Magic 7-Layer Butterscotch Chip Cookies from Modern Honey

Magic 7-Layer Butterscotch Chip Cookies - made dough February 21, 2023 from Modern Honey

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (add more flour if omitting nuts)

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, lightly toasted (I left them out)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs and vanilla extract; mix for 1 minute, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl as needed to keep mixture even textured.
3. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt, mixing on low speed until just combined. 
4. Fold in butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, coconut and pecans or walnuts until evenly dispersed.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight. Freeze if not baking the next day.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 385 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly spaced dough balls. Bake for 9-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Gently press additional butterscotch and chocolate chips on top of warm cookies if desired. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Whenever I have random amounts of various ingredients to use up, 7-layer magic cookie bars are always a good bet. In this case, I had less than a full bag of butterscotch chips, half a bag of sweetened flaked coconut and a plethora of semisweet chocolate chips. Unfortunately though, I didn't have enough graham cracker crumbs for the base of even a half recipe of magic cookie bars.

So I turned to them in cookie form with this recipe from Modern Honey. I can't claim this to be an accurate replica of magic cookie bars in cookie form as I omitted the nuts (I don't mind them in bar cookies, I mind them in cookies) and these don't have graham cracker crumbs.

So I'd have to call them coconut butterscotch chocolate chip cookies to be accurate. Regardless of their name, they turned out pretty well as the cookies I called them. The dough was soft and sticky when I first mixed as the recipe indicated but since I had omitted the nuts, I ended up adding almost another 1/4 cup of flour than the recipe as listed. Use your judgment if you're making these. You don't want the dough to be too soft. Even chilling won't prevent spread if there's not enough flour.

These didn't spread too much, thanks to my flour adjustment but I also didn't make them too big. Taste-wise, they were also good with crisp edges and chewy middles. If I wanted a more faithful rendition to magic cookie bars though, I would probably swap out some of the flour for graham cracker crumbs to work that graham cracker flavor in there.