Do I Want My Cookies to Taste Like Mustard or Not?: Mustard Spice Cookies

I have a fairly narrow comfort zone when it comes to baking ingredients, but lately I've become a bit more adventurous. I mean, I made cookies with sumac! So I decided to be brave and try a recipe for "Mustard Spice Cookies" from Ovenly -- they're chewy ginger cookies with whole-grain mustard added. I was intrigued. And actually, using mustard in a cookie was less of a leap than using sumac. I know whole-grain mustard and I love it. One of my favorite snacks in the world is ham or other charcuterie with cornichons and tons of whole-grain mustard.

The dough has to be chilled before baking but otherwise the recipe is straightforward. You beat room temperature butter with sugar until fluffy; add an egg, followed by molasses, maple syrup, whole-grain mustard, and heavy cream; and mix in the dry ingredients (flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt). You chill the dough for a few hours before scooping the cookies, rolling them in turbinado sugar, and baking. I used a #30 scoop and got 24 cookies for batch (the exact specified yield -- I love it when that happens!).

At first glance, these just looked like spice cookies. But if you looked closely, you could see dark whole grains of mustard peeking through the top surface here and there. For the most part, I thought they tasted like spice cookies too. If I concentrated while I ate one, I could detect just the slightest aftertaste of mustard and the occasional popping sensation of a bursting mustard grain. The mustard flavor was very mild and my husband told me that he couldn't even taste it. I was surprised how well the mustard melded into the background spice flavor of these cookies -- but in the same vein, I'm not sure if it adds much to the cookie. 

These cookies tasted fine, but even with the mustard, they weren't particularly memorable. I'm glad I gave this recipe a try, but I've definitely made better spice cookies and I wouldn't make this recipe again.

Recipe: "Mustard Spice Cookies" from Ovenly by Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin.