Goat Butter Cookies

Goat butter on bread was fine but for reasons unknown to me, I was uneasy baking with goat butter. Silly, I agree but today I was determined to change that. I hoped. That is if all went well. Butter cookies might not be the best choice but I figured it was sink or swim. That's what I felt in my bravado mood.

Then I began to question my decision as the dough is traditionally shaped into a log and a well is formed lengthwise down the center into which jam is placed. After the logs cook, you slice them crosswise while they are warm. The dough has a tendency to spread out a little and since goat butter has a lower melting point I began to wonder if the logs made of goat butter would be too flat and spread out? I could turn the oven down I reasoned but then I wouldn't know what happens at 350 Fahrenheit so I decided, if need be, I'd turn the temperature down on the second batch of cookies.

Then I thought of my mini muffin tin. The cookies couldn't spread out and the muffin tin would make cute thumbprint cookies. Since I needed to go do livestock chores, I reasoned that placing the dough in the refrigerator while took care of the stock would also help keep the cookies from spreading. A tip I read about in the Cook's magazine. I just can't remember why they said it works.

The results were wonderful and my butter cookies may never been in a log shape again nor made with the store's cow butter. I'll give you my recipe in case you'd like to give them a try and after that I'll tell you the new conclusions I've made about making butter with the blender. It's all because of Linda's comments at the bottom of the butter blog.

Butter Cookies
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup goat butter
1 egg- large (not pullet, though lots of us have an abundance of those right now. Sorry you'll need to go pester one of the older hens for an egg.)
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Cream the above together then add.
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Mix and put in the refrigerator for an hour or two. About the time it takes to do livestock chores if your not cleaning sheds etc.

Then decide whether you want to form two logs or thumbprint cookies. I made my thumbprint cookies by rolling small pieces of dough into balls and pressing down on them forming a thumbprint. Inside this impression I put home-made blackberry jam. You can use raspberry, strawberry, or whatever kind is your favorite.

Bake at 350 Fahrenheit until done or 15 to twenty minutes for the logs. Don't over cook. The cookies dough should just be showing a blush of brown around the edges. Mine in the photo were slightly over cooked. The longer they cook the dryer they are.
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The butter for the cookies wasn't pasteurized and since chatting on the blog with Linda I decided to try and make butter in the blender. The first two batches of a quart at a time of cream went to the butter stage without a problem. The third quart I put in must have been thicker because it went to the whip cream stage and just sat there. Turning up the blender speed did not move it and tapping the bottom of the blender pitcher on the counter to reposition the whip cream did no good, so it ended up in the butter churn.

Also, today while the cookies baked I separated more cream with the electric separator. This time I wanted to know how big a deal it was putting the cream through the separator again after I had removed it from the milk. I have to say if I was just going to make butter I wouldn't put the cream I got from the first separation through the separator again. I had an inch and a quarter less cream in my large bowl after the second separation. The less heavy cream would probably do better in the blender when making butter.

But I have noticed that my whip cream doesn't separate out in the refrigerator into whip cream and a liquid in the bottom of the container when stored for a couple days. It remains as if I just whipped it. So for whip cream, I'm going ahead with the second separation.

What's your opinion?