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Dessert

Butterscotsch Refrigerator Cookies

A short, buttery cookie dough that is chilled before baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Butterscotsch Refrigerator Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and butter.

  2. Add the brown sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and salt, and mix well.

  3. Gradually add the flour and mix until combined.

  4. Fold in the chopped nuts.

  5. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet.

  3. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Vanilla + nutstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shortening
Gives the cookies tenderness and a soft, crumbly texture by coating the flour.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture, molasses flavor, and helps the cookies brown.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic ingredients to release gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that stabilizes the dough and supports leavening with the baking soda.

The step that matters

Chill the dough for at least 1 hour. Chilling firms the fat so the cookies spread less in the oven and keep a thicker shape with a more even texture.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cream, egg, flour, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Macadamia nutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream, egg, flour, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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