buttermilk cookies
When I was an intern in Meredith Corporation’s food dept, one of the most fun, exciting days was when I got to help the test kitchen prepare the Thanksgiving spread tasting panel for Better Homes & Gardens. Sure, it was about 98º outside in the sweltering July heat and the last thing most of us wanted to eat was turkey, gravy and all the fix-ins, but it was still so fun and, well, delicious, because we worked with recipes from Scott Peacock and his book The Gift of Southern Cooking. Co-written with Edna Lewis, the quintessential southern soul food cook, every recipe we tried was outstanding. Amazing. Even the jello with cucumbers in it (yes, seriously). I can’t even begin to describe the awesomeness of the gravy and the butternut squash soup, which is still one of my all-time favorite things I have ever eaten in my life.
After that day my ears would always perk up if I heard either of their names, or I would always save a recipe if I saw it was from either of them. I’ve had this cookie recipe saved for awhile after seeing it in Gourmet ages ago, and finally got around to making it last night. I love buttermilk to death (it goes in pancakes, hello), but it really is one of those odd ingredients you don’t see used much anymore. I was excited to try it in a very simple recipe where I hoped it would really shine.
The cookies have a very soft, almost cake-like texture with a very lightly crispy bottom and the flavor is very subtle. I added more buttermilk to the icing to really get that tangy flavor going, and the overall taste is something airy, buttery and not overly sweet. The original recipe suggests pairing them with a glass of lemonade which turns out to be a brilliant suggestion because all it does is bring out the zest in the cookies (and icing, in my case). If you really want to go all out, try pairing them with a Pimm’s cup made with lemonade after a heavy meal — what a perfect appertif on a hot summer evening.
Buttermilk Cookies
Based on Edna Lewis’s recipe in Gourmet magazine.
Despite the recipe saying this will make 5 ½ dozen cookies, I only got about 4 dozen out of the batch. The texture came out perfect, but still, I was scratching my head a bit and figured mine were a bit larger than Edna’s. Like I said before I added more buttermilk (and some zest) to the glaze to give it a little more zing.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle and line as many baking sheets as you have with parchment paper.
- Whisk together flour, zest, baking soda, and salt.
- Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in batches at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until smooth. The dough will be very loose and moist, where it barely retains its shape when you drop it onto the baking sheets.
- Drop level tablespoons of dough about 1 ½ inches apart onto baking sheets. If you have a cookie scoop that would be ideal (alas, I don’t). Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until cookies are puffed and edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes per batch. The texture will be very soft throughout with a crispy bottom, almost cake-like.
- Cool cookies on sheets 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks.
For the glaze:
- 1 ½ cups confectioners sugar
- 5 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp lemon zest
Glaze cookies:
- Whisk together all glaze ingredients and brush onto tops of warm cookies.
- Let stand until cookies are completely cooled and glaze is set, then glaze once more to give a really nice, thick layer on top.
these are the best! The Taste of Country Cooking is another of Edna’s books– it’s so beautiful, I read it like a novel.