Dr Pepper flavored cookies, mark 1
I've long wished I could make my own Dr Pepper at home. Of course the first obstacle to this is that the recipe's a trade secret, but that's not an insurmountable obstacle. There are people in the world who can taste a flavor and figure out its underlying components, as evidenced by the dozens of Dr Pepper clone sodas in existence. I'm not one of those people, but thanks to Google I can get some leads from people who are better at flavor-identification than I am. The leads I've gotten from this suggest that the primary notes in Dr Pepper are almond, citrus, and clove. Some people say cherry, but I think they're confusing the almond for cherry.
For comparison, similar Internet speculation says the main notes in cola are cinnamon, vanilla, and citrus, and maybe nutmeg, coriander, etc.
Having deduced these flavor notes, a few years ago I tried making my own Dr Pepper at home, but I found my options on ingredients were limited. The OpenCola recipe says you can make a soda by mixing essential oils with carbonated water, using "food grade gum arabic" as an emulsifier. I managed to find the essential oils, but I couldn't locate gum arabic, so that route didn't pan out for me. So I tried using Torani syrups, those syrups they flavor lattes with. But while almond and orange were easy to find, there was no clove syrup. The closest I could find was "pumpkin pie" or some such. And while that did get me into the right ballpark, each syrup added more sugar and the end result was too sweet.
Then this week I had a brainstorm: cookies. So here's my experiment at making Dr Pepper and cola-flavored cookies. I took some a basic sugar cookie recipe and added some spices and "flavor essences" which were available from the grocery baking aisle, near the vanilla and the food colorings.
Cookie
0.75 cups butter (softened)
0.5 cups brown sugar (I cut this in half from the original recipe)
2 eggs
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Dr Pepper flavoring
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange flavor essence
1 tsp powdered clove
2 tsp almond flavor essence
Cola flavoring (not successful, see below)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange flavor essence
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1. Beat the softened butter and sugar together.
2. Add the eggs and beat that in.
3. Mix in the flavoring (Dr Pepper or cola, but not both)
4. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt
5. Cook at 175C for 12-15 minutes.
Results
The Dr Pepper cookies were a moderate success, actually smelling and tasting subtly of Dr Pepper. The cola cookies were entirely unsuccessful.
Initially I wasn't going to include vanilla in the Dr cookies, going by the theory that vanilla is not a noticeable note in Dr Pepper (though perhaps it is in Mr Pibb). But after mixing the almond, clove, and orange, I gave vanilla a try, and it did seem to help. I felt sure I'd put in too much clove, but the flavor shifted after baking and they came out with a subtle but recognizable Dr Pepper flavor.
The cola was the reverse experience. In batter form, before adding the flour, it tasted very much like cola. But after baking, nothing like cola. After baking, the cola cookies smelled only of cinnamon, tasted only of orange, and had little annoying specks of nutmeg grit in them which stuck in my teeth. I'm not sure how to fix the cola flavor.
Going forward, it'd be nice if I could remove the flavor oils from the recipes, and go from baser ingredients, like almond slivers and orange juice or orange zest.
Before you post any suggestions in the comments, let me point out that despite the long-standing urban legend, Dr Pepper contains no prunes, so please don't suggest that. Also, I'm not going to just pour Dr Pepper into the dough. That would defeat the purpose of this whole exercise. ;)
For comparison, similar Internet speculation says the main notes in cola are cinnamon, vanilla, and citrus, and maybe nutmeg, coriander, etc.
Having deduced these flavor notes, a few years ago I tried making my own Dr Pepper at home, but I found my options on ingredients were limited. The OpenCola recipe says you can make a soda by mixing essential oils with carbonated water, using "food grade gum arabic" as an emulsifier. I managed to find the essential oils, but I couldn't locate gum arabic, so that route didn't pan out for me. So I tried using Torani syrups, those syrups they flavor lattes with. But while almond and orange were easy to find, there was no clove syrup. The closest I could find was "pumpkin pie" or some such. And while that did get me into the right ballpark, each syrup added more sugar and the end result was too sweet.
Then this week I had a brainstorm: cookies. So here's my experiment at making Dr Pepper and cola-flavored cookies. I took some a basic sugar cookie recipe and added some spices and "flavor essences" which were available from the grocery baking aisle, near the vanilla and the food colorings.
Cookie
0.75 cups butter (softened)
0.5 cups brown sugar (I cut this in half from the original recipe)
2 eggs
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Dr Pepper flavoring
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange flavor essence
1 tsp powdered clove
2 tsp almond flavor essence
Cola flavoring (not successful, see below)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange flavor essence
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1. Beat the softened butter and sugar together.
2. Add the eggs and beat that in.
3. Mix in the flavoring (Dr Pepper or cola, but not both)
4. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt
5. Cook at 175C for 12-15 minutes.
Results
The Dr Pepper cookies were a moderate success, actually smelling and tasting subtly of Dr Pepper. The cola cookies were entirely unsuccessful.
Initially I wasn't going to include vanilla in the Dr cookies, going by the theory that vanilla is not a noticeable note in Dr Pepper (though perhaps it is in Mr Pibb). But after mixing the almond, clove, and orange, I gave vanilla a try, and it did seem to help. I felt sure I'd put in too much clove, but the flavor shifted after baking and they came out with a subtle but recognizable Dr Pepper flavor.
The cola was the reverse experience. In batter form, before adding the flour, it tasted very much like cola. But after baking, nothing like cola. After baking, the cola cookies smelled only of cinnamon, tasted only of orange, and had little annoying specks of nutmeg grit in them which stuck in my teeth. I'm not sure how to fix the cola flavor.
Going forward, it'd be nice if I could remove the flavor oils from the recipes, and go from baser ingredients, like almond slivers and orange juice or orange zest.
Before you post any suggestions in the comments, let me point out that despite the long-standing urban legend, Dr Pepper contains no prunes, so please don't suggest that. Also, I'm not going to just pour Dr Pepper into the dough. That would defeat the purpose of this whole exercise. ;)