Brown Butter Cookies

Brown Butter Cookies - made dough May 21, baked May 27, 2011 from Tried and True Recipes from Allrecipes.com (book #114)

Allrecipes.com is where I got the recipe for Best, Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies and it was my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies for awhile.  Until I made the browned butter version of Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies and that became my latest go-to recipe - at least for now.  But still, allrecipes.com has some very good recipes.  The issue is sometimes there are so many recipes for the same type of cookie and the reviews can be really mixed, depending on the recipe, the baker, their tasting audience, etc that it's hard to tell which ones are good, bad or truly great.  I bought their cookbook as it presumably lists their top reviewed recipes in the hopes of having them do some of the weeding out for me.  (For the record, the recipe for Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies is in this book.)

Since I'm having this newly rediscovered love of brown butter, I couldn't resist choosing this recipe to try out.  It's a fairly simple butter cookie recipe but the brown butter adds the extra flavor.  I made a half recipe with this one too and omitted the nuts.  I was curious to see how this compared to Bakewise's Butter Cookies.  I made this recipe ahead of time, chilled it in the refrigerator before putting in the freezer then baking it off the day I needed it.  The recipe calls for browning the butter all at once and reserving 1/2 cup for the frosting.  Since I wasn't going to bake or frost the cookies the same day I made the cookie dough, I only browned just enough butter for the cookie dough then browned the butter I needed for the frosting.

Oh my.  This is one rich but good cookie.  Don't underbake it too much or it'll be too gooey.  But don't overbake it either.  It has a rich brown butter taste and it was almost like eating a chewy, rich, buttery chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips or a dark brown sugar/toffee/caramelized cookie.  Not for the calorie conscious but definitely for the browned butter lovers.  I left off the browned butter frosting for the taste test cookie as it already has plenty of flavor but I'd be curious to see if the sweetness of the frosting cuts some of the richness from the butter cookie.  It's an entirely different taste and texture from the Shirley Corriher Butter Cookie recipe but also good in its own right.

2 cups butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup chopped pecans

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

½ cup hot water

1.    Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.

2.    Heat butter over medium heat for 5 minutes or so, until it turns nut brown in color.  The foaming and bubbling is part of the browning process, but watch it carefully so that you don’t burn the butter.  Remove from heat, and cool slightly.  Reserve ½ cup of the butter for the frosting.

3.    Pour remaining browned butter into a large mixing bowl.  Beat browned butter with brown sugar until the butter is no longer hot.  Mix in eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Beat thoroughly.  Mix in flour and chopped pecans.  Drop tablespoons of dough onto ungreased baking sheets.

4.    Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown around the edges.  Cool.

5.    In a medium bowl, mix the reserved ½ cup browned butter with 2 teaspoons vanilla, confectioners’ sugar, and hot water.  Beat until smooth, and use to frost cooled cookies.