows how much it means to me. I usually do a pretty epic bake for his birthday cake (or cheesecake) every year, but we were traveling the weekend prior, so his dessert request was for an easy and quick batch of birthday cookies. I was happy to oblige, and since I hope his birthday rocks, I knew I needed to add whiskey.

I like to think of myself as a pretty smart cookie, so it was about time I figured out how to add booze into a cookie recipe. Sure, sugar cookies are great, but have you ever tried adding Skrewball peanut butter whiskey to them? I’m betting the answer is, “No, since I’m a normal human,” and I’m here to change that. You know, bake the world a butter place, one dessert at a time. The base sugar cookie recipe isn’t too terribly sweet so my husband would like them, but they are so soft and buttery (think Lofthouse cookie minus frosting with a hint of smooth peanut butter flavor from the Skrewball). The chocolate drizzle on half gives a nice little boost of sweetness without being over the top. But let’s talk about the Skrewball whiskey glaze on the other half. Was I licking the leftover drizzle out of the bowl when done? Yes. Was I maybe a little tipsy after? Also yes. Was I glad no one was there to witness this? Again, yes. But it was SO GOOD. It packs a little punch, but it absolutely makes the cookie in my opinion. It’s sweet, the whiskey is smooth and rich, and you end up with a perfect balance of sugar cookie to peanut butter flavor. The chocolate drizzle cookies are good, but the whiskey glaze cookies are divine. This recipe makes a whopping 48 cookies at only 70 calories a cookie (because a cookie in each hand is a balanced diet).

These are gluten free but you can definitely sub regular flour if your body doesn’t hate wheat (consider me very jealous). To make, you’ll need:

• 3/4 cup of butter at room temp
• 1 1/2 cups of Lakanto golden monkfruit sweetener
• 2 large eggs at room temp
• 3 TBS Skrewball peanut butter whiskey or other alcohol of choice (Kahlua or Baileys would be great)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/3 cups gluten free measure-for-measure flour or all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix the butter and golden sugar together for 3 minutes in your stand mixer on medium-high; it should be light yellow in color and a little fluffy. Then add in the eggs, Skrewball, and vanilla, blending well on medium. Scrape the bowl, then add the baking powder, baking soda, and 1/3 of the flour. Blend, scrape the bowl, add another 1/3 of the flour, mix, and add in the final bit of flour.

Turn out your dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap. Roll your dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

I wanted to make my husband’s name and then a bunch of stars for the rest of the cookies, so I gathered up some cookie cutters. Any shape will work with these. I took half of my dough ball and rolled it flat with my rolling pin. You can flour your pin or use plastic wrap on top of the dough (my preferred method) to get these to about a 1/4″ thickness. You will be rolling a lot, so maybe do some shoulder stretching first. Then cut out with the shapes of your liking. You can reshape the leftover pieces into a new ball of dough and repeat until you’ve used everything up.

Preheat your oven to 350 and line several baking sheets with Parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray or use silicone baking mats. VERY IMPORTANT, don’t make a cookie mistake…once you’ve got your shapes cut out and placed on your baking sheet, put this in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This will keep your cookies from spreading out, puffing up, and just generally ruin the shapes you worked hard to cut out. When your oven has finished preheating, place cookies into the oven and bake for 6-10 minutes, depending on your desired level of done-ness. I like a very soft, still slightly doughy cookie, so I baked for 6-8 minutes depending on how long each tray was in the freezer. If they had only been in the freezer for 10 minutes, I baked for 6 minutes; if they had been in the freezer for 15 minutes, I baked for 8 minutes. Just be careful not to overbake because that is quite literally how the cookie crumbles. The cookies should be a nice blonde color throughout. If the edges are turning golden or brown, when they cool they will be tiny little hockey pucks…taking out teeth with each chew.

I repeated the above process 4 times because I could fit 12 cookies on one large baking sheet at a time. So one sheet would chill in the freezer while the other baked, alternating out. I left my cookies to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes after baking before placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the chocolate drizzle, I used green, blue, and lime chocolate melts. You could also just use melted chocolate chips. Or melted Reese’s peanut butter chips to make that Skrewball peanut butter whiskey flavor really shine. I also had an assortment of sprinkles on hand because nothing is finished if it hasn’t been topped with sprinkles. THERE HAS TO BE A SPARKLE! You can’t really put a candle in a birthday cookie, so light these babies up with glittery sanding sugar.

Will I be cleaning up nonpareils in my kitchen for the next 6-8 months? Potentially even until my husband’s next birthday? Yes. But worth it. I took my chocolate melts, melting each color in its own bowl following package directions. I put the melted chocolate into piping bags and cut a very small snip off the tip of each bag. Then I drizzled like a mad woman (my arms still hurt from rolling all that dough out) over half of my cookies, quickly topping with sprinkles while the chocolate was still wet. I highly recommend putting down a ton of Parchment paper to contain the mess. Now, don’t touch these for a good half hour so the chocolate can set. Prepare another layer of Parchment paper further down your counter and get ready for that WHISKEY GLAZE!

Hi, I truly hate whiskey, but Skrewball is the exception to the rule. My love of peanut butter outweighs my hatred of whiskey. It also helps that Skrewball doesn’t taste like my mouth is full of nail polish remover. It’s smooth, oaky, and peanutty. There’s no turpentine-y, “Will this burn a hole in my esophagus?” flavor given off by most whiskeys. So it makes an exceptionally delicious glaze. And you only need 1 cup of Lakanto powdered monkfruit mixed in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of Skrewball and 3 tablespoons of water to make a drizzly glaze. That’s it. So easy a toddler could do it. But maybe keep them away from the liquor. I know next to nothing about children other than they have a very low alcohol tolerance.

Once you’ve got your glaze thrown together, you can add some sanding sugar to small bowls and get your other sprinkles ready.

I took a star, placed it face down in the bowl of glaze, swirled around, flipped over, and tapped on the side of the bowl to get excess glaze off. Then I dusted with sanding sugar and sprinkles. Once you’ve glazed the remaining two dozen cookies, let these set and harden for 30 minutes. Plenty of time to lick that glaze bowl clean and get a little day drunk on when you do.

You can keep these in a Tupperware container and leave them on the kitchen counter. Placing in the fridge will make the glaze and melted chocolate get kinda weird, so leave these at room temp and devour accordingly. I play a dangerous game of, “Have I earned a cookie?” Every time I walk by these in the kitchen (spoiler alert: I have not, but I will eat one anyway).

As my mom told me, these boozy beauties are what Girl Scout cookies grow up to be. She isn’t wrong. These are adult Tagalongs, absolutely no doubt about it.

We have really been enjoying these little blissful boozy birthday bites. He may not be a sweets fan, but my husband has no problem knocking back a few Skrewball whiskey cookies, neat (seriously, leave them at room temp). The whiskey is by no means overwhelming in flavor; it gives a subtle hint of peanut butter with a deep richness in the chocolate drizzled cookies. Overall, these are very adult-tasting sugar cookies. Not too sweet, nice and soft, and mellow in whiskey flavor. The whiskey glaze obviously provides more of a bite since it contains more alcohol, but again, it isn’t offensively overpowering like most whiskeys. It’s smooth and sweet, much like the birthday boy himself. So here’s to another year around the sun to my wonderful husband. I will toast to that (with a cookie). Because without him, I’d crumble–we’re a batch made in heaven. ‘Til next time, my fellow eaters!

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