Levain-Style Soft Baked Brown Butter Funfetti Cookies

Levain-Style Soft-Baked Brown Butter Funfetti Cookies - made dough November 19, 2021 from All-Star Baking

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and browned, then re-chilled to solid form

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups (172 grams) cake flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup sprinkles

1. To brown the butter: place butter in medium saucepan over medium high heat. Stir as it melts, foams and begins to brown, 4-6 minutes or until a nutty aroma arises and you can see the browned bits on the bottom. Remove from heat, transfer to a 9-inch round cake pan and place in freezer for 20 minutes or until solid and re-formed.
2. Scrape solidified brown butter into a mixing bowl and beat with paddle attachment until smooth and creamy.
3. Add dark brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat until combined.
4. Add egg, egg yolks and vanilla; mixing until combined.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add in two additions to butter mixture, beating until just combined after each addition. Add milk and beat until just combined. Do not overbeat.
6. Fold in sprinkles. Portion dough into 4-ounce balls then pat into thick discs. Cover then chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough discs. Bake 14-16 minutes or middles are just barely set. Remove from oven, let rest on cookie sheet for several minutes then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

You don't often see baked goods made with sprinkles on my blog. Mostly because I'm not a fan of sprinkles. I like them well enough when used as decorative garnish on top of a frosted cupcake but for the most part, I dodge sprinkles. They add crunch to a cookie and stay crunchy, unlike nuts, in baking. However. I don't like crunch in a chewy cookie. Hence the no-sprinkles-in-my-baking thing.

But, as you can see here, I made an exception for these funfetti cookies, mostly because I was putting together holiday care packages for Soldiers Angels and wanted to do Christmas-themed baked goods in my boxes. And a reminder to myself that *I* wasn't the one eating these and hopefully they would go to military service members who didn't have my bias against sprinkles.

Sprinkles are the easiest way to add a holiday flare to cookies so I can see why they're so popular. They look fun. I didn't make these as big as a Levain cookie since they were going to care packages and smaller cookies are easier to share among the unit.

The cookies themselves were pretty good. I didn't bake them for very long since they were small and didn't need a long bake. The flavor and texture were good except - yes, it's coming - the sprinkles part. I still don't like the crunch that interferes with the soft chewiness of the cookie. So I may make this recipe again and leave out the sprinkles.