Despite the name, these cookies have no butterscotch chips or anything, just a lot of brown sugar and butter. The recipe is from a 1937 cookbook, so I’ve been making them at work (at my depression era farm). If you chill the dough thoroughly (ie in the freezer at least overnight) they’re soft, just slightly puffy, delicious cookies that got some newspaper reporters interested in sharing the recipe. If you don’t adequately chill the dough, they spread tremendously, get huge and thin and run into each other and are a bit of a mess, but the sugars also caramelize a bit, which is tasty in its own way, so, since the original recipe is old and super vague, you can do whatever you want and call it correct!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups tightly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter until smooth.

Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined, then beat in the dry goods.

Divide the dough into two roughly equal halves, then shape each into a log and wrap in plastic wrap, pulling the plastic wrap around the dough to help shape and round it. Place both logs in the freezer for at least 12 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets. Thinly slice the cookie dough and place on the greased sheets.

Bake 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until golden at the edges. For under-frozen dough, 10 minutes was plenty, for well frozen dough it took 12 to get a bit of browning. Cool for a few minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely while you bake additional batches of cookies.

Butterscotch Cookies

Adapted from The Kinsman Cookbook (1937).

• 2 cups tightly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined, then beat in the dry goods. Divide the dough into two roughly equal halves, then shape each into a log and wrap in plastic wrap, pulling the plastic wrap around the dough to help shape and round it. Place both logs in the freezer for at least 12 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets. Thinly slice the cookie dough and place on the greased sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until golden at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely while you bake additional batches of cookies.