12 Days of Christmas Treats Day 9: Chewy Eggnog Cookies

     Have I got a recipe for you eggnog lovers out there!  I always love a chewy cookie but am rarely successful in making one at home.  The folks at America's Test Kitchen came up with an easy one that works pretty well.  It's not as ooey-gooey chewy as the ones at the store, but it's also not sporting the entire contents of a university chem lab in the ingredient list.  A couple of years ago I created an eggnog cookie with quite a bit more nog in it.  I was surprised how little it took in these to make a recognizable flavor.  This recipe is entirely an ATK invention, the only thing I did was sub in eggnog for the milk.

Chewy Eggnog Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen

2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 C sugar, plus more for rolling
2 oz cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
6 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and still warm
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 Tbs eggnog
2 tsp vanilla extract

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350°.  Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.  Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

Place 1 1/2 C sugar and the cream cheese in a large bowl.  Place the remaining 1/3 C sugar in a shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside.  Pour the warm butter over the sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later).  Whisk in the oil until incorporated.  Add the egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth.  Add the flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula until a soft homogenous dough forms.

Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 Tbs each.  Using your hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball (handle dough as briefly as possible as overworking will result in flatter cookies).  Working in batches, roll the balls in sugar to coat and set on the prepared baking sheet.  12 dough balls per sheet.  Using the bottom of a drinking glass, flatten the dough balls until 2 inches in diameter.  Sprinkle the tops of the cookies evenly with the remaining sugar, using 2 tsp for each sheet. (Discard the remaining sugar.)

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the sheet after 7 minutes.  Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temp.

Notes:
      So I used a cookie scoop instead of dividing by 24 to make my cookies.  The result was around 54 thinner cookies.  This is probably why they weren't super chewy.  (They're still super delicious!)