My first thoughts making these were…
- Why are these called butterscotch shortbread when there is no ‘butterscotch’?
- What exactly is butterscotch?
I feel like when I think butterscotch, all I think of is those yellow hard candies we grew up with 🤷♀️
I had to look it up actually.
Butterscotch at its most basic is a mixture of brown sugar and butter, melted and cooked together.
The main difference between caramel and butterscotch is that caramel is made with granulated sugar while butterscotch is made from brown sugar.
Perhaps I am the only one that didn’t know this, but I guess I just never gave it much thought! Learn something new everyday haha!
These shortbread cookies have the usual ingredients of flour, vanilla, salt, pecans, milk chocolate and butter but then we add some more unusual ones. We add in some cornstarch, brown sugar, confectioners sugar, and Scotch whiskey. It is the combo of brown sugar, vanilla, pecans, butter, Scotch whiskey and milk chocolate that give these cookies a decidedly “warm” flavor.
The dough comes together and is rolled out and chilled. The 2in disks are cutout and placed in muffin tins to bake. This gives them a nice crust. The cookies are to sit and cool in the tins for 20 min before unmolding and I have to say I thought this would be a disaster, but no…they popped right out haha. Phew!
This recipe made a lot of these cookies which my tasters appreciated. I am not sure the ‘butterscotch’ flavor came though, but the flavor all together was really good. Everyone loved these!
This one is a keeper!
Is this a keeper? 
Oh, they look lovely. Fun to see your little notes on what means what when…I love that kind of thing. Like you, I thought mine would come out of the muffin tin in pieces, but no, they popped right out all lined up when I turned the tins over. These were fun…and very tasty.
Yes Kim, I agree that this one is a keeper!! They were very good.
Definitely a keeper, not sure I could taste any “butterscotch” tho!
Your cookies came out perfect. I burned my first batch, rooky mistake. I thought they tasted like butterscotch but not whiskey. Happy Thanksgiving.