Wait … what the heck is LME you’re asking? “The London Metal Exchange? That doesn’t make any sense. Did she sit down and have some cookies with the exchange? And if she did, then wouldn’t they be called biscuits?”

Ahem, anyway, LME is known as liquid malt extract. Since we are not all-grain brewers, we rely on LME for our beers. We had some leftover after brewing the stout, so I put the leftover away until I could stick it in something. LME is somewhat similar to molasses, so I found a new oatmeal cookie recipe that stems from WWII when brown sugar was rationed and molasses was used more readily in cookies.

I must say, I am really happy with how these cookies turned out. The recipe does not call for spices, so I kept it that way — I have a separate recipe for spiced oatmeal raisin cookies — but in lieu of raisins I decided to use the dried cherries I had leftover from a chocolate cherry stromboli I made ages ago.

You could really smell the LME in the batter, and anyone who has sampled LME before could pick out its distinct flavor in the batter. The cookies are also thick with oatmeal — 2 cups — so as Ray said, it gives you plenty to chaw on.

The finished cookie has a great oatmeal texture, the cherries are a nice substitute for raisins, and the LME worked as a great sweetener/molasses substitute. If you have some leftover LME of your own (or molasses I suppose), then check out the recipe below, I think you’ll dig it!

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
2 eggs
5 tbsp LME or molasses
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cherries

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. In a medium to large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and oatmeal.
3. In a large bowl, blend together softened butter and granulated sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla, LME, and eggs. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients.
4. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop batter onto the paper by the teaspoonful, fitting 12 cookies to a sheet.
5. Bake for 10 minutes. Let the cookies rest for a moment before placing them on a wire rack to cool. Yields roughly 48 cookies.

Also, we also managed to score River Horse’s latest Brewer’s Reserve, the Imperial Cherry Amber Ale. I found that sipping it after tasting the batter left a hoppy taste in my mouth; however, sipping the beer after a nibble of cookie did not do the same thing. Weird. Nonetheless, the cookie and beer pair well.

The great texture and balanced chewyness make these cookies addicting!

Craft Beer, Pairings, Recipes