Root Beer Cookies

I love ice cream sandwiches. They are just so deliciously tasty and fun to eat, not to mention being a great tie back to when I was younger and only had them on very rare occasions. I remember making ice cream sandwich cookies at work one day and I had the idea that a root beer float ice cream sandwich would be delicious, if I could only find a recipe for root beer cookies.

So, I looked around the internet and found a couple recipes, but none of them had everything I wanted. One thing they all had in common was root beer concentrate, so that was a definite must, but the rest of the recipe seemed to be up for debate. So I figured, I make cookies for a living, what's one more cookie?

The butter was an obvious choice, and I thought brown sugar would complement the earthiness of the root beer concentrate. To round out the flavor I added vanilla extract. Also on my list of ingredients was cream of tartar to get some of the acidity of root beer. I made a batch and found they still lacked the bite of root beer, so I upped the acidity with a little bit of citric acid. Finally I got some cookies that I felt were worthy of being given the name of root beer.

These cookies are perfect for making ice cream sandwiches. They have a deep root beer flavor that is not overpowering, and pairs perfectly with vanilla ice cream. For tips on making ice cream sandwiches read this post.

Skip the tutorial and go straight to the recipe.

Step 0:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Step 1:

Cream together 1 cup butter, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup brown sugar, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp cream of tartar, and 1/4 tsp citric acid until light and fluffy.

Why do I differ from many other cookie recipes in that I don't first cream together the fat and sugar, then add the eggs, etc. Well, to be honest. You don't really need to do that with modern chemical leaveners, which are powerful enough to blow bubbles in most cookie dough without a long creaming period. So, just add the powders at the same time—they will get mixed in better than if you mix them in with the flour.
As far as the citric acid is concerned, I guess you don't really need to use it, but then again, you also don't need to have good root beer cookies.

Step 2:

Add 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 Tbsp root beer concentrate. Mix until combined and airy. This will take probably a couple minutes.
One note on root beer concentrate—make sure you use a brand that you would use to make root beer. Also, make sure you are not using a concentrate for diet root beer. Well, I guess you could, if you really wanted, but why bother. These already have lots of Calories—what's a few more gonna do?

Step 3:

Add 3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour and mix until completed incorporated.

Step 4:

Use a #40 disher to scoop out balls of dough onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Flatten to a diameter of 2-1/4 inches. If you feel like it, you can even dust them with granulated sugar for a fun sparkly look.

Step 5:

Bake your cookies for 12-15 minutes, or until done.

Root Beer Cookies:  Yields 2 dozen cookies
1 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp citric acid
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp root beer concentrate
3-1/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream together butter, both sugars, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar, and citric acid. Add egg, vanilla extract, and root beer concentrate and mix until light and fluffy, scraping sides as necessary. Add flour and mix until well combined.Scoop with a #40 disher onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes.