London Fog Cookies with Whiskey Buttercream

Recipe By: Laura Sorkin, adapted from one by Carolina Gelen

This is another entry in our series, Runamok Cooks the New York Times, in which we look for recipes from the Times that either use maple or would be even better with it, and give them a Runamok twist. This cookie caught our eye because we adore pastry infused with herbal notes of tea. This one is a riff on a London Fog, which is a tea drink made with Earl Grey tea, milk, and vanilla. In fact, we have a great version of a London Fog using our Vanilla Infused Maple that you can find here. In this cookie, the tea is infused in melted butter, which then creates the base of the batter. Cool concept, but we felt it would benefit from a WhistlePig Barrel-Aged Buttercream over the original plain one. Gotta say, it was a good call.

We tweaked a few things from the original, including reducing the amount of sugar because they were very sweet. On that note, a few grains of crushed peppercorn would be a great addition to the tops (try pink peppercorns for color), but that is optional.


 

London Fog Cookies with Whiskey Buttercream

Servings

12 cookies

Prep Time

20 minutes, plus an hour total chilling

Cook Time

15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter 
  • 3 Earl Grey teabags 
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar  
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder 
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 large egg

  • 3 Tbsp butter 
  • ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 - 2 Tbsp Runamok WhistlePig Barrel-Aged Maple
  • 1 tsp peppercorns, crushed (optional)

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Open the tea bags and pour the contents into the warm butter.  Let it steep for 10 minutes and cool a little. Place a strainer over a separate bowl and pour the butter-tea mixture over. If a few specks of tea make it through, that’s fine.
  2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend.
  3. In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the white and brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the strained butter and blend. Add the eggs and continue to mix. Gently add the flour mixture and combine. Remove the bowl from the mixer and put in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up the batter.
  4. Prepare a cookie pan with a sheet of parchment paper. When the dough is firm enough to hold together, use a large spoon to form 12 balls and place them on the cookie sheet. Put in the freezer for 45 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350°. Prepare another cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
  6. Remove the other sheet from the freezer and put half of the dough balls on the new sheet. Spread out all of the balls - six to a sheet - trying to leave several inches in between because they will spread.
  7. Put the trays in the oven and bake for 12 - 15 minutes. The should be just cooked on the edges and soft (almost underdone) in the center. Remove from the oven and let cool.
  8. In a small bowl, cream the 2 tablespoons of butter and confectioners’ sugar together. If using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt. Whisk in the WhistlePig Barrel-Aged Maple or other Runamok Maple Syrup.
  9. Using a small spatula, glide about a teaspoon or two of maple buttercream over the top of each cooled cookie. Garnish with crushed black or pink peppercorns (optional).


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