First off, I’d like to apologize for the time delay between my last few blogs. I’ve taken on 2 odd jobs on top of wrangling my ever curious 8-month old and being a wife, so I’ve become busier. I may only be able to bring one post a week from here on, but will try to post more often when I can.
The Brown-eyed Susans I grew up with were either bright yellow flowers or sugar cookies with a Kiss pressed into the center. They were lovely simple cookies, and I believe that this 1962 BH&G recipe will provide just that, with a slight twist.
Apparently there are several ways to make Brown-eyed Susans. Most recipes online reference a homemade chocolate icing that you dot onto the middle of each cookie. While a touch of chocolate icing would be nice, there is no way it could be better than adding a chocolate Kiss, like I so fondly remember. I stand by the no-fail combo of chocolate candy and cookies. Adding chocolate candy to a cookie equals 100% success.
Why just chocolate candy? While some non-chocolate candies, like dried fruit, do fine in a cookie, most do not: Skittles? Nerds? Twizzlers? Those gumdrops I tried a couple cookies back? But I’ll go out on a limb and say that almost all chocolate candies do swimmingly in cookies. M&M’s, Heath, Rolos, Reeses Cups, etc. All taste delicious in a cookie! Chocolate candy definitely trumps chocolate icing as the better brown-eyed option.
Why just chocolate candy? While some non-chocolate candies, like dried fruit, do fine in a cookie, most do not: Skittles? Nerds? Twizzlers? Those gumdrops I tried a couple cookies back? But I’ll go out on a limb and say that almost all chocolate candies do swimmingly in cookies. M&M’s, Heath, Rolos, Reeses Cups, etc. All taste delicious in a cookie! Chocolate candy definitely trumps chocolate icing as the better brown-eyed option.
This Brown-eyed Susan recipe follows my ideology and wants me to use something called a “chocolate-mint candy wafer.” I’m not even really sure what that is. And why are we throwing mint into the mix? My first thought jumps to those Andes mints you get at weddings or as a "thank you for spending so much money, here are two tiny mints to ease the pain" on a bill at a nice restaurant. They seem kinda wafer-like, ie flat. But they are rectangular. These Brown-eyed Susans must represent its name and provide an “eye” in the center of each cookie. No one wants to look at some robot shaped, non-human rectangle eye on their cookie. The candy that is chosen for the center of this cookie must be round, as tradition and good sense calls for. My second thought: mini York peppermint patties. But as I inspect them at the grocery store, I realize that they would be much too big. We don’t want dilated monster eyes either. I search the shelves for something that is chocolate, mint, round, and small. Junior Mints! Not quite as “flat” as I’d like, but I can smush them some to make them work. I don’t know what candy the people 50 years ago used, but this’ll work for me.
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| Before |
The cookies look somewhat like the photo provided in the cookbook. Mine are a bit bigger. I will note that on a few cookies, I piled on three Junior Mints, and that wasn’t the best idea. The inside of the mint becomes so hot that it liquefies and runs outside the chocolate coating. On the cookies with only one mint, the meltaways were captured by the rim of the cookie. However, on the cookies with more than one mint, there wasn’t enough of a cookie edge to contain the runaway mint, so it leaked all over the cooky sheet and became a sticky, hard to clean off, burnt mess.
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| After |
The cookies are not as buttery as I had hoped, but still have that homemade flavor. They are lighter than they look. And you only get a slight hint of chocolate and mint as you take a bite of the candy in the center. These are very subtle cookies compared to the Brown-eyed Susans I think of today. I don’t think the Junior Mints were a great substitute for the “chocolate-mint wafers,” so I’d stick with Kisses in the future. And I’d go with the Peanut Butter Crisscross recipe from earlier as the base, playing off the magical marriage of peanut butter and chocolate. Regardless, these cookies will get eaten!
Cookie Grade: B = I love the concept, but not loving the chocolate-mint wafer idea. A few change ups and this would be a great cookie.
What I was jammin’ to: Fuel – found an old photo of me and Jacki posing with them before a concert. I was 15 y/o with braces. And I broke my nose and got stitches in my forehead shortly after this picture was taken. Got to watch out for those crazy crowdsurfers.
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| Looks like she's rockin' out in her shades |
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