Recipe: Eggnog Snickerdoodles

 

My boyfriend bought some alcoholic eggnog for my parents this Christmas, but since I had bought them the same thing (but from Twin Valley Distillers), he tried giving it to a friend. But she wasn't too into it, so she gave it back, and my boyfriend doesn't like eggnog, so he gave it to me. BUT what am I going to do with a OUNCES bottle of alcoholic eggnog? So I immediately looked up baking recipes that use eggnog, and I found a lot I was interested in! So I thought I'd start with these eggnog snickerdoodles from the Lil' Luna blog.  

Ingredients

Dough

·        1/2 cup butter softened

·        1 cup sugar

·        1 egg

·        1 tsp rum extract

·        1/2 cup eggnog

·        2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

·        1/2 tsp salt

·        1/2 tsp baking soda

·        1/2 tsp nutmeg

Sugar Mixture for rolling

·        1/2 cup sugar

·        2 T cinnamon

·        1/2 tsp nutmeg

Icing

·        3/4 cup powdered sugar

·        1-2 tbsp eggnog

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line two large baking sheets with parchment or spray with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter and 1 cup sugar, until light and fluffy. Add the egg, rum extract, and eggnog, and mix to combine. Add the flour, salt, baking soda, and nutmeg, and mix until a soft dough forms.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the ½ cup sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Scoop the dough into one-inch balls and roll in the sugar mixture. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

4. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

5.  While the cookies are cooling, whisk together the powdered sugar and enough eggnog to make an icing that is easy to drizzle but not too runny. Pipe snowflakes onto the cooled cookies, or drizzle with the icing.

My first mistake was that I forgot to buy butter when I went to the store to get eggs specifically for this recipe (face-palm). But I did have a banana, and fun fact: one banana can be used to equal one stick of butter in baking. Now while this tastes fine, I'm not sure if it impacted the texture of the dough: it was so sticky. There was no way I could roll that dough into anything. So I made them into drop cookies and sprinkled (or in some cases dumped) the sugar mixture on top before baking; I also used pumpkin pie spice because I thought I didn't have nutmeg and then found it afterward (double face-palm). And I did make the icing, but I only put it on a few of the cookies my friend and I ate that night; baked goods are easier to store without a wet, sticky icing. 

These did taste good, but next time I'll remember the butter! Stay tuned for more of these eggnog recipes (which I realize are coming belatedly...).