Root Beer Float Cookies

 Last week, I shared a recipe I got from Six Sisters’ Stuff. Here is one that I also got from them. I adapted it a bit to come up with the recipe below. Made both as originally presented on their website and as adapted, below, they went fast in the Emergency Department. As with all cookies made with water-based liquid like buttermilk, they are soft and cake-like. The marshmallows and root beer barrels melt so they are not uniform and are a bit of a mess to eat but I think they make the cookies are more interesting. How could anything be bad with cream cheese icing?

No one at work guessed they were flavored with root beer. I guess it is nonspecific enough and not all that many people drink root beer so I was not surprised. What did surprise me was that I looked in eight stores for root beer barrel candy and no one had it. I guess is not very popular around here. I finally found them at a specialty candy store.

Recipe By:

Adapted from Six Sister’s Stuff

Yield:

36

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1½ teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate *SEE NOTES
1½ teaspoon vanilla
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups miniature marshmallows
6 ounces root beer barrels, cracked **SEE NOTES

Icing:
4 cups powdered sugar (I like it sifted)
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375º.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Beat in buttermilk, root beer extract and vanilla. The liquids will not combine well with the butter mixture and it will look curdled. Don’t worry.

3. Combine dry ingredients. Gradually stir into creamed mixture.

4. Stir in candy and marshmallows.

5. Drop 2-tablespoonful balls onto ungreased baking sheets (I always use baking parchment papers.) Bake at 375º for 10-12 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Frosting:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all frosting ingredients. Beat until smooth.

2. Frost cooled cookies.

Notes:

*I used Cook’s root beer extract, which I bought online. I am sure that McCormick’s, which they have in our local grocery store, would be just as good.

** I put them in a quart-sized zip-lock bag. I close the bag and put it on something hard. (I have an small anvil in the garage that I use.) I gently hit each candy once with a hammer to crack it into smaller pieces.