Sounds interesting - I would not have thought to combine butterscotch and chocolate in a cookie, but I like caramel and chocolate together, which I think might be similar. I would have used half as much salt (at most), partly because for me baking soda gives a salty flavor.

When I was baking desserts in San Francisco in the 1970s, I invented a cookie recipe that had granola and chocolate chips. It was similar to an oatmeal cookie, but the granola made the cookies much crunchier.

These days I very seldom make cookies (even though I like them) because they are not on my diet. My favorite cookie is Kona Coffee Shortbread from Trader Joe's, but I think it has been discontinued, which might be a good thing. You might want to consider developing a recipe for that!

plllog, those sound good! When you say " American Style Butter," is that salted or unsalted?

Sounds good. I invent cookies, cakes, etc., all the time because I want a gf version of something. lol! Yesterday I wanted cake-like brownies w/ dried cherries and it came out great. :) fwiw, I would have substituted tapioca starch for cornstarch in this situation.

Edie, unsalted. As Lars mentioned, a teaspoon is a generous amount of salt anyway. I wanted a certain level of saltiness as a counter point and because I thought the nuts needed it. It's perceptible but not salty per se, By "American style”, I was talking about water content. 81-92% fat,

Lars, I’m thinking of right sized cookies, with nice crunch, as a way to have a sweet crunchy without it being too sweet for me. :) The chocolate flavor is fairly mild so it doesn't crowd out the butterscotch. I was trying to think of a spice to go with the butterscotch, and chocolate kind of took over the thought. :j

PM, I learned to make up cakes in my youth, and in the last number of years, I've learned to make up breads, but while I've tweaked cookie recipes, changing flavors and additions, this is my first venture into making up my own structure. Any advice? I feel like the success was beginner's luck. Cherry brownies sound intriguing!

All versions of brownies are pretty good. :) My advice is to write down the ingredients/amounts of whatever you create w/ the date you made it -- then rate it after you've tried it and make notes for future changes to improve the recipe. At least that's what I do. lol!

M-m-m.... Sounds like my kind of cookie!

Madonna

Oh, yeah! I wrote everything down as I thought of it and amended as it changed, then typed it up so I would catch any details. They're even better today, though less crunchy from being in the cookie tin. And I maintain that the slight saltiness is right. Too good. I keep cookies for a little sweet, but most are too sweet for me to eat a lot of. These aren't unsweet, but also not sugary, and way too nice to eat. I've already had two today. BAD Cookie!!!

I forgot the picture!

WHOA!!! It just let me edit the top post and add the picture. I'm leaving this in case it doesn't stick.

This sounds so good. I'm wondering if it will sort of work without the chips but with more brown sugar to add a butterscotch note and a bit more acid. And no chocolate extract. (In the spirit of using up what I have.)

I am wondering what is balancing the teaspoon of soda. Valrhona cocoa powder is Dutch-processed, so already neutralized. The eighth of a cup of light brown sugar seems not to provide enough acid to balance that much alkali. I'm thinking it might be the chocolate extract. Is that acidic?

CC, I don't know enough of the science to be completely sure—the measures were from different recipes cobbled together. There isn't a distinct rise, but enough of a bubble structure to make them solid but not hard inside. Lars may be right that it increased the perception of salty, but that's a good thing. Chocolate extract is high alcohol like vanilla or orange.

I do know for sure enough about baking that with the substitutions you suggest you might get a nice cookie, but it'll be very different. It's the sweetness of the chips and the crunch of the almonds that makes it work. OTOH, increasing the brown sugar will make up for the missing the sweetness of the chips. You could also make some real butterscotch or butterscotch candy (like the chips) if you want butterscotch flavor.

Definitely play! I didn't know that my can't be bothered remeasuring ingredients cookies would be so good! Make what you can. With improvisational cakes, remember to put in some baking powder, and if it looks and tastes like cake batter, bake it and you have a cake. The dough for this cookie was crumbly, but moist enough, and tasted great. It made a great cookie. If it looks and tastes like cookie dough, and has the usual ingredients, I guess it's cookies!