My Brother's Favourite Cookie: Butterscotch Chip Crunchers

As I ate Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise with almond milk, I realised that eating cereal is actually quite pleasurable and why don’t I do it more often?  Said I, I usually have oatmeal for breakfast, and since oats are a blank slate, they’re good for all meals of the day, and they can be ground into flour.  Cereal’s somewhat one-dimensional since it generally retains a breakfast connotation.  Or it’s dessert (hello, my freshman year of college: salad and cereal for supper.  I made being vegetarian and eating healthful meals…challenging).  

Or cereal can be in dessert.  Enter my brother Jamz's favourite cookie, Butterscotch Chip Crunchers.

Butterscotch Chip Crunchers

Modified by my mom then me from Anytime Family Favorites, a Pillsbury publication, page 7.

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 4 tablespoons water

3/4 cup firmly packed organic brown sugar

1/2 cup organic sugar

5 tablespoons vegan margarine, softened (I used Earth Balance coconut spread)

2 tablespoons shortening (I used organic palmfruit)

2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

dash cinnamon

2 cups GF cornflakes, coarsely crushed

1 cup GF rolled oats

1 cup butterscotch chips (Food Lion brand is vegan)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl (or the work bowl of a stand mixer), set up the flax mixture.  In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  Add the sugars, fats, and vanilla to the flax mixture, and using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream  together these ingredients.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl  occasionally and beat until fluffy.  Stir in the dry ingredients, then fold in the chunks.  Mix until well-combined.  Using a two-tablespoon cookie scoop, transfer balls of cookie dough to the prepared sheets.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  When you rotate the sheets around 4 minutes in, gently press down on the cookies with a fork to flatten them a bit (not too much; they do spread).  Let cool on the sheets for five minutes then transfer to the rack.  Makes about 38 cookies.

Also, I made Melty Mints this Monday.  Black cocoa strikes back.  

I modified the recipe a bit, too, and updated the post.

Update 10/20/2012

Similar to how I make muffbars, I made these cookies into bars because I needed sleep and cookies for the edit-a-thon.

Butterscotch Chip Crunchers Bars

Basic bar recipe modified from here: http://www.gothicgranola.com/2012/02/mudd-library-edit-thon-and-betty.html

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

3 tablespoons shortening (I used organic palmfruit)

1/2 cup organic brown sugar, packed (I used Sucanat)

1/2 cup granulated organic sugar

3/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon Kosher NaCl

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup butterscotch chips

3/4 cup GF rolled oats

2 cups cornflakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a 9*13-inch pan with parchment and grease the parchment.

Assembly instructions are the same as the above cookies.  Instead of making cookie balls, press the mixture into the pan (it’s as sticky as the swamps of Dagobah) and spread it to the edges.  Bake for 25-27 minutes or until the centre is firm and springs back to the touch and the edges have browned.  Let cool completely in the pan.  When cool, remove it from the pan by using the parchment.  Score it with a sharp serrated knife and then break it into about 24-36 pieces or however big you want it to be. 

The edge pieces are crispy and the middle pieces will be softer; everyone can have the part and size of cookie piece that they like!

Out of cornflakes and butterscotch chips?  Substitute whatever crunchy bits float your boat: quinoa flakes, pretzel bits, sliced almonds, you get the picture.  Vegan white chocolate makes a good substitute for butterscotch chips, though both chips in vegan format are as rare as Blue Snaggletooth Star Wars action figures.  The below picture shows a glutinous, white chocolate chip- and almond-containing variation I made in March 2011.