Deacon cookies, just make sure you use baking soda!
By Kevin Williams
Well, Aster and I were at it again last night, trying an Amish recipe from a woman in Holmes County, Ohio. She calls the cookies "Deacon Cookies" I think because a minister in her church always requests them. And why not? They've got everything in there you could possibly want: chocolate chips, butterscotch, molasses. Yum. SIGH, seasoned cooks always advise you to organize your ingredients before beginning but with a fidgety two-year-old in tow sometimes winging it is the only option. But surely we have baking soda...right? Wrong (well, wrong, I thought..I discovered later that we had some bulk baking soda in a plastic bag)....so, what to do? Swap out baking powder? It's not that easy. Baking soda is a lot more powerful and the chemical chain of reactions is different. I've always heard that you can use 3 times the amount of baking powder as soda and you'll be okay, so if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, use 3 of baking powder. But you also have to have something acidic in the recipe for the baking powder to work properly, like lemon juice (which Deacon Cookies lacked). Still, I thought, what could be the harm? So I swapped out the baking soda with triple amount of baking powder. So, how did these cookies turn out? I think they tasted good. Aster certainly thought they did "I want another cookie, dada!" she declared after polishing off her first one. They turned into very flat, spread-out, crispy cookies...still tasty, but I think had we used the baking SODA the recipe called for, we would have gotten a delightful, fluffy, cookie worthy of a deacon. So give these a try, just baking sure you have baking soda!
- 1 cup (16 tablespoons, 8 ounces) butter, softened to room temperature (see this tutorial)
- ¾ cup (5.5 ounces) lightly packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup (5.5 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1 /2 cup blackstrap molasses
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1¾ cups (8.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups (12 ounces) oats (see note above)
- 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet, milk or bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup (6 ounces) butterscotch chips
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Lightly grease cookie sheets.
- In a large bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, a minute or so if you are using an electric mixer..
- Add the molasses, flour, salt, baking soda, and oats.
- Mix until just combined.
- Stir in the chocolate and butterscotch chips.
- Scoop out the cookie dough into heaping tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing a couple inches apart.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes until set but not overbaked.
Actually, it's baking soda that needs something acidic for it to work. In this recipe, the molasses is the acidic ingredient that reacts with the baking soda to produce the carbon dioxide that raises the dough. Baking powder is the combination of baking soda and a dry acid, such as cream of tartar. This recipe looks like a keeper--can't wait to try it!
Thanks for the clarification! And this is a really good recipe even using baking powder, I mean, the cookies were flat, but, wow, they still tasted good...good luck with them!