Eclecticisms: Rosemary Butter Cookies (AKA Burnt Poker Chips)

One herb I love is rosemary, especially on potatoes or in tea. It's aromatic, healing, and delicious. Rosemary is rich in Vitamin E and is good for the skin, senses, digestion, circulation and headaches. I have a bottle of rosemary essential oil that combines beautifully with lavendar, chamomille, or bergamont, to name only a few. It's also very easy to grow, both indoors and out. I've had the same plant for at least a couple of years now; In the spring I bring it outside to the garden (I keep it potted though) and bring it in once it starts to get chilly. It smells wonderful (of course) is a great choice when making saches. (Hopefully I'll blog about making those, soon!) I recently read that you should mist the leaves of the plant with water on a regular basis, but I never have. I'm going to start and see if I notice any difference.

When I came across this recipe in my Martha Stewart "cookie of the day" e-mail (I know, I know...) I knew I had to make it. I had the rosemary and it sounded fantastic! Here is the link to the recipe that I followed. I can't imagine there wasn't a typo in this recipe though. At 375 degrees, the dough rolled in egg whites, the cookies burned terriblely. The ones that did turn out are heavenly. Next time I'll read up more on egg white coatings, parchment paper, and will probably just use a bit of spray on the pans, or even nothing at all.

Makes about 5 dozen (Assuming you don't burn 3/4 of them!)

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 teaspoon ground sea salt salt
1/2 cup raw sugar
Directions

Mix butter and granulated sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low.

Add flour, rosemary, and salt, and mix until combined.

Split the dough in half and roll each into a log shape.

Place each log on a 12-by-16-inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 1/2 inches in diameter and transfer to paper-towel tubes to hold shape. This was easier than I expected. If the log gets stuck, gently work it in. Don't try to force it, or it will just start to bunch up where you are pushing. Freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Brush each log with egg white (I got to use the silicon brush I FINALLY bought!). At this point, it looks a little like a loaf of raw garlic bread.

Roll in raw sugar. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds.

Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment.

Bake until edges are golden (or charcoal black, in my case), 18 to 20 minutes. After my experience with them burning (parchment paper seems to give me more trouble than it's worth sometimes), I'd recommend you keep a close eye on these while they bake.

Not quite what I expected...