Butterbeer Cookies are a buttery shortbread meltaway thumbprint cookie topped with a creamy Butterscotch Ganache! Tastes like the perfect little bite of Harry Potter’s Butterbeer!
The cookies are a super simple, buttery meltaway base, topped with a creamy butterscotch ganache…and then drizzled with more ganache for good measure. My kids went crazy for these cookies. They are huge Harry Potter fans so it was fun tying the popular drink from the book into a cookie. I, on the other hand, have never read any of the Harry Potter books and fell asleep when we were watching the first movie (gasp)…but I know HP is a whole thing, so please don’t hate me.
I had a blast making these and I know you will as well!
Butterbeer Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon butter extract
Ganache
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 5.5 ounces butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine together the flour and salt and set aside.
- With your mixer, cream together the butter, powdered sugar, butter extract and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Add all the dry ingredients and mix on low speed for about a minute. Wipe down the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium, and mix for another minute until a dough forms.
- Scoop a tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball and place on your baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. You can use your thumb or the back of a teaspoon to make an indention in the cookie. Bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the cookies from the oven and immediately press down the indention a bit more to hold the ganache. Return the cookies to the oven and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Ganache
- While the cookies are baking make the ganache. In a bowl, place your butterscotch chips and set aside. In a small saucepan on medium heat, bring the heavy cream up to just before boiling. Remove from heat and pour over the butterscotch chips. Allow to sit for a minute or so and whisk until smooth. You need to allow the ganache to cool to room temperature before using.
Assembly
- When the cookies have cooled transfer ganache to a plastic squeeze bottle or zip top bag to create a piping bag. Pipe the ganache into the center of each cookie. You can drizzle the top with additional ganache if you want. Allow the ganache to set up. You can even refrigerate or freeze them for faster setting time.
Notes
A few notes from my experience baking the cookies using Kara’s recipe:
If your cookie dough is too crumbly add a teaspoon of water at a time until the dough comes together. My dough was slightly crumbly and this trick worked perfectly.
I ended up baking the cookies for a bit less time so I would have a softer cookie. My total bake time was 14-15 minutes.
Also, I added 8 oz Butterscotch chips to the ganache instead of the 5.5 oz the original recipe lists, as I preferred it a bit thicker. BUT with that being said I had a lot of ganache leftover that I am saving for ice cream sundaes!
If I want to make the cookie softer can I add an egg or replace the powdered sugar with brown sugar?
“so please don’t hate me.”
Uhm, I’ll try. But you really should give them a shot. They’re very good and there’s lots of life lessons buried within.
How many cookies does this recipe make?
It depends on the size of the cookies you make. I actually used a Tablespoon to scoop the dough, with just a tiny bit extra for each and it made 13 cookies. There is a lot of leftover ganache though, after filling the cookies. So if you wanted to double or tripple the recipe, you would still have enough ganache with just the regular recipe.
I have been unable to find butter extract in any of the grocery stores near me!! Would it completely change the flavor if I omit?
It definitely adds to the butter flavor… you can order it online!
What a fun and creative cookie! A must-try!
I am very thankful to you that you shared the recipe. I need more help to cookies and cake. Adorable Excellent
WOW! These cookies are rocking my world my world!
These look amazing. Can’t wait to try them.
Thank you for all of your great recipes.