Holy Moley!  So, what began as a desire to use the last of the buttermilk chilling in the fridge  evolved into a very fruitful three days of cookie baking at my house.  And okay, well, yes, a second motivation, admittedly, is being engrossed in an interesting new book and knowing that using that buttermilk is going to net me a stash of cookies (and plenty to share also, added bonus!) for enjoying with late-night page turning of that very book. It all sounded good to me, and before I knew it, I was on a mission!

I ended with three very different batches of cookies whose common ingredient is buttermilk.  The Dark Brown Sugar Cookies and the Lemon Bursts both use buttermilk in their glazes and Betty’s Molasses Cookies use 1/2 cup in the dough.

Because we’re all about added bonuses around here, the kitchen, the entire house, is fragrant  with strains of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves with a fresh zesty lemon scent layered on top.  It’s enough to make me believe my next retirement venture just might be transferring this heavenly aroma into perfume: “Spiced Essence of Winter Kitchen Days”.  I’d buy a decanter for sure.