BROWNED BUTTER COOKIES

SERENDIPITY

Sometimes good things come from making a mistake.  In this case, I was baking Melissa Clark's wonderful recipe for "cultured butter cookies."  She's one of my favorites on the NY Times' Cooking site.  I've made them several times, and they're very satisfying made as she describes.  When I bake cookies, I typically set the timer for half of the time and then rotate them in the oven, so in this case I set the timer for 9 minutes.  After I rotated them, I reset the timer, but then got distracted and went upstairs to look something up on my computer.  About 16 minutes later, Steve told me he heard the timer, and I ran down, expecting them to be burned and sad.  Instead, they were a lovely shade of brown.  And when we tasted them, we both agreed that they were actually better that way.  They had gone from being just butter cookies to browned butter cookies, crispy with that lovely nutty flavor that browned butter has.  Oh, and I added a little vanilla to the recipe.  And I use unsalted Kerrygold butter instead of salted cultured butter and increased the salt a little.  And I used sparkling white sugar instead of demerara.  So I guess these are really my cookies now.

BROWNED BUTTER COOKIES

250 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)

3 grams baking powder (1/2 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

8 ounces unsalted butter (I used Kerrygold), at room temperature (1 cup)

130 grams granulated sugar (2/3 cup)

1 large egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I used Penzey's double vanilla)

sparkling white sugar, for rolling (around 1/2 cup) (I got mine at King Arthur)

In a medium-sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and granulated sugar until lightened in color and fluffy;

beat in egg yolk and vanilla until combined.  With mixer running on low, add flour mixture until incorporated.

Divide dough in half.  Sprinkle sparkling white sugar

 over a sheet of parchment.  Place half of dough on it 

and start to shape it into a log, making sure entire surface is covered in sugar (the sugar will give the cookies a nice crunch at the end).  

Finish the rolling on plastic wrap (I find that it's easier to handle the slightly sticky dough with the plastic wrap on it)

 and then refrigerate at least one hour.  Overnight is fine.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, heat oven to 325°F.  Line three baking sheets with parchment.  Use large, sharp knife to cut each log into 1/4-inch rounds.  

Place cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.  

Bake until evenly dark, golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Cool 5 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer parchment to counter to cool completely.  We like them right out of the freezer, so we put them in a zip-lock freezer bag when they're cool.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.