Hoppy Seltzer & Oatmeal Cookies

Foreword

This tag team of recipes was born after Chris became hooked on hoppy seltzers - refreshing, non-alcoholic, zero-calorie drinks. Determined to reduce his beverage budget, Chris first researched how to make his own hoppy seltzer. And then, not wanting the byproducts of this endeavor to go to waste, the hoppy oatmeal cookie was born.

This recipe makes around 20 cookies.

Ingredients

Hoppy Seltzer:

• 30g Cascade pellet hops
• 200g high-proof grain alcohol
• Seltzer water
• Optional: elderflower syrup

Hoppy Oatmeal Cookies:

• 7g (~1 Tbsp) flaxseed meal
• 120g (½ cup) unsalted butter
• 4 drops green food coloring
• 8g (~2 tsp) saturated hops
• 100g (~½ cup) brown sugar
• 94g (¾ cup) all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 120g (1 ½ cups) old fashioned oats

Directions

Hoppy Seltzer:

• Combine the hops and alcohol in a sealed, glass jar.
• Allow the hops to sit for 2 weeks, gently shaking occasionally.
• Strain to separate the liquid “hop extract” from the “saturated hop” solids, keeping both. Give the hops a light squeeze to extract as much liquid as possible.
• In a glass, combine 1ml of hop extract with 1 cup of seltzer water (or to taste).
• Optionally include 2ml of elderflower syrup.

Hoppy Oatmeal Cookies:

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F, using convection bake mode.
2. In a cup, add 37g (2 ½ Tbsp) of water to 7g of flaxseed meal. Allow to sit for 5 minutes to create a “flax egg”.
3. Microwave the butter until just melted.
4. Mix together the butter, brown sugar, and green food coloring in a stand mixer.
5. Add in 8g of saturated hops and the flax egg, and mix until well combined.
6. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
7. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients in the stand mixer and mix well.
8. Mix in the old fashioned oats.
9. Scoop into 1 inch balls of dough and place onto a parchment paper lined AirBake cookie sheet. (If you don’t have AirBake, double up your cookie sheets.)
10. Bake for 13 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn a darker shade.
11. Let the cookies cool slightly (~5 minutes), then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes

One of the tricks with oatmeal cookies that they can become really dry just a day after cooking them. This recipe uses melted butter and a lower baking temperature to produce cookies that stay moist much longer.

To make a completely non-alcoholic hop seltzer, combine 400ml of boiling water with 30g of pellet hops. Allow this to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then strain. This produces more of a “hop tea concentrate”. Use 4ml with 1 cup of seltzer water. (The hop tea concentrate should be refrigerated to delay spoilage, and the saturated hops left over from this process have not been tested in cookies.)