Root Beer Float Cookies

  |  73 Comments

To be honest, we don’t drink a lot of carbonated drinks around here . . . in fact, my kids call carbonated drinks “spicy drinks”. Ha ha! But every once in a while, I just get such a strong craving for Root Beer (and Elyse has been having crazy pregnancy cravings for Root Beer and pizza, so it must run in our family!). I came across these cookies and knew that I had to try them. They are super soft and moist and the frosting on top is what makes the cookie! It doesn’t use actual soda pop, but instead uses just a little bit of Root Beer extract (or concentrate) and it adds the perfect amount of root beer flavor.
If you love Root Beer, you will love these cookies!

Serves: 36

Root Beer Float Cookies

They are super soft and moist and the frosting on top is what makes the cookie! If you love Root Beer, you will love these cookies.

15 minPrep Time

10 minCook Time

25 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

    Cookies:
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tsp. root beer extract or concentrate
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
    • Frosting:
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 3 Tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate

Instructions

    Cookies:
  1. Preheat oven to 375º.
  2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in buttermilk and root beer extract.
  3. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture.
  4. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375º for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
    5. Frosting:
  5. In a mixing bowl, combine all frosting ingredients. Beat until smooth.
  6. Frost cooled cookies.
7.8.1.2
37
https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/root-beer-float-cookies/

Adapted from Silver Boxes

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Comment on this Recipe

73 Responses to “Root Beer Float Cookies”

  1. Cupcake Crazy Gem
    Oh man, root beer is pretty much my favourite thing ever! It's the number one reason I want to move to America, no jokes! We don't get it here in England which is just awful! However I do have a little bottle of root beer extract in my baking cupboard, that my sisters kindly brought me back from a trip to California, and it's screaming out for me now to use it in these cookies!! and since I'm procrastinating my dissertation I might just have too! thanks for sharing!!
    April 30, 2012 at 2:13 pm
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  10. Becky
    This looked like something that I needed to pin, so I actually had to look up your web address from your picture. The only pictures on Pinterest, that I found, linked to the picture but not to your website. This looks like an amazing recipe for a summer party!
    April 30, 2012 at 11:18 pm
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  13. Jennie
    I baked these today, and they taste pretty good, but I did not get the same root beer color that you did. Can you tell me what brand of extract or concentrate you used? I would like to get the same color, my icing didn't take on any sort of color at all. Not very root-beer-floatish or as pretty as yours!
    May 1, 2012 at 12:29 pm
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    • Kevin
      I've made these a good number of times. They're always a huge hit, and everybody wants the recipe. I do make a buttermilk substitute with milk and vinegar. And the icing's always white when I make it. I thought that might be the difference between the extract and the concentrate, but I've tried them with both.
      May 21, 2016 at 7:24 pm
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  21. SayNotSweetAnne
    My mom and I used to LOVE rootbeer barrels! I've nver even thought about a root beer cookie! Thats such a great find! Thank you so much for sharing, I'm going to have to put this one on my to do list. =D I'd love it if you would link up to Sweet Sharing Monday: http://saynotsweetanne.com/2012/sweet-sharing-monday-4/
    May 8, 2012 at 7:04 pm
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  28. Tina B
    There are two things in this world my Grandma loves: root beer and cookies. I made her a batch of these for her 90th birthday and she can't stop raving about them! She absolutely loved the idea of combining the two..
    Thank you so much for posting the recipe!!
    June 29, 2012 at 11:01 pm
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  30. Felisa Leisinger
    I made these cookies yesterday, used 2% milk and half wheat flour. I used a root beer extract that would be used to actually make root beer (because I'm 9months pregnant, and we do....). I don't have the box the extract came in, but the bottle says "Homebrew" "Old fashioned recipe, Root beer" and it's from our local homebrew store. I imagine it's more potent than what is available at Walmart or the grocery store. While we haven't perfected making our own root beer, these cookies are delicious. I did not make the icing because I'm freezing the cookies, but imagine it would be an amazing treat, but only for people who really like root beer. My husband tried the cookies, and said "Well, they taste like root beer" :-)
    July 13, 2012 at 8:18 am
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  42. Amy
    These are a hit in my family!! I got 5 dozen out of them. My cookies were a nice light brown, but my frosting stayed pretty white - which I actually think makes them look more "float" like. Vanilla ice cream is white after all! :) I was just wondering if you store these in a cookie jar or in the fridge seeing as there is butter and milk in the frosting?
    September 9, 2013 at 5:59 pm
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  46. Sara
    Tried this recipe at home. The icing was wonderful but turned out to be more of a glazed icing. The cookies are kind of flavorless though, not very sweet. Needs more sugar, root beer extract and probably some vanilla extract as well.
    May 6, 2014 at 8:54 pm
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  51. Christa
    I loved the idea of these cookies, however the cookie was more like a dry cake. They didn't have enough root beer flavor and were dull. The icing was good after I doubled the amount of Watkin's concentrate. They were not well liked at he potluck I took them to either.
    August 16, 2015 at 6:45 am
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  53. Cheryl T.
    Let me share the history of these cookies. I married my husband in 1987 and these cookies were his favorite. I tease him that the recipe was my dowry for marrying him. In the late 90's, before Pinterest, I was part of an email recipe group called World Wide Recipes. The manager sent out a call for cookie recipes and I submitted my root beer cookie recipe. My email was swamped with a ton of replies. The cookies were a huge hit. A few years later I was sorting through junk mail and I came across my recipe in an ad selling cookbooks. Now they are all over the place. My cookies are famous. The recipe originally came from a church cookbook from Hyde Park, Utah in the 70's. I love seeing that so many people are enjoying them.
    September 23, 2017 at 2:49 pm
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